Necip Damar
Born in Izmir, Necip Damar developed an interest in graphic arts after seeing the poems his brothers wrote on the walls of their rooms and the logos of newspapers like Le Figaro and The New York Times that they drew. When he went to the cinema at a young age, he tried to copy the fonts used in the credits at the end of the films onto bits of paper that he took with him. He was also very interested in music. He attended the Teachers’ School and worked as a primary school teacher for five years. Necip then began his career in tourism as a DJ at Turban Marmaris Holiday Village and later worked as a senior hotel manager for more than 20 years. While he was in the tourism profession, he graduated from the Graphics Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts. After this, he worked for advertising agencies and also freelanced.
He came to Bodrum in 1987 as a hotel manager and ended up founding Atolye Bodrum, the first advertising workshop in Bodrum. Here, he published the Bodrum Newspaper, the Bodrum Post newspapers (in both Turkish and English), the Bodrum Magazine, and the Bodrumlife magazines in English. Not only did he design these magazines, but he also wrote for them. In 2003, he started to publish Bodrumlife and Where to Go in Bodrum magazines under the Bodrumlife brand.
The publication of these journals is ongoing.
Necip has compiled and published numerous guides, introductory books, and catalogues for Bodrum through Bodrumlife. Bodrum’s first internet portal, www.bodrumlife.com, was launched in 1997.
In 2000, he prepared his first interactive CD on behalf of the Bodrum Hoteliers Association to promote Bodrum. After this, he produced the Bodrum Uluburun Wreck Interactive CD for the Bodrum Underwater Archaeology Museum’s Travel Guide DVD in five different languages and, in 2006, made a documentary with his wife, İkbal Çiğdem Damar, about the Goddess Hekate and the archaeological site at Lagina. He also taught Digital Graphics and Web Design at the Muğla University Fine Arts Faculty. Necip decided to design, write, and compile the book you have in front of you now, “Bodrum-All About Bodrum,” not only because of his 25 years of personal experience living in Bodrum but also because of the extensive archive he has collected from all his publishing work.
In 2021, with the sponsorship of the Bodrum Chamber of Commerce, Necip published a guide to the Bodrum Leleg Route in both Turkish and English. He has also made documentaries and walking videos for the Bodrum Leleg Route. Under the sponsorship of the Bodrum municipality, he has now produced this guide, the second edition of “Bodrum, All About Bodrum,” which has been updated, expanded, and released for purchase in 2025. As the content provider of Visit Bodrum, all the texts and promotional videos on this site were prepared by Necip.
Besides publishing magazines and books, Necip considers it his responsibility to use all new communication opportunities generated by the latest technology of the modern world.