happy holidays from krossbreed

merry xmas . 2013

a quick post wishing all the krossbreed lovers a merry christmas with family & loved ones.

looking back, 2013 was a whirlwind of a year. looking forward to what the new year has to offer & hoping we have a great 2014 together.

happy holidays everyone. god bless...

krossbreed at the magazine fair

krossbreed at the magazine fair . 2013

if you have nowhere to be this coming saturday 7 december 2013, then head to the archive at safa park for the magazine fair, organized by the team behind the magazine shop.

the magazine fair is a fun outdoor one day event showcasing publications from the middle east who will be running their own stalls featuring their publications along with other scheduled activities. other participants include independent organizations & creatives who will be running their own activities on their very own stalls. also at the fair will be live music, & a bbq station to make it an enjoyable afternoon out.

i will be at the magazine fair with my own stall selling krossbreed products, including tees, notebooks, prints & more. i will also be running a diy zine workshop between 1-3pm where participants will learn & have fun creating a limited run of copies of their very own low brow, handheld fanzines.

for more information on the magazine fair, head to the link here.

& for more information on my participation at the fair & how to be a part of the workshop, head here.

looking forward to seeing you all at the magazine fair...

zeinab

zeinab . 2013

zeinab stamp + print . 2013

over the weekend, capsule arts set up a pop up shop inviting seven of their featured artists to work live in their space, interact with visitors & sell a limited selection of art & design objects. the pop up shop was to coincide with quoz happens, a one day art festival in dubai's industrial area which is home to the city's largest selection of art galleries & institutions.

i was one of the participants at the capsule arts pop up shop, showcasing my prints (which are available for sale here), along with a selection of krossbreed tees, notebooks, & a live stamp print station of a new illustration created just for the event.

i created an illustration inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, patrick nagel. i then created a stamp out of the illustration, which i used to make live prints for visitors interested in having one. i personally loved the print quality, giving a unique finish to each.

i titled the piece 'zienab' as a dedication to my close friend zeinab, who i think shares a resemblance to the girl in the drawing!

edison marries nefertiti

edison marries nefertiti logo gif . 2013

edison marries nefertiti gif . 2013

edison marries nefertiti screen printing process . 2013

edison marries nefertiti . 2013

edison marries nefertiti pack . 2013

november is here which means uae's art season has started. and first in line is the capital's abu dhabi art fair.

once again, fate has led me to this year's edition & i am contributing to the fair in a small but impactful way (i hope!).

this year's fair programming includes a section called the design souq, focusing on local designers, artisans & crafts.

one of the many participants in the design souq is one of uae's imaginative & friendliest creatives in town, nasir nasrallah. his lighthearted, brilliant project, the story machine, is back (previously showcased at this year's art dubai), showcasing limited edition 15 x 15 cm prints from seven uae based graphic designers. 

i am fortunate to be one of the seven designers participating in this project. nasir created & provided a list of arabic stories to choose from. i chose the simple story 'edison marries nefertiti'! the technique used to create my run of thirty limited edition prints was screen printing. i created a simple illustration of both thomas edison & queen nefertiti, & also created an iconic graphic to represent this 'marriage' (a light bulb, representing edison, & the sun god aten, representing nefertiti)! the portrait illustrations were screen printed first, then the logo & arabic typography were screen printed over. i also decided to include the logo on the outside of the envelope, to create a visual teaser of what's inside the envelope. also included in the pack are badges, which have the logomark.

if you want to get a hold of your very own pack, make sure to head to abu dhabi art, and look for nasir nasrallah's story machine located in the design souq. each print is on sale for a reasonable aed 200, hand signed & numbered. the fair runs until 23 november.

a weekend of musical inspirations

tape . 2013

vinyl . 2013

tape illustration on rbma bass camp tote bag . 2013

vinyl illustration on rbma bass camp tote bag . 2013

at the end of september i was stationed at tashkeel bastakiya for a long weekend of music. the red bull music academy bass camp hosted a 3 day private event including workshops, lectures, art shows, & live gigs for invited participating musicians from the region. as a music lover, it was great being surrounded by all these musicians & watching their creative process come to life in the form of music.

along with being a part of the organizational team for the event, i was also asked to provide illustrations for merchandise produced as gift items for guests & participants. the selected illustrations were of a cassette tape, which was printed onto t-shirts, & a vinyl player, which was printed onto tote bags. the images above showcase the original illustrations as well as the final printed material. i was pleased seeing my illustrations being worn or carried by all the guests/musicians at the event. a big thank you goes to the red bull team for this great opportunity.

before ending this post, i wanted to share with you the illustration below that didn't make it. it's a drawing of an old school stereo that i included along with the two above illustrations. unfortunately, it didn't get selected. but two out of three drawings isn't bad! maybe my stereo will find its way into future projects...

stereo . 2013

hear my voice

love . 2013

untitled . 2013

hear my voice booklet covers . 2013

hear my voice booklets . 2013

i was approached by the awesome design studio mobius to provide them with illustrations for a publication they worked on for kalimati speech & communication center, an amazing organization providing quality speech therapy services for children.

