Melanie Dikaiou Xenophontos

About

Melanie Dikaiou Xenophontos is a London-based Cypriot graphic designer and visual communicator. Her design practice is centred primarily on storytelling through typography using traditional printmaking methods and digital media.

During her time at the Royal College of Art, she focused on developing her practice to address social issues by critically engaging with them and exploring the possibility of changing one’s perspective of an existing narrative.

Her independent research project titled “EIMAI / IAM” looks closely at the role of women in society, stemming from ancient Greece and drawing parallels with the present. Using her Greek heritage and her childhood as a starting point, the work references ancient Greek texts, epic poetry and literature to re-tell the stories of the silenced, misrepresented and uncelebrated historical and mythological women. “EIMAI” is the Greek verb “to be”, “to exist”. This collection of stories told from a first-person perspective, gives agency and a voice to each female character, some well-known and some less so, and is bound into a forty-five-page screen printed book. Three typefaces were designed taking inspiration from Greek symbolism – the snake, the spear and the meander motif, which were used throughout the book to connect with themes of spirituality, conflict and immortality.

“Myths may be the home of the miraculous, but they are also mirrors of us. Which version of a story we choose to tell, which characters we place in the foreground, which ones we allow to fade into the shadows, reflect both the teller and the reader. We must make space in our storytelling to rediscover women who have been lost or forgotten. Ariadne, Phaedra, Pasiphae, Helen, Hecabe, Cassandra, Andromache, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Pandora and Psyche are not villains, victims, wives or monsters: they are people.”

Contact

mdikaiou@mac.com

www.melaniedikaiou.com

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