8,092-Mile Collaboration, Spring 2012 by Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

AN EXPERIMENT IN CROSS-CULTURAL DESIGN EDUCATION BETWEEN STUDENTS IN DUBAI AND SAN FRANCISCO

+KELLY MURDOCH-KITT | UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

DENIELLE EMANS | ZAYED UNIVERSITY

8,092-MILE COLLABORATION

contents

introduction + project descriptions denielle emans + kelly murdoch-kitt - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 student projects and reflections Rawdha Khoory + Clare Pidot - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19 Rabab Al Haddad + Erika Anderson - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 35 Ebtesam Mohamed + Chloe Knox - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 51 Fatma Al Hasheimi + Angela Alotti - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 63 Alia Amin + Natalie McCann - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 75 Hamda Alrezi + Sara Al Zaabi + Zeina Jaber - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 87 Maha Bin Faris + Ghayah Fahad + Isabel Taylor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 105 Muna Obaid + Sophie Schwabacher - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 121 Rawdha Al Ajmani + Hannah Schwartz - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 133 Roudha Malik + Kaitlyn Morse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 143 Shefa Al Hammadi + Hessa Bin Huraiz + Matea Fish - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 153 Maitha Al Bloushi + Dhuha Al Mulla + Jessica Kennedy - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 171

nderstanding cultural perspectives is critical for today’s design students across the globe. Two design educators (in the USA and the UAE) challenged students’ preconceived notions of local environments and cultural identities through a multi-phase, cross-cultural design project that encourages students to research San Francisco, Dubai, and each other. Students communicated with their overseas partners to learn about each other’s cultures. They discussed ideas, created work, discovered how the other students “read” messages, and provided feedback. This book presents the student work from both classrooms, as well as the process of developing and guiding the project; the ways in which students’ understanding of culture, design, and representation changed as a result of the project; and critical analysis of the project outcomes. Though their English isn’t always perfect, we have left our students’ words unedited in this volume to maintain the authenticity of their reflections and exchanges.

DENIELLE EMANS

K E L LY MURDOCH-KITT

Denielle Emans serves as an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University (Dubai, UAE) teaching in the area of Graphic Design as it relates to the conceptualization, development, and execution of visual messages. Working in traditional and digital methods, she teaches subjects such as typography, packaging, web design, and motion graphics. Denielle graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a BA in Communications and received a Masters in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University. Denielle maintains a professional design studio working from concept to production on print and web design projects, for clients ranging from small start-ups to large corporations. Her research interests revolve around design strategies that can aid in language conservation efforts, and serve as a tool towards social good.

Kelly Murdoch-Kitt combines her design sensibility, interest in research, and linguistic facility to create sensitive, effective, and delightful concepts and solutions. In 2009, after completing her Master of Graphic Design degree at North Carolina State University’s College of Design, Kelly relocated to California. Her thesis research explores theories of situated learning and experiential elements of virtual communities. Kelly balances her love of researching and designing for the digital environment with an equal passion for communication in the physical realm: her undergraduate degree is in fine art and theatre, and she has over ten years of experience in print design. In addition to design research and UX strategy at gotomedia, Kelly also teaches in the Design Program at University of San Francisco and the Graphic Design Department at California College of the Arts. In her spare time, she gardens, writes, experiments with photography, travels, and teaches yoga.

Denielle’s favorite quote from Kelly during this process:

Kelly’s favorite quote from Denielle during this process:

“I thought I was excited before, but now that the students are involved, it’s just off the charts.”

“I have to admit, the excitement is contagious. ”

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

ABOUT 8092

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

Overview

Description & Parameters

What started as an exchange of Facebook messages between design professors Denielle Emans and Kelly Murdoch-Kitt in Fall 2011 quickly became a lesson in the possibility of collaboratively and impartially exploring cultural differences in a design classroom. Our messages and emails became curriculum for a collaborative course, and Spring 2012 presented a perfect opportunity to begin our ongoing international design education experiment between Kelly’s visual communication survey course at University of San Francisco (USF) and Denielle’s introductory typography class at Zayed University (ZU) in Dubai.

Understanding global perspectives is critical for 21st century designers. Each of us brings to the table a set of expectations and a range of preconceived notions about our local environment and cultural identity. By critically examining our own viewpoints and collaborating with other cultures, we can begin to understand the role that design plays in interpreting and revealing the complexities of our world today.

We bridged our 11-hour time difference and 8,092-mile distance through a flurry of emails, oodles of Google Docs, file exchanges via Dropbox, and the occasional Skype chat—and a two-month series of cross-cultural classroom interactions came to fruition. The multiphase project teamed students together on a series of collaborative assignments aimed at visual and cultural examinations of “self” and “other” using design. Beginning with an assignment to photographically illustrate two contrasting concepts within their own cities (e.g. “historic / modern,” or “natural / man-made”), the Spring 2012 students shared their initial visual and anecdotal research to develop a series of posters about their opinions and perspective of their partner’s city. Next, partners collaborated on a poster remix project using critical texts (news articles, essays and prose) exploring themes such as the built and natural environments, immigration issues, and historic perspectives. Finally, students incorporated process work, design artifacts, and project reflections into a process book to record and describe both classes’ experiences and project outcomes.

For this project, you will conduct photographic research, engage in cross-cultural collaboration, and possibly produce multilingual posters. You will have a design partner in (Dubai/San Francisco) for the duration of this multi-phase project. You will communicate with your overseas partner to learn about each other’s culture, discuss ideas, create work, discover how your partner “reads” messages, and provide feedback to one another.

Process 1 Photographically research your city 2 Research the other city + your partner 3 Exchange research with your partner 4 Develop a series of posters 5 Create a final process book

This chapter includes the original project briefs we submitted to our students in both classes, beginning with the project description and parameters below. The subsequent chapters were collaboratively designed by each pair of overseas partners and contain the students’ responses to our prompts.

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

PHOTO HUNT

Clare & Rawdha: “Native/Foreign”

“I decided that “native” would be defined as people, places, or ideas that are unique to San Francisco and can’t be found anywhere else. [...]This [...] changed the focus and subject matter of my photos. For example, [...] Blue Bottle Coffee is native and the Starbucks is foreign.” — CLARE, USF

“... “Native” as it represents Dubai, it would be [...]the local people living here [...] the things they do, the clothes they wear, and even the kind of food they eat. [...] the colors that appear in my head are mostly browns, yellows, and beige, maybe because of the desert...” — RAWDHA K, ZU

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

Assigned Word Pairs

Natural/Man-made Small/Large Hard/Soft Quiet/Loud

Dangerous/Safe Open/Closed Liberal/Conservative Formal/Casual

Native/Foreign Professional/Playful Convenient/Inconvenient Orderly/Disorderly

Project 1: Photo Scavenger Hunt

A photo “scavenger hunt” and image exchange kicked off the visual exchange, with each team of students roaming their respective cities to collect photos. Teams were assigned different lists of design principles (e.g. rhythm & balance, scale, texture, transparency) to help capture and define their cities in visual terms. Teams also received an oppositional word pairing (see list at left) and each student individually created definitions for those terms as they apply to her own city. With these definitions in mind, each student shot at least 24 photos of her city to submit to her overseas partner.

Project Brief Photographically research your city using the contrasting word-pairs and formal design principles assigned to you. Briefly define your assigned word-pair in writing (as the terms pertain to your city).

Take at least 12 photos of your assigned design principle(s):

After submitting your definition, take photos to visually represent it. You should also look up and read about your assigned design principles in Graphic Design the New Basics. It may be helpful to create a “shot list” of possible locations or ideas before you embark on your photographic scavenger hunt. You should focus on the typography of your city in your photo research, but you may also take additional photos to capture the concepts you are trying to communicate. Take at least 24 photos to share with the class based on the following criteria:

After you have completed your photographic research, write an informal, one-page paper that describes these aspects of of the city in a way that you could not capture with photography.

Take at least 12 photos of your assigned word-pair: • 6 about the first word • 6 about the contrasting word For instance, you might be assigned the pairing of “historic” and “modern.” In this case, you might take photos of shiny, new letterforms throughout downtown to represent its “modern” architecture. You also might visit “historic” buildings or areas to capture traditional lettering, details from buildings, etc. Your range of photography should provide the class with a more well-rounded understanding of the city, through the lens of your word-pair.

• 6 that represent the principle(s) typographically • 6 that represent the principle(s) in general

In your paper, consider the following: • What descriptive words can you use to describe your city? • How did your photographic exploration influence your own thoughts of the city? • Did it expand your view? How? • What do you think foreigners think of San Francisco? How accurate or inaccurate are these ideas? • Is your own experience living in the city different than the generic tourist view of the city? Why? • What do you love, what do you find annoying, and what might be hard to understand? • If you were talking to someone who has never been here, what else would you like to share about life here?

USF students participated in a photo shoot during class to learn and practice basic photography skills and principles before heading out to capture their images for the project.

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

FIRST EMAILS

“Seeing as how I couldn’t point out Dubai on a map prior to starting this project, I think I’ve come a long way in the past several weeks.” — CLARE, USF

“It was challenging “Actually, we didn’t when I was trying know anything to ignore what about San Francisco I already knew before, but when about the country Jessica our partner I was raised in, sent us some photos and trying to see it and information, we through the eyes of were amazed and my partners.” excited...” — ZEINA, USF

— MAITHA, ZU

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

Partnering East and West Working via Google spreadsheets, we matched 15 USF Visual Communication students and 18 ZU Type 1 students into teams based on what we knew about their personalities and work styles. ZU is a women’s university, and the Visual Communication class at USF happened to be all women, which helped ease students’ collective anxiety about com municating with a stranger on the opposite side of the globe. Though our course planning and correspondence was smooth, we still encountered many logistical bumps once we began the project with our classes. For example, the academic schedules between USF and ZU are completely different: spring semester at USF begins in early January and ends in May, while ZU starts (and ends) a month later. Additionally, the students at ZU attend classes Sunday through Thursday, while students at USF attend Monday through Friday, which made the students aware of the other culture’s “holy days.” Finally, the USF students were a bit jealous of their partners’ two-week spring break, which fell just a week after their own spring break.

Initiating Contact Late February marked the start of our collaboration, with one fundamental difference: the Emirati students knew in advance that they would be collaborating with partners in San Francisco, but the American students did not know that their new project would lead to an overseas partnership with students in Dubai. This approach allowed us to assess the USF students’ existing knowledge or preconceived notions of the other culture, pointing to areas where we could help shift some ideas before the students initiated contact. The ZU students, meanwhile, are generally familiar with American culture, media, and entertainment, and although they fear being misjudged, are excited to meet people from outside their country. On Tuesday, March 6, 2012, Denielle helped her students craft their introductory emails to their partners in America. The process was stressful for her students, who felt selfconscious of their English writing skills, especially in the context of an email introduction to a complete stranger from another country.

she planned to officially announce the collaboration on Wednesday, March 7. But in the intervening hours, some of her students at USF already received emails from their partners, and were perplexed. They decided that the learning management system for the course must have been hacked—and that this was the only logical explanation for so many of them receiving “spam” from Dubai. Finally, one outspoken student posted a question on the class site: ERIKA “Is there a design collaboration happening between o ur class and one in Dubai????? Because my homeboy Rabab just told me there was. I’m trying to work out if it’s spam email or not.” PROF. KELLY MURDOCH-KITT “It’s not spam! We’ll talk in class. Also, Rabab is your homeGIRL. ;)” ERIKA “YAY!!!” When Kelly unveiled the collaborative project plan to her students that afternoon, they were thrilled—and relieved to know the emails were legitimate. Meanwhile, Denielle’s students began to worry that they had not received more immediate responses from their new partners. After all, it had been 24 hours since their initial missives. They did not realize their emails could have been interpreted as spam. SHEFA (via email to Prof. Denielle Emans) “Hi Ms. Me and my friend Hessa don’t have any response from Matea. She didn’t send us any email. She just invite us to add her in Dropbox … have we send her the pictures only or not?”

Kelly underestimated the ZU students’ excitement, and thought her class would not receive their first emails until Thursday of that week. After requiring her class to contemplate and write about their impressions of Dubai,

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

POSTER PAIRS Student observations from the poster design process:

“Initially, I didn’t understand how there could be a balance between traditional culture and modern American society but [...] The fact that Rawdha wears the Hijab and European designer clothes at the same time is the epitome of blending cultures in Dubai.” — CLARE, USF

“Regarding culture and social aspects, San Francisco is way more liberal than Dubai is. Dubai is more conservative regarding religion, many things that are accepted in San Francisco are not accepted in the UAE generally.” — RABAB, ZU

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

Project 2: City Poster Pairs For the next phase of the project, students were asked to incorporate photography from their initial image exchange into a pair of posters exploring the two cities. Students considered how research and dialogue could inform the design process, resulting in a set of A3 posters hung side by side.

Project Brief Using the photo package and the materials you have received from your partner, evaluate how she interprets Dubai. Write a few paragraphs explaining what you have learned about the city and your overseas partner based on the quick analysis you complete during today’s class (see reverse). Submit a .Doc, RTF, or PDF by next class. Post an OVERVIEW of your process online, including: • Photos of your city (create a grid, array, or “contact sheet” in InDesign and export as JPG; • Your word-pair and definition in terms of San Francisco: Has it changed since you took your photos? • Your design terms and how they apply to typography and images • Brief evaluation of the other city and its similarities/ differences to your city. For this phase of the project, you will develop a series of posters to visually express your opinions and perspective of each city. To do so, you will create a 12 x 18” poster to promote each city, while exploring the expressiveness of language. Your two posters will be hung together once complete.

For next week: • Review the chapters about your assigned design principles in Graphic Design: The New Basics. Think about how you could incorporate or address them in your designed posters. • Read pp. 102–133 of Thinking with Type to learn about alignment, marking paragraphs, and hierarchy. • Please bring any reading-related questions to class as you will be held accountable for demonstrating this knowledge in your posters! You will continue iterating and sketching, informed by your reading, communications with your partner, and additional research, and bring at least two attempts in InDesign (files only—no need to print) to class next week. This project will include a progress critique and final presentation. In addition to your assigned principles, consider the other fundamental design principles of composition, framing, scale, and sequence. Use this project to help develop a quick generative process which allows for a broad range of solutions and experimentation. Goals:

Consider how you can create a relationship between the two posters, finding a common thread to unify them together either stylistically or conceptually. What will this relationship say or communicate to the audience?

• To practice arranging typographic elements in a visual structure

How do the techniques you choose enhance the meaning of the city and strive to create multiple levels of meaning for this promotional piece using hierarchy? How will your research inform your design process?

• To explore the wide range of possibilities that typographic materials can offer

• To achieve macro and micro aesthetics in typography (hierarchy, composition, attention to detail)

• To gather, and effectively communicate information, in a typographic/geographic manner

Carefully evaluate your research materials and then work quickly and freely to produce a lot of ideas and work. We will review your initial ideas (ROUGH sketches) next class.

Final Poste KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

REMIX POSTER Persona excerpts by partners Matea and T HShefa: E

“Tony drives a crappy Moped to get around the city. He also enjoys hanging out at the Duboce dog park with his equally chubby beagle and 30-something, tattoo-artist, vegan girlfriend. She is constantly trying to educate him in the wonderful world of organic and healthy food. [...] Tony likes her because she’s [...] mastered the art of brewing her own beer.”

“The most awkward thing that Mansour loves is cooking, which is not familiar for us here in UAE. Because cooking is usually for females and that is really nice part of his personality, he loves cooking and eating, especially spicy food, he learned that from his mother and the chef at home, an Indian man. He used to travel to India just to learn some recipes and buy spices.”

— MATEA, USF

— SHEFA, ZU

ster Design

EXCHANGE Project 3: Remix Posters For this 3-phase project, students wrote personas and made posters in response to assigned texts, which were selected to highlight various cultural aspects of the Arab and Western worlds. Students swapped InDesign files with their partners and had an opportunity to “remix” each other’s designs before returning the posters to the original authors for a final round of design edits. The persona-development component of the assignment led to some of the most interesting cultural insights of the entire collaboration. The written personas grounded the exchange on a personal level, giving rise to topics that did not emerge in earlier discussions. Perhaps it is easier to engage in cultural critique in the third person, or to share opinions and preferences through the lens of a fictional character.