kalimati hosted a conference titled 'hear my voice: understanding hearing loss', which the mobius design team designed the logo & its publication. i was honored to have my final illustrations on the covers of the booklet. it was rewarding seeing the simple line drawings printed on the covers of the conference booklets. what is also great is being able to contribute to an organization that is making a difference in dubai's community.

thank you mobius & kalimati for the opportunity. i hope we can work together again in the near future...

my time at boisbuchet

domaine de boisbuchet . 2013

welcome to boisbuchet . 2013

lemonade kart in process . 2013

making lemonade with the team . 2013

jorge + ruben flyers . 2013

jorge + ruben t-shirts . 2013
(image courtesy of lydia cortberg)

privacy in the woods guide map . 2013
(image courtesy of jasper heiligtag)

bar table in process . 2013

me at boisbuchet . 2013
(image courtesy of zeinab al hashemi)

this summer, i was fortunate enough to have traveled to france for an experience i will never forget. i don't usually do blog posts that don't present a final tangible project. but i felt the need to share this experience because my trip to france will definitely feed into my future projects.

i was invited by tashkeel to attend a workshop of choice at a magical art retreat called boisbuchet. located in the southwest region of france, domaine de boisbuchet is a 15th century estate in the rustic countryside, which has been turned into a creative and experimental retreat for art and design. every summer, boisbuchet offers a series of workshops led by leading artists, designers and architects. creatives from around the world gather to participate in these popular workshops. not only does one gain a certain amount of knowledge from these 7-10 day workshops, but also an experience they'd never forget.

i signed up for the workshop titled 'pushing the experience of online/small production', led by the team behind designmarketo. it was about thinking of creative strategies, using the limitations and surroundings around us, to promote projects. in context to boisbuchet, some assignments were quite challenging to promote, but also very fun. the 3 assigned topics/exercises through the course of the workshop were creatively promoting lemonade, promoting designers participating in the other workshops running in parallel to ours, and creating interventions between presented projects of other workshops during final presentations on the last day.
what was great about our exercises was thinking of creative ways to implement our ideas with the limitations we had. i was reminded how it was to think outside the box when working on a project and creating fun solutions to problem solving. i also enjoyed how i managed to implement my current practices and interests in the exercises (managed to create illustration & t-shirt related projects).it was also great working with a team of creatives from all around the world.
another great thing about boisbuchet is the people you are introduced to and the friendships you make. even though i was at boisbuchet for a short 7 days, i managed to meet a group of people that i can now call friends, and hope to meet again in the near future, or better, collaborate on projects in the near future.
this post is dedicated to everyone i experienced boisbuchet with. thank you for making it a memory i will never forget. love you all. and i would highly recommend boisbuchet to anyone interested in experiencing a creative freedom unlike any other. i would definitely do it again in a heartbeat...

illustrations for abdul latif jameel community initiatives annual review

abdul latif jameel community initiatives 2012 annual review cover . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review pgs 25-26 small business programme . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review pgs 41-42 brj turkey . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review pgs 111-112 jeddah flag . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review page spreads . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review page spreads . 2013

aljci 2012 annual review page spreads . 2013

  

 

 

 

 

original illustrations for aljci 2012 annual review cover . 2013

 

original illustrations for aljci 2012 annual review inside spreads . 2013

earlier this year, i was approached by the brand union to provide illustrations for their client abdul latif jameel community initiatives' annual review. the illustrations were to be mainly used on the cover of the publication, as well as in certain spreads on the inside. it was a great opportunity to work on such a project, & collaborate with an agency on these illustrations, which is something i've never done before.

after creating a range of illustrations based on the projects & initiatives aljci support, & the theme of the review (which is unsung heroes), the final illustrations were selected, based on what worked best & were most appropriate for the publication.

it's great to see the final result. i'm extremely proud of seeing my illustrations printed on the cover of the publication (i think this might be my first cover yay!!!). the collaged illustrations work really well together, & the individual illustrations on the inside spreads made me smile!

i hope everyone who is a part of this project are happy with the end result as i am. thank you simon & the brand union team for scouting for me & asking for my illustrations for the review. i am truly honored. & thank you abdul latif jameel community initiatives for having my work printed for your annual review, something that will stand the test of time.

make sure to check out abdul latif jameel community initiatives website to learn more about what they do & the awesome projects they support.

krossbreed for capsule arts - five times a day series

five times a day 1 . 2012

five times a day 2 . 2013

five times a day 3 . 2013

as mentioned in my previous blog post, i am one of eighteen participating artists contributing to capsule arts' limited edition art prints launch.

the second series of illustrations i have contributed for the print launch is the five times a day series. the series started off with the first drawing above. it was created as a contribution for last year's art dubai posting ramadan blog (see previous post here). as it was well received, i thought it would be a good idea to explore this illustration further & create a series of artworks of different, ornamental prayer carpets.

the third illustration is my favourite as it's an illustration of my father's prayer carpet, which has been with the family for as long as i remember.

prints from the five times a day series will be available to purchase at capsulearts.com

to stay updated on capsule arts & the launch of the prints, make sure to check out their website for updates & also on their blog whereismyshark.com.

also, check out their artist feature blog post on me here.