2024 2019
Matina Throumoulopoulou
Port folio
Graphic Design & Branding
In this portfolio you can find a collection of some of my recent works on different fields of graphic design and branding. By reading it, I hope you will gain a better knowledge of my skills, experience and especially of the way I use visual language to create robust visual ideas in a digital world. What I mostly wish to share with you is not just the visual representations but mainly the ideas and line of thought behind them; the way I used visual language and theory to communicate ideas and concepts. This is why there is a number of different projects variating from branding to print and digital applications.
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index CV PROJECTS
4. 6. MILLE PLATEUX ARCHITECTS
6.
Branding, Logo Design, Business Cards
OPEN HOUSE 2023
8.
Visual Identity, Poster Design
CHERRIES ON TOP
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Visual Identity, Logo Design, Website Design, Print Applications
DAZZY TACO DRESSING
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Brand Naming, Branding, Logo Design, Website Design, Character Design, Print Applications, Digital Applications, Social Media Visual Content
THESSALONIKI METRO
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MUNICIPALITY OF NEA IONIA
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Rebranding (Personal Project)
Visual Identity, Logo Design (Proposal)
UTOPIAN FONTS OF AKIS PANOU
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Poster Design, Cards Design (Personal Project)
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CV
MATINA THROUMOULOPOULOU
COMMUNICATION INFO
Residency: Home number: Mobile number: Email: Social Media:
Athens, Greece +30 210 82 10 252 +30 697 28 55 919 matinathroum@gmail.com Matina Throum/ Matina Sous Peau
PERSONAL INFO
Date of birth: Place of birth: Citizenship: Gender:
15/12/1986 Ioannina, Greece Greek Female
EDUCATION
2017-2018
Vakalo Art & Design College (University Of Derby) Master of Arts in Visual Communication Grade: Distinction Thesis: “From Digit to Digital: Touch as the threshold between two realities”
2004-2012
National Technical University of Athens Diploma in Architectural Engineering Grade: 8.79 ‘Very good’ Thesis: “The city of Thebes: The ancient stratigraphy as an urban design tool Lecture: “The contribution of the self (ego) in the creation of “topos”, in Foucault’s later philosophy”
2009
Czech Technical University in Prague Faculty of Architecture Participation in a 6 months Erasmus Program
2001-2004
3rd Senior High Schoool of Ioannina Grade: 19.4 (out of 20.00)
RESEARCH PROGRAMS/ SEMINARS
3.2023
DpS Athens Studio - Dimitris Papazoglou Masterclass: Branding Inside - Out
2017-2019
Vakalo Art & Design College Research program: “Post nostalgia” Thesis: “Utopian fonts of Akis Panou”
2016-2017
Vakalo Art & Design College & University of Kasell Interuniversity collaboration in order to present a proposal about “Greek Periptero” for DOKUMENTA 14
2016-2017
Architectural Bienalle 2016 Participation in “ΧΧΧΧ Aspects of the architecture of crisis”, part of the Greek participation of 2016 Architecture Biennale in Venice
11.2013
University of Tokyo Participation in: “Dhillon Marty Foundation Architectural Community Week”, under the supervision of Kengo Kuma
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FURTHER EDUCATION
1994-2007
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
11.2019-1.2024
Nakas Conservatory Diploma in classical violin and theoretical studies Red Lemon, Advertising Agency Art Director, Graphic Designer
2017-2024
Freelancer Graphic Design, Branding, Web Design(Visuals/UI/UX), Print Applications, App Design(Visuals/UI/Ux)
COMPETITIONS
3.2023
Open House 2023 Poster Design - 2nd place
7.2020
Municipality of Nea Ionia Logo Design
SCHOLARSHIPS
2004-2009
Afi Zosima (Zosima Bros) Legacy Zosima scholarship for 5 years of undergraduate studies
TECH SKILLS
PROGRAMS
GRAPHIC DESIGN FIELDS
Adobe Illustrator
Concept Creation
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Adobe Photoshop
Branding
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Adobe InDesign
Logo Design
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Adobe Premier
Web Design (Visuals)
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Adobe After Effects
Print Applications (Books, Leaflets, Stationery, etc.)
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Autocad
Digital Applications (Presentations, Social Media Graphics, etc.)
