Design Walk 2009 - Athens

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

DESIGN WALK 2009 - yatzereport
Text by Pascal Panagiotidis + Costas Voyatzis for Yatzer

3 days, 3 years, 10+3 Design studios.
Design walk has been part of Athens’ cultural map and invites the public to discover, to join, to participate, to walk along with the some Designers from the graphic design scene of Athens through a series of exhibitions. Design is everywhere and it‘s becoming more and more essential to our every day life. Design Walk helps us to explore and understand, to take part and communicate.

The idea emerged three years ago when three design studios (pi6, g and the design shop) were striving to stir things up a bit in the local design scene and has ever since gained through its innovative spirit an overwhelming and ever increasing response from a diverse audience. Every year the city center is filled with people wandering around, holding maps, and drawing their routes between the creative studios.

Design Walk has become an essential part of the beginning of the year’s calendar. The 13 participating studios are members of a new generation of graphic designers who, having become aware of the role of design as an expanded platform of communication, invite a wide variety of people to take part in a dynamic and productive dialogue. The main aim is to challenge standard preconceptions about design and provide with the ground for exploration in a field that is becoming more and more essential to our everyday life.

No doubt it’s not a usual walk, but will it stay this way or the next years it will turn into a common walk in the Psiri area like all others?

Should more design studios participate, open their doors and show their work or innovating projects are missing?

Design is to share, but is also to surprise. This year Design Walk perhaps didn’t manage to do so, apart from some projects (our favorites are listed below), however it is an event with only 3 years of life and maybe we should be more patient and wait to see its evolution the next years.

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

Sereal Designers •• The Jukecity
Once upon a time there was a beautiful town where everything seemed to be perfect. Under this illusion, nobody could actually see the storm that was spreading over the city. And suddenly one day everybody woke up and watched out of their windows. There it was, it has always been there, in their lives but they all avoided dealing with it… until that day. Was it too late?
Sereal Designers traveled to the future and warned us about Today. Can we prevent future situations by assuming responsibility for what happens around us today and be proactive? [ Sereal designers / Miaouli 19 / +30 210 3215102 ]

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

The Design Shop ••Step & Repeat
Wall graphics, 3d plants and video projections based on the idea of repetition, of continuity and the mathematical patterns that exist in nature and are reflected in art, architecture, in design, music and cinema is the subject of the report presented by the design shop, inviting us to consider all the iterations we face daily around us. [ The design shop / Kriezi 1 / +30 210 3223410 ]

photo © Pi6

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

Pi6 •• Ftu + Vgeno
Life is a game. Games are part of our life. Lucky, political, erotic, mind, electronic, role games. What do we call a game? What games do we play in our daily life? Π6 invited us to find out…by playing a game. [ Π6 [Pi6] / Melanthiou 8 / +30 210 3216050 ]

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

g •• Glows In The Dark
Is there light in the black? Is there hope in our times? G studio turned black and invited all visitors to write down their hopes, thoughts, beliefs; anything that could change black into light. [ g / Miaouli 6 / +30 210 3223636 ]

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

Bios •• The jobs of the others
During the Design Walk BIOS was transformed into a network of all Greek Designers, Photographers, Artists, Publishers, Graphic Designers who have formed part of its cultural life the last years. The current exhibition gave us a taste from their work but also a chance to get to know better the Design Walk participants through images and snapshots of their work. [ Bios / Pireos 84 / +30 210 342535 ]

photo © Yatzer - Designistoshare

Poor Designers •• NoProb® / The Swift Relief
Peace of mind is the most valuable thing. Acting without it is just impossible. Poor designers presented products that relief the mental oppression and were designed for Noprob® company. [ Poor designers / Kriezi 1 / +30 211 7507390 ]

3 in a Box •• Homopictographicus
Mankind evolution from pictopithecus to homopictographicus sapiens is a constantly changing history that can be “narrated” through Graphics. 3 In a box used homo sapiens as the most successful sample of this evolution and invited us to participate in this historical event hoping that there will be more to come in the future. [ 3 in a box / Vissis 1 & Aiolou / +30 210 3316123 ]

Design Insane ••First Of All We Think The World Must Be Changed
Must the World be changed? Can Art change the World? Design Insane invited us to find out through a project made of different artists like theirselves , pSit, cast-a-blast, cynic design, til01and Alex K. [ design insane / Kolokotroni 35 / +30 210 3219588 ]

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DESIGN WALK 2008 at Yatzer