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

partner’s work

your work phase i typographic poster

phase ii you change your partner ’ s poster phase iii receive partner ’ s edits ; make final changes to your own poster

Project Brief (Phase 1 of 3, abridged) 1. Create a character based on your assigned “audience.” This exercise will help you aim the tone of your work to your intended recipient. Give your character a name, age, and occupation. Describe his/her interests, opinions, and hobbies. Paint a picture of this person’s life in approximately 200 words. You can base your character on someone you know personally, if it helps. The character you create is called a persona, and he/she will be your model audience as you design this next project. 2. Once you have created your persona, completely read your assigned text (your overseas partner has the same text). Highlight or make notes of interesting passages or phrases as you go, keeping your persona in mind. What might entice, stimulate, or provoke him/her? How could you make this topic interesting to him/her? 3. Choose a minimum of ~30 words to work with from your selected text. You may add your own commentary if you wish—you might find it helpful in explaining or describing your selected quote(s). Carefully proofread your selections for spelling, grammar and punctuation. 4. Create information for a fictional event (or borrow information from a real one) that you will promote with this poster. It could be an art exhibition, performance, public forum, festival, lecture, TV series, documentary, or something else that you devise (e.g. a book signing with the author of your assigned text). Choose a title, location, date and time for your event (the title should somehow

correlate to the other textual information you selected or created in the previous step). 5. Spend 15-30 minutes making a series of small thumbnail sketches of how you might treat the text in a layout. These can be small and gestural—just use them to explore initial ideas in hierarchy, stroke weight, alignment, and horizontal and vertical spacing. 6. Working from your sketches, develop five compositions in InDesign, using only black text on a white background for this first round. Set up your document to be A3 with .25” margins and a 3 x 3 grid. Use no more than two of the approved typefaces (you may use multiple stroke weights within the same font family). If you would like to incorporate a specialty typeface (or handwritten lettering), please limit its use (i.e. use it sparingly, for emphasis only). You will need to either outline this type or provide your partner with the file for any specialty type you incorporate in your design. Learning Objectives: • Develop personas/designing for a specific audience • Engage in a collaborative and evolutionary design “remix” process • Create meaningful, dynamic typographic compositions • Observe and reflect upon ways in which your understanding of representation changes through the course of the project (seeing partner’s perspective) 13

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

FINAL PROCESS Student reflections on the collaboration experience:

“I never would have learned as much if we had simply been assigned some research — by communicating one on one with Ebtesam I learned about Dubai from a unique, personal perspective.” — CHLOE, USF

“...by exchanging photos with an actual San Franciscan you get to see the city from their perspective which was something new to experience, rather than just Googling.” — RODHA M, ZU

BOOK

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

Project 4: Final Process Book Finally, the students encapsulated their collaborative experience in the form of a collective and cooperative process book initiated by the American students—who sent files to their Emirati partners so they could also contribute their designs, insights and analyses. During this time, general discussions began to emerge in the classroom and between partners about the overall merits of the project, with an overwhelming consensus about the unexpected value of the experience. Students asserted that personal relationships with their partners allowed for greater cultural understanding and the more traditional research methods of internet searches and library visits leaving them unfulfilled and disconnected. Real-world collaborations allowed them to see the other city in a rare light, while helping them rigorously examine their own city and customs.

cover / bios

word - pair photos

poster pairs

remix

back cover / summary

Project Brief (Excerpt) We’re making another collaborative book with each other and our overseas partners! You and your partner will design an 8-page “chapter,” which Prof. Emans and I will combine into a larger book. You will contribute to the first and last pages of the chapter, and will design three of the six interior pages. Together with your partner’s contributions, the finished chapter will be able to function independently as a small booklet, and also work together with your classmate’s chapters as a larger book. You will set up the document and do your designs first, then pass off your files to your partner for her to add her side of the story, so to speak.

your contributions your partner’s contributions

Your layout must include 8 pages (front page, 3 spreads, back page) with the provided specifications and fonts.

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

DUBAI MEET SA

KELLY MURDOCH-KITT + DENIELLE EMANS

AN FRANCISCO

BIOGRAPHY RAWDHA KHOORY

CLARE PIDOT

I’m a junior 20-year old student at Zayed University in Dubai, majoring in Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Interior Design. Hopefully when I’m done with my Bachelors degree, I plan to apply for a Masters degree in Graphic Design. I was born and raised here in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and find it a beautiful city to grow up in. I’m a very enthusiastic person who’s always looking for more, and the little things excite me. I tend to be a perfectionist at most times but have my moments of when I’m very laid back. I love my friends and cake.

I’m a senior Art History/Arts Management student from Kailua, Hawaii. After graduation, I’m going to move to New York to teach Preschool in a low income and underserved community for two years through Teach For America (a program that places recent graduates in schools that desperately need teachers). I have thoroughly enjoyed living in San Francisco for the past few years and am going to miss this city! My favorite color is purple and my favorite flavor of ice cream is banana.

“San Francisco is such a diverse city that the only way to typographically describe it is to say that it’s unique and fun. ” My partner Clare was very insightful from the first moment we exchanged our emails. She was very excited to begin the project with me and provided me with everything I needed to know about San Francisco.

“...as long as I have my friends with me i’m always enjoying my time, you know. ” This is basically my life motto, so once I read this line in one of Rawdhas’ emails, I knew we would be successful partners.

RAWDHA KHOORY

PHOTO SCAVENG Clockwise from top left: Traditional to the UAE are the palm trees A poster that defines figure and ground Mug used for drinking the Arabic coffee Typical ‘Majlis’ used for gatherings Texture design principle

Word pair definitions In this project we were each assigned a pair of contrasting words along with three design principles to help us take the first step towards creating a collaborative poster. My word pairs were “native” and “foreign” whereas the design principles were “transparency”, “texture”, and “figure/ground.” Defining Dubai with just a limited number of words is rather difficult, especially for it being such a diverse city. To define the term “Native” as it represents Dubai, it would most probably be concerned with the local people living here and their attributes; the things they do, the clothes they wear, and even the kind of food they eat. In addition, the things that have always been here and have originated from Dubai also define nativity, such as language. For some reason, when I think of the word native, the colors that appear in my head are mostly brows, yellows, and beiges, maybe because of the desert, or even simply because of the old houses, which contained wind towers that were built here. On the other hand, “Foreign” in Dubai, as well as in other cities, can be defined in the same way. However, there are a certain aspects in Dubai that reflect what really is considered to be foreign in terms of again food, clothing, and certain activities that mostly foreign people enjoy. The tall buildings, for example, were not really here less than 50 years ago thus they create a foreign feeling towards the local people. One of the most foreign things to eat that contrasts Dubai’s native side would be burgers (as opposed to the typical traditional rice, biryani, etc.).

Similarities and Differences From Clare’s personal descriptions about the details of San Francisco, which cannot be easily found on the Internet, I have a certain image of how the life is in San Francisco, and I honestly believe that it is very similar to Dubai in myriad aspects. They are both very diverse and multicultural cities which have a lot in common in terms of architectural elements that stand out, for instance The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Burj Khalifa in Dubai. However, the differences between Dubai and San Francisco are mainly concerned with what is considered to be “native” in each of the cities, such as the gelato in San Francisco, and the harees - a type of food - in Dubai.

NGER HUNT Word pair definitions

After taking dozens of pictures and still not feeling confident in my There are an endless number of word pair definition, I decided that word pairs to describe such a diverse “native” would be defined as people, city as San Francisco- traditional/ places, or ideas that are unique to contemporary, industrial/green, San Francisco and can’t be found wealthy/poor, trendy/classic, loud/ anywhere else. “Foreign” then, would quiet, etc. With so many different be people, places, or ideas that can be districts in such a small area, the found outside of San Francisco. This variety of cultures, people, and definitely expanded my view of this ideas that come together create a project and changed the focus and harmonious city. subject matter of my photos. I decided Going out into the city with my camera, for the word pair, to contrast each image with an opposite. For example, I was still confused about what my I took a photo of a Blue Bottle Coffee definitions of “native” and “foreign” logo and then a Starbucks. Obviously, were with regards to San Francisco. It was through exploration that I decided the Blue Bottle Coffee is native and the Starbucks is foreign. Not relating how I wanted to portray these words. to type, I photographed a typical San Originally I intended to focus on Franciscan home with traditional people in San Francisco- the people SF exterior décor and juxtaposed it who live in the city are “native” and against an image of the Palace of Fine the tourists are “foreign.” However, Arts that incorporates architecture because there are so many different that is heavily influenced by ancient kinds of people living in this city, Greece. Although the Palace of Fine many of whom have moved here Arts is unique to San Francisco, the from around the globe, there’s no idea behind the architecture and the definitive type of person that would be purpose of the Palace- to act as a host considered “native.” location to the World’s Fair– relates much more to the definition of “foreign” than “native.”

CLARE PIDOT

Similarities and Differences From the photos that Rawdha has sent me and the emails we have sent back and forth, I can see that Dubai is a very progressive city. Socially, the city is western– there are American food places and clothing places– but culturally, the city is Arab. Initially, I didn’t understand how there could be a balance between traditional culture and modern American society but now I understand that the two are not as opposite as I had originally thought. The fact that Rawdha wears the Hijab and European designer clothes at the same time is the epitome of blending cultures in Dubai. I was amazed at the fact that both Rawdha and I had taken several photos that were very similar! Culturally, San Francisco and Dubai or very different, but there are many things we have in common even though we live so far away from each other.

Clockwise from top left: A wall on Haight street that exemplifies figure/ type. Wall mural in the Mission that shows layering. Greek-inspired column at the Palace of Fine Art showing something foreign. Common San Francisco architectural detail displaying Figure/Ground.

RAWDHA KHOORY

PHOTO SCAVENG

NGER HUNT

CLARE PIDOT

RAWDHA KHOORY

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection After various email chats that Clare and I have shared, I began to have a clear vision of what San Francisco looks like on the inside, apart from my own research. She was very helpful in providing me with just enough information that covers up all the questions I had for her in terms of food, fun, culture, and the city’s aesthetic appeal. I was very pleased to have Clare as my partner as we were both always positive and excited to share our work; we never really had any major issues. As an interior design student, I’m not very fond of design programs except for perhaps Adobe Photoshop, and a bit of Illustrator. But even with that being the case, I learned so many new quick tricks that I never thought existed, which also helped save time with future works.

In addition to that, using Dropbox for the first time also helped both me and my partner share our files very quickly and easily. The world of technology never fails to impress me. At first I had a really hard time in trying to decide how I want my final poster to look like, and I started working on Adobe Illustrator but had a really hard time in conveying my concept within that program, so I moved to Photoshop to start all over. I was looking for inspirations on the internet to help me decide what I want to create and after finding various creative posters I finally had an idea. I began drawing doodles of my own that reflect Dubai in terms of being native. Then I scanned those papers, added the drawings to Photoshop, and began editing. The whole concept of my posters is to show things that are native to each city (since native and foreign were the word pairs I was assigned to), and that’s done by the

use of colors and objects I chose to incorporate such as Emirates Towers for the Dubai poster, and The Golden Gate Bridge for the San Francisco poster. Also based on the images that Clare sent me which define San Francisco, such as the tram and the pillars, I transferred that into my own doodles and added them for the San Francisco poster. Overall, I feel very satisfied with the posters I’ve created. I was able to give that sketchy look that I initially wanted. Furthermore, Clare’s posters were interesting yet very different than mine. She used some of the images that I sent her and added her own touch to it, which was quite delightful. I liked how both of our posters were very different as to how we both interpret our own cities artistically. This just shows how each of us has her own distinctive style and approach towards something.

Two images sent by my partner: first the tram (top left) second is the Golden Gate Bridge

My doodles, first of the traditional headpiece that men wear in Dubai, second of Emirates Towers, and third of a camel, that is native to the UAE.

CLARE PIDOT

Poster Pair Reflection Seeing as how I couldn’t point out Dubai on a map prior to starting this project, I think I’ve come a long way in the past several weeks. After doing some of my own research and speaking with Rawdha extensively, I’ve gained a much greater understanding of the cultural and racial dynamics within Dubai. I am lucky to have a partner who not only emails back extremely quickly, but is willing to answer any of my questions. There were a few questions I had about religion and wearing the Hijab that I was afraid to ask at first, but Rawdha was always enthusiastic about helping me understand her culture. Compared to some of the other people in class, I think Rawdha and I had an unusually strong relationship. Aside from learning about the culture, I’ve learned how to use Dropbox, InDesign, and Photoshop. I may not use InDesign consistently throughout my art career (if I ever use it at all)

but Dropbox is definitely something I’ll be using frequently in the future. Although Dropbox has nothing to do with our class itself, I still appreciate learning how to use the program. I had a lot more trouble creating the posters with InDesign than I did

creating images in Illustrator. I chose to put several layers onto my posters and make them look really busy as opposed to having clean simple lines. I liked how my final project turned out, but overlapping so many different images and text boxes was quite difficult. All of the Photoshop effects that I used in my poster pair were taught in class, but I had refresh myself with how to cut images out of existing pictures. Cutting out the San Francisco skyline and the temple in Dubai took quite a while for me to figure out, but now I feel like I’ll never forget how to do it. Coming into this project, I had no confidence in my ability to produce a cohesive poster pair. Looking at my final product, I’m very happy with my work and proud of myself for adding so many layers of detail. I know that simple, streamline designs are much more timeless and often times, end up looking very professional and put together, but I just wanted to have fun with the project and utilize all the tools that we learned in class. I agree that the posters look a bit busy, but that’s a quality I enjoy because Dubai and San Francisco are both very busy cities. Rawdha’s posters were amazing. After I sent her the final drafts of my own

posters, she responded by saying that she wasn’t good at working with InDesign or Photoshop and was nervous that her posters wouldn’t turn out as good as mine, but I love her posters. Rawdha even sent me a few images that documented the process of creating her poster pair. She hand drew much of her poster pair and scanned the images into Photoshop and InDesign. The drawings, the color schemes, and the details, not to mention the technical skill that went into the design, are absolutely beautiful. I want to print out her posters on nice paper and hang them up in my room!

Clockwise from top: The painted ladies, one of San Francisco’s many landmarks An image of a poster taken by Rawdha A “native” building in Dubai

RAWDHA KHOORY

POSTER PAIRS

The Dubai poster portrays various aspects which indicate the native life. The idea is to allow the doodles appear as if they are rising from the sketchbook and explode into life.

RAWDHA KHOORY

The San Francisco poster contains the main attractions of the city, as opposed to the text which contrasts the meaning. Adding splashes here and there to create an exciting messy look.

CLARE PIDOT

POSTER PAIRS

I combined and visually manipulated two images that Rawdha sent to me that respresent the word “native” in Dubai. The quote used was taken from an email correspondance and was chosen to further exemplify the idea of nativity by focusing on the hijab– a unique and culturally relevant item of clothing.

CLARE PIDOT

The quote from myself mentions that everything in San Francisco is essentially foreign. Even the Painted Ladies, a major tourist attraction, are not native to the city. The loose painting on the wall mural used as the background image juxtaposes the hardness of the San Francisco skyline and displays the wide array of foreign influence in this city.

RAWDHA KHOORY

REMIX POSTER Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

Lady X is a stay-home mother of four children; two boys two girls. At age 42, she is still at the verge of enjoying her forever-young life. She is a healthy woman where she exercises three times a week at the gym to stay fit. Shopping and staying up-to-date with the world is what she does best. She still hangs out with her best friends and enjoys going out with them quite often, where they get to catch up on their lives and maybe gossip a little. Despite her enjoying her life to the max, her number one priority is her family and her home. She tries to fulfill their needs in every possible way and make sure the family values are respected and followed. Always doublechecking the cleanliness of the house and that everything is put in place; she has a habit of being extra organized and neat (more like a perfectionist). She loves cooking special meals every once in a while for the family and in her free time when her husband is at work and her children are in school, she loves to paint. Ever since she was a teenager, she had a passion for art, and painting is how she expresses her inner self.

The poster that Clare designed had too much text in it, which I felt was a little all over the place. The spacings were also not treated in a very neat way, and that had to change. It sent a feeling of distraction and I thought that maybe her audience persona, Brenda Solez, will not read everything since she is in her early 60’s and would want something simple yet readable. However, some of the texts that she extracted resemble mine, which made me feel that it was the right choice. All these little things that needed fixing made me excited to start making the changes that needed to be made.

EDIBLE A R R A N G E M E N T S 15-17 May,2012 DUBAI MEDIA CITY 12:00PM to 12:00AM

Starring Mr Ali Salem Ebdowa The dining scene in the Emirates features a wide range of options, From five-star kitchens staffed by celebrity chefs to mom-and-pop nooks dishing out homemade Indian or Lebanese meals. Indigenous cuisine had long remained largely confined to home kitchens or ceremonial majlis dinners that are hosted by members of the royal family.

I was really excited to make the changes to Clare’s poster and show her what I’ve done with it, since I was really satisfied with the overall design and layout. I tried my best to treat it in way that would fit her persona, and I feel I achieved that. I feel that I changed a lot in her poster, but I kept some parts as they are because I did not want the poster to lose its identity that Clare gave it. The whole idea was to create a simple yet pretty enough to grab Brenda’s attention if she saw a poster like that hung on a wall. By doing so, I played a lot with hierarchy, colors, and even imagery that can be used as a design element. I feel the colors olive green and lilac make a perfect combination to keep the poster neutral yet alive. Also playing with text fonts just enough to keep the reader from taking her eyes off the poster. Not to exaggerate, but I honestly believe that Clare and I have worked really well together in trying to understand and establish different designs that can be innovative.

Phase II Response The changes that Clare made to my initial poster were quite interesting. However, I still felt that it does not completely fit my persona. She used multiple lines on a green gradient background to emphasize certain areas, and moved around some of the texts to fit in a certain shape. It does look like a poster, but as a perfectionist I felt there is a lot more that I could add to it, and that got me excited. The poster has to reflect upon something that has to do with a food festival and I feel that it does not show in this remixed poster. However, I loved the fact that she changed the font of the title and the subtitle to a more legible type, since the one I used was a bit too decorative, so I decided to keep that. I almost already had in mind about what I’d like to incorporate in my final re-remixed poster design, and convey the idea of having a food festival rather than just a typical invitational poster.

Edible A RRANGEMENTS 12:00PM to 12:00AM DUBAI MEDIA CITY 15-17 May 2012

Starring Ali Salem Ebdowa

The dining scene in the Emirates features a wide range of options, From five-star kitchens staffed by celebrity chefs to mom-and-pop nooks dishing out homemade Indian or Lebanese meals. Indigenous cuisine had long remained largely confined to home kitchens or ceremonial majlis dinners that are hosted by members of the royal family.