3dStudiomax
UI/UX Design
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Hand drafting
Motion Design
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Modeling
Typography
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Illustration
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Art Direction
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Adobe XD Figma Microsoft Office
SOFT SKILLS
Creativity Communication Time management Problem Solving Planning Leadership Collaboration
LANGUAGES
English: Fluent (Michigan Proficiency) French: Good (Delf (A1,A2,A3,A4) Greek: Native
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March 2021
Mille Plateux Architects Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, Mille Plateux is an architectural design office by Nella Stefanatou and Dimitris Hatzopoulos. It offers Residency Design, Place Branding and Building Information Modeling services, providing innovation, consistency and balance between technology and nature. The name Mille Plateux comes from a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, which focuses more on systematic, environmental and spatial philosophy. A “plateau” is “a continuous, self-vibrating area of intensities”. We aimed to create a visual system/network that resembles a living vibrating entity from which the brand emerges. The idea was to create a grid that one could perceive as the aforementioned system, where lines of constantly varying thickness appear, through which the letters “M” and “P” are fragmentarily formed. The grid itself, containing a number of vertical lines, is a reference to the theory, even for someone unaware of it. Furthermore, the thickness of the lines changes proportionally, creating a gradient imprint, that creates the impression of motion. Lastly, the letters “M” and “P” can be formed in different variations, so that the logo feels less static and more dynamic. The colors where chosen to be black and white and the overall scheme to stay as structural as possible.
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Branding, Logo Design, Business Cards
Grid of vertical lines
Plateux
Gradient Imprint
Self-vibrating area of intensities
The letters “M” and “P” emerge from the combination of simple geometrical forms including the circle, the square and the triangle. In that way even the letters don’t represent a specific style, but rather appear as part of a system, that combines black with white, shadow with light, motion with rest, and background with foreground, in order to follow the rules of the million plateaus “whose end points express tendencies along a continuum, where intensity refers to movement and becoming”.
Logo
Basic Form
Akzidenz Grotesk, in its extended version, was chosen as the primary font for Milles Plateux brand, as it is one of the first sans-serif fonts ever to be made and adds a bold and slightly vintage tint to the overall design.
Business Cards
Logo Alternates
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April 2023
Open House 2023 Open House is a global institution that promotes architecture, inviting people for one weekend each year, to visit private and public buildings for free. Athens Open House 2023 using the motto “Building Futures Together”, announced a competition for the visual identity of the event, whose theme was “Sustainability”. My intention was to visualize the idea of equilibrium that is necessary for the homeostasis of any system. Regarding sustainability, there are four main pillars: environment, society, humanity and economy. In my proposal, the environment is indicated by the white background, humanity by the small circles, social relationships by the large circles, and economy by the white squares. Sustainability requires the balance between these 4 elements and, ideally, economy or profit returning to the environment; thus it becomes part of the background again. So, sustainability’s requirement for balance is “translated” into the visual balance between the 4 elements. Circles were chosen for individual and social life to imply that it is a natural construction, while squares for the economy to imply that it is a human construction. As sustainability is related to the environment, green was chosen as the basic color.
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Visual Identity, Poster Design
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January 2021
Cherries On Top Cherries On Top is a boutique marketing agency, based in Athens, specializing in digital marketing. The expression “Cherry on top” means something that makes a good thing even better. Therefore, the agency’s basic goal is to make its clients more noticeable in the digital world, supporting them in fulfilling their goals. The brief was for a minimal contemporary visual identity which would fall in line with the concept of the company and that would be feminine (as the brand’s creators are two women), sincere, solid and intuitive. The four pillars for the visual identity were: 1. The idea of understanding and highlighting 2. The idea of acceptance and transcendence 3. “You give the product, we make it stand out” 4. “Thing out of the box” Also, understanding that the concept of the “cake” represented the clients’ basic good or service, we wanted the “cherries”, which represented the brand, to appear as a structural part of its identity and not just the capping stone on it, so that we could create the feeling that Cherries On Top are next to their clients’ story and not at its end.
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Visual Identity, Logo Design, Website Design, Business Cards
The final logo is typographic consisting of the first letters of the name “C”, “O” and “T”. The first two letters were designed as perfect circles to resemble two cherries and figuratively to show that the client and the brand are equivalent and next to each other. The letter “T” is illustrated by a simple line on top of the letter “O”, referencing at the same time the idea of highlighting.
The logo is completed by the full name of the company written with the font Akkurat, a sans-serif contemporary typeface with a clean and crisp character, and a rather ‘objective’ typographic style. A magenta was chosen as the brand’s primary color, it being feminine, dynamic and intense, while a secondary complementary turquoise completes the palette. The overall design is bold and solid in order to create trust and straightforwardness.
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We wanted to apply the visual identity to both print and digital applications, so, apart from the logotype, we also designed their stationery and the look and interaction of their website.
