Maria Papaefstathiou aka It’s Just Me is a visual designer and blogger living in Athens, Greece. She focuses her research on poster design, particularly social posters and portraits. Her ongoing project is an extensive series celebrating great personalities of traditional and popular culture in Greece and Jamaica. These include actors, singers, musicians, poets etc.

Maria is the founder and editor of the Graphic Art News blog which was established in 2010. There, she carefully curates high-quality designs, illustrations and art from all over the world that teach and excite other designers. Many consider her blog to be an exceptional educational tool.

On December 2011, Maria partnered with the creative activist Michael Thompson aka Freestylee to launch the International Reggae Poster Contest. It is the only contest of its kind, highlighting the global reach of Jamaican popular culture. The 7th competition was held in 2020. Numerous exhibitions of the top 100 winning posters have been mounted, the first in Jamaica in 2012. There have been exhibitions in Greece, Cyprus, Cuba, Spain, Poland, the UK, Germany, Mexico, and the US.

In 2018, Maria curated the exhibition, “1st Medical Cannabis Intl. Invitational Poster Exhibition, for which she invited 50 designers from 27 countries. The exhibition was held in Athens, Greece and the art is still available for other shows.

Maria has received many awards and has been invited to participate in numerous international exhibitions in several countries such as Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the UK, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, China, Belgium, Bolivia, Ecuador, Iran, Indonesia, South Korea, Indonesia, and the USA. She has also been a juror for several poster competitions (Escucha mi Voz, C -IDEA design award, Ecuador Poster Bienal). Maria Papaefstathiou’s creative practice is motivated by the conviction that design is a powerful tool that can spark enthusiasm, change mindsets and inspire positive action.