type workshop

awwwwwwwwwwww!!!! iam so jealous!!!!!!!!!!!
i so want to be part of such an exploration! this site is awesome, for type lovers!!

i love how they start creating type from almost everything around them, check check!!

www.typeworkshop.com

Nja Mahdaoui at Meem Gallery

Nja Mahdaoui is a Tunisian visual artist and a calligrapher

Well, in his lecture, he was talking about how his art of calligraphy is not based on traditional calligraphy; he works on his art to make it look more global. If you pay attention to the calligraphy text he writes, his words don’t say anything specific. He concentrate to make his work more global, so people out there are not missing any information, and they would look at it as an artistic piece.

" It is the world of signs which is disturbed: no signification- explanation, nor any designation to trivialize a memorized thought. With its distance from the world; the sign offers a new visual opportunity of a presence - material synthesis, signal - temporal - global graphics. Nja Mahdaoui

www.nja-mahdaoui.com/
http://www.meem.ae/

Blouzaat

Jordan rocks!!! its all happening in my home country jordan, Blouzaat is a store that opened in Amman, Jordan. Four guys are behind this great work Ahmad Sabbagh and Mohammad Assaf from jordan, Michael and Falk from Germany.... Its about Urban Art, very experimental, Great illustrations!!!! oooff... stunning! I cant wait to be in Jordan and go check out the store in an area in Amman called Jabal Amman " Rainbow street!!" :) the t-shirt prints, are expressing daily life issues and they would play around with the idea and make it look sarcastic.

oh and i love the little wooden boxes in the store, i think the interior is v.simple yet has a great character.

go talent in jordan!!! make a difference!

many thanks Linda for the photos :)
http://www.blouzaat.com/

reem al ghaith

Reem is an Emirate graphic designer and poet, based in Dubai. She is currently studying at the American University of Sharjah, BA in Visual Communication. She is submitting one of her Photography projects to ibda and i personally think this project, should be out there in museums in Dubai and other countries, go girl make it happen.

" its a series, a narritive of a girl trapped within a frame and is held back by her traditions... and is further jxtaposed by the new modern landscape to empahsize the struggle... " Reem Al Ghaith

the first image is my favourite, stunning!!!!!!!!! great work, full of words, anger, memory, might be happiness who knows.. just makes you wonder. love it!!

Well Ibda is a big event that gather great designers from all over the world in the Dubai. to know more about it
http://www.ibdaa-awards.ae/

Reem i would love to post some of your poems :) , hopefully soon.

Lets all support Reem and wish her best of luckk :)

you could contact reem at
ralghaith@gmail.com

Reham Ibrahim

A sister a friend a great fashion designer!! She started her fashion brand " Toksic" a year back and since then she has been successfully working on making it all happen. She has been selling her work since then at boutiques in Dubai ( Amzan, Cube, etc..) I just love how she combines different material together, the Bright fun colors adds great character to the style. Her personality is very much reflected in her designs, and I personally believe a designer always reflect his personality and style on his work. I would like to share little paragraph I copied from her website .. and Ofcourse without the support and help of her great mother she wouldn’t have made her dream happen.

"toksic is strictly high street fashion. it's about women expressing their individuality through the way they dress up, their behavior and their attitude. it’s about personality, character and self-expression. being unique, confident and courageous. dressing up in bold colors and loud prints. getting attention. getting the killer-look; the look that "kills". " Reham Ibrahim



check more of her pieces and desgins at
http://www.toksicdress.com

Salem Kamal Salem

Salem kamal studied with me at the American University of Sharjah, holding a BA in graphic design and currently works at creative intelligence, an international branding consultancy based in Dubai. Back in school, he always enjoyed involving characters with power, as you see in his work. I like his printmaking work, always bussy and there is always something going on in the background. He is so into japanese illustrationss...Well, c'mon salem you should keep working on ur character design, who knows maybe you could publish a book with all ur designs one day :)

oh and his water color work is awesome, he's really good at paying attention to details.

to see more of salem work, you could contact him at
salem_ks_ali@hotmail.com

Omar Al-Zo'bi

I thought i'd share Omar work with you guys, I love his illustrations!! very special style, a great artist from my home town Salt - jordan currently doing his BA in London. I would recommend you all check out his website!! i just love his layout, and the work he has, got a great sense of humor, and the influence of the arab culture on his art, great inspiration for me :)

will be great to meet you in jordan.

His website
www.omernos.com/

Nada Jaffal

my friend Omar Al Zoubi, showed me Nadas work, she designed this project for the end of her year show at the university of Jordan, which i suppose was three years bacck. I really enjoyed looking at her work, and the way she played around with the words of our country jordan. Very intresting Nada, keep it up, looking forward to meet you in jordan.

well Omar gave me the permission to post your work :) i was so much in love with it.

oh and i would love to wear one of ur earrings!! my jordanian talkative earrings:)

to see more of nadas work
http://krootco.vox.com/library/photos/

(Electronic & Analogue Patterns), signed & personalised

Neubau Modul (Electronic & Analogue Patterns), signed & personalised
Numbered Edition of 1st edition 2007 - (limited 100 PCS)

Containing
1xNB7050™ (Bonus Typeface)
1xNB-Modulmeter™
1xDVD including 2031 NB-Patterns (Royalty Free!)
Compatible with Macintosh & Windows, Adobe CS™ & NeubauWelt™

Synopsis

Neubau Modul is a practical tool that provides designers with over 2,000 editable and infinitely repeatable patterns. As with Neubau Welt, all of the work shown in this book can also be found as Adobe Illustrator and bitmap files on an included DVD that can be used on any platform. The DVD also contains the entire digital collection of patterns as a practical Swatch Library, enabling designers to immediately put them to use in any project in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Kat.Nr.: NBM-S, signed
Offset Print, full colour, signed and numbered edition, 1/2007

Format: 240x280MM
Pages: 304 PP + DVD
Colours: Panotne 804, Pantone 805, Pantone 810, Pantone 812,
Pantone 814, Pantone Black
Quantity: 100 PCS
Availability: positive

http://www.neubauladen.com/product/1359/0/24

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