Stickers Business Cards
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Website
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May 2020
Dazzy Taco Dressing In 2020, Christina Leontiadou, a stylist based in Athens, wanted to create a styling brand. She wanted it to appear magical, playful and optimistic, giving the people the opportunity to express themselves through styling and believe that anything is possible. Brand Naming The first step was to create a name. The idea came from the expression “It’s not what you wear, but how you wear it”. If you transfer this idea from clothes to letters, then respectively the meaning you get is that a different combination of the same letters creates words with totally different meanings. So we searched for words that had something to do with clothes and styling, whose anagram would create other words with a different meaning, that would, however, fit to the initial brief. The word we ended up with, is the word “Coat”, whose anagram gives the word “Taco”. The subject “Dressing” has also a double meaning and can be translated to both “sauce” and getting “dressed”. To complete the brand’s name we added the slang adjective “Dazzy” which combines the words “Dashing”(Daring and lively), “Dazzling(Stunning) and “Snazzy”(Stylish)”. The final brand name: “Dazzy Taco Dressing”.
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Brand Naming, Branding, Logo Design, Website Design, Character Design, Print Applications, Digital Applications, Social Media Visual Content
Logotype For the logo we wanted to visualize the idea of the brand name, so we used the 4 letters of the word “coat” or “taco”, ie. “c”, o”, “a” and “t”, placed in a way that their order is not restrictive. The font used for the four letters is Belwe, a 1907 font, recreated in 1976 for its bold version. The tagline with the full written name is written with the Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk font in its bold condensed version. The second font was added in order to balance the playful character of the brand mark with a more serious one, written in caps. The primary color for the brand is a bright orange that looks spicy and lively.
Motto “Express the mess” was chosen as the brand ‘s motto, inviting anyone to accept their personal imperfections, their personal “chaos” and enjoy their unique character. The word “Express” rhymes with the word “Mess” to create a funny, but at the same time inspirational quote, that could be applied to any personality.
Express the mess
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Brand Manual
Paper Bag
Business Cards
The business cards were designed to look like open tacos in two different versions, while paper bags had letters of the Belwe typeface printed in random spots throughout the surface.
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Collages
Character Design
For the print and digital applications we had to create collages and a taco mascot that would be dressed each month in different styles, depending on each season’s trends.
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Website
Website - Services
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Social Media - Instagram Posts
Social Media - Instagram Stories
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March 2023
Thessaloniki Metro In the spring of 2023, graphic designer Dimitris Papazoglou, held a number of seminars regarding branding, called “Branding: Inside out”. Each participant had to present a branding or rebranding personal project, the subject of which would have to be from the social or public field. My choice was to redesign the visual identity for the Metro of Thessaloniki. The initial logo, which was designed similar to Athens Metro as both belong to the same company Attiko Metro, is only descriptive, showing part of a train and the White Tower of Thessaloniki. The research brought up 5 requirements that the visual identity should follow: 1. To be distinct and robust, in order to create a clear signage of the metro stations for local citizens and foreigners. 2. To indicate a modern transportation network through a visual system 3. To be based on a system/grid following the layout of the city’s street network. 4. To be connected to the city’s history and its geographical position as an important hub in the East-West connection. 5. To be connected to the city through symbols that are distinctive of its history and image.
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Rebranding (Proposal)
Attiko Metro Logos
These 5 requirements were translated to 5 visual elements: 1. To be distinct and robust, in order to create a clear signage of the metro stations for local citizens and foreigners.
1. To use the first letters of the word Metro that is internationally used for the signage of metros worldwide.
2. To indicate a modern transportation network through a visual system,
2. To use minimal visual elements and apart from a logo, to create a system that could generate all the graphic elements.
3. To be based on a system/grid following the layout of the city’s street network.
3. The main element of the urban planning of the center of Thessaloniki is the diagonal streets that gives a characteristic movement in the city. So I needed to create a visual system that combines the orthonormal system with the diagonal.
4. To be connected to the city’s history and its geographical position as an important hub in the East-West connection.
4. Thessaloniki Metro is literally and figuratively a movement between the West and the East; between a contemporary European city and a city with a strong history, connected to the Byzantium and the East. At the same time, the direction of the trains of a railway are opposite. So, I needed to create a visual element oriented to the left as well as to the right.
5. To be connected to the city through symbols that are distinctive of its history and image.
5. One of the most basic visual elements in the city is the arch which is at the same time the connection of a square and a circle. So, I wanted to combine these two shapes.
