Athens 7000 cm²

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Award winning poster for the exhibition of Greek Graphic Designers Association in collaboration with "Imagine the City" for the First National Place Marketing and Branding Conference.

Concept Information

The "mapping" of a place always combines symbolism with realism, abstraction with dimensionality. Mapping a place, a city, is always about simulating a space, an environment, on the paper's flat surface. A map may reproduce many areas in the same way, or one area in different ways. It is an assemblage of information; depending on the kind of data that must be provided, specific rules of illustration and registration of information must be followed.

The 70x100cm poster was created as a study on the role of maps and their cognitive association with urban memories. It includes an index of 700 entries based on calendar experiences and quotes from different kinds of written language (lyrics, poems, literature, graffiti slogans scattered on the walls of Athens). They are divided in 4 categories, which you find more often inside of city guides: "Things To Do" , "Places To Go" , "People To See" , "Places to Eat & Drink".

The 700 words and phrases reflect the scattered image we have of the city we were born and raised in. How can someone map the "areas" of knowledge, fear, friendship, desire and loss? How can our memories fit on a flat surface? Established cartographical conventions aside, it will always be practically impossible to map out all the different lives and stories of a city.

A city is made up of memories and those who created them.