Elpida Zacharaki aka el Vatomouro is a calligraphy artist and graphic designer, born in 1991 in Athens. She studied Art & Design in Akto College and graduated with a Bachelor of first-class honors degree from Middlesex University. From the first year of school, she was involved in typography and letters with a twist in handmade calligraphy techniques.

In 2014 she won the first prize at Athens Portfolio Night, which subsequently opened the door for her participation at Art Directors Club in New York. Upon her return from New York, she began working as a graphic designer within the advertising industry taking on multiple projects for international clients. Alongside her day job, in 2016 at the behest of her mentor and artist Irini Gonou, she started teaching calligraphy at multiple art spaces and festivals in Athens. On 2020 she decided to quit the office job and try her luck in materializing her long dream of becoming an independent artist. Since 2021 she holds a small studio in a full green and birds’ singing area of Athens.

Her work focuses on typo and calligraphy. She prefers to work with analog means: dip pens, brushes, and markers are some of her choices. Besides working with digital design tools, Elpida believes that working with analogue means allows capturing the choreographic authenticity and the spontaneous representation of calligraphy of a unique moment in time on surfaces. She perceives letters as holly symbolic shapes and she studies all greek and medieval manuscripts from the 2nd-century bc onwards, producing new letterforms based on them. For the past five years, Elpida has been captivated by the concept of presenting calligraphy in bigger scales, such as walls and ground, utilizing holistic body movements. Through this practice, she hopes to inspire people to perceive letters beyond the conventional expression means.

 

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