A nice Video documentary by Adobe, showcasing the process of Judging the last Adobe Design Achievement Award competition in California last summer, and featuring all judges- as well as some of the winning project.
Promotional posters of the exhibitions across the streets of Amsterdam
The Opening of our Exhibition “Arabic Graphics: the work of Tarek Atrissi in Exhibition” took place on the 2nd of May 2008 - in the presence of the Lebanese ambassador of the Netherlands Zaydan El Sagir- and will be on display through the summer at the The Delevante Foundation gallery in Amsterdam. The initial scheduled end of the exhibition on June 22nd has been extended until the 31st of August. For us at Tarek Atrissi Design, this marked the end of a lot of work and preparations for the exhibition, accompanied with the launch of our new website, but was certainly a great recognition to have in The Netherlands; and a chance to review and organize a lot of our work developed over the last 10 years. The opening of the Exhibition was as well a memorable reunion of friends, family, colleagues, clients, and people who has supported me as a designer and supported us as a design studio, in an ongoing exciting entrepreneurial business experience that started back in 2000.
From the Opening of “Arabic Graphics: The work of Tarek Atrissi in Exhibition”.
Seeing a “3 Dimensional portfolio space” is definitely exciting on its own; yet the pre-preparation process phase was in itself even more exciting. We have spent a lot of time exploring design possibilities for the exhibition poster and promotional material- and eventually were delighted to see the poster across the streets of Amsterdam: Adding an Arabic fingerprint across the city; and contrasting in its bright colors and simple design treatment with the rest of the posters on display at the time.
The Delevante Gallery which hosted the Exhibition- shown above the Poster design mural and some of the Arabic Typography and Type Design showcased work.
Though usually I consider myself a good speaker, I have been taken by surprise to add few words to the introduction speech and - probably because of the very personal aspect of this event- failed to articulate well and thank many of the people who helped in the exhibition. Paul Klok, Azza Alameddine and Diana Hawatmeh for putting so much efforts the last two month before the Expo; Fred van Eijk for a wonderful introduction speech; The entire Delevante team for believing all the way in their cultural mission; The sponsors of the exhibition (Gemeente Amsterdam, ArteGanza, Eutopia, Stichting Doen); All the friends and colleagues that came a long way to be part of the show; As well as Annahar Newspaper, for reviewing our work so positively across the years.
From the Opening of “Arabic Graphics: The work of Tarek Atrissi in Exhibition”.
It was a chance to celebrate our designs, yet most importantly, an occasion to look at the bigger picture of the work we are doing and have been producing, and reflecting on the future of our design practice.
“Arabic Graphics: The work of Tarek Atrissi in Exhibition” will be the title of the Graphic and Typographic exhibition opening in Amsterdam on May 2nd, and staying on display until the end of June. The exhibition is hosted by Stichting De Levante, the leading institute in Oriental art and culture in Holland. It will exhibit a selection of our Graphic Design work at Tarek Atrissi Design, often distinguished by a strong Arabic and cross cultural flavor.
Promotional poster for the Exhibition opening in Amsterdam on May 2nd
Needless to say, getting such a recognition here in the Netherlands is very exciting; For long our exposure was- oddly enough- mostly international, and less local. But the last two years in Holland have witnessed a great interest in cross cultural design work which became a reflection of the ever changing multi-cultural society of the Netherlands; and which is considered by many to be the new cosmopolitan face of Dutch Design. More on the exhibition, our preparation for it, and its outcomes to be posted soon on this blog. Meanwhile more on the exhibition can be seen on the expo’s website at www.arabicgraphics.com
From the workshop session I gave as part of FGD Expo 2007 in Indonesia. With the assignment “Branding Jakarta”.
Probably nothing illustrates the experience of my Jakarta visit last week more than the slogan “Welcome to the Urban Jungle”, which was created by my students for an assignment in the workshop I gave during the FGD expo 2007 to brand the city of Jakarta. The idea of the workshop came from the big interest people in the conference showed in our 2003 project of branding Qatar- and there was nothing better within the givens of the workshop besides having a small “visual identity for Jakarta” exercise. The one day workshop included around 30 particpants, mostly professional designers working in design and advertising firms across indonesia. The workshop included two other sessions beside mine, one with Stefan Sagmeister and one with Eero Miettinen from Nokia Finland. Stefan gave the participants an assignment to develop an Anti-corruption campaign, While Eero gave an intriguing exercise which started by asking the designers to come up with a very stupid product idea- and chose the most stupid product and then had the students re-package it and brand it and make it into an interesting commercially viable product.
From the opening ceremony of the FGD Expo 2007 at the Jakarta Convention Center.
The Jakarta branding exercise was actually more exciting than what i expected, as I am always reluctant about short one day workshops. However, I was excited to see that most of the groups approached the assignment with an unpredictable honesty. They did not try to project the city as an “Asian exotic” destination, nor to make of it an elegant and over-refined destination that might eventually mislead a oential visitor. They did focus however on the real side of the city, in all its imperfection: The Pollution, the traffic jam, the rule of no rule, the surprise element, the visible social contrast…etc - and tried to make out of that the charming element that makes the city unique. Another concept developed was a pro-active identity, where the identity of the city consisted of a certain “award points” system- that citizens of the city could collect upon acting positively towards the well being of the city- and also loose upon being fined to any negative act. The collected award points could be used for free public transport, free museum entrances and other given services. And the entire identity of the city revolved around developing graphically and conceptually the entire award points system- and linking it as a visual identity towards the identity of the city. The other concept of the “urban jungle” was suggested with a series of very creative ancillary products, such as a “jakarta survival Kit”, distributed in touristic locations and containing, besides some humorous items that helps a first time visitor to survive the chaos of the city, the basic promotional touristic items regularly needed.
