emirati 2051

emirati 2051 . 2011

i was recently asked to contribute an illustration for a magazine article commemorating the uae's 40th anniversary. people were asked to answer the question 'how do you see the uae in another 40 years?'. my answer was a visual representation of how people might evolve in their appearance & fashion, with a krossbreed flair! 

in 2051, i think the uae will look like a page out of a sci-fi comic book! buildings will continue to rise with weird forms & people will evolve with their dress sense. traditional attire will become modernized, silhouettes will evolve and fashion will adapt to harsh desert climate change, making people go back to basics, wearing what their ancestors used to...

feast: shopopolis at abu dhabi art

feast: shopopolis postcard . 2011

i am really happy to announce that the project i worked on during my artist residency in london this summer is being exhibited over here in the uae! for details on the feast: shopopolis project click here.

the emirates foundation have an exhibition space at this years abu dhabi art fair & had the wonderful idea of bringing the designed products created in collaboration with public works to be displayed right here at the fair.

its quite surreal to see the project once again, this time in a different space. i am proud that the project has come to my hometown & i'm here representing it.

if anyone's planning on heading to the fair this week (last day is 19th Nov.), please make sure to pass by the emirates foundation booth in gallery 3 to check out the feast: shopopolis products. for those of you who didn't have the opportunity to see it in london, now's your chance!

eid mubarak

eid mubarak . 2011

wishing everyone (especially the krossbreed lovers!) a happy eid mubarak. may you & your loved ones be blessed by god's grace & all your prayers are answered.

new direction

new direction . 2011

new direction (detail) . 2011

they say the best works are produced when under pressure! & for the first time, i felt the same way.

i was asked to participate in tashkeel's latest exhibition titled 'crossing the line'. the exhibition is a contemporary & unconventional showcase of drawings by artists based in Australia, UK & the UAE. it was quite interesting to be a part of a show that was varied in styles, but still fall under the category of drawing.

i called my piece 'new direction' because i fell in love with the end result, even though the process of finishing this piece was the shortest i've worked on so far. i started off with a simple organic black & white line drawing of a figure drowned in a plethora of organic & geometric shapes. but the drawing needed something extra to push it to the next level as a finished piece. so the idea of screen printing an extra layer came to mind which worked perfectly. the screen printed pink geometric shapes made the final piece pop & stand out as a strong artwork.

i personally love the combination of hand drawing & screen printing to create a piece. it's definitely a technique i will start using for upcoming artworks, giving my works & practice a 'new direction'...

last minute mess...

khabsa exhibition poster . 2011

typeface process by workshop participants . 2011

typeface process by workshop participants . 2011

final selected typefaces . 2011

khatt foundation type design workshop poster exhibiton . 2011

khatt foundation type design workshop poster exhibiton . 2011

final workshop typeface . 2011

'last minute mess' poster . 2011

after an unfortunate long hiatus from my blog, i'm back, and hopefully for awhile, with updates on all things krossbreed.

one of the recent things i participated in was the khatt foundation type design workshop. as many of you know, most of my works are illustrative & figurative based, generally lacking any form of typographic elements. in addition, my arabic is not as good as it should be! so taking this workshop allowed to challenge myself by developing both my type design skills & arabic!

each participant was assigned 1-2 letters from the arabic alphabet, and to create a typeface with the city of dubai as their inspiration. i decided to be inspired by the silhouettes of traditional objects found here; from coffee pots to arches in traditional houses. during the 5-day workshop, there was a lot of sketching, critiquing & developing each person's typeface. in the end, each designed letter (which was unique and varied from each other) was combined to create a new font/typeface called 'khabsa' (which translates to 'mess'!)

after creating the typeface, each participant was then asked to create a poster to represent their designed letter & the khabsa font. in my poster, i decided to use the phrase 'last minute mess', as it relates to the aesthetic of the typeface, and also my rushed attempt at making a cool poster in a limited time-frame! i think i did pretty well if i say so myself!

i entered the workshop thinking that this was not for me, but to my surprise, came through unscathed! i'm really glad i took the workshop, & know that this will definitely nurture my design work from here on out.

i definitely need to say a few thank you's: to the tashkeel team for asking me to be a part of it all, the workshop leaders, including the khatt foundation's Huda S. AbiFares for offering a great workshop, & also Pascal Zoghbi & Lara Assouad Khoury for truly being inspirational... 

wick curiosity shop

jo & man . 2011

the lord napier . 2011

velda & dot. 2011

eton manor church . 2011

the last project i worked on while in london was for the wick curiosity shop, an online archive documenting the area of hackney wick. what was great about being a part of this project was the opportunity to work at the folly for a flyover, an amazing space built under a flyover, hosting film screenings and workshops. my task was to illustrate some of the important architectural and historical landmarks of the wick area, as well as some of its iconic figures from the community. my illustrations were used on maps created for the public to take and explore the area with.
i'm really glad i said yes to being a part of the project. it was a fun afternoon, and a great way to end my residency in london. thank you polly for including me in the project. hope to work with you again in the near future...