EXCHANGE

CLARE PIDOT

Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

The eldest child of two girls and one boy, Brenda Solez (born June 23, 1949) is a 62 year-old woman originally from Central California. Brenda’s father owned the general store in her town growing up and her mom was one of four schoolteachers in town. Growing up she did well in school, although math was the source of much stress throughout her educational career. After graduating from high school, she made a somewhat radical choice (for 1967) to move away from her family and go to the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington to study Literature where she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps and be a teacher but for high school students instead of grade school students.

The design is very clean and simple, so I would suggest keeping all of the stylistic elements of the poster. Lady X seems like a woman who is always on the move, so I’m not sure if she would have appreciated this poster if it was on a billboard or on the side of a street. With so much type set at such a small weight, Lady X might not stop to read all the details. I do think, however, that Lady X would be attracted to the fancy typeface used for the title. In contrast to the plain san-serif typeface on the bottom, the title is striking and alluring to the eye.

The changes Rawdha made to my preliminary poster are wonderful! I really like the color palette and the tones used throughout the poster because I think they represent my imaginary persona well. The designs on the top and bottom of the poster are very reflective of the United Arab Emirates, which include both Rawdha in Dubai and the guest chef featured in the poster’s event from Abu Dhabi.

Since going to college, she’s lived all over the west coast. When she was living in Portland, Oregon, she married her first and only husband, Danny Zaremba, and moved to San Francisco where Brenda began teaching high school at St. Ignatius and Danny got a job as a chef at Bedouin, an Arabic Fusion Restaurant in the Financial District. While living in the inner Richmond, they had three sons who all grew up and went to various liberal arts colleges on the East Coast. After Brenda’s sons all graduated from college, she moved to Marin with her retired husband but she still teaches English at St. Ignatius and enjoys watching Modern Family.

I was definitely surprised at the simplicity of the poster. Having worked with Rawdha for a month or so now, I was expecting an elaborate design. Having such a simple body of text will allow me to design the rest of the poster very easily. On the other hand, I sent Rawdha a more complicated design that doesn’t offer any obvious way to decorate it. My text took up nearly the entire poster whereas hers took up only a small portion. In a sense, our poster drafts are literally night and day compared with one another, which I really appreciate because it shows our unique styles and how differently people can interpret the same article.

I interpreted the poster to be blunt and very “in your face,” but Rawdha interpreted the poster to be slightly more subtle. Both styles would have appealed to my persona, but I like the sophistication of Rawdha’s re-mixed version. The only challenge I have with Phase II of the project is re-arranging the title so as to make “Off the Grid” more legible.

RAWDHA KHOORY

REMIX POSTER

Edible A R R A N G E M E N T S 15-17 May,2012 DUBAI MEDIA CITY 12:00PM to 12:00AM

As shown here, I kept the fonts of the title and subtitle that Clare used but added my own illustrations that emphasize on the idea of having a food festival. The color scheme is used best to connect with my persona.

EXCHANGE

CLARE PIDOT

I really liked Rawdhaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic layout, color scheme, and background images so I kept those elements for the final poster. The titleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weight and placement of words were adjusted to make the text more ledgible. Slight changes in weight and typeface were made to the rest of the text as well.

IN SUMMARY RAWDHA KHOORY

CLARE PIDOT

When I was first told that we are having a collaborative work with an overseas partner from San Francisco, I could not help but think of the style of works that they produce. I was at first afraid of the differences in ideas and the way we treat things in accordance to our contrasting cities. But having shared many thoughts, photos, and more thoughts, we both noticed how similar both cities are and that sent a feeling of tranquility. Despite our cultural and background differences, our artistic minds works almost exactly the same.

I have always assumed that the styles and successes of various forms of visual representation differ among cultures, however, I had never thought about how they are alike. I’ve mentioned this before, but when Rawdha and I first exchanged photos of our respective cities, I was amazed at how similar they were. We both took pictures of posters, Starbucks signs, iconic buildings, and local burger joints. This project made me realize that in this ever more globalizing world, the way people interpret visual information is actually quite similar– even in two places as far apart and as traditionally diverse as San Francisco and Dubai.

It’s true that I have a basic background skill in some of the programs (like Photoshop) but only so little that I can’t do much. However, during the process of this project, I began to not only learn and enhance my skills but also enjoy what I’m creating. I have never used InDesign before and with this project, I did so much that the outcome was too good to be true and I really loved it. The time difference accompanied by working with Clare can be a little frustrating but overall it was a wonderful experience. It was a perfect time for me to learn the little tricks and tools that help ease the process of illustration. This project specifically enhanced my skills at both adobe illustrator and InDesign, in just little things such as the pen tool, the shortcuts, etc. Not to mention, learning more about San Francisco through Clare was a lot different than just going to Google to find out the main attractions about it. Finally, all I can say now is that distance doesn’t really matter, after all artists and designers are all one.

In the end, I couldn’t imagine a better collaborative project than this. I thoroughly enjoyed engaging in dialogue with a design student on the other side of the world and I was surprised at how easy the collaborative aspect of this project turned out to be. In the beginning, I was worried about difficulty communicating and differences in design style, but my partner and I worked well together and helped each other throughout the duration of the project. The most challenging part of the process was figuring out how to use InDesign and send each other our projects. Neither Rawdha nor myself were experienced with design before taking this course and working together through our struggles turned out to be a growing experience for both of us.

BIOGRAPHY RABAB AL HADDAD

ERIKA ANDERSON

Studying at Zayed University(ZU), has helped me have chances I never had before. Now that I am entering my 20s, and entering my senior year next year, I am very grateful about the experiences I had in ZU. I have been described that I like commitment, and hard work. Being called a perfectionist is not easy, as I have high expectations, but I do try to do my best in everything and try to give projects a lot of my energy. Sometimes I am a workaholic, except when I am exhausted that I feel like I can not work anymore. I like to seek information and try to analyze it when I am in a critical thinking mood.

I grew up in Sonoma Valley, California, I have a twin sister & a vinyl record player instead of a television. I feel happiest while traveling & a big part of me wishes I’d gone to art school.

“ When I think of Dubai I think of skyscrapers, steel and sand. Do you live in a skyscraper?” Even though Erika’s question is out of curiosity, it made me think of people perception regarding of how people live in the UAE. It seems that whatever a city is popular for, becomes really generalized. I do not always think its a positive thing, because a city might give itself a false image of its locales. As a sort of personalized lifestyle that is very pre-determined, perhaps. However, this is a very personal view and does not reflect public view.

“Brevity is the soul of wit”, modesty is a refined quality, & compassion is a practice. Work hard, play hard & buy lots of flowers. I learned a lot from corresponding with Rabab. I think we both approached our correspondence from a place of understanding and I felt that we always met halfway. One of my favorite things that Rabab said in our email correspondence was in the beginning when we were getting to know each other. She asked me,

“Since Sans Francisco is built on hills, would you rather have an even surface?” OMG! What a question. I shared it with many of my friends because I’d never once considered San Francisco without hills. No one has. Until Rabab came along to reconsider the topography of the city. I love that type of critical thinking.

RABAB AL HADDAD

PHOTO SCAVENG Right to left: 1. Bulky horse in front of Burj Kahelifa. 2. Shops in Old Souq. 3.Figure/ground in a bridge. 4. An interior from Souk Al Bahra. 5. A rebuilt form of a traditional building .

Word pair definitions

Similarities and Differences

Small: People, abras(traditional boat), vegetation, delicate Islamic patterns, small houses.

Large: Shopping mall arch interiors, architecture, skyscrapers, heat in the summer, desert dunes.

Small/Large When I went out to search what is small and large to Dubai, I of course searched for the obvious extremes end of both Small/Large. Such as small skyscrapers in comparison to Large skyscrapers, or small and large interiors, or small and large villas. I think it was a bit of challenge, because after analyzing my images of Dubai, I think that our perception is distorted

with Small/Large in the city. An object size can be easily altered at the scale it is shot at, and its size depends on the other object it is relating to. Therefore, an object can appear smaller, or larger than it actually is depending on the point of reference, or simply its original size. So I easily thought that our eyes can be easily tricked by surrounding, and small things are most likely integrated within a large object to give detail/aesthetic feeling. Though they do exist individually, but I thought that kind of relationship is interesting. Large/Small typography almost everywhere in the city, and they suggest the importance of the place, or to emphasize on the something based on itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s text size, or used as a hierarchy.

Skimming through both images of San Francisco and Dubai, they visually seem to be very modern contemporary. Even their architectural material usage, the textures for some buildings seems to be the same. However, Dubai seems to have architecture that represent futuristic image, while San Francisco embraces both futuristic, classical and modern style in buildings. Regarding culture and social aspects, San Francisco is way more liberal than Dubai is. Dubai is more conservative regarding religion, many things that are accepted in San Francisco are not accepted in the UAE generally. They both have inspiring and promising future for its citizens, they both try to provide them with an appreciable lifestyle that provides them with food, fun, and education.

NGER HUNT Word Pair Definitions

Similarities and Differences

Small:

San Francisco is multifaceted, complex, down-to-earth, small, diverse, transitory, loveable, and artistic. The only way to capture the city is to travel on foot and try to visit every major neighborhood. I like the relationships that neighborhoods have with one another and I think it would be really fitting and interesting, when trying to capture San Francisco as a city, to pair images from places around the city that don’t “go together”. For instance, the Mission and the Marina. This sort of photographic diptych would be a better way of capturing the spirit of such a complex city.

San Francisco is a small city, with an emphasis on small business, small-town vibe, a small carbon footprint, and itsy bitsy Smart cars. Small boats in the bay, Micro-climates in-between hills, Small-talk on Muni.

Large: …bridges. …population of commuters, homeless. …large hills. Large sense of community: Bike community, active community (politically, physically, ecologically). Large sense of entrepreneurial spirit, …hearts. …appetite for coffee, alcohol, kombucha. …body of water.

My personal photographic exploration was influenced by places I’ve been before. I didn’t decide to venture to new parts of the city that I’m not familiar with, like SOMA or Pacific Heights, but I took pictures at places along my commute to my internship downtown, and along my walk to school. It allowed me to look for

ERIKA ANDERSON

photographs in places I normally walk past, usually in a hurry to get somewhere. In this sense, the assignment expanded my view of things I’m already familiar with. I think San Franciscans take pride in their pride, whatever it is they are proud of. Basic values of San Franciscans include health, sustainability, working hard and playing hard, environmental awareness, fun, exercise, and enjoying lots of good food and alcohol. I think San Francisco has a distinct style that has impressive consideration for design elements, tends to favor bold shocks of color among greys, browns, blacks and neutrals, and has a special distaste for serifs in typefaces. I feel lucky because, although it may be a small corner of the world, San Francisco fits my personality and tastes perfectly. The quality of life is high, the people are helpful and friendly, and it’s easy to eat well, laugh a lot, and feel appreciated for your hard work.

Clockwise from left: 1. Mural on Haight St. represents street art in S.F. 2. “Women Loving Women” written in the sidewalk on Duboce St. represents the strong feminist & gay communities in S.F. 3. One of the tallest buildings in S.F., photographed near MoMA. 4. Blooming tree in G.G. Park.

RABAB AL HADDAD

PHOTO SCAVENG

NGER HUNT

ERIKA ANDERSON

RABAB AL HADDAD

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection At the beginning of this project I had to research about both cities, that I took two different research methods. For San Francisco, I have done a secondary type of research, while for Dubai I had a visual research. I also based a lot from memory about Dubai. Dubai and San Francisco are not too distinctly different as cities, since they both have a cityscape theme. Though even sharing that similarity, the atmosphere is different in both, in which I would call the content of the city. As a conclusion, I decided to go for what both cities are very popular for.

they saw it. Mainly saying “Oh there, look, there is that thing!”, and that was what I exactly wanted. I also wanted to achieve that with San Francisco, but I lacked that atmosphere of its content. I have also spent a lot of time on my Dubai poster rather than San Francisco which might have affected my final posters. As for technical aspect of this project, I have never gone hard core with flat colors before on a composition that does not exist. It was such a tedious job I have to say, but a rewarding one at the end. In that sense I think that this project expanded my comfortable level using Illustrator.

I am very interested to create an outcome that will be interactive to my audience. Thus, of why I created such design for Dubai poster, I was pleased to hear people reaction when

As I have received the one page description about San Francisco, I felt rather confused. Erika, seemed to have talked about it as if I knew the districts in San Francisco. Nevertheless, it was

understandable and I got the gist of it, but I was unable to feel the mood. Perhaps because it is very culturally different. Anyhow, Erika’s work is very clarified in terms of colors and has a really good sense determining what colors to choose. Even though she is not very detailed but careful on the edges, she does a good job to abstract her objects in her image. It has not been that easy passing on information to Erika about the poster progress from my side. Ever since the acquainting phase with Erika, our communication has gone down. Even though, we were both very understanding, and we both knew that we both were going through a lot on the time being. Eventually, we both pushed it through the end, and did the best we could.

CITY OF HILLS San Francisco A city that is built on 43 hills, and still has even more. Hills that grants San Francisco a unique geographical map. Despite the ups and downs, the city has adapted well to those hills, and thus producing a one of a kind scenery.

Dubai is a city full of energy, a source of innovations. A city that knows no boundries to create entertainment for it’s residents.

DISTRICTS OF DUBAI

ERIKA ANDERSON

Poster Pair Reflection At the start of making the Dubai and San Francisco posters, my aim was to find commonalities between the two cities because, in my experience, no two cities are ever really as different as we think they are. Finding commonalities between Dubai and San Francisco was difficult, but my word pair (large & small) unfolded the commonality of elevated heights. I discovered that albeit different in nature, the two cities have their own great heights that result in expansive views. In that regard, I’m happy that I accomplished my initial goals. At the conclusion of the Poster Pair project I feel infinitely more confident using InDesign. Moreover, incorporating images and works from other Adobe programs into InDesign is something I feel savvy doing. That was something I really wanted to get the hang of at the start of the project—I think I even wrote it down onto one of our role sheet questions. Working on my project, I learned a lot about design nuances and how the

devil is in the details. I also learned a lot about applying criticism in order to improve a piece of work. I think a lot of people (including myself) make the claim that art and design is completely subjective and, as a result, have a hard time accepting and applying criticism. This year I’ve resolved to listen to criticism and apply it as best I can. In my experience and from what I’ve witnessed, I can confidently say that listening to criticism is the single best thing someone can do to create a solid piece of work. Rabab’s project didn’t teach me all that much about San Francisco or Dubai, but it taught me more about Rabab herself. She spent more hours on her posters than I could imagine, and she still wasn’t satisfied. I know she has a lot on her plate right now. I do as well, and we’ve been understanding and supportive of one another. I think we’ve discovered that even though we take on too much, we both like to give one hundred percent to everything.

that she likes video games and video graphics. The poster is extremely detail oriented, and hyper-dense with a lot of dimension. The posters showcase her talent in the Adobe Suite and offer a very interesting point of view of both cities, respectively. I think her San Francisco poster is astoundingly accurate, with fog detail, lots of green, and impressive graphics of Victorian San Franciscan homes. Her posters have lots of movement and kinetic energy. There is the feeling of motion in rising balloons, speeding cars, rollercoasters, the appearance of wind, creeping fog and rustling trees. My posters do not have an element of motion, and I think this is why Rabab suggested that I add something more engaging and active, which was calling out hills and skyscrapers like talk bubbles. I think that her detail oriented style, and my very minimalistic style compliment each other well.

I could tell from Rabab’s designs

ERIKA ANDERSON

POSTER PAIRS San Francisco

I overlook one of San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most iconic parks and boast some of the best restaurants the city has to offer.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m most proud of my topographic map of San Francisco. I even used this graphic on my graduation announcements.

many

hills many views Alamo Heights Anza Hill Candlestick Point Bernal Heights Buena Vista Heights Castro Hill Cathedral Hill City College Hill College Hill Corona Heights Dolores Heights Edgehill Mountain Excelsior Heights Forest Hill Gold Mine Hill Holly Hill Hunters Point Ridge Irish Hill Layfayette Heights Larsen Peak Laurel Hill Lincoln Heights Lone Mountain McLaren Ridge Merced Heights Mint Hill Mount Davidson Mount Olympus Mount Sutro Mount St. Joseph Nob Hill Pacific Heights Parnassus Heights Polish Hill Potrero Hill Presidio Heights Red Rock Hill Rincon Hill Russian Hill Strawberry Hill Sutro Heights Tank Hill Telegraph Hill Twin Peaks North Twin Peaks South University Mound Washington Heights

ERIKA ANDERSON

many

skyscrapers many views Burj Khalifa Princess Tower 23 Marina Elite Residence Emirates Park Towers Hotel & Spa Almas Tower Emirates Office Tower The Marina Torch Ahmed Abdul Rahim Al Attar Rose Tower Al Yaqoub Tower The Index Burj Al Arab HHHR Tower Ocean Heights Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel The Address Emirates Crown Khalid Al Attar Tower 2 Islamic Bank Sulafa Tower Milennium Tower Marina Pinnacle JAL Hotel 21st Century Tower Al Kazim The Vision Dubai Marriott Harbour Ubora Towers Chelsea Tower Angsana Suites Al Tayer Churchill Residency Oasis Beach Al Fattan AAM The Tower Sama Tower The Buildings by Daman Rolex Tower Park Place Mag 218 The Bay Gate Trident Grand Al Seef Al Rostamani Maze Latifa Executive Tower M Grosvenor House West La Rêve

Dubai

I am the tallest building in the world measuring at 2,716 feet, but I’m most proud of my New Years Eve firework show.

