A designer by day.

The lebanese graphic design syndicate.

2012-02-12T11:46:00.000+02:00

I've been wanting to blog about this for a while now but thought I'd do some research prior to the post. Surprisingly enough, there was little found. I even sent an email inquiring about more information but haven't received any reply yet. So without further ado, please meet The Lebanese Graphic Design Syndicate!

Good news is we now have one. Bad news is I wouldn't be so proud to join!
According to Icograda (yes, we're listed in Icograda):

The Lebanese Graphic Design Syndicate is founded in 1976, reformed and restructured in 2010 to become the only official syndicate and professional forum for graphic designers in Lebanon, certified from the Lebanese ministry of interior and remunerated from the Lebanese government.
The syndicate is assessing the quality of graphic designers while at the same time establishing a better environment for them, by tapping into the professional interests of communication designers, Creating a developed market, Enhancing the design skills and backgrounds, Design policies concerning governmental and public matters, Developing the creative climate.

Well, to tell you the truth, I've been waiting for so long to be assessed by a force as creative as the LGDS! Now I can seriously hope for a better environment for us designers.
I mean, look at that logo! I'm in love with it! I've never seen such a smart, harmonious, typographic composition portraying what our world is truly about: the labyrinth of communication! And that website! Such dreamy horizons, smooth gradients and perfect slideshows! If there's one thing I've learned as a designer it's that no website should claimed as such if it doesn't have a weather report and a calendar. Plus, you can tell how well a website is doing by how much advertising space it has. So there you go!

Nuff said. I guess I will be waiting for that email to consider joining the syndicate. If ever. And if any of you readers is already a member I would love for you to share that experience with us!

PS: I love being a designer in Lebanon.

Guess the movie from the font!

2012-01-22T11:17:00.000+02:00

What better way to fill a gloomy Sunday morning than with some nice type experiments? I was thinking about this exercise for quite a while now, trying to find a way to involve people with typography. I think people aren't aware of the impact typography has on their minds. So, I picked a few famous movies, and imitated the font the movie title was written in to draw different words that are also clues to what the movie is.

So come on, try to guess the following movies and tell me your results in the comments section!

12 days of Stressmas!

2011-12-20T23:41:00.002+02:00

This can seem a bit too long, but if you hum along, you’ll find it a cheerful song!

On the 1st day of Stressmas
My boss said to me
You don’t really think you’re leaving work early!

On the 2nd day of Stressmas
A client said to me
I need 4 new placemats
Full of cheerful red hats
You don’t really think you’re leaving work early!

On the 3rd day of Stressmass
My sister said to me
We need to go shopping
For mom, dad and siblings
I have 4 new placemats
Full of cheerful red hats
I don’t really think I’m leaving work early!

On the 4th day of Stressmas
Same client said to me
Scratch that line on holiday cheer
Please do mention the new year
I need to go shopping
For my parents and siblings
I need my 4 placemats
We’re late on promoting that
You don’t really think you’re leaving this early!

On the 5th day of Stressmas
My conscience said to me
YOU’RE MISSING THE ESSENCE!
Scratch that line on holiday cheer
Also mention the new year
You need to go shopping
For your parents and siblings
Finish up those placemats
With the silly red hats
You really should be leaving work early!

On the 6th day of Stressmas
Secret santa gave to me
A stress ball shaped in a reindeer
To squeeze out of all life dear
YOU’RE MISSING THE ESSENCE!
Stuck with rhymes on holiday cheer
That don’t mention the new year
I still haven’t gone shopping
For my parents and siblings
Copy paste those placemats
With different colored silly hats
I am never leaving work early!

On the 7th day of Stressmas
My boyfriend said to me
You sure need a shower fast
Are you ghost of Christmas past?
Where’s my stress ball reindeer
To squeeze out of all life dear
I’M MISSING THE ESSENCE!
Screw those rhymes on holiday cheer
And all mention of new year
I hate all this shopping
For my parents and siblings
And those four old placemats
I won’t mention in next batch
Will I ever leave work more early?

On the 8th day of Stressmas
A new client said to me
Let’s make use of shopping sprees
And abuse the customers’ needs
I need to have a shower fast
Stuck with ghosts of Christmas past
Where’s my stress ball reindeer
To squeeze out of all life dear
I’M MISSING THE ESSENCE!
Screw those rhymes on holiday cheer
No resolutions for this year
I am going shopping
For my parents and siblings
I don’t care if I leave work early!

On the 9th day of Stressmas
My coworker said to me
Clients called you half past eight
Angry and can no more wait
To make use of shopping sprees
And abuse the people’s needs
You need to have a shower fast
You look like the ghost of past
Where’s my stress ball reindeer
To squeeze out of all life dear
I’M MISSING THE ESSENCE!
Have you yet gone shopping
For your parents and siblings?
Don’t ever ever leave work early!

On the 10th day of Stressmas
The clients said to me
Make our prices smaller
And our logos bigger
We have called you half past eight
Angry and can no more wait
To make use of shopping sprees
And abuse the people’s needs
I still haven’t showered fast
I look like the ghost of past
Where’s my stress ball reindeer
To squeeze out of all life dear
I’M MISSING THE ESSENCE!
I still have some shopping
For my parents and siblings
Will I ever leave again this early?

On the 11th day of Stressmas
My nerves said to me
We can no more take it
This is purely bullshit
Stay home sick and have some rest
Elves will take care of the rest
I think I’ve gone cuckoo
STOP MISSING THE ESSENCE!
I’m never leaving my bed any early!

On the 12th day of Stressmas
My boss said to me
You should’ve timed your sickness
On the night of Christmas
We can no more take it
This is purely bullshit
Stay here no more time to rest
No one to take care of the rest
THERE IS NO ESSENCE!
And you’re never ever leaving work early!

Happy holidays everyone! :)

What I've learned during 4 years in the design world.

