I just finished giving a workshop at
Ruwwad, a Jordanian NGO located in Amman's Jabal Natheef area, a predominantly relative low income neighborhood in the city. This workshop was organized in coordination with
Makan, the art space that brought me to Amman.
Attended by 15 young college students, most of who were wither studying accounting, architecture, or linguistics, the workshop took place over the course of three days.
Day 1 focused on presenting a brief history of powerful communication design examples, leaving the students only half an hour to quickly sketch out visual concepts for ideas they'd like to express.
Day 2 then revolved around making their design ideas applicable, so designs were turned into simple stencils, posters, cutouts, or a combination of more than one thing.
Turning sketches into workable stencils.
Using whatever's in the room to design our message.
The boys get excited about new ideas.
Cutting an intricate stencil.
Balqees, one of the participants, shows Keffah, manager of Ruwwad, some of her ideas.
Using photographic references from the internet to perfect our designs.
Mohammed El-Hagga helps Zeid El Akkad prepare his multi-layered stencil.
The boys debate over how to make their design work.
Acting like I know shit.
Day 3 was all about taking it out onto the street. Designs were put up around Jabal Natheef and was actually quite welcomed by the locals on the street, most especially the kids running around in the hood.
By Abdul Rahman Abu Zeid
By Abdullah Abu Fannas
By Belqees
By Zeid El Akkad
By Mohammed El Hagga
By Dania Abu Qouda
These are a sample of only some of the designs, because I didn't really get a chance to photograph everything (it was a pretty exhausting day), but these samples are quite representative of the pressing topics that concern them and power of their visual language and critical approach.