For my final Dubai poster, l thought I’d applied Rabab’s criticism, but it turns out it wasn’t what she meant to suggest. Oops! I think it works anyway.

RABAB AL HADDAD

POSTER PAIRS

Dubai is a city full of energy and a source of innovation. It is a city that knows no boundries and strives to create endless entertainment for it’s residents.

My final stage of Dubai’s Poster. I wanted to use the text as an effective hierarchy element in the poster.

DISTRICTS OF DUBAI

RABAB AL HADDAD

CITY OF HILLS San Francisco

A city that is built on 43 hills, and still has even more. Hills grant San Francisco with a unique geographical landscape. Despite the ups and downs, the city has adapted well to the hills, producing a one-of-a-kind scenery.

My final stage of San Francisco poster. I wanted to have an organized composition and not something unrealistic. Also, enhanced my hierarchy.

RABAB AL HADDAD

REMIX POSTER Persona description

Phase I Analysis

James is an 8 year old clever student, and social. He likes going to school, as it fulfills his curiosity. He also likes to join events and extracurricular activities. His parents highly support him, encourages him to explores his options and help him believe in his decisions in a young age. James enjoys colorful and visual yet well integrated content in a book, or a printed material. Like any child, he enjoys going to parks, theme parks, carnivals, and museums. He also has been growing a keen interest about the world around him, and likes to discover new things. He seems to be attracted to the physical world, such as geography and science. Although he has an adventurous spirit, he sometimes puts himself in risky situations, and sometimes needs an adult supervision.

My initial response to Erika’s poster, I felt like there was a competition and conflict of hierarchy within the poster. She might have thought using the hills names might attract attention though, but it did not work for me. Her poster was not going through a grid either. However, the content she has chosen works well, and she chose words that would attract a male.

James has started a habit of collecting things from places he visits, anything he could get his hands on. For example, sand, a piece of metal, a leaf, or a branch(etc.) and then saves them in a box mentioning where were the objects from. Since he likes to join events, he always checks the bill board of events they have in town. He also likes to join events where he could physically be there and actively participating in the event.

I had trouble with her choice of font that she used for the hills since it was compressed and vertical text. I was not entirely sure about her font sizes in everything either, because some seem to work while others did not. I think applying a grid might have improved her design. Also, the compressed font might have been better as a title and with a big font as well. My reaction to Erika’s persona that even though he has an upbeat life, I found it quite dull. Probably because that is not how I spend mine. He has a very western persona, not that I am picking on him. I am disappointed that her persona disdains his wife. I wish to know what he did for living, it was never mentioned. But must be a not too stressful job to enable him to have fun. She also chose a good selection based on the text given, and an interesting even to bikers.

JUMPING ON THE HILLS

At this point, I am not sure if her persona would be attracted to her poster, as it does not speak very well to her persona. Her persona is an independent male, and it is known that men have a lot of ego and pride. Thus I would think that she needed very bold statement that would prove their masculinity. Hence why I would prefer if she chose “Conquer the City” as a title instead. To further improve her design to speak more to her persona, I would suggest to change title as mentioned above. Also, He also seems to be in a lively spirit, and he likes food. So if the campaign also offers food, that might attract him more.

Phase II Response Erika’s envision of my poster was interesting, and very simple. Her craft, however, reflected that she might have been busy and in rush to finish it. Even though her re-mix gave me ideas when I wanted to re-re-mix the poster again. I also liked how she changed the colors, and how she emphasized on certain things. I also thought that the exclamation mark added a lot of flavor to it. I was also pleased that she added a sentence that elaborated the event. I think she added an illustration because how she responded to my artistic taste with creating an artwork.

JUMPING ON THE HILLS

Everyone lives in their own world of their own making; everyone lives in their own San Francisco. How you see and think of and call -- and count -things depends on where you go and what you see and do there.

an adventure in pursuit of hidden hills of san francisco

Everyone lives in their own world of their own making; everyone lives in their own San Francisco.

SCOUT THE HILLS TO

How you see, think of, call and COUNT things depends on where you go, what you see & what you do there.

FIND HIDDEN ONES

SCOUT THE HILLS TO

FIND HIDDEN ONES FIND US AT

FIND US AT

Larsen Peak, San Francisco TIME

From April 26th , 2012 till May 6th, 2012, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Larsen Peak, San Francisco TIME

Sundays From April 26th til May 6th, 2012 9am – 3pm

ERIKA ANDERSON

EXCHANGE Persona description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

My character persona is a 42 year old professional male who was recently divorced. He has a 2 year-old daughter and enjoys dating younger women on the days that she is with her mother. He lives in Potrero Hill and drinks whiskey and Guiness and the occasional glass of fine red wine. His favorite food is pasta, but he never cooks it himself. He almost always dines out.

My initial response about the poster is in regards to the name “Jumping on the Hills” which I think lends itself perfectly to a small, 8-year-old boy named James. The concept of the name makes me think of hills like trampolines. The typeface of the headline is large and easy to read, I think this is what works best about the design. I also really like the right aligned headline, use of negative space, and left-aligned event information.

The main thing that struck me about the changes that Rabab made to the event poster was the mountain bike illustration she added. I was envisioning a road bike race through city streets, but Rabab included illustrations that made it seem like a much more rugged, muddy event. I could see this type of even being really successful in San Luis Obispo, but a bike race in San Francisco catering to the male persona I sketched would be better off presenting more elegance.

He grew up in Florida but loves California and what it has to offer and he talks about this often. He disdains his ex-wife, but loves San Francisco and his best buddies. He occasionally takes yoga classes unbeknownst to them. He is athletic; he works hard and plays hard. He bought a bike because his friends bought bikes and because he like domineering sports like mountain climbing, backpacking, skiing and running. He’s getting a little too old for running and he knows this because it started hurting his knees last year. He likes the status symbol of his carbon-fiber Trek roadbike, and the companionship bike riding gives him with other like-minded men.

Potrero Hill Bernal Heights Diamond Heights Mt. Davidson Twin Peaks Pacific Heights Russian Hill Telegraph Hill

San Francisco Hill Climb 1st annual bike tour celebrating the topography of the city we love

Conquer the City Saturday 15 September 2012

Registration Opens 1 June

If I could improve something I think it would be the accessibility of the byline text. I can’t figure out if it’s trying to communicate to children or to their parents. I think deleting the first line, “everyone lives in a world of their own making” and just beginning the byline with the sentence, “everyone lives in their own San Francisco” would make the description much stronger and easier to grasp. My reactions to Rabab’s persona are to the specific nature of her development of her character. She didn’t seem to write any stereotypes or generalizations into her character description. I think James is a very unique and interesting little boy who is extremely smart and curious. He is a child that doesn’t represent the majority of children his age. He is very high achieving and must be very ambitious to partake in an event that demands such geographic breadth and spirit for discovery. If I were going to suggest removing anything, it would simply be the first line in the byline description. Regardless, all information is pertinent and important to help the viewer understand what the event is about.I don’t think Rabab could have done a better job relating the text we had to base our event after to an 8-year-old demographic. I’m impressed with her creativity and I could see this event being part of public programming at the Children’s Museum.

Rabab and I have distinctly different aesthetic taste. While she seems to like embellishments and illustrations, I am attracted to a much more simplistic design, without illustrations. Her changes pose a slight challenge to me, but only insofar as changing the graphic or deleting some of the illustrations. I think she organized the information well and I’m always willing to work with her suggestions and changes.

San Francisco Hill Climb 1st annual bike tour celebrating the topography of the city we love

Join us riding those hills! Potrero Hill Bernal Heights Diamond Heights Mt. Davidson Twin Peaks Pacific Heights Russian Hill Telegraph Hill Conquer the City Saturday 15 September 2012

Registration Opens 1 June 2012

RABAB AL HADDAD

REMIX POSTER JUMPING ON THE HILLS an adventure in pursuit of hidden hills of san francisco

Everyone lives in their own world of their own making; everyone lives in their own San Francisco. How you see, think of, call and COUNT things depends on where you go, what you see & what you do there.

SCOUT THE HILLS TO

FIND HIDDEN ONES FIND US AT

Larsen Peak, San Francisco DATE

Sundays From April 26th till May 6th, 2012 TIME

9:00am – 3:00pm

I have tried my best to add elements that capture my persona’s attention. I used dashed lines on the hills to represent a trail and an adventure on the hills.

ERIKA ANDERSON

EXCHANGE Potrero Hill Bernal Heights Diamond Heights Mt. Davidson Twin Peaks Pacific Heights Russian Hill Telegraph Hill

CONQUER THE CITY 1s

ou rc ele

bra

tin

t the

opo

hy rap

of t

ty e ci

we l

ove

San Francisco Hill Climb Saturday 15 September 2012 Registration Opens 1 June

For my final Remix Poster I chose golden hills to represent the summer grasslands around the bay area.

IN SUMMARY RABAB AL HADDAD

ERIKA ANDERSON

Reflecting on the start of this project, and the idea of collaborating was very much new to me. It was getting myself in something I did not really know or experience before. I was anxious to know my partner and how it is going to be.

Working with Rabab from nearly half a world away has been really fun and I’m not sure she knows this but I lovingly call her my “home girl”.

Communication, in my opinion, was an important process and role in the whole collaboration. My partner and I did not have the problem of not communicating, perhaps only couple of times but that is about it. I do have to admit most of it might have not been related to work until the very end of this project. Going back to the first assignment, we had to write a one page description and photos of Dubai, and vice versa, she had to do that about Sans Francisco. Generally, it was a first impression project for both of us, in a way to evaluate our partners. I was very content with her level of understanding, and actually expanded my view on figure/ground term. I learned that if I attempted to explain things, it might better explaining things visually in a visual material rather than text. For example, I would edit her posters visually and try to show her what I meant.

To say that my understanding of visual representation has changed from working with someone from such a different culture would be a bit of a stretch. The main thing I’ve taken from this project is that design aesthetic isn’t cultural nearly as much as it is personal. I learned from Rabab what I would have learned from someone in San Francisco with distinctly different taste than my own—that aesthetic choices depend more on the person making them than the culture in which they are from. The biggest challenge I faced in this collaboration was communicating consistently and effectively while I had so many other things demanding my attention. During a semester where my own parents didn’t hear from me very often, I had to manage a direct line of communication with Rabab. At times I could have been more attentive in my emails, but we were always very understanding of each other.

The support and understanding we provided for each other, in my opinion, outweighs what I took from the design We have faced a lot of issues regarding project itself. This project has, I think, made Saudi Arabia seem far less the last project, but like always we daunting than it used to seem. I wasn’t aware of the cultural have both pulled it through. I was glad diversity within Saudi Arabia and I definitely hope to visit Dubai within the next few years to go to Art Dubai and to having Erika as my oversea partner. experience the city myself. I hope I can meet Rabab when I do!

BIOGRAPHY EBTESAM ABDULAZIZ

CHLOE KNOX

My name is Ebtesam Abdul Aziz, I’m a graphic design student in Zayed University and I was born in Dubai in 1990. I had taken classes in print making, graphic design, art history, typography and digital illustrative. I still taking classes in drawing, professional artist and other design classes that helped me to improve my work and gain more skills in these different areas. Most of my works are related to our every day life and our beautiful nature. Also, I’m interesting in photography, fashion and travel. I love to travel to know more about people cultures and traditions, which always inspires me. One of my favourite works was creating a cover for a story telling book, which contains more than 300 stories written by students in Zayed University. In the future I’m planning to have my own label design and open my own wedding Company.

My name is Chloe Miller Knox and I live in San Francisco. I’m originally from Olympia, Washington, the home of Sleater-Kinney, Olympia Beer, and The Evergreen State College. I like dogs and babies the most out of everything I have seen so far in the world.

Through this project I learned many new things about Chloe and life in San Francisco. I was very curious and excited to know about San Francisco and their famous places. I asked my partner Chloe about where we can go there and their famous places. So, she wrote to me about life there and where we can go there.

In e-mailing with Ebtesam I learned a lot about her culture and who she is as a person. I asked her what it is like to go to an all-girls school, and she wrote to me about how she enjoys it.

“It is really nice and exciting to go to girls’ school only, because you feel like it’s your home and we are all like sisters and friends, and you feel more free to talk and express your ideas with your girl friends more than if there are boys with us in the class.”

“ We have some really beautiful buildings here, including the Legion of Honour, which is a famous art museum here. We also have the Golden Gate Bridge, which isn’t actually a building, but it’s definitely the most famous landmark in the city” 51

EBTESAM ABDUL AZIZ

PHOTO SCAVENG Word pair definition In the context of Dubai, I think the word “open” refers to how the city is open for everyone. Dubai it is one of the cities that welcomes people from allover the world. In Dubai you will see people from different nationalities and cultures. Many tourist comes to Dubai to visit and see the beautiful and famous place here. When they visit Dubai they feel that they are in their home, because they feel comfortable and can find what ever they want. Although, Dubai it is an open city, it’s consider as a close city because we are so attached with our culture. So, if people visit Dubai they will see that women wear “abaya” and “shellah”, while men were “candorah”. Also, tourist can see in Dubai many “Masjeds” where Muslim people go to pray.

Similarities & Differences While I was searching information about Dubai and San Francisco, I found out that there are many similarities and differences between them. The similarities are that both of these two cities are open city that welcomes people from different nationalities and cultures. You can see in Dubai and San Francisco that they are very busy and crowded city. There are many markets, cars, restaurants, parks and famous towers and buildings. Moreover, my partner told me that you can see many old buildings and houses in San Francisco, which we can see that in Dubai also. Even That even we are developing fast and everyday we can see new things in Dubai we still adhere to our past and our heritage.

Although, you can see some similarities I think there are many differences between them, according to what my partner wrote about San Francisco and from different pictures I saw. I think San Francisco has more nature and trees than Dubai and the weather there its not hot as Dubai. Also, Chloe told me that the school system there its different from ours. Their school is mix and there are boys and girls in every class. Also, she told me that they have an open campus, so people are free to come and go as they please, and people who aren›t students there can come on campus whenever they want. While in our school boys are separated from girls, and people who are not in our school they can’t entre on campus without a permission from the administration.

NGER HUNT Similarities and Differences

Word pair definitions

So far I have learned that, like any big city, there is a lot to do in Dubai. My partner, Ebtesam, wrote to me about how she enjoys going to beaches, malls, parks, museums, aquariums, etc. I have the impression that it’s a very busy and happening city, both from the pictures she took and from what she’s told me. The pictures seem to show that there are both cultural parts of the city, such as little street markets, and parts of the city that are more developed and urban looking, like the many famous towers and innovative architecture.

CHLOE KNOX

I think this is one way Dubai and San Francisco are similar – they are both very diverse and not uniform looking. However, I think Dubai is more modern looking than San Francisco, since much of the urban development has occurred more recently. I’d like to focus on the fact that both cities are very eclectic. I think this relates back to how the word “open” represents San Francisco because it’s so inclusive – anyone can fit in somewhere because of its variety. This similarity could be communicated visually by using many pictures of each city, all within close proximity to one another, to give the impression of the many sides to each city.

In the context of San Francisco, I think the word “open” refers to how open the city is to everyone. It is easy to be who you are in this city because everyone is being themselves. I don’t feel like there’s a strict social code on how to dress or act. San Francisco is known for attracting those who don’t fit in anywhere else. It is an open city because it accepts those who feel like outsiders in other places. San Francisco is also “closed” because it’s different than every other city I’ve ever been to. It’s “closed” in that it’s not open to replication or repetition. It could also be considered closed to people who feel uncomfortable with freedom for personal expression. People in San Francisco tend to express themselves with such openness that it may make others feel wary and defensive. clockwise from top left: outdoor seating on Divisadero St.; view of Golden Gate Bridge from the sunroof of a car; Surf Motel in the Marina District; beautiful trees in Golden Gate Park.

EBTESAM ABDUL AZIZ

PHOTO SCAVENG

NGER HUNT

CHLOE KNOX

EBTESAM ABDUL AZIZ

POSTER PAIRS Poster pair reflection It was really a great opportunity to work with people from different cultures and nationality. I think it was a fun project and I enjoy my time while I was doing this project. Knowing people from other culture such as San Francisco (SF) helped me to know more about the United States. In the beginning of this project I was really not sure how SF looked. What are their famous places? And where you can go there? I was very excited and curious to know more about this country. So, I started to search through the Internet and found out some their famous places, which helped me to design my poster. Also, I sent different questions to my partner to help me to know about SF. I found out that it is a green city and there are many beautiful and nice places to visit and see.

Moreover, she told me that the Golden Gate Park its one of the most famous parks and most of people go there to enjoy their time. I think working with people from different cultures is very useful and exciting at the same time. From this cross cultural project I improved my skills in communicating, meeting new people and knowing how they think. Also, I knew their design levels and their knowledgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about Dubai and the life here. Finally, I think working in this way made the project more fun and interesting, and made us be curious to learn about different nationalities and cultures.

