Creating (Cartoulespress) in the “global village” through the Greek culture

 “The new electronic interrelationship recreates the world by giving the icon of a global village” Marshall McLuhan the Canadian communications expert had said. In the “global village” we are able to meet and communicate with others, and learn as well about their projects. This is the charming “global village”! I have learned about Julie’s Karatzis project “Cartoulespress” in the “global village”. She is Greek-American. I am charmed by Julie’s source of clarity which spreads the Greek culture through her project all over the world.

Julie Karatzis brought up in California. Her parents are Greek. Her father was born and brought up in Kefalonia, and went there in aim to study. Her mother was born in America having a father coming from Tripoli and a mother from Macedonia. Julie had met her husband in a Greek traditional dance club. Her husband is Greek as well. He was born in Athens and brought up there. He went to America with his parents when he was at the age of High School. Julie has studied public relationships and has worked hard in this domain. That had been very useful in her new professional journey. She has taken typography courses in a museum. The topic that motivates Julie is that through the old printing press a piece of History opens. “In California there are not so many printing press spaces. My printing press was found in the museum where I was taking my courses (there were some machines for sale). That was not in use for many years. We cleaned it up and brought that into the studio. The machine dates back to 1936” Julie said to humanstories.gr, and added: “That’s where my firm “Cartoulespress” began. At first I mad jobs for friends and for my family. Step by step, I have been making invitations for weddings all over the world.

 

There are 1500 workers in America who work in this kind of typography. Julie has named her firm “Cartoulespress” which means in Greek “tiny”-“cards”. “I don’t know how to explain that. Beside the fact that I was born and I brought up in America, I feel too Greek and I understand the Greek language in depth. Maybe that is explained by the fact that we used to spend every summer in Greece and I have kept friendships with Greeks since my early childhood. I had decided to begin with this firm 9 years ago, because I couldn’t find that in the invitations and cards on the internet. That’s why it was natural for me to give at the firm Greek name and cultural extensions. I always knew that I would create in Greek language…”.

The matter that attracts Julie’s interest is that Greeks all over the world ferret out herself and her work. “Greeks are mainly interest about the designs and the style which is pressed by me. Americans, on the other hand, are interested about the English version. Many years ago, I had designed some prints inspired from several Greek islands. The point that impressed me has been that Greeks are very proud for their homelands. They are touched by my pictures and I had had many invitations from islands which I had no idea where they could be on the map.

 

Julie works by herself, in the small space of her studio. All of her projects are made by her hands. Every single day is different; “I respond to the emails, I design invitations and other cards”. Some days I work in the printing press to print all the projects. For each invitation maybe there are 2 or 3 days until I complete the job”.

Her inspiration is Greece. That is the source of Julie’s creativity. Her plans are joined with her roots and she feels proud for quality and design culture in Greece. “I believe that it is a bit difficult for me to find inspiration here in America. This year that we were in Greece, I was noticing the different styles of typography on labels which inspired me. I have also visited several stores with high design style in the touristic zone of Athens. I am amazed by them. I have felt proud by the quality of design which there is in Greece”.

Julie is both an artist and the sweet mother of two children. She shares her time beyond the arts and her family. “They are kids but next year my first son will go at preschool. So, I believe that I will find more free time to design and work. Kids don’t understand what exactly I am doing, but they love the printing press. I don’t give them free time in the studio because it is dangerous”.

Through the “global village” we had the chance to meet Julie who loves Greece. She gives us through her icons, through her words and through her art, a piece of herself. She attends every single day the journey that will bring herself and her family in contact with Greece.

http://www.cartoulespress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/cartoulespress/