Tina Touli

What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?

I remember when I was a child, my German mother was teaching me how to read and write in German and bought me a book to learn calligraphy. I never really bothered to ask her why I was learning calligraphy at that point, just because I really enjoyed it. It was actually the most exciting part of my homework and I was always looking forward to it. I was much more interested in learning how each letter can be drawn in so many different and beautiful ways rather than actually learning the language. After so many years, I realised how big the impact was, how these little exercises enhanced my passion for typography.

I always loved communicating through any form of art. Since I was little I was keen on dancing, drawing, playing music, and others. I attended a music school, which kept me involved with all disciplines of art from architectural drawing to acting. Only few months before graduating I realised what I wanted to do in my life. When a friend told me about design, a field that would allow me to combine everything that I was passionate about, audio, motion, visuals, etc. I knew exactly where I belonged.

Tell us a bit about yourself and the studio that you work for.

I am Tina Touli, a London-based multidisciplinary graphic communication designer. I enjoy to build solid concepts and to constantly blend things from the physical and the digital world, working across different platforms and mediums.

I studied MA Communication Design  at Central Saint Martins and BA in Graphic Arts and Design at Technological Educational Institute of Athens. I worked on various studios such as Pearlfisher, Blast Design, CHK Design and others, while currently I work at Tina Touli Design, my private London based multidisciplinary studio.

I have been invited to present my work in different events, for instance, the Adobe Live Stream at OFFF Festival in Barcelona and the Adobe Creative Meet Up in London. My designs have been repeatedly awarded by associations like L’oreal Professionnel Paris, Hewlett Packard, Adobe, European Packaging Design Association, etc. In addition, my artwork has been published in various publications, such as the “Creative Packaging Structures” and the “Playful Graphics”.

What defines me is my consistency. I enjoy to continuously challenge myself, by experimenting and setting up new goals, never giving up on them. What motivates me and keeps me going is the excitement of something new. Learning and creating something different from the last time, something that you did not expect, this is what excites me the most.

Moreover, I like the potential of design. I am open minded about mediums, materials, processes, interactions and techniques. I usually start designing with a simple concept and create the strongest designs just by interacting with my “objects” from the physical and the digital world. Once you interact and understand the strengths and weaknesses of your “objects” they can become your tools or prototypes or even the outcome of your design.

Any passion projects you would like to share?

Tell us about any collaborations you have been working on.
We were a team of three designers, Marta Yarza, Simona Bunardzhieva, Tina Touli, who like to get their hands dirty.

Tell us about any collaborations you have been working on.

We were a team of three designers, Marta Yarza, Simona Bunardzhieva, Tina Touli, who like to get their hands dirty.

The brief was to execute three images on the topic of creativity for the “passion projects” section of the “Made by humans” website. We had nearly unlimited freedom with the only limitation to show our passion.

As designers, we’ve learned that our work isn’t just something we do 9 to 5 – but rather it’s an extension of us. We live and breathe creativity and it’s only when we fully merge ourselves with our work, that we produce strong and unique outcomes. Much like the birds who fly with their wings, our work is a part of our own beings, bringing us to unknown destinations.

Merge yourself with your tools, your ideas, your work.

The first concept is about merging yourself with your tools, and through the final image we wanted to show how the human ideas can flow onto our tools and begin an existing of their own. We wanted to use an object, that would represent creativity, but in a very inclusive way. We bought a laptop, painted it with white acrylic paint and crossed our fingers that the marbling technique that we were planning to use would work.

Merge yourself with your ideas, and what a better way to keep your ideas than your favourite notebook? With this second image we wanted to communicate how we as creators are becoming one with our thoughts. In order to create a lot of impressive bubbles we came up with the great idea to use a giant balloon. We used a mixture of dish soap and water to make the bubbles more durable and elastic. One of our earlier failed experiments gave us the idea of the final shoot - ink drops, dispersing into the bubbles.

For the third and final image we wanted to honour the digital world. So we decided to use a low-res projection with a pixelated image on a messy physical surface. We really wanted to use a paper sculpture, but we didn’t know how to create one fast, cheap and easy. Luckily we came up with the idea to use receipt paper rolls, which we carefully arranged on three metal rails.