CHLOE KNOX

Poster Pair Reflection Through the 8,092 Mile Exchange, I have learned a lot about a culture that I previously knew nothing about. Before the project began we were asked to give an idea of our impressions on Dubai; I had very little to say because I had almost no impressions at all. What I later came to find out is that the little bit I did know is only a part of a very vibrant and diverse culture. Through our e-mail exchanges, it became clear that my partner, Ebtesam Mohamed, loves and really appreciates the city she lives in. She gave me a distinct idea of what living in Dubai is like for her — something I could not have learned simply though research. It is clear to me, both from what Ebtesam told me and from the pictures she took, that a very prominent part of Dubai is the innovation in urban development and architecture. There are many famous buildings and towers that she admires for their ingenuity and imaginativeness. However, despite the many modern aspects of Dubai, there is still a strong sense of Middle Eastern culture and tradition. She sent me many pictures of small marketplace stands selling shoes, spices, jewelry, etc. In the pictures of these markets, there seems to be many people wandering around, so it is apparent that this is not a forgotten part of the culture. Tradition is still greatly respected. Ebtesam also told me about the natural beauty of Dubai. There are magnificent beaches and deserts in surprisingly close proximity to the city. Because it is so hot there, the beaches are a huge attraction for both locals and tourists.

I feel like my San Francisco and Dubai posters for this project successfully portrayed each city from a classic perspective — Dubai as modern and urban, and San Francisco as diverse and unorthodox. They clearly tied together because of the matching color scheme and bold, obvious titles on each. I also used the text in each to highlight the lines and negative space created by the angles of the buildings in the photographs. Through the creation of these posters I learned how to work with some very fundamental Indesign tools to create an effective, although basic, design. This project also helped me learn how to utilize the tools I know in Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign to create a design that combines my knowledge of the Adobe Suite. Ebtesam’s poster pair is really impressive. Not only are her designs original and creative, they also show her skill with the Adobe Suite and that she can use it to create a successful finished product. Her posters tie together well because the colors she used compliment one another without matching exactly. She also used a layered effect in both that makes the posters a little hazy and more interesting than if the images of the famous examples of architecture stood alone. My interactions with Ebtesam throughout this project have been really helpful in furthering my understanding of her culture. There is no better way to get to know a culture than to talk to someone who lives it. I never would have learned as much if we had simply been assigned some research — by communicating one on one with Ebtesam I learned about Dubai from a unique, personal perspective.

CHLOE KNOX

POSTER PAIRS

DUBAI Tradition Meets Modernity

An unusual combination of

ancient and contemporary cultures, one side of the city is known for its towering, futuristic buildings, fancy cars, and

busy global marketplace. The other side has stands selling bags of spices and handmade shoes and jewelery. These two seemingly separate cultures peacefully coexist in one city.

CHLOE KNOX

Land of the Misfits

“San Francisco is a mad city – inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people, whose women are of a remarkable beauty.” Rudyard Kipling

EBTESAM ABDUL AZIZ

REMIX POSTER Living in a small family house with 3 members, Ahmed Seddiqi was the only child of Sheikh Qasim. His father was known as a “Mulla” which is a religious person who used to pray among people and teacher young children the Quraan. Ahmed grow up in a religious house, he used to live in Al Batakiya with his parents. When Ahmed was a child he used to collect watches even though he wasn’t educated, he had a mission to open a watch shop when he grow’s up and have his own business. His mission came true and he opened the first shop in Bur Dubai, which was a small shop, and he used to get watched from Bahrain and sell it. He wanted someone to take care of his business so his older son Ibrahim was helping his father to make the business more successful. Ibrahim helped his father and begun to like this job, but his father made him to finish his high school studies which was in Bahrain. The living of Ahmed Seddiqi was

The

CROSSING CROSSING CROSSING

DESERT

Auction

“ Today, in a changed world, as denizens of deserts in the Middle East have become citizens of the world at home on jets as much as in SUVs cruising the sands many remain devoted to their deserts, almost as an article of faith.”

Place: Dubai -Al Ain road Time: Monday, from 10:00 am to 12:00pm Sponsors: Emaar Investment

so simple because he and his family where living in one house with so many members, and these members where his grandsons and daughters from his son Ibrahim, they used to live in Al Bastakiya and life their was really simple. Afterwards Ahmed Seddiqi moved from Al Batakiya to Jumeria where life changed for him, because the style of living changed from simple into formal, and now his family got bigger and bigger. Ahmed cared a lot of his business so he decided to open more than one shop around the UAE. The family members his sons and his grandsons helped to open shops around the UAE. After this long journey of business and work Ahmed decided to take a break and let his son Ibrahim to take care of his business. He decided to buy a house in the middle of the desert, to be away from city noise, and return his memory and his simple life when he was a child.

CROSSING CROSSING CROSSING

DESERT

The

Persona description

A Fine Housewares Auction “Today, in a changed world, as denizens of deserts in the Middle East have become citizens of the world — at home on jets as much as in SUVs cruising the sands — many remain devoted to their deserts, almost as an article of faith.”

Place: Dubai, Al Ain road Time: Monday, May 14, 10:00am to 12:00pm Sponsors: Emaar Investment

Phase I Analysis I found out through our collaboration project, that my partner Chole tried to do her best in her posters. Her way of designing was very simple and she mostly played with the font size and placement. I liked that in her remix poster she made it as a film poster and created her own character. I liked the persona that Chloe created, it is shows that she is a business women who had her vital life. Also, I liked that she mentioned that her persona is interested in architecture, but could talk more about which kind of architecture. It will make the poster more related to her persona.

Phase 2 Response I liked the way Chloe colored the word “Crossing” which I did it in three different versions and placed in different angles to gave it the action of crossing. In the same time I think the red color she used for the background it is really strong and bright. Also, her design was very empty and didn’t show the topic well. So, if she added pictures or even chose the desert color for the background will make the poster looks more suitable with the title.

CHLOE KNOX

EXCHANGE Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

My persona is a woman in her midforties who runs her own business as a gardener/landscaper. She owns a small house in a quiet neighborhood with a big garden. She does not have kids or a partner, but she lives with her small Australian Shepherd. She has a little money set aside, which she uses to take time off work and travel as much as possible. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been to many countries in Europe, Asia, and South America, and her next goal is to make it to Africa. Her sister lives not too far away, so when she travels her dog stays at her sisterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house. She also has a good amount of friends in her area, so she frequently hosts or goes to dinner parties. She loves cooking good food, drinking red wine, and listening to good music. Sometimes she goes to dance classes, but she hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lately because her knees have started to bother her. Instead, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been spending time taking classes at her local community college, specifically art and history classes, but sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also interested in architecture.

My initial response to Ebtesamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poster was surprise. She was much more innovative with her text than I was, since I mostly played around with size and placement. I really like how she used three different versions of the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;crossing,â&#x20AC;? all placed at different angles and at varying levels of grayscale, to create a dynamic Phase II Response title with a sense of movement and vibration. I feel like the one thing she The additions Ebtesam made to my could improve on is including more poster add a sense of depth that it did details about what exactly the event not previously have. By adding images is. I know it is an auction, but what of different sizes, one in the foreground exactly is being auctioned off? Is the and one in the background, the poster money going towards a something in seems to stand on its own rather than particular? What is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Emaar Investmentâ&#x20AC;? relying on the placement of the text. and why are they sponsoring the She showed how she interpreted the auction? I think if I was an elderly poster project differently than me person looking at this poster, I would simply by including an image, which want to know more about it before I had originally not considered. The deciding to attend. images included in the poster literally represent the concepts of the desert The persona that Ebtesam created and nomadic style architecture feels really personal to me. I like that that the article and quote discuss. she included a lot of different parts Ebtesamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edits present a challenge to of his life so I have some background, me because there is already a lot going on in the poster â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not much I can add to it without making it look too busy.

A Film by Steven Ehrlich

Screening at the Capitol Theater Saturday, May 12 8 pm

PALM OF â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was not mimicking old buildings, but I was inspired by them, thinking about how an ancient local tradition can be respectfully broadened and transformed. Like Dubai itself, the house is adapting traditions while working toward the future.â&#x20AC;?

A HAND

PALM OF

LIKE THE

Screening at the Capitol Theater Saturday, May 12, at 8 pm Q&A with Los Angeles architect Steven Ehrlich following the film

instead of just focusing on where he is in his life now. I think this character would be more attracted to going to the auction if they were selling something in particular that he was interested in purchasing, or if they were only selling a certain category of things that fits in with who he is, such as watches.

A Film by Steven Ehrlich

LIKE THE PALM OF A HAND â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was not mimicking old buildings, but I was inspired by them, thinking about how an ancient local tradition can be respectfully broadened and transformed. Like Dubai itself, the house is adapting traditions while working toward the future.â&#x20AC;?

Screening at the Capitol Theater Saturday, May 12, at 8 pm

Q&A with Los Angeles architect Steven Ehrlich following the film

IN SUMMARY EBTESAM ABDUL AZIZ

CHLOE KNOX

Through my collaborative project with my partner Chloe in San Francisco, I have learned about how important it is to work together and be willing to compromise. While I was working on the 4 posters I noticed that my partner felt here skills in designing were limited but she tried her best to create good posters. When she saw my work she was surprised and likes the way I did the posters. I think both of us did good work in creating our posters together and we are happy with the final results.

Through my collaborative project with my partner in Dubai, I have learned about how important it is to work together and be willing to compromise. While working on the Remix posters, the edits Ebtesam made to my original poster were really different than I was expecting. I like what she did with it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I was just surprised at how much it changed. However, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy with the outcome; between us we created a successful design.

Also, I learned how important is to work with people especially if they are from different cultures and nationalities. I think now I have better understanding of how to communicate with people and collaborate. Moreover, it improved my design skills and made me looks at Dubai from different aspects. This collaboration project also deepened my understanding of San Francisco and the United States as a culture, since I had very little background knowledge of it. I learned a lot about what life is like for Chloe. Not only from our correspondence but also from the different images she sent me. These images gave me a bigger idea of how life is there and how different Dubai is from San Francisco.

I also have a better understanding of effective visual representation after this collaboration. I have increased my ability to portray information through a poster in a way that is both artistic and practical. Doing this was particularly difficult with the San Francisco and Dubai posters because there were so many elements involved, including the word pairs, the photos that both Ebtesam and I took, and the emphasis on portraying both cities in a particular way. I found it was even more difficult with the Remix posters because I had to work with Ebtesam to achieve a look that satisfied both of our artistic styles. This collaboration project also deepened my understanding of Dubai as a culture, since I had very little background knowledge of it. I learned a lot about what life is like for Ebtesam and her classmates, not only from our correspondence but also from the pictures she sent me. They gave me an idea of what being a student in Dubai might look and feel like.

BIOGRAPHY F AT M A AL HASHEMI

ANGELA ALIOTTI

Fatma Al Hashemi, a permanent resident on planet earth. A 20-year-old peace believer, She inhales creativity and exhales ideas. Dubai is her hometown and she finds shelter and warmth between her family. Using both graphic design and photography she portrays life, and she hopes to achieve her goals through them. She’s one year away from graduating from Zayed University hoping that she leaves mastering in what she loves most, graphic design.

My name is Angela Aliotti, and I am currently a senior and will be graduating from the University of San Francisco this Spring. I am from Monterey, and live right next to the beach. The best part of Monterey is being able to hear the seals at any time of the day from my bedroom window. Seals and sea otters have been my favorite animal ever since preschool. My hobbies include dancing, performing, baking and film photography. I love travel, especially to Marettimmo, a small island off the coast of Sicily, where my family is from.

My partner through this collaboration was Angela Alliotti, Both of us shared a lot of interests and became good friends.

“Angela : Hey Fatma! What are you’re favorite colors? Me : Orange and blue, Why? Angela : Its a surprise :D !”

“Do you have a criminal record? Just kidding! ” The quote above was said by my partner. Fatma, during out first email conversation. I thought she was hillarious! She also made me feel very comfortable when talking to her.

Above is a conversation we had just before Angela created her poster remix, i thought it was really sweet of her considering me and also we grew really close and it felt great having a friend like her.

FATMA AL HASHEMI

PHOTO SCAVENG These are Photos of Some of the Man-Made places and aspects of Dubai, these photos have been taken through my scavenger hunt while searching for things that represent my word pairing.

Word pair definitions

Natural:

Man-Made:

Something that existed before machinery and without any man-made additions to it. The sea, tree’s and desert with a lot more aspects that are formed by earth without any human interruption. Dubai by time grew less of natural aspects, some of the natural places you find in Dubai are the deserts ,the essential heart of Dubai and main tourist attraction. The beach is another attraction and getaway in the summer, both Jumeira and Al memzar beach get the most attention as the only two beaches in Dubai.

Something created by a human’s interruption or using machinery. A Man-made aspect of a city is mainly buildings, factories, houses and also cars and transportation vehicles, these are all created by a human’s interruption and by the help of machinery. Dubai is man-made city, from the skyscrapers to the houses and even metro, there are all aspects that help life be easier and are a definition of development.

Similarities and Differences Dubai and San Francisco are similar in a lot of things, through my partner’s report about San Francisco i learned that development took place within both cities, although natural aspects were found in San Francisco, they were within man-made structures, for example the flower conservatory. Dubai, a city that changed through history, made development speed up, and like San Francisco, Dubai still made room for natural places remain with few man-mad structures to enhance it, for instance the wild life conservative it surrounded with fences and aspects that are a major role in keeping the place standing .

NGER HUNT Word pair definitions Similarities Natural: Something that is organic, and Differences and has not been ruined by pollution. In terms of San Francisco, the most natural space I can think of is the ocean. The conservatory of flowers also comes to mind, however the space that the flowers were planted in are man made. The people in SF come across to me as natural. In my experience, LA is a very superficial city, where everyone one has plastic surgery done. I have rarely seen such drastic and unnatural changes to the human body in SF. With that being said, people in Sf are more natural in terms of how they look. Man-Made: Something that is manman is built with hands, or machinery. I feel that the majority of San Francisco is man made. Most of the parks in SF are man made. I also would associate this term with the financial district. I imagine the tall, shiny buildings representing something that is man made. The industrial part of the city also represents something that is man made.

Based off Fatma’s written description of Dubai there seems to be many similarities between San Francisco and Dubai in terms of man made and natural. She describes Dubai as a man made city. She mentions that there is nothing natural about it, except for the desert and two beaches, Jumeira and Almemzar. During the winter, the desert becomes an “escape” from the city. People go there and build bonfires to get away from the cold city. Fatma goes on to describe that the only thing that Dubai does not have is natural snow. However, the Duabi Mall has a man made ski resort inside! The Duabi Mall seems to have a significant impression on anyone who visits Dubai. She mentions that it is the main tourist attraction, and has any store you can dream of. The “natural” photo’s Fatma sent me were all by the beach. Dubai seems like a beautiful city, especially a night.

ANGELA ALIOTTI

A photo of a breathtaking sunset setting on the ocean remind me of my home. Actually all the of natural photos remind me of my home in some way. Duabi also seems like a very flat place. There is not one hill in sight! The beaches seem to be very flat and still. When taking my natural photos the beach was the main thing that came to my mind just like Fatma. This seems to be the main similarity (in natural terms) between Dubai and San Francisco. Both cities seem to be industrial, touristy with man made qualities making up the city. I look forward to learning more about Dubai, and seeing more photographs of the city. I would like to hear more from Fatma about the naturalistic and man made elements of the city. Maybe if there is anything else besides the mall the stands out as man made? Also, are there anymore natural places in Dubai? Perhaps a natural places within a man made structure, like the Conservatory of Flowers. Overall, I am starting to have a feel of what Dubai is like.

These photos represent the man-made qualities I found when exploring San Francisco. San Francisco is a city where many natural elements are within a man-made structure such as the Conservatory of Flowers.

FATMA AL HASHEMI

PHOTO SCAVENG

NGER HUNT

ANGELA ALIOTTI

FATMA AL HASHEMI

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection This project was my first collaboration work and by far the best, despite our difference in time and educational levels, I enjoyed the fact that we learned a lot about their culture and also learned things we never knew about my own city and just found out. The posters making was a challenge since i was struggling to define San Francisco, a place i have never been too or heard anything about before, the only thing that popped in my head when i heard that we’re collaborating with students from San Francisco is their huge bridge which I didn’t even know its name before this project. My posters i chose to create were based on typography, since we are in a typography course i thought i would stick to the theme we’re being taught about. I thought of asking first my partner about San Francisco and ignore the informative research paper she handed in. My partner and I grew

close and became good friends, we learned alot about each other’s cultures, and talked about alot of things. Before i started sketching ideas, I thought of asking my partner what does she really think about San Francisco, she mentioned the diversity about her city and how it takes over the place, which is also similar to Dubai, both cities have a fair percentage of diversity within the population. My ideas for my posters were based on peace and Diversity, i started with Dubai’s poster, throughout the process the first thing i thought of when i heard someone mentioning Dubai is a smile, i thought that i cant stop myself from smiling when I hear someone talking about my city and a lot agree with me on this, so i started playing around with type and a quote i wrote myself , i played around with type in a fun vibrant way to give people the true feeling of Dubai. San Francisco’s poster was created by the same steps and idea, since they

share a lot in common, i thought of searching for a quote or sentence i can play around with that mentions San Francisco and represents it in the simplest words. I started with the main messy kind of typography as the main idea, i integrated few symbols with it to make it more fun and enjoyable to see. For both posters i tried to stick to typography but also give it a fun and funky feel to it, I used the color red for Dubai because it reminded me of the calm sky and took me through the peace’s phase, i chose for the San Francisco one a red color because it reminds me of the bridge which was the first thing i knew about this city. However, The main thing i thought of for both cities is what truly promotes them, and its not only about tourist attractions, its also about the people and atmosphere, which got me thinking of peace, diversity and love, and through these posters i was determined to present that.

I wrote with my own words few sentences that i thought i could add to the poster for people who do not know anything about both Dubai and San Francisco, i kept it casual and appealing to reach all age groups .

