DESIGN NAME: Theogony
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Illustrated Children Book
INSPIRATION: Reading Hesiod, Theogony, and focusing mostly on that part of the ancient poem that describes the primal cosmic elements emerging out of Chaos triggered a series of questions concerning among others: the archetypes of power games, the relation if any between ancient myth and modern stereotypes that rule female power, the challenge of engaging children readers to ancient heroic myths by the use of ancient art and language replicates as an alternate to modern super heroic comic narrative.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A voice coming out from the ancient spiral of time tells a kind of rhythmic story about the first existing powers in the universe: Chaos, Gaea and Eros, followed by the birth of next most powerful creatures like the Cyclops and the Titans. The story ends with the first crime in literature committed by Titan Cronus with the help of his mother Gaea against his own father Uranus. Text and illustration produce a cross-reference of ancient art motifs, ancient painting colors, as well as byzantine art.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The book is designed to catch the eye of any kid interested in mythology and history of Ancient Greek art. It can apply in the classroom as a useful tool to comparison studies between cultures or works of art dealing with the beginning of the world and the creation of the universe, as well as to myth writing projects or art activities (e.g. dramatization or painting).
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Research on the project started in November 2016. Texts and full illustration were completed in July 2017. Discussion and work on the layout of the book took place during the summer of 2017. In October 2017 the book was finally released. All work took place in Athens Greece.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Black and white drawings were initially made by pencil and then watercolors were added. The patterns were scanned and finally processed by the use of Adobe Photoshop software.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Illustration of Main Image Size H210 W297 mm
Illustrations of Optional image 1 to 4 Size H210 W297 mm
TAGS: Theogony, ancient Greek art, ancient Greek literature, Gaea, Chaos, Ocean, Titans, Hesiod, mythology, Eros, Cronus, children books in Greek, ancient Greece, Emmanouela Kakavia
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Research on Ancient Greek Art took place focused on a long period of history starting from 1100 BC and ending up to the conquering of Greece by the Romans, with the objective of detecting characteristics and representative motifs for each period. Research included on site visits as well as literature review. The evolution of ancient design elements over time was embodied in the project and is reflected by the use of simple forms at the beginning of the book growing into more complicated illustrations as the story advances.
CHALLENGE: The effort to depict extremely powerful creatures. The need to bring to life a universe consisted of abstract concepts (like Chaos or the old primal Eros, a conceptual being totally different than the Eros as perceived by the works of the classical era). These were the main design challenges. We also confronted the difficulty to narrate a world of violence. Castration of Uranus by Cronus marks the first peak of this violent universe. This has been a serious challenge both for the writer and the illustrator, especially when regarding the limitations posed by the fact that the book is addressed to children.
ADDED DATE: 2019-02-26 12:01:49
TEAM MEMBERS (2) : Illustrator: Emmanouela Kakavia and Author: Eleutheria Pantopoulou
IMAGE CREDITS: Image No1 Illustrator Emmanouela Kakavia Theogony, 2017
Image No2 Illustrator Emmanouela Kakavia Theogony, 2017
Image No3 Illustrator Emmanouela Kakavia Theogony, 2017
Image No4 Illustrator Emmanouela Kakavia Theogony, 2017
Image No5 Illustrator Emmanouela Kakavia Theogony, 2017
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: Copyrights belong to Emmanouela Kakavia, 2017.
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