Austrian Cultural Forum Art

So I was approached by the Austrian Cultural Forum to create banner art for them to use at the top of their website to sort of visually express the roll of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Cairo, that's it's here to sort of offer an integration between Austrian Culture and local Egyptian culture. My first attempt looked like this:



To which they replied "Our first impression was WOW great that´s very unique and something completely different. Unfortunately I fear that it is however going too far, as we still are an official goverment institution and the corporate identity is - let´s call it - more conservative."


So I came up with two other options that I am very pleased with. One that uses pure typography to express the interactions between both cultures; anglophone and arabic letters connecting, disconnecting, and re-merging in stimulating experimental ways:



And another option that uses both typography and geometric shapes to express the very same idea. The geometric shapes representing the colors of the flags of both countries, also interacting and overlapping in interesting ways, which although very minimalistic and basic, is one of the things I'm most proud of, since I've never really attempted to do something so awfully Bauhaus:

"We Are the Poster Machine" - Jonathan Puckey

From the 24th to the 27th of February, innovative Amsterdam-based designer extreme, Jonathan Puckey, will be setting up an intensive 4 day workshop at ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum) focusing specifically on poster design that goes beyond advertising and enters the realm of visual and conceptual communicative experimentation.

I'm planning on partaking in the workshop as well as attending the lecture he will give on the 29th, also at ACAF, and I'm really excited. Looking at his website, I'm absolutely jaw-dropped at some of things he's come up with, like his typographic rhythm tool, which specifies the intensity of a letter based on the timespan between typing that letter and the one before. So basically the more you hesitate as you type something, the less intense it appears on screen. Sheer brilliance!


The workshop is limited to only 8 participant's, so if you're interested, hurry up and enlist by sending a short CV/Bio and three low-res JPG images of your design work to office@acafspace.org by the 16th of February, 2008. Be sure to write "Design Workshop" in the subject box. It'll also be a good excuse to bum around a cheap hotel in Alexandria, walk along the courniche, visit the Great Library, that sorta thing.