The conference was highly covered by the local press. Our PR brief as speakers was simple: highlight the importance of Design for the growing economy of Indonesia
The workshop was part of the bigger event, the FGD expo 2007 conference, taking place for the first time, as an effort from indonesia to develop further its graphic design scene, and highlight the importance of design in its emerging economy. I was particularly excited about giving a talk in indonesia because most of the audience was able to read arabic, and had a particular interest in modern arabic typography; calligraphy based projects; as well as arabic fonts and typefaces developed at Tarek Atrissi Design. Other speakers included Karim Rachid and Stefan Sagmeister, the big New York Designers; Freeman Lau, Ahn Sang-soo and Sudhir Sharma, my co-associates from the Design Alliance- Asia; as well as other speakers such as Lisa Yong, Kiyofumi Suzuki and Jarno Peltonen among others. Every talk had its interesting part; personally I found it a great pleasure to listen again to Sagmeister, once my teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and recall how inspiring he is as he talks about design, and get to see some of his new work that I did not get the chance to see earlier. Ahn Sang-soo’s lecture in which he showed his work was absolutely fantastic, and not for the first time I was so intrigued by his innovation and experimental use of Korean Typography- and inspired by it to explore new possibilities with Arabic Typography. “When I design” said Ahn “I feels like I am writing poetry. It is often a deep self expression, a freedom of work as Marinetti would put it”.
“Influence of the Middle East” was the topic of the lecture I presented at the FGD Expo 2007 conference
The conference attracted an impressive number of audience, and the press coverage was remarkable. During the week all of the speakers were constantly interviewed and broadcasted- and our PR brief was clear: highlight the importance of design and to “think big with design”. Needless to say, how well organized the entire event was, and the touching Asian hospitality that our hosts have shown during this memorable one week event. We got the chance to meet the local designers, motivated and ambitious and eager to develop their profession further, and to see the work being developed in the design studios and firms across indonesia. The hospitality of the organizers and the conference participants took us to experience the different layers of the cosmopolitan city.
A true “urban Jungle”, yet a jungle that no one should miss experiencing it.
The Lecture of Stefan Sagmeister included the showcase of many new projects developed in Sageister’s NYC based office, such as the Casa Da Musica (the music center built by Rem Koolhaas) visual identity in Porto.
The lastest copy of Print magazine came my way with a great article featuring my work. I have been a regular reader of Print Magazine since a long time, even prior going to New York. This came in the New Visual Artist Review issue of the Magazine, where they select every year from around the world 20 artist below the age of 30 to feature. I paste the article below.
East | West ; From Print Magazine, New York, 2005. New Visual Artist Review
“Design is a powerful tool,” says Tarek Atrissi, “and I think that with it I can evoke a more positive image of the Arab world–a true image of it that not many people know.” The Beirut-born Atrissi is already well on his way to playing a visible role in cultural image-making at the advanced age of 26. His work is precise, elegant, and often typographically driven, frequently incorporating varying styles of Arabic calligraphy. To Westerners who can’t read the words, the calligraphic forms become ethereal and compelling abstractions.
Atrissi grew up in Beirut when the city was in chaos, beleaguered by civil war. By the time he started as an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, the war had ended and Atrissi earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. He continued his studies with a one-year Master of Arts in interactive multimedia at the Utrecht School of the Arts, in the Netherlands, and followed that with an MFA in design from New York’s School of Visual Arts. He has since returned to Holland, setting up his studio in Hilversum, a short distance from Amsterdam. Considering Holland “a good point in between the Middle East and the United States,” Atrissi relishes that it is “at the center of many markets and countries.”
Atrissi has seen his work included in thecollections of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Dutch Poster Museum, and the University of Amsterdam. He is a minimalist drawn to pure forms, but one who fully exploits the decorative potential of the line. Blending the human figure with calligraphy as he often does (witness the posters for artist Rajae Al Mouhandiz) results in a kind of “expressive abstractionism.” Disciplined and serious about his profession, he has already become internationally established as a frequent guest speaker at several universities and design seminars.
In addition to his use of traditional writing styles, Atrissi refers to advertising and signage to give his work “a local flavor.” “I always look to the vernacular and old graphic heritage for inspiration,” he says, although “in the Arab world this is not well documented.” To that end, Atrissi gathered together a fascinating selection of vintage stamps, advertising, and graphics from numerous Arab countries that can be accessed on arabictypography.com, an online forum he created during his studies at Utrecht.
In one of his most impressive projects to date, Atrissi designed a visual identity for the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. It was an undertaking he found both “unique and extremely challenging” (though evidently not daunting), and he moved to Qatar during the project’s almost yearlong
duration. The resulting stylized calligraphic rendering of the word “Qatar,” combined with deep, saturated fields of color and judicious use of iconic imagery, can be seen across a variety of media, from stationery to sailboats.
What can a designer hope to do once he’s already created a vision for an entire country? “I would like to design the identity of the Olympic Games or soccer World Cup,” he says, observing that these events “will surely take place in the Arab world sometime in the not-too-distant future.”
by ANGELA VOULANGAS