STATE OF DESIGN IN GREECE

When you hear the word Greece, what comes to mind immediately?
Sea, sun, white cubic houses with blue doors and windows, the
Parthenon, philosophy, theatre, the Olympic Games or your last holiday
on the islands...
How many of you thought of design? I
wouldn't be surprised if no one did. The Greeks may well boast about
forming 99% of the roots of western culture, but design is a field that
isn't well represented in Greece. Why? There are several theories about
this.
Firstly, Greece never was a highly
industrialised country. And it is a well-known fact that all
disciplines of design flourish in an industrialised context. If there
is no development of commercial industries, there can be no development
of the design industry.
The second reason, equally
important, is the Greek alphabet. It is used by a very limited number
of people and, as a result, Greek typography had little chance to
develop. Leaving the past behind, we should look at what is happening
in the design industry in Greece right now.
The design industry
The
Greek market is a relatively small one. With a population of less than
11 million and a GNP (Gross National Product) that is one of the lowest
in the EU, it seems that there is not enough scope for the development
of the design industry. Yet, in the last few years Greece has shown
high rates of economic growth. Now the country is preparing for the
2004 Olympic Games.
Breakdown of the graphic design market
Freelance
and self-employed designers: The majority of Greek designers are part
of this group. They take on the smaller jobs in the country. Even
though they do the majority of the work in the design field, their
total income is the lowest. The quality of their work varies from awful
to excellent. However, some manage to increase their businesses, secure
a couple of good clients, hire people and move to the next group.
Small
or medium-sized creative bureaux: They are the smallest group competing
in the commercial sector, but they are probably the most creative. It
is more common to find good design products created by this group,
compared to the other three groups.
Big advertising
agencies: This group attracts the big budget clients. All major
international advertising agencies are represented in Greece. In fact,
they have actually taken over the big local agencies that were market
leaders until the late eighties.
Publishing sector and
in-house designers: This group doesn't account for a large number of
designers - magazine publishers employ the majority. It provides a few
designers room for experimentation and growth.
Education
Until
1977, people interested in pursuing a career in graphic design in
Greece either studied Fine Arts or went to a school abroad. The School
of Graphic Design was established in the Technological Educational
Institute of Athens in 1977. Offering a four-year design course, the
School of Graphic Design is the only state school in this field. There
are many private schools and colleges that offer one- to four-year
courses, but only three of them that offer a major in graphic design
have more than 100 students. According to students, teachers and
professionals, the quality of design education in Greece is highly
problematic.
Professional association
About
ten years ago, the Greek Graphic Designers Association was very active.
At its peak the association had 250 members and was a member of
Icograda. In the last few years this association became very inactive
mainly due to lack of interest from the designers, the community and
the board itself. While design is a highly competitive and growing
field in Greece, there is no representative body for graphic designers
in the country today.
Other professional organisations
Some
design events driven by the private sector have managed to flourish.
Greece hosts one of the ten Design Museums in Europe. Unfortunately,
for the last four years no permanent exhibition could be arranged due
to lack of space. Despite that, the Design Museum of Thessalonica
manages to present at least two exhibitions every year, attracting a
satisfactory number of visitors.
The bimonthly magazine, Delta D,
is the only magazine in Greece that focuses on design creativity. Since
the magazine was founded about four years ago, the publishers organised
two exhibitions, two small conferences, various delegations for
conferences and exhibitions abroad, and (most importantly) the first
Greek Graphic Design and Illustration Awards, and its subsequent
publication. The Greek Graphic Design and Illustration Awards were
launched last year with the endorsement of Icograda. About 200
designers and design firms from all over the country participated. Its
success confirms that there is a need for such an annual event.
Consequently, there will be more events to come.
Alter Vision is an award-winning team of designers from Thessalonica. They are the creators of Hyphen,
an academic typographic publication that is published twice a year. In
June 2002 they organised an international conference on typography and
visual communication, in which about 400 attendees and 80 speakers from
all over the world participated.
Over the last few
years, graphic design has been growing along with the Greek economy (or
maybe because of it). Most of us working as designers in Greece are
quite optimistic about the future of design in the country. The other
day I was looking at the beautiful Phaistos disc dating back some time
between 1700 and 1400 BC and it hit me! Maybe we did lay the
foundations of design after all.
About the Author
Demetrios Fakinos, born in Athens Greece in 1973, is a designer wannabe who studied Business Administration in the University of Piraeus and got an MSc in Human Resources Management from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. In the past four years, he has organised numerous events for the Greek design community, including conferences, exhibitions and the Greek Graphic Design and Illustration Awards (GGDIA). He published the first Greek Design Annual, which contains all winning entries from the GGDIA.
About Delta D
In November 1998 Demetrios first published Delta D,
a Greek, bimonthly, award-winning publication dedicated to the field of
visual arts. Its 3,500 copies have sold out already nine times in the
magazine's 25-issue history. The magazine exhibits works created for
the Greek market, contains interviews with leading designers, and
includes articles on design around the world.