End of Erasmus

With all work finished, presented and handed in, people flying home and leaving to return back home I thought it was time to reflect on my erasmus year in Cyprus. I have learnt so much from the tutors and work I have produced which I feel confident represents my skills enough to include in my portfolio. I feel I have grown a lot from my studies and can see a dramatic change in my work, I feel I have acquired a new level of professionalism from this learning experience. 

I have also been very lucky to have created strong bonds with the people I have met this year, without them my time in Cyprus wouldn't have been the same. The memories and I hope the relationships built over these past months here really will last a lifetime. I will treasure my erasmus year and everything it has given me and allowed me to become shaping myself for the future.

Class of 2015 // Frederick University, Graduation Party

I hope to travel as much as possible this summer before returning back into my final year at Coventry. I am feeling a little apprehensive about the work load and stress of final year but also excited about building my portfolio with such great projects. I am also looking forward to seeing familiar faces and getting to know my new classmates.

NAP x

Cyprus Air Finals

Here is my solution to rebrand the airline Cyprus Air including all business documents, outfacing designs such as the aircraft, luggage tags, website and app. To promote the launch of the new brand identity of the airline I created postcards, posters and an interactive magazine ad.

I really enjoyed this project and reaching into the culture and background of Cyprus to inject its history and design into the identity of the airline. I would like to pursue more projects based around branding in  my final year and hopefully learn to better my knowledge of this area in design and develop skills in this field with logo design.

Aircraft 

Poster Campaign

Magazine advertisement - Interactive paper plane

App & Website mock ups

NAP x

New and returning visiters

My mother and family came to visit this week. I wanted them to experience the Cyprus I have grown to know and showed them all round Nicosia and took them to some of my favourite spots. We also rented a car and explored some more of the Island by Visiting Paphos, Larnaca and Ayia Napa.

Rosie also came back to surprise everyone. I met her at the airport, as her flight was arriving along side my mothers, with a balloon and some of our favourite treats from Zorbas bakery.

With family visiting, keeping up with my work has been a challenge this week. However with Rosie here to inspire and encourage us all, I hope she can shed some new light and feedback upon my work so far and ideas for the continuing work remaining.

Tomb of the Kings, Paphos

NAP x

Erasmus Film

After a week of compiling all files, videos and photos from everyone, I have finally come to the final cut of my film. I wanted to create a film to document my Erasmus year in Cyprus and first year living abroad. With many upcoming months still being here to enjoy, I will be adding in more footage and memories to showcase. As for now the final cut has been uploaded to my youtube channel.

You can also watch it here in my blog 

I have included as many files as possible to sum up all our adventures, new found friendships and memories made from this year. My tutor has expressed interest in my film and has asked for permission to allow the film to be shown to students in lectures, thinking of taking an Erasmus year. I hope my video and our experience here together will inspire students back home to take advantage of the opportunity given by Coventry University to improve upon their practice and future endeavours. 

After my Erasmus year here in Cyprus I would highly recommend the programme to any student. The chance to travel, study, work and meet interesting people in new and exciting places really has changed my outlook on working and living. The people I have met here and the memories shared will always stay with my throughout my career and personal life. 

NAP x

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