Gallery Visit II

We visited the NIMAC arts centre again this week as part of our history class to break up our lectures in the classroom and venture out to explore the arts in the city. It's always great to get out and visit the galleries here in Nicosia especially with our class and learn more about their views on art and design.

The exhibition this time we visited focused around digital art and video installations, each with a very different topic. A brochure I picked up on my way out allowed me to gain more understanding in their written concepts and proposals, as most information or spoken language within the films were Greek.

I found this video to be very calming and relaxing to me yet the vibrancy of the colours interesting and alluring to watch. The spiralling sensation from the subject matter, floating out of shot in the water gave a soothing atmosphere for me to watch and almost become entranced within.

After our visit I found an article on MyCyprusInsider  listing the top 3 places to visit for art lovers. NIMAC arts centre came third in the list. I have enjoyed visiting both times and as no.3 in the list I have decided to visit the top 2 in the hopes to appreciate more art here in Nicosia. I love to visit the art galleries back in the UK to gain more understanding and knowledge of art history to inform my design practice. As someone who enjoys visiting galleries and the experiencing viewing new art from everywhere I visit, I have also searched for some more unique exhibition spaces and art galleries in town to go to before my time here is over.

NAP x

Travel Sketches

After my break in Crete and Paphos (read about it here) I really felt the urge to start sketching my beautiful surroundings. I have begun to take a sketchbook with me to take advantage of some free time here and document the sites as I see them. 

I began at Nissi beach, as its our first go to place and favourite beach to real and socialise together. Living on such a diverse and beautiful island with so much inspiration to be found here, I feel by sketching it will not only help me to remember details of my time here but give me the chance to better my drawing and illustration skill set. I hope to keep a collection of drawings to reflect upon in years to come. 

With many more adventures planned in the coming months and knowing how spontaneous our group is here, I have decided to carry the sketchbook everywhere I go from now on. I aim to capture my thoughts and visions in the book and also use it as a collaborative piece of work everyone could share. 

My travel sketches so far

I thought it would be fun to hold up some of my visuals next to their subject matter in the background and play on my view. 

NAP x

Promoting International Experience

As part of our Erasmus year abroad, we are required to produce an updates CV, written journal and a poster promoting Erasmus to the year below. For my poster I wanted to incapsulate all relevant information to my year in Cyprus and some information on Erasmus in general to cover all basis in the hopes to attract new students. 

I used a photo from my trip to Paphos as the background for my poster with white hand drawn style illustrations for each fact given. I wanted to promote all courses available, which university I attended in Cyprus, my studies, how long I studied as an erasmus student, the destinations students came from and some little fun facts about how many times I visited home and how many road trips we had here. I used  some inspirational sayings about travel and how much Erasmus can have a positive effect on your life. 

I hope to communicate what a great experience Erasmus can give students for their future with my poster. 

NAP x

Erasmus Film

I previously mentioned the possibility of me creating a film of my experience here in my last Erasmus post. I have finally started compiling all of my videos from my time here in Cyprus and also had a few videos from my friends here to include. I wanted to use the film as a documentary of my Erasmus year and all the memories and new friends I've made. I would also like it to inspire people to travel and perhaps even think about becoming an Erasmus student in Cyprus.

I have been using both Aftereffects and imovie to edit and compile all footage to create the film. So far it is almost 10minutes long and I hope to capture everything from this year in my film. I still have some work to do until the final cut will be ready to showcase, I think my final stage of the project will be finding fitting songs and music to put over the film. I have tried to keep it in chronological order to show how much fun we've had from start to end. I hope it will show how our friendships and relationships with one another have formed and become stronger throughout all our experiences and trips together too.

Making the film has really made me reflect on my time studying and living abroad more and how it has changed me and benefited myself and my studies. Not only has it opened my eyes to another culture and way of living but also allowed me to view design differently from my studies here. With my time here and studies winding down to an end, and finals at the end of May, I have began to reflect on my time here. I have also began to think about my future with moving forward into my third year at Coventry University and how my studies here will aid and stay with me throughout my degree and career.

NAP x

Cyprus Air

Whilst visting Crete we flew from very small airports with the airline Ryanair, an Irish company. I wanted to use my travels as inspirations and gather more research and understanding of branding an airline. Our aircraft colour scheme was the colours I had considered using for my Cyprus Air identity, however seeing the colours on a real aircraft I felt some changes needed to be made to my chosen colours. I hope that this will not only allow my brand to stand out from the competing company but in my opinion allow the contrast of colours to work together better than that of Ryanair.

Discussions with my tutor have led me to futher develop my two stripe logo, representing the terrain of the Island and the two sides of the Island meeting together. I feel I still need to develop my typefaces and style choices to create the professional outlook I want for my airline and to connect the name if the airline to the logo.

My logo

Once I have my logo looking professional, I will then feel ready to implement it onto all aspects of design promoting the the company. I have already sketched layouts for the business documents, such as letterheads and envelopes etc and have brainstormed a few possible directions for my advertising campaign consisting of postcards, posters and a magazine spread.

NAP x

Spring Break

During our Easter break here in Cyprus I really wanted to travel to somewhere near whilst I had the chance with such cheap flights. We settles on visiting Crete, another large Island part of the Greek Islands. We stayed in Chania, a quiet, picturesque and historic part of the Island and visited the harbor and neighboring beaches. I felt it was good to escape and emerge ourselves in another Greek island to get an idea of Cyprus' Identity to help with my current project. It was just our luck to arrive to a week of freak weather with rain, wind and cold temperatures, however we did get a few spells of sunshine.

Crete

Stavros 

 

   

 

 

 

We visited the Venetian harbor and lighthouse in the main town of Chania and also explored the side-streets and bazaars. We had researched into visiting the Typography museum in Souda about half an hour from Chania, however with the timing of the year and weather we found it difficult to travel there.

Chania Harbour

 

 

On our return to Cyprus we felt we should visit some historical sites as we missed out on the museum visit in Crete. We found the archelogical site close by to our hotel in Paphos and explored the park. I have always loved visiting such places in the UK to see roman ruins and found our day very intriguing and throughly enjoyable.

Paphos  

The Light house and Odeon 

 

 

 

Subterrean Complex

Saranta Kolones Castle ruins

Theseus Villa

With so much to see and do in Paphos we have decided to come back as a group to visit the tomb of the kings and the whole Coral bay area. Visiting all the places I have this week made me realise how much I miss sketching and how much I should be to document what I see and do here. I found the archaeological site to be very inspiring with the ruins of colours and arches. I have decided to start carrying a small sketchbook around with me in case the overwhelming urge to sketch strikes me again.

NAP x