The legends of Greek Basketball (for HWBF)

Mar 3

A series of mosaic portraits of the top Greek basketball players of all time. Created for HWBF's (Hellenic Wheelchair Basketball Federation) campaign to fund the Greek national team.

It was a great honor to work for HWBF (ΟΣΕΚΑ), the Hellenic Wheelchair Basketball Federation, on this social responsibility project. To raise funds to purchase the necessary equipment for the Greek national team, HWBF's people approached me to commission a series of portraits of the top Greek basketball players. Then they auctioned these artworks to noble donors. HWBF formed a team of journalists, public relations specialists, advertisers, and we even had the valuable support of OPAP, the leading lottery company in Greece, a long-time HWBF sponsor. We all collaborated for months, gathering press clippings, photos, and documents from every athlete's history and creating these artworks. We printed these mosaics on metal using special printing methods, UV coating, and surface treatments to simulate the effect of a real, hand-assembled mosaic. We also created an Augmented Reality version of the mosaics. So every portrait comes to life, and the viewer can watch short videos of important games being played across the mosaic. Around the 5 portraits, we created a huge advertising campaign, involving the 5 elite athletes, the players of the Greek national wheelchair basketball team, volunteers, and many more. The campaign went all around Greece and tried to involve as many Greeks as possible.

Every artwork has an augmented reality version. All you have to do is download the Artivive app and point at any of the portraits. All of them come to life. :-)

P.S. Following the success of this project, I decided to keep it ongoing. I want to add many more elite Greek basketball players to the collection. I have since added Dimitris Diamantidis, and I vow to add more in the future.

Nikos Gallis mosaic portrait. Greek basketball legend mosaic — *Nikos Gallis* *mosaic portrait*

Panagiotis Giannakis mosaic portrait made of Greek newspaper clippings and photos from his career — *Panagiotis Giannakis* *mosaic portrait*

Theodoros Papaloukas mosaic portrait made of Greek newspaper clippings and photos from his career — *Theodoros Papaloukas* *mosaic portrait*

Giannis Antetokounmpo mosaic portrait made from press clippings and career photos — *Giannis Antetokounmpo* *mosaic portrait (see also* *Made in Athens*)

Fragiskos Alvertis mosaic portrait made of Greek newspaper clippings and photos from his career — *Fragiskos Alvertis* *mosaic portrait*

Dimitris Diamantidis portrait. Greek basketball icon mosaic — *Dimitris Diamantidis* *mosaic portrait*

Augmented Reality:
Download the Artivive app and point at any of the portraits. All of them come to life

Photos from the activity:

Legendary Captain (as a player) and Head Coach of the Greek National Team, Panagiotis Giannakis, and the President of the Hellenic Wheelchair Basketball Federation, Takis Kaloudis, are posing with Giannakis' portrait.

*Legendary player Thodoris Papaloukas in front of his portrait.*

Me with Greek National team in front of Gallis' portrait. — *Me with members of the Greek National team in front of Gallis' portrait.*

Framed newspaper-clipping mosaic portrait on an easel in a basketball hall, with men standing on the court

Giannis Antetokounmpo mosaic portrait made of Greek newspaper clippings and basketball photos, mounted on a board

Wheelchair basketball players and a standing coach pose beside the Giannis Antetokounmpo mosaic portrait in a gym

Large clipping mosaic of a man in a suit, built from newspaper text and photos of basketball moments, on a stand in a hall

Smiling man in a wheelchair giving a thumbs up and holding a sign, beside a mosaic portrait of a bearded man on an easel

Young players in white shirts look at a newspaper mosaic portrait of a man on an easel, Hoops for Hope banner behind

Newspaper-clipping mosaic portrait of a dark-haired man on a stand, with Greek flag and basketball photos around the edges

A man in a white polo shirt looks at a newspaper mosaic portrait of a young man on an easel beside a white wall

Newspaper-clipping mosaic portrait of a bearded man with dark hair, mounted on a board with headlines and sports photos

Two children hold blank signs on either side of a mosaic portrait of a long-haired man on a stand at a Hoops event

Detail of a newspaper mosaic showing Greek text columns and small photos of faces in dark and grey tones

Detail of a mosaic of Greek newspaper columns, small face crops and headline strips in grey, beige and green tones

Detail of a grey newspaper mosaic with Greek headlines, torn text and small photos of men in suits and players

Detail of a newspaper mosaic with Greek columns, a player raising his arms at upper left and team photos at the bottom

Detail of a black, white and grey mosaic of Greek headlines and photos, including a player dribbling a basketball

Detail of the Giannis Antetokounmpo mosaic: many cropped photos of his face and Greek headlines, in brown and beige tones

Detail of the Giannis Antetokounmpo mosaic: cropped photos of his face at different angles, Greek and English headlines and his number 34

Detail of a mosaic of many tilted face crops of men in red and white shirts, mixed with newspaper text, in muted brown tones

Digital mosaics are printed on aluminum with special varnishes and inks.
Many, many thanks first of all to all the athletes. It was a great honor to work with your images.
Many thanks to everyone at HWBF (the Hellenic Wheelchair Basketball Federation), Libero S&T (the Events Management and Sports Marketing partner), OPAP (our gracious sponsor), and everyone at QLTY for your amazing printing services, and to Giorgos Kogalidis (the soul of this project).
Anni, Thanasis, Stratis, Thanos, Takis, Dimitris, Spyros, Giannis, and everyone else contributed to this. A big thank you to all of you.

mosaic portraitathleteAthlete portraitsportsSports eventsadvertising campaigncollectiblecollector editiongallery artworkmotionmemoryleadership

Charis Tsevis

The legends of Greek Basketball (for HWBF)

A series of mosaic portraits of the top Greek basketball players of all time. Created for HWBF's (Hellenic Wheelchair Basketball Federation) campaign to fund the Greek national team.

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