2011-12-04T12:31:00.001+02:00

Last week marked my 4 years of working at WonderEight. I've thought long and hard about this post because there's been lots of highs but also lots of lows. The process of figuring out who you are as a designer and where you want your career to go is never an easy one, especially in Lebanon. The lows may have helped better in that discovery but I will not linger on them. Instead, I'm going to share with you the lessons, some are life lessons, others are downright clickable but just as important.

1. A good designer has no pride at all.
We designers have this "better than thou" attitude that seems to just come with the job. And when we're working on something, we get so immersed in our perfectly justifiable color palettes and obsessively kerned type, it becomes hard to look at what we're doing like total strangers. And that is essential for effective design. I made it a point to always work on a visual, leave it be for a night, then look at it the next day to find all the wrongs of the world in it. And when you don't have time to do that, another designer's point of view is all you need. And this is where your pride should leave the way to objectivity. Listen closely, discuss, you might not be convinced but still you should try. This wasn't always so easy but if you try it a couple of times and it works, then it's silly not to try it over and over again.

2. A graphic design degree is the last pre-requisite for becoming a design God.
In my working environment, we don't all come from a graphic design background. And this is the one things that has made these 4 years all the more enriching. I found this offending at first, having my work criticized by people who hadn't spent years being formed into designers. But then I found that a different point of view is always a good one. It's not what they teach you at college that makes you better. It's the osmosis of different minds and backgrounds that does. You'll find yourself back to stage one a lot of times and your pride will have to zip it here too. Because this process of re-working things is what makes you better whether you like it or not.

3. Client education rarely ever works.
Clients will always want their logos bigger, will always ask you to copy their always better competitors and you will always have to shrink your visual culture to fit theirs. This will make you hate your job. And your life. But then, out of the blue, you'll get a client that is willing to take your advice and see things your way. Forget about the others, give them what they want while keeping your design conscience as clear as possible. You don't need their stress. And quoting Baz Luhrmann: "If you succeed in doing this, tell me how!"

4. The advertising/design community is a shallow, deceitful one.
I've been to a couple of community gatherings these past years only to discover that they would be better titled masquerades. Fake smiles, even more fake praise and the whole "better than thou" thing tattooed on everybody's forehead. I'm lucky not to be working in a big agency and lucky to be surrounded by people who are exceptions to the rule.

5. You are the sole responsible for keeping your creativity alive.
Through these last years, I always felt like I was falling into some sort of routine. Even if I've seen a lot of people come and go and made it a point to learn something new from each and every one of them, 4 years can still weigh you down. But then I decided I should take matters into my own hands. Now I always venture into unknown territories when I'm working on a new project. Sometimes I even imagine myself being someone else working on it, kind of like 'what would whoever do'. And although these trials might sometimes turn out to be a waste of time, they remain essential to keeping a fresh perspective on things. So are personal projects, personal research, freelance and everything non-design that you do outside the office. But most of all, so is giving yourself a break every now and then and not taking yourself too seriously.

6. Comic sans can be used right.
Okay no, not really. But, on a more technical note, I've learned that gradients work, that shadows make a huge difference and that the lens flare can be your friend. I've also learned that the designs you dream of doing are rarely the solution that needs to be met, that in order to convince a client you will have to work longer and harder on the preview than on the actual design. There may always be things that I will refuse to succumb to but I'm sure a day will come to prove me wrong.

So, 4 years have passed and I still can't claim that I know better who I want to be as a designer. How long the self-discovery process is supposed to last, I have no idea. Has it gone too long? Should I know by now? I'm not sure. But looking back, what I'm sure of is that I have gone from one phase to another, never lingering in one too long. And I'm just curious to see where the next phase will take me!

TEDxBeirut, From limitation to inspiration

2011-09-26T13:53:00.001+03:00

This post will not be about things I've learned at TEDxBeirut. The things I've learned are still raging in my mind and will definitely nor fit in one blog entry.

This is more about feelings/impressions TEDx has installed in me. I felt proud, proud of being Lebanese, proud of having a glimpse at Lebanese dreams coming to life. Lebanon is always perceived as an obstacle or rather an alibi for not achieving one's goals. Saturday's talks taught me otherwise. With enough faith, determination and perseverance, we can do it. Bassam Jalgha needed a 'oud' tuner and so he simply invented one. Ziad Abi Chaker fell in love with garbage and so he simply found a solution for it. Passion will get you there.

Still, what if being in the presence of so many inspiring people made me feel so much less inspiring? I don't know how many people react the same way I do to all of this but somehow it all makes me feel more helpless. Perhaps, this is my one step deeper towards hitting bottom and then digging my way up again. This is getting closer to limitation before finding inspiration.

One of my favorite talks was To Ted or Not To Ted. Mahmoud Yammout traces the pros and cons of Tedding. Is another fast soundbite enough to change one's perspective on things? He argues that the solution for a dilemma is not either/or but a way out of it, inviting a third subjective. I'm a very contradictive person by nature, I wander in the in-between of almost everything. It's the talk i felt I related to most.

But don't get me wrong. TEDxBeirut did not have a negative effect on me. This conflict I'm goind through is priceless. Every awakened feeling and triggered thought is priceless. The energy of the team behind TEDx was priceless. That is perhaps what touched me most. I've had the chance of being a small part of this team and I've learned so much about passion and dedication even from afar. So thank you team, for being you and for putting forth this wonderful experience!

You can still check out the saved live stream on TEDxBeirut's website, it's really worth going through the pain of endless buffering! My favorites were by Mahmoud Natout, Halim Madi and Ziad Abi Chaker. The separate talks should be online in a month time.

The questions that haunt me as a designer -1-

2011-09-03T16:20:00.001+03:00

I’ve decided to add this new section to the blog to spark more discussions about what we do as designers and how we affect the world. So read below and let’s chat!

