Christos Joannides – ο Designer που κατακτά το L.A!

Διάβασα τη συνέντευξή του στο LAVoyage και ενθουσιάστηκα!

Με τράβηξε το πάθος του για τη δουλειά του και δε δίστασα να του ζητήσω μια συνέντευξη, ώστε να γνωρίσουμε τον άνθρωπο που κάνει καριέρα στο LA! Ανταποκρίθηκε άμεσα και το επόμενο πρωϊ, μου είχε στείλει email και είχε απαντήσει στις ερωτήσεις μου.
Γνωρίστε λοιπόν τον Chistos Joannides που μοιράζεται μαζί μας το όνειρό του που έγινε πραγματικότητα! Το “Flat 6 Concepts“!

Παραθέτω αρχικά τη συνέντευξη του Chris Joannides όπως μου την έστειλε, γιατί με τη μετάφραση χάνεται η μαγεία των όσων έχει να μας πει γύρω από τον ίδιο και την καριέρα του.
Κάτω απ’τη συνέντευξή του, θα βρείτε μια δική μου – λίγο πιο ελεύθερη – μετάφραση στα ελληνικά, γιατί η κάθε γλώσσα έχει τους δικούς της ιδιωματισμούς και μια τυπική μετάφραση δεν δίνει τα σωστά νοήματα.

A few words about you: where you born, about your studies and your dreams as a child…
I was born on the island of Cyprus and came to Los Angeles in 1992 to attend college. I will never forget arriving at LAX for the first time and stepping out of the American Airlines terminal. It seemed so surreal to me. My childhood dream of coming to the United States had come true… It was just another typical gorgeous August afternoon in Los Angeles. The sky was as blue as can be, and the sun’s warm rays felt good on my skin after a long transatlantic flight. As I glanced over at a young stylish couple entering a waiting white limo, I knew this was the city I wanted to be a part of. There was an undeniable air of glamour, a seemingly carefree, nonchalant lifestyle that seduces so many who arrive in Los Angeles. I silently said to myself, “I am home.” I was a wide eyed 19 year old who had just finished his mandatory Greek military service and ready to embark on a new chapter of my life in the city of my lifelong dreams. I was ecstatic and petrified at the same time.

How you started and how you got to where you are today?
After graduating Pepperdine University in 1997, my first job was selling high-end designer clothing to celebrities and locals at a men’s boutique in Malibu. I did that for a year or so, before getting together with my twin brother and a third partner, to launch an interior design and furniture firm. So at the age of 26 and with a loan from our family, we opened a showroom in Beverly Hills. I was in charge of marketing, photography, advertising, designing and developing our first website (back in 2002) remember Flash? Whatever I did not know how to do, I figured it out. We were in business from 1998 – 2008. The Great Recession hit and our clients disappeared seemingly overnight. With twin children barely two years old, I had to reinvent myself and started Flat 6 Concepts offering graphic design and web design services and marketing primarily to interior designers and architects. That was my niche initially. Since then, Flat 6 Concepts has grown to cater to a wide array of clients in numerous sectors and industries, ranging from product packaging design, advertising, signage and all other facets of visual communication.

People always ask me how I came up with the name Flat 6 Concepts. Their first assumption is usually to relate it to the Porsche 911 and the car’s flat six engine (which I do love,) but that was not the case. I wanted my company’s name to have a deep rooted meaning. Something personal. So the story goes something like this…I grew up in an apartment and apartments in Cyprus are called flats (thanks to being a British Colony until 1960.) The flat I grew up in was number 6. Hence the name, Flat 6. My dad was an architect who also happened to design the apartment building we lived in. He designed every detail and he specified the house numbers for each apartment. Those house numbers were typeset in Avant Garde, a clean, modern sans serif font, which I replicated in my company logotype and still use unaltered to this day.