#followthearrows

Those elements, as well as signings and advertising, are a vital part of the life in the streets of Athens. There is no global identity for the city, but everything has its unique format and structure, font, elements – arrows of different shapes and colors drive you through the paths of the different neighborhoods – and that’s what makes it efficient and recognizable by locals, in contrast with other famous European capitals’ city branding.

When meaning is removed from the relation between medium and user, those same arrows bring you to unknown places that can only be imagined and interpreted by the emotional response we have to the visual contents. As Panos Vassiliou from Parachute Type Foundry said, typography is about research, science and psychology and here the case is when the last one is tangible as its most. Feelings of confusion or being lost are replaced by personal interpretations only based on the emotional response to the different graphic elements.

Most of the time the artworks are practical and spontaneous applications of people with no education in graphic design, but they address everybody who walks on the streets. It’s design from the people to the people. The way it communicates is not affected by stylistic egocentrism and self-reference within the artistic world.

Sometimes in the graphic design environment we forget to relate to the people that walks on the street in our blind search for stylistic recognition.

Sometimes we want the user to think “I’ve never seen it before” and walk away rather than make in ask to know more and reflect in what is looking at.

Sometimes we forget the difference between looking and watching. Can design change the world? Can design pollute more the already saturated pit of visual elements that we encounter every day?