1: Do we design for the people or for peers?

It’s true, whenever we get a new project, our first step is to look closer into the target market and dedicate ourselves into luring it.

But I always find myself wondering whether people are really affected by the visual aesthetics of what we do. Do our efforts really matter? When your target market is as specific as an age group, you know your energy is not wasted, because it’s clear that kids will respond to more colors and cartoons and exclamation marks! But when the service/product you’re designing serves a broader audience, can you be sure of how sensitive these people are to design?

This question is most present when I see a poorly designed product/service doing wonders numbers wise. The people didn’t care about the visual brand but rather about what it really offers. And that’s fine by me! That’s even, ethically speaking, quite the perfect thing to happen. But it saddens me because it makes me all the more aware that I stress for nothing.

And on the other hand, one has to admit, that through the course of creating a brand, we designers are not only concerned with building loyalty to the brand but most importantly concerned with how it will look in our portfolios and how it will measure up to the work of designer peers.

In the race between form and function, functionality is always a priority both to the designer and the client. Functionality serves the people without their knowing, magazines made more entertaining to read, health brochures made more easy to understand, paper work made less painful to fill out. But when it comes to the form, nothing is certain.

What makes it even harder is that once you’re a designer you can never claim to be in a non-designer’s shoes. Texts you read will always be about kerning and leading before meaning.

So designers, do you fall into the designing for peers issue too? Would you risk your portfolio over a client’s needs or would you rather risk the success of a brand over peer recognition?

And people, how sensitive do you think you are to design? When you’re standing in front of a supermarket shelf do you pick one product over the other because of the way it looks? Is visual experience a factor when you choose a restaurant?

5 things I’ve learned at the TEDxBeirut 3rd Salon

2011-08-26T11:55:00.006+03:00

I’m usually one to hate inspirational speeches, I mean what a load of crap! All words and no actions, all theories and no applications. But with the TEDTalks it’s different, having real people, from all walks of life, sharing their experiences is crapless inspiration. So I went yesterday to the TEDxBeirut 3rd salon and here are a couple of things that I've learned about myself and the world:

1 - The left hemisphere has a huge hold of my life. I’m all about the left hemisphere. I’m over conscious of myself and of the things around me in the wrong way. I should stop postponing those yoga lessons.

2 - Lately I’ve been telling myself that I’ve spent too much time curled up into my own bubble and that it’s probably time for me to open up and get out there. And it kinda felt like that was naturally happening for me. And coincidentally, in one of the TEDTalks, the guy talks about how ideas are more likely to be born when you’re in a group. I’ve never experienced that really. I always shut down in a brainstorming session and I almost always come up with ideas when I’m alone. Or maybe, thinking about it, all the research we do is a kind of fictional group.

3 - Connecting VS protecting. Now that is a struggle that fits me perfectly. I love sharing ideas but there’s a very motherly, protective voice inside that tells me I should protect them. After TEDTalks I have all the more reason to fight that voice. “Chance favors the connected mind.”

4 - All work and no play makes Nisrine a very boring, unproductive person. And that is a scientific fact.

5 - It’s OK that I haven’t been giving my blog the attention it deserves because I’ve been unknowingly fighting local warming!

So make sure to attend TEDxBeirut on September 24th at Berytech Technological Pole. I’m sure it’ll be an event to remember!

www.tedxbeirut.com
www.ted.com

Serif Vs. Sans for the web

2011-07-31T15:04:00.000+03:00

My biggest concern when it comes to this blog is personalizing it. I know nothing about CSS and I try my best to work within the available blogger templates while still trying to maintain a minimalistic and clear design. One of the last dilemmas I faced while changing it is whether to use a serif or a sans serif for the body text. I was always under the impression that serif is more readable due to the serifs that guide the horizontal flow of the eyes. After all, there must be a good reason why all books we read are set in serifs. However, turns out for the screen it’s different.

I’ve found a great article that explains the pros and cons. The main argument that kind of does it for me is a technical one.

“When typefaces are digitized for use on computers, the letter forms have to fit within a relatively small pixel grid, often leading to what are called the “jaggies”. Many web professionals such as graphic designers claim that this relatively low resolution cannot render effectively enough the fine finishing strokes of serif typefaces, and that sans serif typefaces lend themselves more naturally to being digitized, and come out cleaner and thus more legible.”

Make sure to read the whole thing for a more extensive explanation. It’s really well researched and written with great references.

Rebirth: Lebanon 21st century contemporary art - Exhibition

2011-07-17T15:24:00.001+03:00

The concept of rebirth seems as old as birth itself. It’s as if Man fell so in love with life the minute he set eyes on the world that the idea of it having an end was unfathomable.

In ancient Egypt the scarab was a sign of eternal renewal and reemergence of life. The Ouroboros, the snake devouring its own tail, is an ancient symbol of eternal recurrence, representing cycles that begin anew as soon as they end.

But I believe the Phoenicians were the greatest visionaries of all. For them to have created the legend of the phoenix, they must’ve long predicted the fate of their own land, the fate of Lebanon, the embodiment itself of rebirth. And we love to prove our ancestors right. We love to watch it smolder to ashes and then fight our way up again. We even brag about it. But the eternal return of Lebanon, as heroic as it may be, isn’t as admirable as it sounds. We do rise after each fall but we lose parts of ourselves each time and we’re losing track of the essence of it all. We worry only about the “eternal” part and not about the “return”. We want to burn and be reborn again because we don’t know how else to do things. And we’ve sadly managed to turn the heroic into the horrific. But I digress.

I visited ‘Rebirth: Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art’ yesterday, an exhibition of works by 49 contemporary Lebanese artists, on the theme of rebirth and it got me thinking about the above amongst many other things. Nothing like art to provoke thought really.

