Wissam Shawkat

Born in Iraq, Basra City 1974, started practicing calligraphy in 1984, when the primary school teacher Mr. Muhammad Ridha Suhail and his parents guided and encouraged him. and since that he became passionate to the art of Arabic calligraphy till he started his career as a professional calligrapher and graphic designer in 1990. After his graduation from the Civil Engineering Department from Basra University in 1996 he carried on self-taught by closely observing and studying the calligraphy of the masters of this art in Turkey like Sami Efindi, Mohammed Nazif, Hamid Al Amadi and Halim Efindi.

Since the beginning he believe in paying attention to every detail to produce a high quality calligraphy art works, his last achievements is winning Al Burda prize for the international calligraphy competition in Abu Dhabi 2007.

Participated in many local and international competitions and exhibitions. Winner of the Baghdad International calligraphy Festival commendation prize in 1998, the Iraq calligraphy Society prize in Baghdad, 2002. Commendation prize of the International calligraphy Competition (IRCICA) in Istanbul, 2002. 3rd place award at the International calligraphy Competition (IRCICA) in Istanbul, 2005. First prize winner of the Visual & Audible- Arabic calligraphy Exhibition, season 6 in Sharjah- UAE, 2003. 3rd place award in Jally Thuluth style, at the Al-Baraka Turk Bank calligraphy Competition in Istanbul, Turkey, 2005. Participant in various group exhibitions locally and internationally; “Nasamat Min Baghdad” in Saint-Angelo, Italy 2000, the “Visual & Audible” calligraphy exhibition in Sharjah, UAE 2001, 2002 and 2003. Also in the Dubai International calligraphy Exhibitions, 2004, 2005 and 2007.

Member of the preparation committees of several international calligraphy functions and events, like the Sharjah 1st and 2nd calligraphy Forums in 2005 and 2006 and the Dubai International calligraphy Exhibition- 2005. Member of judging committee of the Al-Owais Contest of Arabic calligraphy. Regularly contributing with articles on Arabic calligraphy in the specialized Quarterly “Hroof Arabiya”. He designed many cover-titles and logos for books, magazines and newspapers. Contributed many unique pieces of calligraphy to personal collections around the world. And his last works is the calligraphy and design of the Mashq in the “ Jally Thuluth Style” on the front of the Cultural and Scientific Association Building in Dubai, Mr. Majid Al Futtaim Mosque in Dubai, Abu Hail area, and the wall graphics and hordings at the DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre).

In addition to active involvement in the local and international art societies, currently working as a senior designer, with focus on brand identity design and Arabic typography design with Global Branding and Advertising Agencies.

email: wissam74@eim.ae

typography class with Dirk Van Wyk

i miss our days with prof. van wyk...he was one of the professor who kept on challenging us to creative work, and keep exploring the idea to the extreme. those are some student work from our typography class with him, the class was based on handmade typography and not digital work....he use to give us words that we had to express through the use type and different mediums..

you could see his work at
http://www.makedovisibles.com/Home.html

rhoda azizoghly

thats my friends work rhoda, she's a designer/painter. she has alot of other paintings that she is currently working on. i would love to post more of her work, but i only got the chance to show one for now..

love her style in drawing her characters, and her combination of ideas.. Would love to show her printmaking work back in school..emm maybe soon.. yala lets do something togther!

if anyone is intrested to see more of her work, or would like to contact rhoda.

her email is martha_pisano@hotmail.com

Pierre Marie +

emmmmmm... a designer i guess based in france, doesnt say much on the website..but style is perfecto! i likee...you guys
should see his work...

http://pierremarie.fr/

Triplettes de Belleville

one of our prof back in uni, showed us this animation.. Directed and written by Sylvain Chomet..he did a great job in designing the ugly charcters and the whole story.. Plot outline: "When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him"

i love how the their house window was right next to the train station, and whenever a train passess their dog would put his head out the window and would enjoy the speed of the train and the sound..oh and i love it when they decide to have frogs for lunch!! funny! and oh i also enjoyed seeing them playing music using objects around them! amazingg..very special animation.

its like those japanese animation,the story and the whole character design is fascinating..i would recommend you buy buy!! or rent rent!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/combined

stanya kahn and harry dodge's lecture poster

"poster co-designed with collen corcoran,for stanya kahn and harry dodge's lecture."

