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Let the graphic stories unfold

The third Visual Designers’ Meeting or the Graphic Stories Cyprus event is getting ready to hit Nicosia in March for the third year. It is the perfect meeting place for graphic artists to get together, learn from each other, get insight into modern graphic art and be inspired to create their own graphic story.

The event maybe local but the scope is both local and international, as it offers everyone involved a look at what is happening abroad while also assisting graphic artists on how to network with other creatives and organisations in other countries.

The tree-day event, March 10-12, is broken-down into three categories: lectures, workshops and exhibitions. These three creative threads, along with the participation of those who find value in graphics, are what make the Graphic Stories Cyprus an out of the box event, where drawing outside the lines is absolutely acceptable – you may even be motivated to do so.

Lectures will be given by the man who is famous of illustrating Cypriot folktales, Hambis Tsangaris, design manager Paschalis Paschali, design educator Nicoss Souleles, expert in social media Michael Antonopoulos, illustrator Rob Snow, the team behind the ward winning branding agency SPIR.TO and graphic designer Nikos Gazetas.

The lectures are free of charge and will be held at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation in Nicosia, but reservation is required.

Three of these speakers will also be giving workshops. Rob Snow will give participants the tools needed to take traditional drawing to a new pixel level. Snow, who will deliver his workshop in English, will take all involved from sketch to Photoshop magic in a 12-hour workshop to be held on March 11-12 from 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation. The cost is €50 if you register before February 15 and €60 until March 8.

The team behind SPIR.TO, Spiros Drakatos and Tonia Augoustaki, will show participants how to pinpoint the essence of any brand and how to help clients provide a real value to their audience. This six-hour, hands-on workshop, will give you the guidelines to create a Brand Core Manual, which works like a road map to reach ultimate brand communication.

This workshop – which will be in Greek – will take place on March 11 at the central officers of Politis Newspaper in Nicosia, from 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm. The cost is €40 if you register before February 15 and €50 until March 8.

Nikos Gazetas will take participants beyond the basics of retouching with Adobe Photoshop. Gazetas has a few techniques and tricks up his sleeve that will help participants achieve some spectacular results when it comes to retouching photos. As the workshop goes behind the basics, it is required that participants already have a working knowledge of Photoshop and that they bring their own laptops along.

This 12-hour workshop – which will be in Greek- will be held on March 11-12 from 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm at the Central Offices of Politics Newspaper. The cost is €50 if you register before February 15 and €60 until March 8.

Graphic Stories Cyprus also offers all graphic artists to take a look at some graphic art in three exhibitions. The first, under the name Nicosia: The City of Utopia, is an international poster exhibition. All posters on display are part of a contest and on the night of the exhibition’s opening, March 10 at 9pm at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, the winners of the contest will be announced.

The next exhibition will be Sing Me a Poser, which will be opened on March 11 at 5.30pm at the Central Officers of the Politis Newspaper. The exhibition is part of the Worldwide Graphic Designers project which brings a number of graphic designers together from all over the world.

The final exhibition is an art exhibition entitled Freestyle Roots. The exhibition, to be opened on March 11 at 8.30pm at the University of Nicosia, is organised in memory of the Jamaican artist, Michael Thompson.

For more information about the event, go to www.graphicstoriescyprus.com.