Zena El Khalil, famous for glitter and pink and small army men, kind of illustrates the degradation of Lebanon in a series of paintings representing 10 pages torn out of a Nadine magazine. What better way to portray the dying rebirth of a nation than what actually interests this same nation? (I'm sorry no picture available!)

The theme, although handled by Lebanese artists wasn’t only about Lebanon. Rebirth happens to each and every one of us every single day. One of the simplest yet very striking paintings in the exhibition for me was this one. As the artist, Hanibal Srouji, describes it: Rebirth is a positive meditation space.

Another set of paintings I greatly enjoyed is one by Tagreed Darghouth. As I recall they were called ‘Rainbow’ and portrayed different skulls each on a different color of the rainbow. Apparently the term was used by England as a code name for nuclear projects. According to the bible the rainbow come after the flood and is a sign of rebirth. Was the use of this word accidental or can these weapons of mass destruction also lead to rebirth?

Zena Assi’s beautiful Ya Beirut Ya Sett Aldouniah is also a very touching painting. As she puts it: “Beirut is known in the flimsy and delicate state of pregnancy, almost bent in two but still standing on her feet, clinging to life and hope.” A very poignant image full of details and small cityscapes collaged into the belly of a mother giving birth through rebirth.

I won’t tell you about all 49 artists of the exhibition because I really think you should go check it out. They are all unmistakably beautiful, expressive and thought-provoking.

Also check the Beirut Exhibition Center website. They’re doing a great job and the exhibition space is also very well thought out.

The importance of design for the government and for politics

2011-07-09T22:38:00.005+03:00

The above sticker haunts me.
It’s not enough that the mere presence of Lebanese taxi drivers brings the right amount of irritation to spoil the rest of your day. The sticker had to be added. Apparently, it’s part of the Urban Transport Project by the ministries of Interior and Public Works to rebuild the trust in Lebanon’s public transportation. Granted, this could be a step forward, but really, couldn’t they come up with a better, more trustworthy design? To a designer this is like an archeologist seeing a neglected historical sea castle (*cough*sayda*cough*).

The sticker itself isn’t the problem. The problem is everything else it implies. Like how discouraging it is to work in so essential a field, yet one so disrespected by your own country. Like how indifferent your country is to the potential of its own citizens. Like how your government doesn’t give a rat’s ass about how to communicate with you.

On AIGA’s Why Design? section, one of the reasons it states is:
Design makes the citizen experience clear transparency.
Design can strengthen democracy by building trust in the communication between government and the governed. Trust emerges from understanding; design is a critical intermediary in making the complex clear and enhancing understanding.

I don’t like comparing Lebanon to other countries. For such a comparison to even exist there should be grounds of similarity before moving on to differences and Lebanon is a very unique country on every level. But I have to do this to prove a point.

Let me ask you this: in reference to America’s presidential elections of 2008, do any of you remember McCain’s logo? Now, do you remember Obama’s? I’m not saying the graphic work of Obama’s campaign won him the elections, I’m just saying design matters.

Did you know, for instance, that during the American presidential elections of 2000, 5237 voters from one county were invalidated because people had voted for both parties on the ballots? Why? Because the forms were very poorly designed they confused people.

Art, design and politics are tightly connected. The Bauhaus movement, the trigger of much of the European reforms, could never have seen the light had Germany won World War I or had the German monarchy not fallen. Needless to mention also, all the propaganda posters out there that rallied, influenced and indoctrinated whole nations.

Even Lebanon has its own share of propaganda communication. Take the posters from the Lebanese civil war. Or even recent elections. It seems to me our politician’s care for design is suddenly awakened when there’s a need to brainwash followers. Design has no other purpose.

But I don’t wanna talk about political design per se. I wanna talk about our government’s visual image. I’m someone who doesn’t follow politics. But maybe, just maybe, I’d be more curious about knowing what’s really going on if I was sure that this information is made available for me in a clean, accessible way.

I had to summon all my courage and patience to check every single ministry’s website. I will only post the most hideous but the rest aren’t so far away from the below.

Who can actually read this? Wrong text alignment and size.

92,172 visitors who probably didn't get what they were looking for.

Do we really think we'll get faster internet when this is the MOT's website?

No comment.

I’m very interested in the environment for instance, but would I really go through the trouble of knowing how my government is helping or how I can help by visiting this website? I’d close it after 2 seconds tops. (okay maybe 10 seconds if I wasn’t a designer). And I know that content and data are much more important than design but what our government fails to see is that the 2 are very intricately related. Bad design is bad user interface. Bad user interface is bad user experience. Bad user experience is just bad.

Bad design is the greatest proof that we Lebanese do not care about what our government is doing for us but rather about who is doing it. And our politicians are aware of this and are definitely exploiting it.

Just like art imitates life, design imitates society. And that says a lot of horrible things about us. I dream of a Lebanon that understands the potency of graphic devices. I also dream of a public transport system that is irrevocably trustworthy. And no, this sticker is definitely not doing it. Not even close.

When should the search for inspiration stop?

2011-06-20T23:02:00.007+03:00

Teachers, lecturers, peers, everybody who's anybody will tell you that the biggest, most important step in any design project is research. And this is largely, though not undeniably, true. Back in college, I wasn't quite the online research guru that I am now. The only 2 websites that I ever ran to for help were Google images and DeviantArt. And although, looking back, I realize that my visual eye was really immature, I still made it top of my class. I didn't need endless hours online, just my concept and the little visual culture I had growing in the back of my head. Things have drastically changed now. The magic word for any Google research now is "showcase", they're everywhere and they cover EVERYTHING!
So after going from little to too much visual research, I'm realizing that I should hit the brakes again. Why, you might ask? Here's the reasoning behind it:

Building the right visual culture
Good taste is acquired. It's the result of everything you see around you, from what your mother wears to the shop signs you see on your way home everyday. It defines who you are just as much as you define what it is. It is always important to remind yourself that your visual culture should focus on the smallest details just as much as on online research, international standards and trends. I believe this is one of many factors that are leading to losing our own identity. The web holds very little visual treasures on Lebanon but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking elsewhere.

