Behance Portfolio Review Week (BPR) was born of a simple wish: to bring our thriving online community into offline spaces, where creatives can sit side by side, sharing their work and developing their craft. An initiative that would inspire many artists in the world to share their work and portfolio between their fellow designers, share ideas and talk about the problems they face. A beautiful way to connect designers under the common love of design. Personally, I don’t believe there is any other passion like this of design, that can connect people to exchange ideas and share the same passion without rivalries or jealousy, and Behance has managed to thrive this even more and also internationally.
Since it’s start, members of the Behance community embraced the BPR idea, and today, after only 6 worldwide Review Weeks, has lead to hundreds of such volunteer-organized events in cities internationally, with a common goal of bringing together creative professionals. These events provide invaluable exposure for creatives, as well as the chance to learn new ideas, to get inspired and to share problems and issues that designers face in their own country.
8th of November, 2014, in Athens, Greece the 6th BPR took place, organized by the renown visual designer, Charis Tsevis at AKTO Art & Design College. In this Review, the speakers were, Alati Design, Azbeen, Rote-Grafic, Harris Rodis, Themis Capsis and myself, Maria Papaefstathiou. Persoanlly, I was impressed with the audience’s thirst for learn and how they enjoyed all presentations and so I decided to share some more information and works of those 6 speakers to enhance their talk and inspire more designers outside the borders of Greece.
Alati design
Alati design, formerly known as sále designers, is the creative duet made up by Santhi Thomaidi and Lefteris Protopapas, two graphic designers who love doing good and careful work. Both having prior studies in other fields, they found their way to Graphic Design in AKTO Art & Design College in Athens. The one chaotic, but easily adjusting to each situation and the other a lover of order, had no difficulty in finding their other design half to each other.
“Once more, thanks to Charis Tsevis, a big number of creatives had the chance to meet, discuss and exchange knowledge, experiences and viewpoints. The conversation moved across design process and design as a means of making a living. On the whole, the gathering was very interesting and useful because it helped you broaden your horizon. All the speakers were exceptional and it was a great honour for us to be among them, contributing to this wonderful Behance event.”
BPR Presentation Link:
Alati Design links:
www.behance.net/alatidesign
www.alatidesign.gr
Azbeen
Aris Falegos is the man behind “Azbeen illustration”. After completing a BA degree in Ceramics he took on the role of graphic designer, web developer and animator, only to end up pursuing his passion for illustration. He is currently working as an illustrator and loves creating images that tell stories and appeal to both children and the young at heart. He’s is fascinated by colour and composition and is constantly on a mission to create the perfect painting.
BPR Presentation Link: http://www.slideshare.net/arisfalegos/azbeen-analyzing-the-illustration-process
Azbeen Links:
www.behance.net/azbeen
www.azbeen.gr
Rote-Grafik
Rote-Grafik is the creative name of George Chandrinos, a skilled designer and illustrator. His work has been awarded and participated in group exhibitions such as “Berlin Graphic Days #1 2013”, “Benaki Museum of Athens”, “Design Walk 2009 / 2010” and has been featured in the “Computer Arts Projects, UK”, the “Los Logos 5”, the “100 ideas that changed graphic design” and the “Los Logos 7” . More details you can find in his CV here.
“The public interest and questions at the 6th Behance Portfolio Review left me with very good impressions. The pretty good presentations of speakers, all were able to develop questions, to share and to explain things to the public, not only for their personal project but also for the field of graphic design, illustration and design in general. I’m quite happy, not only because I had the opportunity to present and share with the audience my own work but also because I heard and shared different experiences on how everyone understands the design, students and fellow speakers. Speakers singled out the passion and appetite, to be members of a design community, to share and to move forward despite the difficulties. I hope to keep our communication and be able to do it again. A huge thanks to Charis Tsevis for inviting me and for organizing the event. I am honored to have had him as professor and now I can apply what I gained as a student. A big thank to AKTO and those who honored us with their presence.”