Horizontal Axis
Diagonal 45° Axis
Combination of Horizontal & Diagonal Axis
Addition of the archs
Μ
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The final logo contains three horizontally placed arches, each one cut in the lower left side at an angle of 45°, so that the diagonal axis is inserted into the arches, while the letter “m” emerges through them. At the same time, seeing the 3 arches as a negative space, 3 tunnels arise, implying the opposite direction of the trains. The name is also written with a 45° relation between the 2 words “Metro” & “Thessaloniki”. Black was chosen as the metro’s main color with variation in blue and red, depending on the number of the line. Apart from the logo I created a custom font that could be used for the general signage of the station, such as the number of the line and the direction. A secondary font was also chosen for both the written name and all the rest of the digital and print applications, called Cera Pro, in its regular and bold version.
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Final Logo(Greek)
Signage
Final Logo(English)
THESSALONIKI
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Display Font
Cera Pro Regular
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω
Cera Pro Bold
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω
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Station Sign
Posters Template
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June 2021
Municipality of Nea Ionia In June 2021, the municipality of Nea Ionia, announced a competition regarding the creation of its visual identity. The brief required a logotype which would: 1. Reflect the history and cultural heritage of the place with as many representative elements as possible 2. Have the name written in both Greek and English (Municipality of Nea Ionia) 3. Be legible and coherent 4. Be usable both locally and internationally 5. Be recognizable and able to have its size reduced and increased, without losing its communicative power. In addition, to be functional in its use, so that it can be reproduced in any form (e.g. Flag, signs, seals, cards, envelopes, etc.). The idea was to create a logo that would capture the key elements of the Municipality’s history, its cultural, artistic and architectural wealth from ancient times to the present day; contemplating the city’s history through an arch, an element that refers to both its Byzantine and Roman history.
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Rebranding (Personal Project)
Historical phases: 1) Antiquity: Ionic Column 2) Byzantium: Window - Dome 3) Roman era: Hadrian’s Aqueduct 4)Greco-Turkish War (1919– 1922) and Founding of New Ionia: Construction of refugee settlements 5) Industrial Development: Crafts-Carpeting 6) Modern City: Geometric Urban Design 1.
3.
5.
4.
6.
2.
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The final design has a geometrical approach, based on a grid. It uses the positive and negative space in order to capture all the elements in a clean and clear way. The 6 elements of the city’s history cocreate the logo, which is at the same time its cultural imprint, the arch. Visual Elements
Colors Palette The colors were chosen in reference to the traditional carpets created in Nea Ionia.
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Pattern Design
Flags
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Tote Bags
Stationery
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March 2019
Utopian fonts of Akis Panou Vakalo Art & Design organized a two-year research program “Post-Nostalgia: Design meets utopia” that lasted from 2017 to 2019, with the aim of researching and developing individual projects around the idea of Design as a body of collective and individual memory, but also of critical utopian vision, with key references to the period 1950-1970 and the modern era. My work was called ”Utopian Fonts of Akis Panou: The Greek reality of the period ‘60-’80 meets the European utopia through the lyrics of Akis Panou”. This work sought, on a social, political and cultural level, to compare the European utopia from 1960 to 1980, expressed through design, with the Greek reality of the same period, as outlined through folk songs. The tools to make this comparison possible were, on the one hand, the fonts with a futuristic or utopian character and, on the other hand, the lyrics of the lyricist and composer Akis Panou. This comparison, attempted, at first, to explore how the different ways of envisioning the future reflects the sociopolitical and cultural differences between Greece and Europe. Furthermore, it sought to show the level to which these two artistic expressions managed to shape the future, and the level at which they remain relevant in the present. 10 different fonts from that era and 10 different song lyrics from Akis Panou were chosen, ideally to be created the same year. To be able to write the lyrics in Greek with these fonts I had to design all the Greek characters from scratch. 32
Poster Design, Cards Design (Personal Project)
1. Χαρά ποτέ δεν είδα/1961 - Eurostile/1962
2. Μοίρα γιατί μ’αφήνεις/1967 - Amelia/1965-67
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3. Ο τρελός/1977 - Marvin/1969
4. Κοινωνία/1977 - OCR A/1968
5. Το θολωμένο μου μυαλό/1974 - ITC Serif Gothic Std/1974
6. Θα κλείσω τα μάτια/1971 - Data 70/1970
7. Ιώδιο, καϊσιο, στρόντιο/1989 - Yagi Double/1968
8. 3.Για έλα κάθισε με μας /1982 - Motter Tektura /1974
9. Τούτος ο τάφος /1993 - Terminator /1992
10. Cazino /1997 - Ethnocentric /1999
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Thank You!
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