Internet vs. books, the endless battle
I will not go into the pleasure of laying back and taking the time to go through page after page of a good book. That's not the point of this post. What I will go into is the time factor. When you're on the net, time flies. You're browsing link after link after link until you find yourself stuck in a whirlwind of eye-dazzling designs that just will not end and before you know it day is dawning. As mesmerizing as the possibilities on the internet look, you just have to know when to stop. And you also have to know that your concentration and your eye for detail are practically asleep. You save and save in neat, tidy folders on your drive, thinking that dissection is for later on. But how many times have you actually come back to those files? I know I rarely do.

The thin line between inspiration and copying
I am totally for the thought that everything is inspired from somewhere and that there's no harm in starting from where someone else has been and taking it to a whole new place. That's actually the good, effective side of research. However, I'm starting to notice that too much research leads to too much stuff looking the same. It's a fast business our business. And when you're under such tight schedules, sometimes you just can't help it. But you can take a step back, forget any inspirational trends you've been drowning into and ignite the smallest change. You can save something you don't like, something you think you can never do or something that is conceptually strong but visually poor. This can make the whole difference.

We're doing research even when we're not.
It all comes down to this. If you're a designer, you encounter daily a minimum of 5 inspirational links a day. So either skip these links for when you really need to be checking them or know how to make good use of them.

So from now on, I should probably keep the research for a later stage and start by taking a long precious moment thinking things through on my own. And I should never forget that research isn't helpful if it isn't good research. And good research involves the right time frame, the right amount of concentration and a sketchbook. I keep a tumblr account where I try my best to save things that are not design-related but still inspire me. It's always a struggle to do so but I'm making it a point every time.

P.S: Notice how much repetition there is on the first Google results page?

Diagnosed with type disease!

2011-06-14T19:55:00.000+03:00

So while doing some research today I found this!

Various forms of dysfunction appear among populations exposed to typography for long periods of time. Listed here are a number of frequently observed afflictions :

Typophilia
An excessive attachment to and fascination with the shape of letters, often to the exclusion of other interests and object choices. Typophiliacs usually die penniless and alone.

Typophobia
The irrational dislike of letterforms, often marked by a preference for icons, dingbats, and—in fatal cases—bullets and daggers. The fears of the typophobe can often be quieted (but not cured) by steady doses of Helvetica and Times Roman.

Typochondria
A persistent anxiety that one has selected the wrong typeface. This condition is often paired with okd (optical kerning disorder), the need to constantly adjust and readjust the spaces between letters.

Typothermia
The promiscuous refusal to make a lifelong commitment to a single typeface—or even to five or six, as some doctors recommend. The typothermiac is constantly tempted to test drive "hot" new fonts, often without a proper license."

I'm sure we've all felt obsessive about type but now it's been pinned down to our faces! It's official. We are sick (or at least I am!).

This is according to Ellen Lupton.

Train stations in Lebanon

2011-06-09T21:18:00.005+03:00

Ever wondered what's behind that 4m high monumental wall along the Beirut Highway (going from downtown to karantina)? I had always seen that "shou fi wara l 7ayt" graffiti on the wall and it always made me wonder, but I had always missed the link to the answer.

Well,
*drum rolls*
it's a train station!

I can't believe that! Mar Mikhael station, hidden right in the middle of Beirut. And to think I went all the way to the Bekaa to see another station along that railway.
Please check this link for more info: shou fi wara l 7ayt?

Also, as you can see in the events page, there will be a 2-day open doors at Tripoli Railway Station on June 25 and 26. Check the event's facebook page and be there!

Seriously, is there anything better than discovering the historical treasures of your own country?!

Oumi ta nor'os: the comeback!

2011-06-07T00:44:00.004+03:00

It took me a while (a pretty long one actually) to figure out how to go about this one, then I thought I'd mess around with the awesome blend tool in Illustrator and this is where it got me!

VideoWorks 2011

2011-05-19T23:30:00.001+03:00

You know how, sometimes, when you learn a new word, you start seeing it everywhere around you? The same thing is happening with the "lebanese oldies revival" theme. For instance, every Friday you can now watch Sami Clark, Abdo Mounzer and Le Petit Prince at Orientis and bring back the golden age! And just yesterday, I went to the opening of VideoWorks 2011 and the opening video was all based on footage from that era.

The short is called Under a Rainbow by Roy Dib. It featured scenes from Remi Bandali's Amani tahta kaws kozah (which, by the way, is a must-see movie) spliced with scenes from Studio L Fann, Samira Toufic, Ferial Karim, Madonna, etc. All cut and edited in a way that greatly contrasts our happy childhood memories with what was really going on at a time of war.
It's sad that my generation turns amnesiac when it comes to the 80s and that this period in time might never be thoroughly documented, not politically nor musically. I'm in constant search of what defines our Lebanese identity as such and I strangely find the answer in the songs and artists of that era.

The second movie was Prologue by Raed & Rania Rafei. It handles yet another subject that am sure most of us have never heard about and that's March 19, 1974 when AUB students rebelled against the administration and took over the campus. The rebellion was mainly against a 10% increase in tuition but it underlined deep divisions along social, political and ideological lines.
As the name states, there will be another movie about the event and I can't wait to watch it!

VideoWorks 2011 remains till May 21, you should really check it out.
More info here.

How about blogging in Said Akl's "Lebanese" alphabet?

2011-05-15T11:09:00.005+03:00

Last week, there was something on the news about a statue of Said Akl being unveiled in Zahle in his homage. It reminded me of this article I had read a couple of years ago about Said Akl's "Lebanese Language" in Bidoun Magazine.