feast: shopopolis fanzine

delfina having a look at my sketches . 2011

detail of feast: shopopolis fanzine . 2011

delfina . 2011

noor . 2011

trevor . 2011

talia . 2011

fahim + ideas for cutlery . 2011

abdul . 2011

ahmed + trevor . 2011

during my london residency project (see previous post for details), i carried a sketch book wherever i'd go to document my process and to mainly keep a visual record of the fun memories of the project and the people i've met along the way. over the course of the project, we thought it would be a good idea to create a 'publication' to disseminate as a giveaway for people interested in our project. everyone agreed that the sketches were pretty wicked and worth sharing rather than keeping it to ourselves.

so i'm proud to say i have my very first publication / fanzine based on some of my illustrations. it looks pretty cool and am definitely inspired to make more fanzines so watch out!

a big thank you goes out to miranda from the delfina foundation. if it wasn't for her, this fanzine wouldn't exist.

if you'd like to get your hands on a copy, keep me posted...

feast: shopopolis

feast branding on mobile porch . 2011

feast branding on mobile porch . 2011

working at westfield . 2011

working at public works' studio . 2011

detail of salad plates . 2011

feast display and event . 2011

details of table, mezze plate and tattoo stations . 2011

detail of plate and cutlery . 2011

the actual 'feast' . 2011

set up of feast window display . 2011

feast window display . 2011

feast window display . 2011

feast window display . 2011

as many of you know, i had been to london for a couple of months working on a collaborative residency project for the shubbak festival on contemporary arab culture. it was a great experience and am so happy to have been a part of such an awesome project.

the project involved collaborating with london based art/design collective public works on creating an intervention based around the idea of shopping malls as social spaces. for the project, we were stationed in westfield shopping mall in london, gathering stories and narratives from the westfield community and their personal stories at the mall.

after gathering enough stories (and meeting a whacky group of staff and shoppers in the process!), we started the next stage of the project, which was designing products for a dinner we'd organize, inviting all the people that generously contributed their stories. the title of the event was appropriately called 'feast' and the idea was to create unique products which would function well for a feast, but relate to the stories we gathered. each product would relate to a person/story from westfield.

even though we had a tight deadline to create all the components for the feast, i think we were successful with the results. our products ranged from the table, to all the cutlery, plates, chairs, napkins and anything you would need for a dinner. our only limitation was creating all these products using a small but extremely effective a4 laser cutter. although stressful at times, it was a brilliant challenge to take on.

the dinner was really successful, and it was great to see all the components come together. what i thoroughly enjoyed was seeing the reactions of the guests when we'd reveal the products that specifically related to each guest. 

what i also enjoyed was the process of creating physical products. as i mainly work flat either on paper or digitally, it was a great shift moving into 3d and i learnt a lot. the best part was creating prototypes collectively and refining each design until we were all satisfied with the final product. working in 3d is definitely something i'll continue to use for upcoming projects.

i don't think i have the right words to describe how much i enjoyed this experience. but it was truly one of the best moments in my life (so far) and i will never forget it. i guess i should thank everyone who made this the best experience ever! so thank you delfina foundation for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this project, and a place i called home throughout the residency. Thank you salwa and the emirates foundation team for the support and sending me to london for the project. thank you public works, andreas, torange and polly, for being the best group to work with and inspiring me to do so much more with my talent. a special thank you goes out to aaron, for being the best host anyone in london can ask for. and lastly, a big thank you to my favorite city in the world, london, for making me have the best summer ever...


(lastly, a thank you goes out to Gregory Fonne and Gary Dickinson for their hard work in documenting the project and photographs)

ramadan kareem

ramadan kareem 2011 . 2011

its been awhile since i've posted anything on my blog. that's because of the busy, yet amazing summer i've just experienced. before posting any updates about it and the new projects i worked on, i would just like to wish everyone a ramadan kareem. may this month be truely blessed for all of us.

artist residency in london

hands pattern . 2011

plate design template . 2011

final plate design . 2011

final plate design (detail) . 2011

from the 12th of june, i will be back in london for an exciting project i'm so happy to be a part of. during the next 6 weeks, i'll be working alongside emirati artist karima al shomely, and london-based collective public works on a project called shopopolis. shopopolis is a project organised by the delfina foundation as part of the shubbak festival, celebrating contemporary arab culture. the project involves working alongside the artists/designers mentioned above in creating products and site specific work based on the notion of shopping malls as public spaces. the project will be situated in westfield london, one of the biggest malls in europe. i've already had the opportunity of working with both karima and public works in the first phase of the project in dubai (gathering research and creating products like the one shown above), so i'm really excited to continue the project whilst in london.

people who know me or follow my blog have probably noticed my love for london. being able to work on this project is an absolute dream come true. i can't wait to see the results we come up with, and most importantly, i can't wait to be back in my favorite city in the world. a part of me is nervous about the whole experience, but i am definitely excited and looking forward to this once in a lifetime experience.

for more info on the shubbak festival and the shopoplis project, check out details here.

off to venice

gondola . 2009

venetian buildings . 2009

st. maria della salute church . 2009

along the canals . 2009

at st. marco square . 2009

at st. marco square (detail) . 2009

i'm off to venice tomorrow for a week and am super excited. this will be my second time going to attend the beinnale. i always knew i'd go back to venice in the near future, but never did i imagine that it would be so soon. besides the biennale, venice is one of the most beautiful places i've been to. it feels like you've walked into a painting. i remember getting lost with it's beauty, trying to sketch every corner of the city. i fell in love with venice the first time and i'm sure it's still as charming as ever. it is romantic, haunting, and beautiful. can't wait to be back...