About Lelism acts as the design practice and experimentation ground of Dimitris Lelakis. Dimitris is a cross-disciplinary designer with a background in architecture (MSc) and visual communication (MA), constructing visual and structural systems that possess coherent narratives. Currently, is located in Athens, Greece. Awards/Distinctions INTL International Poster Competition: Selection (2024), Red Dot Design Award: Grand Prix (As part of the project team at P-SO) (2022), EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Poster award (2023), EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Young designers award (2022), EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Poster series finalist (2024), EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Experimental project finalist (2021), Museum of Typography: International poster competition 1st place award (2019), EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Exhibition graphics award (As part of the project team at P-SO) (2023) Publications INTL International Poster Book (2024), NOIA Magazine: Absurd Rituals (2024), New Utilitarian: Systematic Approaches to Aesthetics and Design (As part of the project team at P-SO) (2023), Slanted Publishers: Experimental Type (2022), Slanted Publishers: Posters Can Help (2023), Goethe-Institut: The Disappearing Wall (2020) Research Erratic Movement (2024, Ongoing), Unified System: Structures of Variable Use (2019), Architecture of Typography and Typography in Architecture (2018) Working experience Post-Spectacular Office (OCT 2019–MAY 2023), Freelancing (2018–) Collaborators include: Morphoria, P-SO, Juan Solano, Maria Tsilomitrou, Mariza Tsakona, Georgia Harizani, Athanasios Katsougiannis, Untitled Studio Education Master’s degree in visual communication @Vakalo Art & Design College (Full scholarship issued by the Greek Communication Design Awards) (2023–2024), Master’s degree in architecture @University of Thessaly (2014–2020), Exchange program @Università Degli Studi di Cagliari (2017) toolkit Visual identity, art direction, research, editorial design, print design, motion design, 3D design, modular systems design, digital design, exhibition design, object design, packaging design, photography

Last website archive Update ● 13 OCT 2024
CURENT DATE AND TIME 00:00:00

Collaborators Juan Solano, Maria Tsilomitrou Project Type Film festival identity Client Thernon Short Film Festival Description Thernon (θερνόν) is a nomadic short film festival featuring mainly Greek directors that travels to remote locations, such as small vineyards, ancient ruins, and secret gardens. Inspired by the festival's constant movement and Odysseus' journey to Ithaca, Thernon's identity emphasizes topos, the locality of each place. ● The festival's title is written in Apla, an old Greek serif typeface commonly used for poetry publications in the Greek editorial industry over the past few decades, while the general description is written in Monument Grotesk, a sans serif typeface, highlighting the contrast between poetic locality and neutrality. Rows of blurry and noisy typography symbolize the essence of cinema, conveying the moving frames, the director's focused gaze, and the festival's movement from location to location. Lowercase letters represent the length of films showcased at the festival. In 2022, Thernon traveled to Ithaca and Aitoliko, two small islands in the south of Greece. Awards Greek Communication Design Awards: Poster

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Collaborators Athanasios Katsougiannis Project Type Poster, Interactive Installation Description The visualization of the poem "Invitation to the Voyage" by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) involves creating a mixed media interactive installation that provides both a virtual and audio representation of the poem. Baudelaire's invitation, is transformed into an invitation to a new journey through sounds and images. ● The poster acts as a machine for translating and creating new language and transforming the written word into a multidimensional experience, embodying the idea that in a vast, continuously moving digital world with immeasurable possibilities, the potential for navigation and understanding is also infinite. ● The poem is divided into 98 sections, each assigned a sound or song that faithfully represents its essence. An algorithm illuminates and recognizes the typographic length of each segment, converts it into a time duration, and plays a unique part of the corresponding song for each iteration, based on the calculated time. The typographic information is visualized, and its readability is tested. Words are listed on top of each other, with information and traces of the songs other than their titles creating a complex, layered reading that is taken off the paper, broken down, and reassembled. DISTINCTIONS International Poster Competition 2024: Selection

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Collaborators Maria Tsilomitrou, Yun Kuo Project Type Visual identity system Client Inform Architecture Description Inform is a newly established architecture studio. Their identity consists of a constantly changing system, which highlights the relationship between form and architecture. A form is a starting point of an idea. It can function as a surface, as a volume, or as a boundary. In this identity, forms represent the relationship between positive-negative, shadow-light, transparency-opaqueness, black-white. ● Like in architecture, a building can be influenced by its environment and its attributes, inform architectures' identity can be affected by the format and the content. A balance between restrictions and simple human-made choices. Format affects the grid, content affects the number of points, points affect the form - and vice versa. ● For each application, we define the parameters such as grid and content. These elements are input to a specially designed algorithm, which produces a finite number of forms (output). These forms in combination with the content produce a different result each time. ● The typographic system is directly linked to the generated form and can influence and be influenced by it. The typeface aims to communicate an archival-programmatic feel -which monospaced fonts often give- but without being too literal, trying to include the human factor in the process. ● Inform is a constantly evolving system of form, content and typography.