ANGELA ALIOTTI

Poster Pair Reflection During the poster pair project I discovered many similarities between San Francisco and Dubai. At first, I assumed that these two diverse cities had nothing in common. However, through my discussions with my partner and some exploration, I found San Francisco and Dubai to be extremely alike. I analyzed each city in natural and man made terms and I believe that is why I found so many similarities between the two. My perspective on the Dubai culture has drastically changed from when I first started the poster. I honestly did not know anything about the culture, atmosphere and people living within the city. I discovered that Dubai has many man made elements all over the city. The ocean seemed to me to be the most natural aspect of Dubai, as well as San Francisco. I chose to go with an ocean theme not only because it’s the most natural element in both cities, but because I feel that it is the most overlooked and perhaps taken for granted.

I was having a difficult time intertwining my photos together. After I hand wove my photographs and uploaded them onto the computer my poster seemed to be coming along. I enjoyed the weaving process and plan to do the same technique to other photographs I have! The texture and effect it created was something that a photograph could not capture, just like the beauty of the ocean. I also like the meaning of intertwining the cities together and how I was able to literally intertwine the photographs. I found using InDesign was harder than other software programs we have used in the past. Something that I learned and applied in my poster, was using different effects to overlay color. This created a subtle color over my original photo. From what I have seen so far from my partner’s designs is that she has focused more on typography rather than the imagery. She has chosen a quote about each city to describe it. She chose to use a peace sign within each of her posters signifying that both cities share the common interest of a peaceful city. I found

that interesting because that did not even cross my mind when designing my poster. Her ideas have opened my mind to other similarities between Dubai and San Francisco. Such as.... Our interaction and communication has been a work in progress. I have yet to see a finished design. I feel that we were on different pages for this project. However, we were able to comment on one another’s work and give feedback, which was great! I was a little nervous for her reaction on my Dubai poster. I was hoping that I depicted it accurately. She really liked how I tried to “weave” our societies together and thought it was an interesting take on it! Overall, I feel that this collaboration between San Francisco and Dubai has been a great success! I look forward to our remix posters and being able to manipulate and transform one another’s posters and ideas. This poster project has opened my eyes to the similarities between our two cities. Even though we are 8,092 miles away, we are still able to visualize and understand the similarities and differences between our cities. This is a great and unique experience.

Ocean Beach Ras Ghrab Sutro Baths

San Francisco has become an interwoven city of man-made and natural elements. Ocean Beach is home to the Sutro Baths, a historical man-made bath from the 1800s. Ocean Beach and the sutro baths come together to represent a significant passage of time.

An Island

Dubai is known for its man-made islands off the coast. Ras Ghrab is an island located near Dubai. It is a completely natural island, though it has man-made docks and houses, intertwining natural and man-made elements.

My final poster pairs reflect the similarities I discovered between San Francisco and Dubai. Both cities have many man-made elements intertwines with natural elements. I wove a night and day photo of the same image together to represent the interwoven cities.

FATMA AL HASHEMI

POSTER PAIRS

Dubai, a city where peace is guaranteed, I chose this phrase because it was the first thing i thought of when Dubai had to be represented, and i developed it into a typographic art work.

FATMA AL HASHEMI

REMIX POSTER Persona description My audience is a 40-year old married man. Mohammed, a 40-year-old father and grandfather. Mohammed dedicated his life for 2 main things, his family and job. He works as a manager at a governmental firm and he’s known to be the father of the firm since he has been there for so long and people look up to him as a father. Mohammed enjoys family gatherings and parties, his family comes before anything else and he loves to be around them all the time. Mohammed has always wished to have his dream house; he loves redecorating

his current house every now and then to refresh it and make it feel new, he also loves construction working that other members of the family always ask him for help when it comes to building a house and decorating it. Mohammed loves traveling from time to time and discovers new places that he hasn’t been to yet. As a family guy, Mohammed works so hard to make sure his family is comfortable and happy as he tends to keep them all together, that’s why he enjoys weekly family gatherings and parties, he enjoys seeing them all happy in the same place. The gift of a second language

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

My partners persona was well thought of and i can relate to the text or article we were supposed to read and analyze through this project. I like how she created the first simple black and white poster, the idea and structure was good , i know it was supposed to be simple but i thought that it would have looked better if it was related to the age group she had, children are more attracted to colors and also characters, which is what i considered when i had to remix it. Other than that comment, i thought that my partner had really thought well of what is related to the subject we read and to what we had to present.

The poster my partner created was well done, yet i didnt feel it was quiet related to the age group i had, it was more colorful and vibrant, it looks like it was related to children more than a 40-year-old, but over all it was a great choice of fonts and the structure was interesting, though i was expecting to see something else more related to my persona i sent to her.

At the beginning my persona and poster had a slight conflict where i wasn’t aware that it had to be related to the article, my partner mentioned it to me and i was glad to change the misunderstanding i had, i fixed the poster to a more suitable one. My challenge was to relate the subject to the persona i had, since i wrote the persona before i read the article, but when i thought of it i tried to relate my poster to the persona and article and i think i succeeded after the struggle.

Angela created boxes with different colors and sizes, she gave them a dashed white stroke and placed the text within the boxes. The theme of this poster looked more childish but wasn’t a bad design although i prefer calmer colors. The refinements she had helped enhance the poster yet it needed specific aspects to consider while she was through the refinements phase. Angela’s efforts didn’t go to waste, her thoughts were understood and i like her neat layouts, maybe she would do better if she challenged her self with a collage or things she fears of applying, but overall, working with her was great and i love her hard work

“

For me English was always the

public language, the language of power, competition, and progress, and also the language of solitude, the language where I was totally on my own, without my parents to help me.

”

Language immersion

through fun games, acting and art workshops!

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Where? Parish Hall, Monterey, CA. When? June 1, 2012, 1 p.m.

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Knowledge Village, Dubai, Villa no.12

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Registration starts 7th of may till the 14th.

ANGELA ALIOTTI

EXCHANGE The audience of my poster is a child. The child’s name is Natasha. She was born in Monterey, California and is about 7 years old. Her Dad is from Catania, Sicily, and her Mom is from Columbia. Natasha first languages were Spanish and Italian. She began learning English at a young age since she would be attending a school where

the only language used is English. She started 1st grade this past August. Natasha loves bright colors especially pink. She loves to draw, paint and use her imagination. When she gets home from school she likes to play games with her older cousins, especially hide and seek. She is an only child, however she has a huge Italian family, filled with many cousins! Her whole family

lives very close to each other. They always come together on large celebrations such as Easter and Christmas. Another favorite activity she likes to do is play dress up. She dresses up in her Mom’s fancy clothes and high heals and parades around the house. Natasha loves going to school. She also loves Disney movies and enjoys going to Disney land each year.

L The gift of a second language

My partner’s personas were well thought out and well organized. It was easy to understand who her persona was. She made it clear who the audience was through her personas. My initial response/reaction to her poster was a bit confused. Her poster has nothing to do with the text we both received. I also feel that her personas were extremely general in terms of the poster. Also, when I was creating my persona, I specifically made it so it related to the text we both received. I also would have liked my partner to have used a quote from our text. The part of my partner’s poster that works the best, is her title and information about the event on the bottom. The title of her event is called “With Love”. She uses a swirly font that gives a romantic effect. The event information is centered and creates a perfect pyramid shape. An improvement I would suggest is a different theme for her poster. As of now, it is a donation to less fortunate people so they can see her family. In my partner’s personas she describes the man (Mohammed) as a loving father, however, he also loves to decorate, travel, cook and spend time with his family. I would tweak the event to perhaps a cook-off for the whole family, or lessons on decorating with the family. I think that would narrow down her person to make it more detailed rather than the general public.

Phase II Response I was completely impressed with Fatma’s design changes to my poster. The additions she has changed and made has added and reinforced my original ideas. She has complexly dedicated the poster to the persona I have created. She has made it so it speaks to a certain audience. The most significant change she has made is the illustration of a bunny holding balloons. The color pallet was well thought out since it specifically relates to my persona, a child. Fatma has created this event into a child friendly one, where kids of all ages can enjoy. Fatma has interpreted my poster the same way I originally envisioned it. I wanted an event that kids would enjoy. I love how she added an illustration it makes the design stronger. The only thing that I would change is the font style of the question mark. The font she has chosen is fun, however, it is in an unusual shape which makes me thing that it would be hard to translate for a child. Her contributions do not present a challenge. She has added elements that reinforce my ideas in a positive way. The only challenge was the font she has used for the question marks. By adding a simpler font, I was able to make the font more cohesive. Overall, I am very excited about the way Fatma has remixed my poster!

Lingua

Phase I Analysis

Language immersion through fun games, acting and art workshops! June 1, 2012, 1 p.m. FREE!

Persona description

“For me English was always the public language, the language of power, competition, and progress, and also the language of solitude, the language where I was totally on my own, without my parents to help me.”

Language

The gift of English as a second language

“

For me, English was always the public language, the language of power, competition, and progress, and also the language of solitude, the language where I was totally on my own, without my parents to help me.

”

English Language Learning through fun games, acting and art workshops!

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Where? Parish Hall, Monterey, CA. When? June 1, 2012, 1 p.m. Pre-K through 1st grade

IN SUMMARY F AT M A AL HASHEMI

ANGELA ALIOTTI

Before this collaboration i never thought of San Francisco, never expected ill be working with someone there or even learn more about this city. This collaboration opened my eyes to another culture and i grew fascinated to know more about this city and the culture. Speaking of the artistic part of it, i learned how to cooperate and create something depending on the other person’s ideas and comments, i enjoyed the poster makings and thinking of a unique way to present my ideas.

I have had an extremely positive experience with the Dubai collaboration. It has opened my eyes to new ways other people visualize information. This project has helped my realize that text and illustration are very important in the visual world. My partner has helped me understand, through her designs, the importance of typography and illustration. For our poster remix project she illustrated the background of my poster. Honestly, I would have never thought to do that! The fact that she hand-drew this illustration has made me appreciate visual representation more.

I enjoyed having a friend overseas and getting to know everything that i never knew before about their culture and city, my partner was pleasant to speak to and enjoyed her comments and excitement. Despite the difference in timings and spring breaks we tried to stay in track and learn as much as we can from each other and make it work out

“I’ll be gone for two weeks, and when I’m back, the fun continues!” This is what i told myself and friends in the same course when i left for my spring break, so we did have a break from the project, but i did think of it even when i traveled in my spring break. This collaboration taught me how to accept different ideas and thinking, Im not always right or wrong, but i learned to accept and work it through, but most of all i learned how to play with my typography, and definitely improved my skills throughout this course which makes me more than happy and proud.

I absolutely loved the 8,092-mile collaboration! Coming into this class, I never imagined I would be working together with a girl from Dubai! It taught me great communication skills and how to work with someone who is 8,092 miles away! Sometimes the communication was a bit challenging. For example, when we were on spring break both of us were away from our computers, so it made it difficult to receive responses quickly.

“Coming into this class, I never imagined I would be working together with a girl from Dubai!” I have always been interested in Dubai, and have always planned to travel there in future. Having done this collaboration, it has reassured me that I definitely want to visit Dubai! Even though the culture is different, I found many similarities between myself and Fatma. It was interesting to see how the girls in Dubai perceived San Francisco. Our cities may be extremely different, but I was happy to have so much in common and to create a friendship with my partner.

BIOGRAPHY ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

N ATA L I E MCCANN

I am a senior visual Art student at Zayed University. I have taken many courses related to my major such as drawing, Art History, Printmaking, Typography, Photography and many others. Currently, i am graduating from Zayed University by taking Senior Project, Digital Video, Painting and several other courses in addition. At the beginning, my major was Finance and most my experience is related to that major. Art and Design was what I really wanted to pursue. I am a Visual Artist with an interest in Graphic Design. In the beginning, I disliked and found it difficult to work with computers. However, after taking a few elective courses in Graphic design I became comfortable working with what I thought were hard software’s such as, Illustrator and Photoshop. I hope to continue my studies to create more art pieces that inspire the world.

I was born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA. As a child, I enjoyed drawing and finger-painting, playing imaginary, and roaming around the foothills with my friends. Other favorite activities included playing with Barbies and My Little Ponies, taking ridiculously slow walks, and running around my backyard stark naked. I grew up with a very strong connection to art and nature, and my family visited the beach and the local art museum several times a week. As a teenager, my interests shifted to include blasting loud music, sulking in my room, and sipping on mimosas made of Yellow Label Veuve Clicquot and freshly squeezed orange juice (yummy!). I moved to San Francisco to pursue studies in Art History/ Arts Management, and I eventually hope to get a PhD and become a curator/art critic in NYC.

In this project, I learned and saw things about San Francisco that I did not know. For example, the walls on the streets has cool graffiti artwork. By chatting with my partner, there are some quotes that i like. Two of my favorites where:

“For an American, the Arabic writing is incredibly beautiful (even though I have no idea what it says unless there is a translation!).” “I loved the photos of you and your friends with the pretty jewelry and nice handbags!!!! You guys are really fashionable! I think that we would have a lot fun going shopping together :)”

One of my favorite quotes from my correspondence with Alia is:

“In my free time I go out with my friends for lunch or sometimes to the beach if the weather is sunny...or go to the movies and do some shopping. =P ” I love this because it shows women are alike all over the world.

ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

PHOTO SCAVENG

Word pair definitions

Similarities and Differences

In the past, women used to where one type of Abaya. However, our traditional clothingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is becoming more and more modernalize by using different textiles and designs. Even though Dubai is using modern architecture such as Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab, they are still conserving old buildings. For example, Al Bastakiya. In addition, they are trying to keep our old tradition alive by constructing new buildings using old designs.

Dubai has hot summers and San Francisco has cool summers. Dubai has lower rate of population and San Francisco has a bigger rate of population. Dubai has few graffiti walls and San Francisco is a city that is very proud of the graffiti artwork.

Over time, Dubai has become more and more modern. Architect is using modern techniques in buildings. In addition, Dubai is becoming more open into giving women more rights. For example, women are able to enter the field of politics and they are given the freedom of speech.

Dubai and San Francisco are two cites that attracts tourists all over the world. Dubai and San Francisco have important skyscrapers. Dubai and San Francisco both have beautiful beach sites. Dubai and San Francisco both are very famous cities that are recognized all over the world.

NATALIE MCCAAN

NGER HUNT Selected favorite photos f rom my photo scavenger hunt

Word pair definitions Similarities and Differences In the United States, the terms “liberal” and “conservative” possess a multitude of meanings, depending on the context. First and foremost, they have a very obvious political connotation. In this context, liberalism is associated with stances that favor high levels of individual freedom in political and social reform. Political conservatism, on the other hand, is associated with stances that promote free enterprise and private ownership. In the city of San Francisco, however, the terms “liberal” and “conservative” are not generally employed in this strict, wholly political sense. In colloquial parlance, “liberal” usually refers to openness to new behaviors and opinions, and willingness to discard traditional values. “Conservative” generally refers to the maintenance of traditional attitudes and values, and cautiousness regarding change and innovation.

The first thing that strikes me when comparing my photos with Alia’s is the huge difference between liberal in Dubai and liberal in San Francisco. In a certain sense, the adjective liberal could be a one-word description of our city: San Francisco is liberal on both a political and personal level. We dress and act the way we want to, support alternative lifestyles, and speak freely about our opinions. One of Alia’s photos for “liberal” is a shot of several women wearing burqas. They are considered an example of liberal because they are also carrying Western designer bags, have bright manicured nails, are adorned with western jewelry, and are wearing western attire beneath the burqas. This is extremely fascinating for me, because here in California, designer handbags and expensive jewelry seem more conservative than liberal (as opposed to, say, handmade hemp

bags and beaded bracelets that the wearer dons to express his or her individuality). In contrast, one of my images is of a hippy-inspired sign for a smoke shop with an overt drug reference: a shockingly more liberal statement. Women carrying designer bags would be a good image for conservative here! Interestingly, Alia’s most arresting photos for “liberal” are of Dubai’s futuristic architecture. By contrast, Alia has several images of ancient looking buildings, which she uses as examples of “conservative.” I find this distinction quite intriguing, because it had never really occurred to me that something might be considered “liberal” just because it is new, and “conservative” just because it is old. Before exchanging photos with Alia, I had not realized that Dubai might be attempting to express its liberality through architecture! 77

ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

POSTER PAIRS San Francisco and Dubai Definition Dubai is very unique and is a great city. Over the last twenty years Dubai has become the center of all tourism. It has rapidly developed and still is to this day. It has the tallest skyscraper called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Burj khalifaâ&#x20AC;? and many other skyscrapers that make it very rich, glamorous and fabulous. In addition, even though it is still in the process of development and adding the modern touch to the buildings and towers, the element of traditional buildings is still there. Dubai is not looking to neglect the past traditions built by our father Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, yet they try to improve them. Dubai gives people and tourists the authentic luxurious experience that they will not forget.

San Francisco is a cultural city. This architectural city has become one of the top tourist destinations. It has a very cool and calm summer and not to forget the breathtaking view of the fog in the sky that we keep seeing in movies. San Francisco has the most amazing landmarks, such as, Cable cars, China town, and Golden Gate Bridge. However, I have never been to San Francisco, yet I am familiar with this city, for the reason that it is very famous and so many movies were filmed in this extraordinary city.

ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

NATALIE MCCAAN

POSTER PAIRS San Francisco and Dubai Definition Obviously, the American and Emirate cultures are very different, but I still got the sense that—despite some fairly significant dissimilarities—we actually have quite a few things in common. People are people, after all. I already knew this based upon previous traveling experience, but this project really drove that message home for me. That is why I was inspired to create those two figures in my posters. I was trying to communicate the idea that, underneath our burkas and/or hot pants (as the case may be), we are all ultimately people. We feel the same emotions and we share the same basic life experience. My interactions with my partner have been interesting but also somewhat minimal. I think that maybe I accidentally offended her because I sent her my photographs of San Francisco a little bit late, since I had been quite ill. I apologized profusely, but I think that might have gotten us off on the wrong foot. On

the other hand, maybe she is just busy. I was really impressed with my partner’s designs! She is incredibly gifted! She did this amazing image of a silhouetted city scape of Dubai set against golden sand dunes in the foreground. It looks really professional. She also used miniature silhouettes of architectural landmarks in Dubai to form her typography, which is a very nice touch. Based upon her design, I think that maybe she conceives of Dubai as something of an urban oasis located within a vast, endless desert. Design-wise, I guess that my biggest lesson from this project is that designers need to devote an incredible amount of time to their work. Designing is a really long (possibly even endless) process! And the technology can be very difficult to manipulate sometimes. I actually really like to continually revise, rework, and perfect my designs (it gives me sense of vaguely obsessional satisfaction), but wow, it is extremely

difficult to fit that in when you’ve got a full schedule! I think that if I actually wanted to enjoy the design process rather than just be stressed out and anxious about it, I would just have to drop everything else I was doing and focus exclusively on design. On the one hand, I definitely like my final poster designs, but on the other, it is too bad that I was not able to enjoy the process of creating them. I think that when I graduate, I will try taking a slower-paced graphic design class at City College so that I can continue to explore some of the cool, fascinating concepts we’ve been discussing in class, but in a more relaxed environment. I can only imagine how stressful it must be for professional designers to create work for picky clients under a tight deadline!!!

My process in creating the Dubai poster.

NATALIE MCCAAN

Poster Pair Reflection This was a very interesting project! It was fascinating to work in collaboration with someone living on the other side of the world. I have never been to Dubai, so this was my first opportunity to get a glimpse of Emirate culture from the perspective of a native. I can’t really say that I feel as if I truly understand Emirate culture now (on the contrary, much still remains shrouded in mystery), but I definitely think that I have more of an awareness of their customs, lifestyle, and general outlook than I did before we began the project. For example, one overreacting consistency that seems to have emerged based upon our interactions with our partners is the Emirate love for all things related to fashion and shopping. I had no idea that was such a huge cultural value for them, since

the American media always shows the women wearing plain, black burkas all the time. Who knew that most Emirate women own a sizeable collection of jewelry and designer handbags that would turn even the likes of Anna Wintour green with envy? Who knew that manicures and pedicures are not only acceptable there, but possibly even de rigueur? Most importantly, who knew that underneath the burkas, many of the women are decked out in elaborate Western outfits? That was something I learned from one of my partner’s photographs, in which she opened her burka to reveal a bright T-shirt and high heels. Even more shocking is the apparent reality that at least some of the Emirate youth go out clubbing in Western clothes. This is something that I learned from Zeina, who was explaining that

a small percentage of the Emirate population actually wear Western clothing everyday (I still can’t quite wrap my brain around this though. Is it just the men and expats who do this, or are there born and raised Emirate women who occasionally leave the house in Western clothing? I will have to ask Zeina for some clarification on this…). We were really lucky that Zeina happened to be in our class! I actually think that I learned more about Dubai from her than I did from my partner because I was able to ask her spontaneous questions in class. This project has inspired me to apply for an internship at Art Dubai so that I can learn more about the art scene over there!

My process in creating the San Francisco poster.

ALIA ABDULRAHMAN NATALIE MCCAAN

POSTER PAIRS

The final versions of my Poster Pairs, emphasizing the Illustrations of women

NATALIE MCCAAN

After many revisions, I hope these posters evoke the bonds between women around the world

ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

REMIX POSTER Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

An old couple with sore feet personifies my audience. They suffer from aches and irritations from having too much time spent moving around. They are feeling uneasy and their age is affecting their movements and would love to find a place that would provide them comfort and relaxation. They are in pain and the lack of relief has dampened their mood and left them nothing but sour feelings day in and out.

My initial response to the poster was that it was a persistently obvious message that repeated the topic over and over just to be as straightforward and obvious as it can get. There could be improvement by using less repetition and simplifying the design further through limiting the fonts and sizes used in the design. Reducing the repetition of words and sentences and limiting the different sizes of text to simply 3 if possible what I think need to be change so the poster design will look more interesting to look at and make it less crowded. The persona would benefit from the information mentioned in the design, the poster is perfectly clear in its message and powerfully eye catching and constructive, with a few simplification of line size and a more balanced definition of space, it could perhaps be even stronger in its message. In my opinion, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an inspiring idea that works very well with the subject, the sentences and words used perfectly compliment her persona and the poster clearly supports her intent.

My persona requires the best definition for rest and relaxation, an amazing offer that can make any one feel young just by reading it, they desire a relaxing change of pace. The closet thing to a trip that is designed to concentrate on the positive aspects is just what they need to relive the old times and to relieve their stress from the simple boring old routine. They need a Spa experience that will benefit their bodies and slowly brush away the aches and bruises.

EXCHANGE

NATALIE MCCAAN

Persona Description My audience is personified by an elderly woman in her late 80s. She spends most of her time watching TV or sleeping, and has difficulty walking even with her walker. Her hobbies once included cooking, gardening, piano and painting, but she does not pursue them much anymore. She gets most of her information from Fox News. As a result, she tends to feel angry, anxious and depressed most of the time. My persona could benefit greatly from a new, more positive outlook, as suggested by Tony Hseih’s science of happiness. Since she is elderly, her hearing and vision are not what they once were, so information that is presented to her needs to be easy to read, possibly a bold, sans serif type.

Phase I Analysis I like my partner’s poster a lot! It is simplistic, yet effective. I think she did a great job! Specifically, I like her juxtaposition of different sizes of text. I also think that she made good use of the negative space. In my opinion, the typeface variations are what give the design its strength. I think that she consistently uses the same typeface, but she mixes it up by making some words bold and changing the size. I believe that this is what you sometimes like to refer to as “hierarchical text” in class. I also think that her creative, nonlinear layout gives the design a lot of visual interest. While I do believe that some designs are stronger than others, after taking this class, I also think that a lot of it is subjective. We all have our own personal taste, and sometimes people’s preferences can even be outright surprising! I always thought that art was about self-expression, so it seems like the artist should get to have the final say about how she wants her design to look. As a mere spectator, I do not really feel comfortable participating in my partner’s creative process, since I think that she should have the freedom to create a design that speaks to her. My partner’s persona is a grumpy old person with sore feet. Brilliant! Alia explained that she wanted to create an ad that would make her persona feel young again just by reading it. I think that she succeeded because the different sizes of type lend her design a playful feeling. If she wanted to create an even more whimsical effect, maybe she could try adding in some italics or color. When I think of youth, I think of fun and silliness, and if she wanted to play that aspect up, she could try adding in yet more variation. I think that Alia created an international design that would be accessible to people of manifold cultural backgrounds. She really did a great job, and she should be quite proud of her work!

Phase II Response

I was somewhat shocked by Alia’s design changes to my remix poster. She changed everything except the actual wording! I definitely do not want to be inflexible and wedded to my original design, but her revision is so different that I am having trouble evaluating what aspects of her revision might be positive changes to the design. Alia’s addition of a smiley face seems to imply that she seeks to lighten up the image. That particular change feels forced and corny to me. Lightening the mood may also be her reason for using blue, rather than black ink, and a script typeface. I do think the change from black and white could be a good one and I am intrigued by the look of the negative space she left in the center left.

IN SUMMARY ALIA ABDULRAHMAN

N ATA L I E MCCAAN

Working with different classes and sharing another’s point of view is an interesting experience, dealing with a different culture with different points of view is something entirely different. The views differ. The reaction, and the methodology, including the interpretation can be completely unexpected. It’s an experience that I think irreplaceable and necessary to grow as a designer. When it comes to designing, I start thinking about the various ways my poster can be interpreted not just by classmates, but another culture, an outsider that doesn’t share our thought process. I carefully decide what message can be clear and understandable from all sides.

I view artistic expression as a very personal statement about the world as I see it, so it was quite a leap to move from that perspective to designing for a specific persona and working with a collaborator who lives 8,092 miles away on the other side of the world. I now understand even more clearly that visual communication is quite different from fine art. Visual communication of information consists of catching a particular audience’s eye and then also convincing that audience to act in some way – attend a lecture, buy something, try a new store, etc. For me, that takes some of the pleasure out of the act of creation. I found that the restriction of creating to reach a specific audience stifled my flow of ideas.

I notice there are differences in terms of how my partner and I approach the information in a poster design. I try hard to keep the space equivalent in terms of empty space and context. My partner keeps insisting in filling out every empty space with information. Its an interesting view of how one deals with information, although personally I think its suffocating to the design of the poster. I believe I have so much to learn from my partner and her thought process to better remix her poster in a design that can capture what she has in mind.

“Dubai is becoming more and more modern. Architects are using modern techniques in buildings. In addition, Dubai is becoming more open into giving women more rights. For example, women are able to enter the field of politics and they are given the freedom of speech.” The collaboration was more interesting. I was particularly struck by one of Alia’s images, a photo of a group of young women on a shopping spree who were wearing Western clothing and jewelry beneath their burkas. I am also haunted by her definition of the word liberal as it applies to Dubai. She mentions that women are being given more rights, such as the freedom of speech. Although young women everywhere have much in common, their governments do not. But this is not news to me or to anyone who has traveled or even watched the evening news on TV.

BIOGRAPHY HAMDA MOHAMED

SARA ALZAABI

ZEINA JABER

I am one of the few students majoring in animation in the course. I’ve always been amazed with animated movies, so you can say that I wanted to translate this love in to a lifetime career. By doing that. I’m hoping to prove to people that animation is not an easy thing to do, and that it takes a lot of time and energy just to produce it. Also, it can be a successful career depending on you and how far you’re willing to go to prove it. And from the e-mail that I got from my partner in San Francisco these are some on the quotes that were interesting to me.

Sara Mohammad Jassim Ali Saeed Al Zaabi, known as Sara Al Zaabi, is an Emirati, born November 11th, 1990 in Dubai, is studying graphic design at Zayed University. She is a photographer, illustrator, animator, and graphic designer. In 2011 she had her first photography exhibition, a collection of photographs of her family’s village that had a long history. Her work revolves around creating animation that carries messages that are meaningful for children.

As Palestinian from Dubai, now living in the United States, I am doing my undergraduate studies in Fine Arts and Psychology at the University of San Francisco. By utilizing my love for children and passion for art through Art Therapy, I strive to reach out to the younger generation of my occupied hometown, the West Bank. I have organized several engaging beach and park events for the Palestinian Children Relief Funds, Dubai base, in which children from the West Bank, who suffer as a consequence of the violence, are brought in for complex medical treatments. While conversing with my partners of the 8,092 mile collaboration project this is one of my favorite quoted from our many emails

“I give my respect to Sheikh Zayed, may he rest in peace” What I loved about this quote is that my partner knows the history of Dubai and the founder Sheikh Zayed.

“I loved the typography work that you ladies did in Dubai and that’s why I chose to use type illustrations in mine”

“..but if someone wants to see real beauty, they must look closely” I felt like I could really relate to it there are many aspects in life that are under appreciated.

This is another quote that I love because it shows that we had the ability to inspire at least one person thought our work and that’s says a lot about what art can do to inspire other people. 87

HAMDA MOHAMED AND SARA ALZAABI

PHOTO SCAVENG Word-Pair

Similarities and Differences

The word pair that we had were quite and loud. The word Quiet reflects on Dubai in many ways. A lot of places in Dubai Especially in mall and perfume shops can reflect on this word. It’s not just the sweet and soothing smell that makes you feel relaxed once you enter the shop. It is also the low lightning that makes it a peaceful place.

Through the research that I did and from what I learned from my partner abroad made me more knowledgeable about San Francisco. The first thing that I learned was how people will welcoming and opened, but of course there are always people who have their different opinions about the Arab world that my not be true and vise versa. Another thing was the different cultures that were in San Francisco, for example, China town. And finally, what I learned form my research is that San Francisco had more then one hill, when I’ve always thought that it was just one.

As for the word loud, the first thing that comes to my mind is the parking lots especially underground parking lots. The lowest and smallest sound that you can hear can be enlarged to five times that sound. It is also the one of many places that I’m not comfortable in because when I enter them I feel as if the roof is closing on me which can be a very disturbing feeling.

Photo scavenger hunt in City Center

There are a lot of similarities and differences between San Francisco and Dubai. Starting with the similarities, Dubai and San Francisco have amazing

architecture that I can say are symbols to represent both cities, Burj Khalifa and the Golden Gate. Another thing that I found similar is the mixed culture. As I said San Francisco has a lot of cultures mixed together and has its effect on the city. As for Dubai, there are a lot of foreigners that are coming to it everyday for both work and entertainment. As for the differences the only thing that I can think of is that in San Francisco people are more opened and express there ideas freely, not necessary in a good way. As for Dubai and the UAE people in general, we are more traditional and stick to our values in a stronger way, but there are some people who are opened to some idea. And finally, my Ideas for the posters will be is using all the techniques that I learned in the my past projects and exercises and cooperating them in my posters. Another this that I want to use is showing hierarchy in both posters, I just love the word. And finally choosing one thing from San Francisco and Dubai, not necessary similar thing, and make them fit together.

ZEINA JABER

NGER HUNT Word-Pair

Similarities and Differences

When I think of quiet in terms of San Francisco, several things come to my mind. One of which is the the serenity of nature, for example Golden Gate Park. Every morning, I jog around one of the tracks, it is a place where I release my stress and meditate my thoughts. Another example of quiet is the sunset near the Fisherman’s Warf. After a long busy day, watching the sunset an efficient way to cool of the steam. Nature is quiet. Finally, my favorite is being up at the Coit tower on a clear night. You can see the

Although it has transformed into an internationally compatible city by adapting to foreign incomers, it is still strongly rooted to its beliefs, culture, and traditions. My partners both believe that their country’s past is what has allowed them what they are today: “Those who have no past, have no future.” Dubai is very architecturally structured in a modern perspective, especially because everything being built is relatively new. However, you must look closely to find the beauty in its historical monuments, architecture, and way of life. The beauty of its nature is in its refreshing sea and its peaceful desert. Al Bastakia, one of my favorite places in Dubai, is an art hub and an open space for young ambitious innovators. Its building is historical; it has a sandy Arabian feel to it with courtyards. Despite its modern transformations outsiders may consider their culture as oppressed, but it is controversial. They simply respect the traditions and beliefs of their ancestors.

Loud would be crowded parades, Castro Street, Embarcadero and the busy areas of SF.

Major differences are their cultural and social views, and the structural layout. Socially in San Francisco, it is about individual will and freedom. However, in Dubai it is about following

previous valued traditions and working together almost like a family. By structurally, I mean the layout of city; Dubai is a mixture of Los Angeles and San Francisco’s layout. It will take you only a few minutes to get to any place you need —given that there is no traffic. However, transportation is a little more inconvenient if you don’t have a car. There are means of public transportation, but they’re not methodical when the atmosphere is at 110 degrees with high percentages of humidity. Communication is one of the very important similarities. Most countries in Europe and in the East have adjusted their language range to include English, Dubai inclusively As a bilingual international student, I would like to focus on the importance of signboards: the language they incorporate and how its representation translates in the two different cultures. Even though cultures and subcultures hold different connotations for non-verbal language, signboards are universal. Since Dubai has adapted to the English language to embrace its foreign community, all the sign languages consist of English translation if not only English.

San Francisco at heart. Pictures are taken from a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour around the city.

HAMDA MOHAMED AND SARA ALZAABI

PHOTO SCAVENG Word Pairs Loud- Quit When I think of loud and quit in terms of Dubai I immediately think of construction sights, desert and old ruins. Wherever you go in Dubai you must pass by a construction sight, that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always too loud and noisy. While the desert and the old ruins and the cemetery are very quite places that no one actually care to go there. Maybe expect for the desert in the winter.

NGER HUNT

ZEINA JABER

SARA ALZAABI

POSTER PAIRS Al Manrah Mosque Calling for the prayer five times a day Allah is greater. I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to salat “ritual prayer”. Come to success. Allah is greater. There is no deity except for Allah.

‫ا‬ ‫ﷲ‬

‫أﻛﺒﺮ‬

SARA ALZAABI

HAMDA MOHAMED AND SARA ALZAABI

POSTER PAIRS Dubai

...city of opportunities A small city that grew to be one of the world's most famous cities, Dubai provides different opportunities for people all over the world.

HAMDA MOHAMED

San Francisco

...one of a kind One of the world's top tourist destination, San Francisco holds a variety in cultures that makes it one of a kind.

ZEINA JABER

POSTER PAIRS “What people don’t know is that we are not so different from other countries. Not all Emaratis live in luxurious housing and own the latest cars, there are many people that are still suffering from poverty” Hamda Alrezi

ZEINA JABER

HAMDA MOHAMED AND SARA ALZAABI

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection Through this project I learned and dealt with many thing for the first time in my life. It was one of a kind; it was the first project that I had to deal with an actual person from abroad that was interesting. I had to deal with a person that I just meet and work with her on a project without knowing anything about her. Another thing that was a first was to work on another person project and having all the material when I was used to work from scratch in my own work. The first thing that I found it hard was the time difference that was between us because we had to send and receive work form each other so it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy to communicate, also at the end of the project the communication was becoming less maybe because they were at the end of the semester, if this project was done earlier it would have been better for both classes.

