Portfolio/

Despina Kannaourou

Background
In 2003 Despina received her BA in graphic design at the Stroganov University
in Moscow – an institution that previously cultivated Russian Constructivist art.
She returned to Cyprus for work, from where a year later she moved to London.
On her first year in London she worked at the design museum while maintaining
professional ties with Cyprus and a year later in 2005 she begun her Master’s in
Communication Design at Central Saint Martin where she specialised
in typography. Sice her graduation she worked at make-UP (London),
Press Media 81 (France) and MOT (Barcelona).

lesquatrestacions (2010|MOT|www.motstudio.com/index.php?idWork=42)
‘Lesquatrestacions’, otherwise ‘The four seasons’ refers to the musical
composition of the Italian 18th century composer, Antonio Vivaldi and it is
essentially a graphic interpretation of the musical score played by the three
violins in the four violin concertos that make this baroque masterpiece. To create
this work, I’ve designed a prototype system – ‘SisTeMu’ – a graphic notation
system which looks at interpreting musical texture. ‘SisTeMu’ consists of simple
geometric forms and basic printing colours and it can be used for translating
musical score. It explores the rhythmic and melodic harmonies found in musical
composition and somewhat simplifies the complexity and mathematical
structure making it accessible to the viewer through a visual narrative.

4 POSTERS: Translation of the scores for the first violin.

BOOK: Explanations to the system and the translation of the scores for 3 violins.

STAMPS: Graphic extracts from each season.

contes rusos (2009|MOT|)

Every year, the ‘Ajutamento of Barcelona’ gives to the readers of the city’s
libraries a small book as a gift for Christmas. This year it was a collection of
short stories by popular Russian authors. At Mot, we designed the book and
produced the illustrations

BOOK & CUT-OUT ILLUSTRATIONS: 9 illustrations have been created to

acompany the texts. A main illustration for each of the 4 stories and a small one
to open each chapter. Before the stories begin the authors are introduced by a
typographic cut-out with all names in Russian.

lead between the lines (2007)

Published in 2007 by Gaffa Ltd, with the help of the ISTD ‘Lead Between
the Lines’ is a publication that offers a platform for discussion about the
usefulness and necessity of academic and practice-based research in the field of
typography. In this book, I took part as one of the key instigators and designers
of the project, as well as contributed with personal research.

fonotaip (2007|MA degree project)

The title of this project consists of two words – phonetics and typography.
I link the two disciplines and use the Roman alphabet to illustrate the sounds
of the English language, in particular British accents. Fonotaip is a system that
attempts a typographic interpretation of phonetics through illustrating and
describing the theoretical assumption of speech production. The aesthetic quality
of the letterforms derives from a grid system that represents a cross-section of
the mouth. The system indicates the articulatory features that are believed to
determine the quality of spoken vowels and consonants.

POSTERS: ‘The System’ (first) and ‘Mapping two speakers’ (second)

BOOK 1: Introduction to the FONOTAIP SYSTEM as well as basic phonetics.

BOOK 2: Spelling and pronunciation. Index of word pronunciation in different cities.

2 FLIP-BOOKS: Fragment from the video, frame by frame with the phonetic
analysis transcribed with fonotaip

Presse Media 81
|freelance
2009

Nadia Kazolides|photographer
|freelance
2007

Fiji|juice drink
|bumblebee studio
2005

Fiji|juice drink
juice with a sparkle

|bumblebee studio
2005
lemon kiwi
SERVE ICE COLD

www.nadiakazolides.co.uk
Nadia Kazolides|photographer
|freelance
2007

Published in 2007 by Gaffa Ltd, with the help of the

ISTD ‘Lead Between the Lines’ is a publication that
LEAD BETWEEN THE LINES (Published in April offers
2007)
a platform for discussion about the usefulness
POSTERS: Detail from posters ‘Mapping two and necessity of academic and practice-based
speakers’ (first) and ‘The System” (second) research in the field of typography. In this book, I took
part as one of the key instigators and designers of the
project, as well as contributed with personal research.

www.she-me.com
BOOK 2: Spelling
RESEARCH: and pronunciation.
The following images show Index of
spreads
word‘fonotaip’
with pronunciation in different
in stages cities.
of research.
SHE-ME|illustrators
|make-UP studio
2008

Les trobades
|MOT
2009

Hackney Streets Ahead

|make-UP studio
2008

Hackney Streets Ahead

|make-UP studio
2008