I'm someone who loves the Arabic language and who won't go into the "Are we Arabs or Phoenicians" argument because it doesn't matter to me, we're all passers-by. But you have to salute Said Akl's radical nationalism (and I'm not necessarily referring to his rather controversial political views here, only to his literary ones).

So Akl's "Lebanese" is a Latinate version of colloquial Arabic, rooted in ancient Phoenician script. It uses Latin letters in addition to a few newly designed letters and some accented Latin letters to suit the Lebanese phonology. Below is an image of his alphabet.

He published a tabloid newspaper Lubnaan using the Lebanese dialect. It persisted for 15 years, despite finding limited favor amongst Lebanese and arabs.
I sadly couldn't find any images of this newspaper on the web and my scanner refuses to work today so I took some pictures of it from my mac cam, excuse the quality.

Said Akl once stated that literary Arabic would vanish from Lebanon. And the way things are going, I think the guy is a psychic! It isn't a statement to be proud of, but there's something about Lebanon that just refuses to be part of this region, we're different geography-wise, language-wise, culture-wise and religion-wise.

In all cases, theTurkish alphabet was latinized in 1928, it would've been real interesting for Lebanon to follow the same route. Specially with the rise of this neo-Arabic language being used online and in text messaging, Lebanese would have made it much easier.

If you feel like trying out the language, I found .ttf files for it with instructions on how to use the keyboard here, maybe we should start blogging with this language!

P.S.: Did you own that he was the one to suggest to Michel Aoun to begin his speeches with "O Great people of Lebanon" rather than "Ladies and Gentlemen"?

Meshwar revisited!

2011-05-08T15:18:00.004+03:00

So I decided to try out the "Lebanese Oldies" series digitally and here's what it looks like! So what do you think? Should I rework the others too?

Sorry bout the name but a designer's gotta do what a designer's gotta do!

Typography workshop with Tarek Atrissi

2011-05-07T18:56:00.003+03:00

I had the chance yesterday to attend a typography workshop with Tarek Atrissi.
As a student, Tarek was always a sort of idol, himself being a lebanese student who travelled abroad for studies and then settled in the Netherlands to start a studio that will later on handle the most innovative arabic typography projects worldwide.

What was quite interesting about the conference/workshop is seeing the process of some projects and making out the difference between calligraphy, typography and lettering. I had always thought that I needed to be excellent at calligraphy in order to come up with good typographic design. Tarek made it clear that a designer can not be a calligrapher unless he puts lots of effort and most of his time into calligraphy. That is why a designer's job is mainly to know how to art direct calligraphers and typographers. I've always been someone who needs to be great at everything or nothing at all so this kind of gave me a wake up call to change my perspective!

The workshop focused on arabic lettering (which comes halfway between calligraphy and typography). We had to choose one word then come out with a typographic design of the word following 10 possible approaches ranging from geometric, calligraphic to 3D.

I hesitated at first between the words "nisrine" and "zamharir" but chose the latter because it represented a bigger challenge!
Following are the sketches and final results of the workshop.

And here is the digitalized outcome!

I think the next lebanese oldies song will be inspired by this workshop!

World graphics day!

2011-04-27T19:31:00.008+03:00

It seems that today is World graphics day! Yeyyyyy!
On this occasion, let's all give out a thought for all the consumers we've deceived, all the corporations we've enriched, all the waste we've encouraged and all the dumbing-down we've cheered for.

What's funny is that on Wikipedia this is supposed to be an occasion "when designers reflect and hope that an international network can contribute to a greater understanding between people and can help to build bridges where divides and inequities exist."

Yeah maybe that'll happen when bridges and understanding pay.
Have a proud World Graphics Day :)

قومي تنرقص يا صبية

2011-04-26T13:12:00.003+03:00

I think I'm developing carpal tunnel syndrome from sketching and resketching the letters and moving from the sofa to the desk to the window! My room is anything but ergonomic.

Sami Clark was actually reviving the Golden Age at Orientis last weekend along with Abdou Mounzer and Petit Prince, but I found out about it a bit too late! I love it when there's a general wave of reviving Lebanese history. I think we forget too much as Lebanese.

This song should be in every lebanese wedding if you ask me. Enjoy it!

مش مهم لوين نروح المهم نروح المشوار

2011-04-22T12:51:00.003+03:00

This is the most free-spirited arabic song I can think of! It's been a long time since I colored anything by hand but to honor the spirit of the song I thought I'd give it a go. The scanning kinda ruined it though! I'm thinking next up should be a Sami Clark song, who doesn't love that guy! :)

Enjoy the video!

يا ستي يا ختيارة

2011-04-15T00:02:00.004+03:00

There's nothing like a good old lebanese song to put a smile on my face. And this is my try at reviving these songs! This will be part of a series, experimenting with arabic typography. It's been ages since I've done any experimentation and I'm still not sure if this is the final version. So what do you people think?

Me: Hi, I’m a graphic designer. A: Ah so you draw!

2011-04-12T23:09:00.007+03:00

To all of you who go totally blank on us when we tell you that we’re graphic designers, here’s the lowdown on who we really are.

We are the voice in your head that tells you to buy the green box of snacks instead of the pink one because we made it look so much healthier knowing that you will never look close enough to realize that both have the same nutrition facts.

We are the voice in your head that tells you to try that new hip café downtown instead of your regular next-door one because we managed to convince you that the experience is different and much more satisfying.

We are the thought/idea/image/color that first pops into your head whenever you hear the name of a famous person or brand. We infest your brain with referential visuals.

We are the voice in your head that tells you to buy this outfit instead of that other one because it will make you feel insert-personality-trait-that-best-suits-you-here.

We are the eye candy that tickles your retina buds whenever you hold any and I mean ANY printed material in your hands.

We are the voice in your head that tells you to vote for this or that, to stand with or against that, to trust this or that… We are your voice. We forge your opinions in ways you cannot imagine.