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Creative Direction Post-Spectacular Office Project Type Editorial Client Archisearch.gr Description Archisearch the Paper Edition is a bi-annual printed publication dedicated to the architecture and design scene. In the large format of the paper, a dynamic yet strict system allows typography, photography, and imagery to constantly change roles, ranging from expressive means to utilitarian information. In each issue, microsystems create new varying atmospheres. ● The covers maintain some elements across the publications as a means to a level of uniformity, yet they employ different concepts of indexes as information design that derive from the content of each issue. The project was created under the direction, with and for Post-Spectacular Office. Project Team Awards Red Dot Award: Grand Prix (2022)

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Creative Direction Georgia Harizani, Dimitris Lelakis Collaborators Georgia Harizani Project Type Visual identity system Client We Are Urban Description WAU is a specialized urban design consultancy with international experience, adept at shaping cities, and public spaces. They collaborate with municipalities, developers, and communities to create positive urban transformations. ● The visual language created utilizes a customized wordmark transcending into a system of values and information, that is implemented in various digital and analog, fictitious or real formats.

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Project Type Poster Description The custom lettering and cross-like form are inspired by the quirks and details of the Byzantine alphabet, intermixed with the simple shapes of Akzidenz-Grotesk, to support the concept of re-genesis that the movie suggests. ● The poster itself was heretically produced by embracing the grotesque accidents of the printing method when combined with the selected heavily textured semi-transparent, cream-coloured, Italian paper.

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Collaborators Maria Tsilomitrou Project Type Research-Thesis Description In recent years, there are numerous opportunities for the active participation of users in the design process. In this project, we studied how a variable system can meet the fundamental needs of users, while involving them in the process of designing the space that surrounds them. ● We observed the daily actions of people and the objects they use in both private and public environments. We analyzed the physical heights at which these actions occur and developed structures on a 1:1 scale, which, after being multiplied by specific constants, result in 3 levels of actions. These levels include those of the seat, the desk-table, and the eye. The basic structure of the system is based on a singular neutral unit. The system can adapt to diverse situations, by adding different modules that change its use. These modules collectively form the users' toolbox. This toolbox can be expanded by adding new elements. ● The graphic design part of the system shares the same design language and grids with the structures. This system grows and evolves together with the person, whose experiences and habits are directly related to the layout and functions of the resulting structures. We created examples of such structures and gave them various functions using the toolbox and everyday objects. ● The project was completed with the design of a book-manual containing the construction and graphic design elements of this work, as well as photographic material of the structures that were designed and built to satisfy possible imaginary everyday scenarios. Awards Greek Communication Design Awards: Experimental project finalist

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Collaborators Maria Tsilomitrou Project Type Modular type Description Unified mono is a typeface project closely related to a modular system of objects. It is the 2-dimensional part of the project "Unified System: Structures of Variable Use''. The monospaced font draws inspiration from the principles of constructing three-dimensional structures, like joinery and the study of statical forces. The letters were treated as units and the words as structures. Evolving at the same time, both projects (the physical and the non-physical) influenced the form of each other in an effort to blend the materiality and craftsmanship of the wooden structures with the style of the 2-dimensional characters. Awards Greek Communication Design Awards: Experimental project finalist

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Collaborators Mariza Tsakona Project Type Event identity Client Offsteam visual identity Post-Spectacular Office Description From October to December 2023, 10 museums in 04 cities across Greece were transformed into Meeting Points for inclusion and co-creation as part of this Off-Stream project. This action brought together organizations, museums, and participants to emphasize that everyone deserves the opportunity to experience art, offering participating museums the chance to expand their collections’ accessibility. ● These Meeting Points, the independent organizations, the 120+ participants of the experimental workshops at the 10 museums, and the 10 selected artworks are being interconnected on the poster’s 2D plane utilizing the concept of an invisible map. The events are displayed in topological rather than chronological order. The background represents the reason for the meeting, the artwork, which is given a new dimension - inclusive and relevant to all - through the participatory process of creative audio description by both sighted and non-sighted individuals. ● Initially presented as a solid, simple, two-dimensional entity, the artwork undergoes a metamorphosis during the meeting, evolving into a detailed image in the minds of attendees and those who will later explore it through hearing or reading. Each meeting is equally accessible to adult individuals with and without disabilities, with simultaneous interpretation in Greek sign language and tactile aids. Credits Meeting Points Photography ©Hichem Merouche Awards EBGE Greek Communication Design Awards: Poster series finalist

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Collaborators Myra Bizimi, Athanasios Katsougiannis Project Type Poster Client Vakalo Art and Design College Description The WIP Exhibition poster was created for an exhibition showcasing the mid-semester work-in-progress projects of the visual communication design program students at Vakalo Art and Design College in Athens, Greece. ● By embracing the transitional, in-between nature of these projects, the poster features an assemblage of student-created letters on one side, while on the other, provides additional information about the projects displayed at the exhibition, acting both as promotional material and informative memorabilia.

