Conceived in 2013, The Souvenir Project emerged as a response to the neglected language of the Cypriot souvenir, a call to reimagine what remembrance means through design. Rather than reproducing nostalgia or kitsch, the project sought to reinterpret local culture, language, and customs through a contemporary lens, grounding each object in the textures and emotions of everyday Cypriot life.
Each piece became a vessel of shared memory, a dialogue between the familiar and the reimagined, between place and identity. The project unfolded through a series of pop-up shops across cities and villages, workshops, and collaborations with local makers, weaving a network of creative exchange and collective storytelling.
Though its life was brief and sustained without funding, The Souvenir Project stood as an act of cultural recovery, a small resistance against mass production and cultural amnesia. It was later recognized as a National Finalist at the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition (CyEC) in 2014.
Project Branding: Omiros Panayides.
Photo Credits: Draw Collective and Silvio Rusmigo.
© Draw Collective 2004 - 2025.
