Developing Sign Language

Hopped onto the morning ride to Al Husun today; a pickup truck transfers those of us who need it to the nearest town of Al Husun twice a day; once in the morning and onc in the afternoon for internet access at the local church, or grocery shopping and whatnot.

in the pickup truck to and from Al Husun

So I hopped onto the morning ride to Al Husun this morning to meet with the local caligrapher to develop a special typeface for my Sign Language project. I was a little disappointed to find that the only Al Husun caligrapher is actually a graphic designer -well, if you can classify what he does as design; its definitely graphic, but his design sense is questionable- a lot of the stuff he does, most of what he showed me is kitshy "inspirational" graphics and posters for schools, dictating kids to behave and be clean, using digital lense flare effects, bevel embossing, multiple drop shadows, horrid typography, and multi-color heaven.

After explaining to him the characteristics of the type I wanted, he went on about modifying an already existing computer font which I knew would not acheive the sort of results I wanted and proved this guy knows very little of traditional caligraphy. Although he did give me a few nice tips and an old letterpress as a general guideline for the Arabic alphabet.

basic font idea sketches

basic Arabic letterpress

Sign Language

a view of the town of Shatana in Jordan

another view of the town of Shatana in Jordan

Over the course of the last 3 days, we've been doing rounds of artist-presentations here at Shatana; giving everyone the chance to get to know one another's work. The quality I've seen here is very admirable, nothing half-assed or pseudo-anything. Very diverse; these people would probably not be gathered in one place under any other circumstance, not only because of geographical origin or cultural background, but because of subject matter and approach as well. I am intrigued and excited to see what they will come up with in Shatana.

a slide from the work of Mustapha Akrim

a slide from the work of Jeanette Gaussi

hanging with Lynn Kodeih, one of the artists

chilling with Gheith, the local Shatana boy who is now the protagonist in a film from Roby (fellow Egyptian artist)

Gheith draws a house with a pavement lined by flowers in my notepad

details of Geith's drawing

"Sign Language" is the name of the project that's been finding its way into my head since I arrived in Shatana, which -funnily enough- is based on an idea I was discussing/joking about with Moe Assem (Campus Mag designer) the night before boarding my plane.

" Sign Language" will be about introducing graphic design where graphic design may not be relevant. In this case: the town of Shatana, Jordan. In doing so, I'm trying to develop a complete signage system for the town, which involves developing an appropriate typeface, signage shapes and colors, placement, and naming (street names, territory names, etc.) which will all be based on elements from the town.

That's one phase of the project. Another phase will involve asking townspeople about their hopes and dreams for the town. Signs are to be created for these future dreams and placed in their relevant locations.

A big part of this project is exploring the notion of design relevance; Is it a luxury or is it a human necessity? Can you go without it once you have it? Or is your brain instantly altered afterwards?

I do believe that there is a lot of unnecessary luxury design in the world, but I also believe there is a basic necessity for a certain level of functional and decorative design in almost any community, but maybe that's the ego of the designer inside talking.

I'ma have to wait and see what "Sign Language" will have to say about it.

Out of Office

I am out of office, currently in Jordan participating in Shatana International Workshop organized by Makan.

Shatana is a small, rather isolated, village in the hills. For internet access, a pickup truck -which is ultimately cool- takes us to the nearest town: Al Husun, which is about a 15-20 minute drive.

The village is beautiful, the participating artists are awesome, and the food is something to live for. After only 3 days of being here, we're all in the early developing stages of ideas already, and its pretty exciting. I'll try to update the blog with more details as things progress.

July 17 is scheduled to be the open day in Shatana, where all the artists' work is available to the public, who are notified of the event via newspaper advertising, posters, flyers, and email.

I, however, will be staying in Jordan till July 22 for some extra mingling and joke exchanging.