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Creative Direction Post-Spectacular Office Project Type Visual identity Client Ministry of the Environment & Energy of Greece Description "Boulevard de la Société des Nations": Greece's participation at the 2021 Venice Biennale was centered around the Aristotle Axis, a distinctive multicultural landmark of Thessaloniki. Designed between 1918 and 1921 by Ernest Hébrard, the Aristotle Axis in Thessaloniki embodies European urban design thoughtfully tailored to the local dynamics of cultural unity between both locals and refugees. Today, the Aristotle Axis serves as a vibrant meeting point, a place for cultural activities, human assemblies, parades, and protests. ● In the Greek Pavilion, a graphic installation comprising hundreds of booklets-pixels arranged and displayed on special structures portrayed the historical narrative and everyday life. Each visitor could participate by removing pixels and taking away fragments of the Axis's journey, unveiling a multilayered history. The project was created under the direction, with and for Post-Spectacular Office.

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Image©: Ugo Carmeni

Collaborators Mariza Tsakona Project Type Exhibition identity Client Offsteam visual identity Post-Spectacular Office Description Offstream is an inclusion-focused initiative that helps organizations make contemporary art and culture accessible. In our ongoing collaboration, we help them create identities for their projects that offer a great chance of being inclusive through their visual simplicity. Those projects range from tactile representations of art, wayfinding systems, visual identities for talks around inclusion practices, accessible museum exhibitions, online workshops, and braille printed matter.

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Project Type Publication Description As an archaeologist of my memories, I bury my favourite tree in 20 blocks of 500 pages. 10000 Pages in total, since according to Google, that's how many are produced from the guts of a standard mature tree. The tree’s memory is fragmented and then dispersed throughout the pages of each volume, providing the reader with a progressively clearer impression as they flip through them. ● To help browsing the pages, a special thickness-measuring device serves as an indexing tool for the prospective archaeologist.

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Project Type Publication Description Working Flag acts as a representation of those who don't belong, who are tired of belonging, or have chosen to reject belonging altogether. Unlike a traditional flag, this imperfect construction uses a desynthesized, cheap fluorescent hazard-vest as its main material, which, when re-sewn together, morphs into a symbol of uncertainty—an indication of the under-construction and of impermanence. ● By following the instructions, the prospective flag bearer can sew their own version of the Lavalier, embodying their personal journey of transcendence and transformation.

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Creative Direction Post-Spectacular Office Project Type Animation Client Design Democracy

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Project Type Object Description A visual note on time's unidirectional flow. An action influencing the next. An indication of progress or a sign of decline. On the bright side, at each turn, an opportunity arises, to start from the beginning. A sign to initiate change.

Project Type Modular Type System Description The form of this custom modular typography draws inspiration from exaggerated Byzantine capital initials featured in old books, detailed painted floral patterns,  intricate handmade tiles, and colorful geometrically shaped stained glass. ● The typographic system uses five simple initial geometric shapes to form interconnecting compositions that oscillate between expressiveness and legibility. The concept was produced during a modular type design workshop organized  by George Tsavalos

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Collaborators Maria Tsilomitrou Project Type Research Description This study analyzes the relationship between typography and space. After dissecting typography's anatomy and explaining it in basic terms, the research focused on exploring its impact on the built environment and human behavior.

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Project Type Interior, Object, Visual Identity

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Project Type Motion Design client Dimitria Music Festival art Direction + Design Post-Spectacular Office

Collaborators Maria Tsilomitrou Project Type Poster Client Museum of Typography Description Like a window in our world, the word typography is being repeated and then projected on a marble wall, shaping the light that is coming through, bringing typography into our world for a moment. Blending and using analog and digital mediums we wanted to show how type can transform everything around us. Awards Museum of Typography: International poster competition 1st place award

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project coordination Post-Spectacular Office Project Type Collaborative publication Client Goethe Institut Description Pixels is a collective publication involving 12 artists and 12 corresponding designers. Within a shared framework of guidelines, each designer had the challenge to design a booklet inspired by the works of a specific artist. The process of selecting these diverse designers and pairing them with individual artists was made in a way that would highlight the open and continuous creative dialogue shared between them. Awards Greek Communication Design Awards: Artists' catalogue finalist

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Project Type Publication

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Project Type Various Description A curated archive of assorted projects. A non-collection containing artifacts of experiments, research, parts of published and unpublished work, and collaborations. That includes motion graphics, type design, posters, photography, objects, systems, implimentations.

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Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Image©: Constantine Stamatis

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO

Creative Direction: P-SO