BPR Presentation Link: http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeChandrinos/behance-presentation
Rote-Grafik Links:
www.behance.net/rote-grafik
www.indyvisuals.net
www.cargocollective.com/rote-grafik
Harris Rodis
Designer at Workable. Obsessed about problem solving and all things visual. He sees design as a shortcut to change the world. Also, passionate about technology, science and books.
Harris dropped out of college and learned everything he knows about design by doing. He has also worked as the Lead Designer of Locish, a Greek startup, and previously for more than 5 years as a Web Designer for several Creative Studios and Advertising Agencies in Greece. His personal philosophy is that design should make our lives better.
BPR Presentation Link: http://slidesha.
Harris Rodis Links:
www.behance.net/hrdesign
http://harrisrodis.com
Themis Capsis aka Vector Hugo
His work has been distinguished at the Greek Graphic Design Awards and Greek Social Media Awards. He is a BA Tutor at ΑΚΤΟ Design School and participated at many design conferences as speaker or by hosting workshops. He has work in the past for companies such as Adobe South Africa and OgilvyOne Worldwide Athens and for clients such as Barilla, Volkswagen and Sony. Fascinated by technology and great IA/UX, he is passioned with his job and he is not showing any signs of stopping.
BPR Presentation Link: http://goo.gl/yltpqy
Vector Hugo Links:
www.behance.net/vector_hugo
www.flickr.com/photos/pointofdesign
dribbble.com/VectorHugo
instagram.com/vectorhugo
“A wonderful Saturday
Design is keeping me busy and I love it. But this love can devour most of my free time. That’s why I’m usually trying to keep weekends off limits to non-fun activities. Behance portfolio review was not one of them, quite the contrary actually. An inspiring event full of great presentations and interesting people.On top of that, the audience was awesome, asking meaningful questions and demonstrating remarkable professional self-awareness. For me it was not only a great opportunity to interact with the design community (or at least a part of it anyway) but to also catch up with old friends, colleagues and lots of old students of mine.
One of the reasons that I enjoy attending the BPR meetings is because most of the speakers are keeping it real by giving real life project examples, analyzing the brief and process and by presenting all the problems that they had to face during the project.
My speech was about using the Behance as a medium for self promotion. Starting with strategic decisions, goals, then tips, examples of good self promotion and finally wrapping it up with conclusions. Kudos to Charis Tsevis for organizing yet another successful BPR (the 6th in a row) and to all the speakers for the nice stuff they shared with the rest of us.
Can’t wait for the next Behance Portfolio Review.
See you there!”
Maria Papaefstathiou (It’s Just Me)
Maria Papaefstathiou or else “It’s Just Me”, is a graphic designer, illustrator, blogger and curator. She is the owner (and writer) of the www.graphicart-news.com. Co-founder of the International Reggae Poster Contest. She is also the curator and art-representative of artist Michael Thomspson aka Freeestylee. Maria’s favourite styles are cubism and futurism. In her constant quest to find new concepts of illustrating as an arrangement of forms and colours she is experimenting in illustrating in cubism style. At the same time she adores to illustrate portraits, an effort that connects her with the persons she illustrates and forces herself to bring out their soul by using lines, colours and shapes. Her ultimate desire is to constantly inspire people and expand their work all over the world.
“My speech was about Passion! Passion in art and design because this is what drives us to be more creative and eventually succeed. Because this is what unites us, the artists all over the world. Because this is how we, the designers and artists, can spread an awareness and eventually create a better world. Because art can bring together good people with the same good vision. And of course, because without passion we can’t learn, we can’t improve our skills, we can’t do great things! Join my passion! Let’s make ART”
BPR Presentation Link: http://www.slideshare.net/MariaPapaefstathiou/maria-pap-6o-behance-41319357
Maria Papaefstathiou Links:
www.behance.net/mariapap
www.itsjustme.net
www.graphicart-news.com
www.reggaepostercontest.com
THANK YOU ALL!