No, we do not design buildings nor are we interior decorators nor painters. No, it’s not just about the billboards that pollute your eyeballs. Our pollution reaches the drawers of your bed table, the closets of your toilets down to the pockets of your wallet.

We are everywhere. We haven’t been there for centuries so it will probably be ages before you give us the same recognition (or money) as lawyers, doctors and engineers.

And yes the above doesn’t give the best impression of what we do, but if I had to choose between glazed and disdained stares, I’d go for the latter, anytime.

Latest scientific discovery: designers are mutating!

2011-04-07T13:50:00.004+03:00

Anthropologists have lately revealed news about the emergence of a highly evolved branch of homo sapiens. They call it homo ophtalmus mainesthai.

This specie can be traced back to the late 19th century when the so-called graphic arts began manifesting themselves in large advertising posters by the likes of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha (proclaimed possible ancestors of the specie). However, some scientists presume it is more accurate to date it back the invention of movable type printing in approximately 1439 A.D. by Johannes Gutenberg.

Whichever the case, it is without doubt that the homo ophtalmus mainesthai witnessed the culmination of their evolution during the 21st century crossover, when development in computer technology was peaking (and has been peaking ever since).

In fact, the said specie has undergone a series of mutational physical changes that define it as such. Extensive studies and experiments have shown the following characteristics:

An unusual protrusion of the right side of the brain.

It is no mystery that the right side of the brain regulates artistic activities. Right-brained people are better able to work with the imagination to develop creative solutions to problems. They have a way of creating art out of thin air. “They can see all the colors of the rainbow, can distinguish the scents of blossoms in the air, and dream in color.” Now multiply that by infinity and you’ll be able to fathom the capacities that lie within the homo ophtalmus mainesthai. So much is their right brain side advanced that they make the most incoherent associations, bordering with irrationality. Some members have even been diagnosed with psychosis (symptoms include hallucinations and thought disorder). Others lose any verbal faculties and are left to venture into a world of visual abstraction.

Scientists speculate that this is their own vendetta against a society that has always favored the left side of the brain, making the core learning subjects at school Maths, Science and English.

A distinctive distortion of the eyebrows and pupils

The homo ophtalmus mainesthai have developed larger areas of binocular visions that allow them improved depth perception. They show a tremendous eye for detail bordering with ophtalmodystopiaphobia. They are horrified at the sight of a displaced millimeter (which they can detect with an evolved built-in measuring system) and manifest anxiety symptoms like sweaty palms and a higher heartbeat rate. Their x-ray-like vision is convinced that empty space holds much more than the normal human eye can see.

Their eyebrows are unusually stuck together from too much time spent scrupulously focusing on the smallest of details. However, it is yet to be confirmed that the eyebrow mutation isn’t just an attitude problem.

A distortion of the vertebral column

Viewed laterally the vertebral column of humans presents several curves, which correspond to the different regions of the column, and are called cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and pelvic.

The vertebral column of the homo ophtalmus mainesthai holds one or more singular points that break the smoothness of the curve.

Members of the specie like to joke that their column has converted anchor points or in their lexicon is Shift-Cied.

They have also mastered the art of making body sounds with their own joints and vent their DIY symphonies in their own animated works.

A 360 degree wrist rotation capacity

Enabling flowing 3D movement of the mouse, the digital pen, or the normal pen, this 360 rotation is also endowed with microscopically high precision. It is possible to move the mouse as little as 1 micro millimeter to the side to allow perfection in pixel alignment.

A desensitized nervous system

Or a highly sensitive one. Due to increased and constant stimulation of the nerves, homo ophtalmus mainesthai is characterized with a chronic condition of acute stress disorder. This is their way of dealing with the constant race with time to constantly meet deadlines. In fact, their nerves have been so overused that they have acquired the ability to easily trigger a state of daze where they quickly withdraw from the surrounding environment, to the extent of a dissociative stupor. Some of them, however, show symptoms of extreme agitation and over-activity, which results in the surrounding environment withdrawing from them.

Scientists are still keeping the specie under scrutinized examination since they have observed that its evolution is growing exponentially. There is no knowing how and what this specie will turn into.

There is word that rehabilitation centers are being created to help slow down the evolution of said homo ophtalmus mainesthai. You can help by treating them as fellow homo sapiens, in need of the stupidest forms of social interactions, of a repeated reunion with mother nature and of love.

Typographic matchmaking in the city.

2011-04-07T13:34:00.007+03:00

For those of you who haven't heard about the event yet, Typographic Matchmaking in the City is coming to Beirut!

The Typographic Matchmaking in the City project is a design research project investigating new approaches for bilingual lettering and poetic narrative for public space. The project have proven to be highly inspirational for the participating designers; it brought together designers from different cultural backgrounds to intensely collaborate, over a period of 2 years, on creating coherent products with groundbreaking results. This project shows the important role that design can play in initiating cultural change, assimilation and integration—by simply using our daily basic communication mode: the written word.

Click here for more information about the event.

Tell me what font you use, I'll tell you who you are.

2011-04-04T15:07:00.004+03:00

I am too lazy to have taste. I prefer to have my opinions already made for me. I hate all time-telling devices since i like to think of myself as timeless.
Favorite song: Hotel California
Favorite movie: The graduate

In my previous life I was a roman warrior. This still echoes in my undying love for anything ancient and powerful. I speak slowly but steadily and my voice keeps on echoing forever in time.
Favorite song: When I am laid in earth from Dido and Aeneas.
Favorite movie: The list is too long, I have compiled it here.