http://juliemattei.wordpress.com/

i like the simplicity in this poster, and the two color combination...i like it when things dont have to match..i mean the combination of different letters togther.. hand made drawn letters, and i guess this is screen printing emmm?...

nikelleorellana!!

i came across this persons work, i like his/her style!

http://www.nikelleorellana.com

Floria Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi is into film, video, photography and installations. Her style is very Surreal like. She uses mix media in her photography.. She worked with The White Stripes, David Bowie, The Cure, Leonard Cohen, Sigur Ros, Bjork...

welll those are snap shots of her recent book "Immune" Author: Floria Sigismondi, Editors: R. Klanten, M.Mischler

http://www.floriasigismondi.com

Surreal Photography

Tokyo based duo Zoren Gold and Minori's contemporary approach to surreal photography. They combine in their photography
illustration, graphic design, collage,etc.. I like how they experimental with fashion photography. I think fashion photographers should start doing something like this, combine some graphical elements within the real photography.. Very Dreamy like. I love!

http://www.mi-zo.com/

The Economist

http://www.economist.com/

I love the economist add, intresting. Thats the kind of adds we should be looking for here in the UAE, more graphical add not based so much on photography. also graphics could do wonders.

Experimental Design - Martin Venezky

why does everything have to be in order? why do we always have to follow rules????? why cant we just do things out of the blues?? EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN is the answer for designers out there to get more creative, to start doing things without worrying so much about the results, trust me it'll give you great results.

here is some of pargraphs, from an interview with martin venezky.... hey Abeer i think ive seen his book once with you, thats how i got to know about him, i think it was reems book.


"SU: Many would call your approach "experimental." Do you believe this is a fair appraisal?

MV: The term “experimental” is often used as a code for unusable, weird, “crazy” or “going wild”. But I think that is a big misunderstanding, and something I try hard to correct in the classroom. When I teach an experimental class, I am quick to explain that experimentation is a methodology.


SU: What do you think is being implied by that?

MV: It suggests a circular set of steps: setting up an experiment, running the process, analyzing the results and then letting the results guide the next experiment. There is no external aesthetic to experimental work. It is as much about setting criteria and using them to analyze results as it is about the producing of the material. Far from “going wild”, it is a very rigorous exercise that allows a designer to confidently engage in work whose results are unpredictable. So, yes, I think that a lot of my work is experimental, but not in the ways that most define it. " SPEAK UP By : Silas Munro - interview with Martin Venezky August 1, 2005.


Link for the interview : http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/interviews/venezky.html

and another link to martin venezky website is : http://www.appetiteengineers.com/

Alice at the mad tea party

i love tartx alice collection, sepcially scenes from the mad tea party.

"Visiting Tartx is like taking a stroll in the sepia toned, vintage styled, narrative world of classic
books and artists of old; a world when fairy tales were true stories, mermaids were swimming
buddies and omens foretold your future." - modish

http://www.tartx.com/

Studio Dumbar

one of my friends did his internship at Studio Dumbar in Holland - he had a great experience, loved it... After checking out their website, their work is Great man!! its one of the leading studios in Holland. Would love to work there.

http://www.studiodumbar.com

SMCS Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

Very simple approach, yet intresting.. You could always express the idea behind the project through type.

in the link you could know more about the project.
http://www.experimentaljetset.nl

A book of nonsense

back in uni, a friend got me a nonsense book by edward lear, since i was so into nonsense poems and things.. not everything have to make sense in this world!!

There was an Old Man in a boat
by Edward Lear

There was an Old Man in a boat,
Who said, "I'm afloat! I'm afloat!"
When they said, "No! you ain't!"
He was ready to faint,
That unhappy Old Man in a boat.

There was a Young Lady whose nose
by Edward Lear

There was a Young Lady whose nose,
Was so long that it reached to her toes;
So she hired an Old Lady,
Whose conduct was steady,
To carry that wonderful nose.

Series of posters using the neutral typeface

designers have gathered to design a series of posters using neutral typeface.

those series were designed by different designers: Susana Carvalho, Experimental Jetset, Dieter Glauser and Sebastian Pietsch, Bernd Grether, Daniel von Klipstein, Bernd Kuchenbeiser, Helmut Schmid and Daniel van der Velden.

Those posters are part of the graduation project (NEUTRALITY) of Kai Berau at the KABK, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague, Netherlands, 2005.

http://www.letterlabor.de
http://kaibernau.com/