I'm the biggest stuck-up you'll ever meet. I'm not scared to say what's on my mind. I'm tall and fat and just generally in you face! People over-trust me to represent their ideals.
Favorite song: Can I bitch - Eminem
Favorite movie: Deep impact

I may look like your regular gentleman but if you look close enough you'll find I'm a little sharper round the edges. I like to keep a distance between me and my peers and you will never find me sitting down or slumping around.
Favorite song: I don't listen to music, messes with my integrity.
Favorite movie: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I'm all bubbly and cute and expressive. I wear my heart on my sleeve and you can never shut me up. I touch everybody's hearts and souls, it kinda makes me want to puke at times.
Favorite song: Barbie girl
Favorite movie: Asterix et Obélix

Ever since I was born, people have been saying that I'm the easiest child they've ever met. I've grown to be everybody's favorite secrets keeper since I'm so open-minded and bland I never judge anyone. It worries me sometimes that this makes me the no-opinion, no-personality dude but I guess it's OK.
Favorite song: Elevator music
Favorite movie: All and none

Google's best april fool's!

2011-04-03T10:24:00.007+03:00

Google Plays With Helvetica, Comic Sans For April Fools' 2011 Gag

I had such a good laugh when I learned about this! Not many people will get it, some might actually enjoy a google page in all Comic Sans but for us designers, it's a very smart prank to pull!

How shock-resistant are you?

2011-04-03T00:04:00.012+03:00

A while back I watched “Un chien andalou”, the surrealist movie produced by Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali. The first scene of the movie shows the slitting a woman’s eye with a razor and what is called “the vitreous humour” spilling out of it. I hadn’t seen something so shocking for quite a while. Following the movie, there was a commentary by Buñuel’s son and he made a very interesting point. He said that advertising today relies mostly on the surrealist movement for its shock quality. Quite an obvious thing, but for some reason I had never thought of advertising as “surreal”.

Thinking about it, advertising in the beginning of the 20th century was concerned with simply informing the consumer about the product in the bluntest way possible. Then a shift happened and the focus became how the product made you feel. People and objects were taken out of context, creating a scene that makes no sense at all and yet creates a surrealistic reality. And you want to buy that reality. There’s nothing so interesting and new about all of this except for the historical timeline maybe. But what I really find alarming is the shock factor.

Shockvertising, deliberately startling the audience by breaking social values and norms. The more shocking you are, the more creative you become because that’s how you capt attention, “create a buzz”. Benetton are thought to be the pioneers of shock advertising with their ads portraying an HIV terminal patient, a priest kissing a nun, child labor, etc. They spread quite the shock in their audience. It was borderline offensive. The ads had no selling line, only branding. So the shock is closely related to Benetton and engraves it in your mind. These were quite controversial ads and Benetton were sued for them.

What is worrying about all of this is the resulting habituation to such images. What once was shocking is now becoming the norm. And it’s not just about advertising. Watching so many people being killed daily in the news, detailed autopsies in crime series, hunger-induced deaths, even ecological disasters… We have grown immune to it all. We just flip the channel with no reaction at all. I don’t get how proud we can be of an advertising campaign that does nothing but numb our brain for the sole purpose of selling a product that we don’t really need.

As Buñuel’s son also adds in the commentary “people would be more shocked to see violence committed against an animal than a human being.” And that is so true.
For example, people (and I among them) had their hearts melt at the sight of this panda scared by the earthquake in Japan and clutching the zookeepers leg. I don’t think images of the tsunami victims were as heart-melting but I’d love to be proven wrong.
Another example is GoDaddy’s CEO elephant killing scandal. I’d like to see as many people boycotting all the brands out there for the sake of child labor or even for the simple case of capitalism. Shame.

To blog or not to blog.

2011-03-28T22:53:00.004+03:00

I remember when my online life started almost 10 years ago. Back then, the term “blog” wasn’t so much in use; at least I wasn’t that familiar with it. Back then, the hype was journals. The trend was to keep online diaries, to share everyday life with friends and strangers alike. It’s true, some stuck to the direct meaning of a diary, while others broadened it through photo galleries, links and more general entries. Yet still “blogging” as we know it today wasn’t really “in”. Now the blogosphere keeps growing exponentially. It isn’t just about personal opinions and interests; it’s about exposure, being present on the web. It’s a must for every marketing strategy, for every starting business. Whatever your favorite topic, you’ll find a blog about it. That is why I always find myself wondering about whether to blog or not to blog.

Why have a blog?

Comfort

When I had diaries, it was mostly about knowing that I wasn’t alone. That other people out there shared my experience. There was a tremendous comfort to that. With blogging however, it is a certain truth that you are “not” alone. Someone is blogging about the same topic you’re blogging about, having the same niche you’re targeting and looking for the same exposure you’re looking for. And that is definitely no comfort. On the contrary, that files you up instantly into the “be unique” propaganda. I have nothing against being unique, mind you, but when it’s become such a core message in advertising for mass consumption products, I think we can all spot the paradox there.

Exposure

So what’s wrong with exposure? With the growing media craze in the last decade, being famous has become everybody’s dream and it’s only a reality TV show away, a youtube video away, a blog away. But how do you make sure that you’re not just a waste of bytes? The ecology of the web is also something to think about. How can you be sure that you have something worth saying? Can you trust the people to judge that when the people don’t really know that they want anymore? Think about it. People are easily entertained these days. With enough spice, they will applaud whatever you need them to applaud. They don’t really need to keep up with the Kardashians but they love doing it. So can you really count on any kind of feedback?

Self-improvement

This is all you can really count on. The process. If you really love the process of writing, of keeping data, of sharing with like-minded individuals, that is all that should matter. I always find it intriguing how a piece of writing doesn’t sparkle the same way if kept locked in your drawer. Why can’t it be self-sufficient? Because context changes everything. If you keep it to yourself, it stays restricted to a moment in time and space. If you share it, it becomes art. Art is meant to be shared. This is still your ego flirting with fame and exposure, but under the flag of art, it manages to keep its dignity intact.

Thinking about it now, this was definitely a “diary-suitable” entry, blogged.