The Initial sketches that i did at the beginning of the project

As for the benefits that I got from this project were having a person from a different background giving me feedback that was interesting to see how people, other then student in my class, looked at my work and reacted to it. In my case my partner was already living in Dubai and had a lot of interesting thing to say about how students in her class reacted to our work and Dubai. Also I learned a lot about San Francisco not only from the internet, but form my partner because something canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be learned form the internet, you have to see to understand. In the end it was a great experience that I would do it again if I had to because having to get to know people from other countries and having them learn about can have a huge benefit on both people. Form this connects I can change people mind about people of UAE because a lot of people think that we live in luxury and have chains of gold on our necks when we are really just normal people not different from other people living normal lives. Surprisingly, we actually have issues!.

ZEINA JABER

Poster Pair Reflection InDesign is my new favorite Adobe suite. I’ve always disliked subjects that I felt I couldn’t use for my own purpose; this class has been the exact opposite For the first time in eighteen years through direct conversation I actually got to understand the Emirate women’s perspective on their religion, traditions, and culture.

I feel like Sara’s work explores the core of each city’s attraction. Al-Manara mosque is among the most important, partially because of its location. In Dubai, under the surface, there is a religious aspect that is oblivious to many residents. That is because of the emphasis on oppression in neighboring cities. Dubai stands out as liberal.

From my partner’s perspective, the prconception people have of Emirate’s is that they live a lavish, fancy life. That’s because when tourists visit Dubai that is what they see. The Emirate government has managed to keep beggars off the streets, but have not managed to eliminate poverty completely. That would be impossible. Although their government puts in effort to provide Emiratis with opportunities of the best education in the Emirates and abroad, there are still many that are not able to find work that would allow them to support their families.

However, in her San Francisco, she used my image of the Golden Gate Bridge. I like this image because of the angle its taken; it works with the “unique perspective of San Francisco” that attracts outsiders.

Also, an important matter is that the Emirate residents, and not just the locals, are very much dependent on foreign hands, in fact, a mainly on minority class in Dubai. As Hamda wrote in one of her emails, “The first thing that you’ll notice is every were you look you’ll find and Indian workers, I’m not denying that they have done for us, but how can we say that this is our countries when we have done nothing to help it’s development.” These workers are for some time residents, and in the period that they are, they’re living in terrible conditions. I know this because I have seen the conditions of construction labor camps.

As for Hamda’s work, she approached both cities with a dream-like careful technique of clouds. Both Dubai and San Francisco are world attractions, however, for different reasons. I’m not sure if she did this purposely, but having the sun rising on one side and setting on the other emphasizes two things in my opinion, one is that they’re located on opposite sides of the world, and two, the time difference. I am madly in love with the way she used the text to create the dimensionality of the construction structures. Coming to the States is such a great pleasure to, not only experience meeting community in San Francisco, but also to meet people at home through San Francisco. It’s simply amazing. Meeting my partners in person definitely broke some awkward barriers but also put up some of protective walls for our opinions.

What I’m trying to say is that when a community is dependent on a certain minority, they will eventually have trouble managing on its own. Ironically, I feel like I’ve learned so much more about Dubai than I thought I would.

Pictures taken at the Kitebeach, my favorite place in the world, Dubai, UAE.

HAMDA MOHAMED

REMIX POSTER Persona As any 10 year old, hind is a little girl with a wild imagination. She enjoyed reading stories and imagines her self as different characters from different places and reacts them with her friends and makes them join her. She also enjoys painting because it help her in expressing her feelings and though freely. Hind also likes going to school were she can learn lots of things; her favorite subjects are English and Science. For a person in her age, Hind likes to learn about everything. She enjoys learning about the different Species and the universe and ask her teach lots of questions about them, maybe too much sometimes, which can get annoying, but in the end she’s just a little girl.

Girls

Join Us

Little

Information: Come Join us in Children’s City in Dubai for a three week event just for girls. Your little girl will be a ble to have through the various activities that will include different plays with different stories, art workshops where your little girl will be able to come and paint with her friends and sing and acting plays that they can join along.

Location: Dubai’s Children’s City Date: April 29th – May 19th

Time: From Sunday to Thursday: 4:00 – 7-:00 From Friday to Saturday: 9:30 – 12:30

Phase I Analysis After receiving Sara’s typographic poster, there were some thing that I first noticed. Some of the text could be highlighted like the time, date and place and the title of the event “Separation”. Also making the title the main focal point of the poster, instead of it being at the bottom of the poster and in a small font size. And because the poster is a movie poster, some aliments, like images and a background color, could be added to it. And finally, the text could me minimized into a couple of sentences, or even a small sentence because as middle ages man viewing the poster, I wont spend a lot of time trying to read the whole poster.

Phase II Response After receiving my poster edited by Zeina. The first thing that I noticed was that it was basically the same. She just added color to the text and background. She also added a simple floral decoration on the side of the poster and the poster title. And finally she adjusted the size of the text that described the poster. Her final editing for my poster didn’t reflect the initial idea of it, and some more ideas could be added. After receiving the edited poster and seeing the outcome, I choose to create and add new aliments to the poster that well reflect the original idea based on the persona that I wrote, and turning it to a poster that will fit the event and category that I’m aiming for.

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Girls Little

Information:

Come Join us in Children’s City in Dubai for a three week event, just girls! Your little girl will be able to learn through various activities that will include a variaty of plays, stories, and art workshops. Activities include: acting, singing, and painting.

Location: Dubai’s Children’s City Date: April 29th – May 19th Time: From Sunday to Thursday: 4:00 – 7-:00 From Friday to Saturday: 9:30 – 12:30

Join Us

ZEINA JABER

EXCHANGE Persona Simon is 11-years-old and a student at LACES middle-school in Venezuela. This is Simon from his perspective: The one person I idolize is Victor, my brother. He was a leading figure in the Venezuelan student movement that had changed the political outcome of our country, I prefer human morals. My favorite classes in school are history and geography. I also like to draw, but I’m not all that great. This year I’m participating in a “Spoken Words” competition. I’m the youngest among the competitors, it’s intensely intimidating, but my mother said I should use it to my advantage, I’m not sure how yet. The reason I’m taking part in Spoken Words because it sums up who I am. All my friends are either musically or artistically talented, and I fall under the category of neither, but I love poetry and music. I feel like I can express how I feel through poetry but whenever I read over what I have written, I feel like they’re silly. In spoken words I can speak my mind in the moment so that I can’t take it back. I can use my tone of voice to express, stress, and highlight what I’m trying to convey. I’ve always been told that I am a boy beyond my age; I think that’s because of the rough atmosphere I was brought up in. Before moving to Venezuela, my parent’s hometown, we had to escape unstable occupied territories of Holland.

Phase I Analysis My initial response is that it could use some editing, spacing wise, but compositionally it’s fun and playful. What really works well about the design is the bold title “Girls,” it really calls out to the audience; it’s brief and not intimidating for a child. The things that could be improved, adding a focus to the workshop —art, literature, such as a Shakespearian event, geography, or all of the above.; Spacing between the main logo and the information; maybe adding another level of an eye-catching slogan; making “Join us” and “little” the same font. Color code could be used to distinguish “Join Us Little Girls” and “Join Us Girls Little.” As for her persona, she comes of as a studious young girl with a twist of playful joy, I chuckled when I read about her because I tried to make my little boy sound studious too. Making it an all girls event — it’s interesting that opposite sex are separated even in educational event and at such a young age.

Glimpse Glimpse Glimpse into into into your your your heart heart heart and and and mind mind mind Attend Be Inspired Use your Voice... A Whisper to a ROAR!

Girls

Join Us

Little

Information: Come Join us in Children’s City in Dubai for a three week event, just girls! Your little girl will be able to learn through various activities that will include a variaty of plays, stories, and art workshops. Activities include: acting, singing, and painting.

Location: Dubai’s Children’s City Date: April 29th – May 19th Time: From Sunday to Thursday: 4:00 – 7-:00 From Friday to Saturday: 9:30 – 12:30

Glimpse Glimpse Glimpse into into into your your your heart heart heart and and and mind mind mind

Phase II Response

At first, I enjoyed the color addition she incorporated along with the paintbrush effect. However, that later challenged me to realize that my initial idea for my poster was fairly typical. Not surprisingly, she approached the project quite similarly to how I expected. Nonetheless, I decided to manipulate my initial layout by keeping the three columns layout and used color to make it appear as two columns.

Attend

Lyricist Lounge Open MicNight! lounge, Hayes-Healy on Saturday 15th December 2012

Held at the Informal starts at 7pm

An event that revolves about social justice and awareness

Be inspired by Slam Poets Azar Nafisi

Habab Anadalsi and Tahsin Mikael. This is your chance to

Sound your voice

WORDS

SP KEN

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SARA ALZAABI

REMIX POSTER Persona Khelfan, 80 years old, retired. His used to be a pearl diver before the union of the seven emirates, after the union he worked as a guard for a girls school. His work as a diver was hard and tough. He had to leave his wife and his children and go sealing and diving for pearls for six to seven whole months. Facing all kind of ricks and life treating situations. After coming back he had to go find another job to afford food and money for his family. He likes to take care of the palm trees planting, watering, and trimming them. He also like taking care of Camels, and anything breaks he takes the trouble to fixing it for example, he fixes the AC if it broke, doing pipe fitter work, repairing pipes. He always watches the new and enjoys watching WWE.

Phase I Analysis

The poster design is interesting it had a good since of hierarchy that makes the eye move in a balanced way. I thought of using bright funky colors and blend a dreamy texture with it. I have also incorporated another typeface with the original typeface my partner used.

Phase II Responses I think Hamda did a great job re-editing the poster I have design for the first phase of the project. She have moved the text around in an interesting way. I like the colors she used it suits the subject and the image she used blends will with the colors and the subject. The size of the font was great for the persona, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s simples and clear for elderly since they have bad eye sight.

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SARA ALZAABI

EXCHANGE Separation

Movie Night It's degrading to Iranian people to generalize them all the time as being represented by Iranian politics. Women’s right movements started in Iran and Egypt since the early 20th century. Some women wanted to wear veil, others didn’t. Iran had a very strong women's movement before the revolution. And it wasn't something Shah gave Iranian women for the Ayatollah to take away. This film breaks that whole view. It does not negate the fact that the Islamic Republic imposes horrible things on Iranians and particularly women. But it shows the heroism of victims. The wife doesn't submit to her husband's will and breaks away from what he wants her to do.

She’s articulate and courageous enough to do what she Just by virtue of the fact that this woman's voice is stronger than the judge's or anyone’s is a testament to her power. Rather than focusing on the regime, the film shows how intelligent and courageous these citizens are, even those who are most victimized, the women. This is something that makes Iranian women proud.

Date: Thursday, May 13th, 2012

Time: 7:00pm

Place: Trading

Sponcered by: National Organization for Women

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IN SUMMARY HAMDA MOHAMED

SARA ALZAABI

ZEINA JABER

Through this project I learned and deal with many thing for the first time in my life. It was the first project that I had to deal with an actual person from abroad. Another thing that was a first was to work on another person project and having all the material when I was used to work from scratch in my own work.

Well the collaboration project was a nice and a very useful experience for me. I had to meet a partner from overseas and work with her on poster about the city she lives in and a poster about the city I live in. Designing a poster for a foreign city was little bit hard for me because I did not that emotional attachment to it in the contrary to Dubai poster where I choose to design a poster about the mosque in put neighborhood that I grew up in. I had a hard time figuring out the project in the begging, it took me three weeks to understand what was required and expected from us. As I figured it out I started to search for concept and pictures for my first two posters. The second phase of the project was to remix the poster our partner designed; I took Zeina’s to remix it. I didn’t have any trouble because she made a good design, I made little changes on it, I added colors, texture and changed the typeface she used in her poster and kept the design as it is. In the last phase of the project, I changed my whole design of the poster, I repositioned the text, change the typeface. My audiences were grandparents and I really didn’t know how grandparents would want a poster to be to attract them, so I have to imagine myself in their shoes. I figured that they want something simple and clear so they would be able to read it. I used clear typeface and big font sizes and made it as simple and attractive as I could.

Corresponding with others on a project is not as easy as it may seem, let alone corresponding with someone that is on the other side of the world. While visiting my parents in Dubai I have been both fortunate and unfortunate to have the opportunity of meeting my partners in person. Fortunate, for two reasons, one of which is because I had a better understanding of their perspectives, as well as the opportunity to express mine with ease, rather than via internet. Secondly, it was easier to break the ice when working together in the same environment. However, it was unfortunate because I would have enjoyed learning how to express and design about a country, that I knew nothing of through the eyes of stranger. Nonetheless, I learned much that I did not know about the Emeriti culture.

The first thing that I found hard was the time difference that was between us because we had to send and receive work form each other so it wasn’t easy to communicate, also at the end of the project the communication was becoming less because our partners were at the end of their semester As for the benefits that I got from this project were having a person from a different background giving me feedback that was interesting to see how people, other then student in my class, looked at my work and reacted to it. In my case my partner was already living in Dubai and had a lot of interesting thing to say about how students in her class reacted to our work and Dubai. Also I learned about San Francisco not only from the internet, but form a person who lived there because something can’t be learned form the internet, you have to see to understand. In the end it was a great experience that I would do again if I could because having to know people from other countries and having them learn about you can have a huge benefit for both.

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It was challenging when I was trying to ignore what I already knew about the country I was raised in, and trying to see it through the eyes of my partners. Eventually, I decided to embrace it and incorporate it with my partner’s perspectives. But what was even more difficult was trying to express San Francisco to them when I’ve only been here for a few months. More importantly, I mostly enjoyed the conversations and friendships that I’ve made. I have a lot to learn from the people who are at the heart of the Emeriti culture.

BIOGRAPHY MAHA JAMAL

ISABEL TAY L O R

G H AYA H BIN FAHAD

I’m a Graphic designer that is currently studying at Zayed University. To me design is a mirror that reflects the way I think and the way I believe that nothing is ever impossible. I grew up with the passion of observing the beautiful things in life. Willing to take risks no matter how hard it might be. One day I’ll fulfill my dream of traveling around the world. I love socializing with new people and I’m always there for people I care about. When it comes to life I tend to be optimistic and I believe in hope. My favorite quote I have received from my partner is:

I enjoy playing basketball in the Golden Gate Panhandle on warm nights in San Francisco. I love having dinner parties with my friends, cooking a feast and getting tipsy of cheap wine. San Francisco is my favorite city, but when I get a chance to leave it I love going on long road trips down the coast of this beautiful state, California.

A Graphic Design student at Zayed university I have changed my major twice which means I love diversity and change. However my passion is Graphic design. I Feed on creativity and enjoy cre=ating new creative things for my surrounding such as poster etc. Hopefully one day my dream will of becoming one of the important graphic designers in the UAE will come true.

“ Your posters are great! I love the font and colors in the Dubai poster, and think the simplicity in the San Francisco poster is perfect.”

“Dubai is a friendly place too when you described your city I felt there’s a common factor between our cities.” -Maha

One of the best quotes from my conversations with my partner Issy is:

“Your San Francisco poster is beautiful, I love how you have it separated into three sections by using color” -Isabel

- Isabel Her feedback was supportive in terms of what I’ve created. I was really happy to receive such notice. Besides, she gave me the energy to move forward with my ideas.

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MAHA JAMAL AND GHAYAH BIN FAHAD

PHOTO SCAVENG Word-pair Definition Orderly: To me orderly could be defined as something that is neatly and precisely arranged. When we started exploring Dubai I realized how the word order could be described as something I face and pass by everyday. Orderly could be somewhat linked to the repetitive symmetrical streetlights, the magnificent buildings, the palm trees, and the traditional Arabic houses.

ORDERLY

Disorderly: Is the complete opposite to order, it is the lack of arrangement and organization. It could be defined as out of control, something that is all over the place. In terms of Dubai, having road traffic issues was the first thing that came up to my mind. Could be the clash of modern and old buildings. And it could be the description of old abandoned buildings in the city.

Poster Pair Reflection

DISORDERLY Similarities & Differences San Francisco and Dubai, they both look somehow similar. There’s both very modern in architecture. However, both cities reflect an old and new part to them. Vintage Emirati wind towers and Vintage 1960s buildings of San Francisco. Both cities are full of leisure and entertainment from movie theaters, parks and historical sites. The difference between the cities is that Dubai is a flat one level city. While, San Francisco is a city with many hills. Besides, Dubai’s culture is based on a culture with conservative factor of religion with limits for other religions unlike San Francisco where there’s a variety of religions and actions are more free. Both cities are inspirational in terms of future goals of offering the best to its people.

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Starting with this project I was assigned to research about San Francisco and write an explanatory paper about Dubai that will be shared with our partner. I have been looking at documentaries, read articles, search for important monuments and browse for pictures to get the feeling of San Francisco so that I know what to create to portray this city. For Dubai, it was more of a visual thing I had to go around and explore my city to take photographs. When I was photo scavenging I felt and saw the common factor of skyscrapers. I spent quite a long time on my Dubai poster as I’m very interested in Arabic calligraphy I thought of creating something with it so I decided to write ‘Dubai’ using Arabic letters and play with them to create the same structure of it in English. I wanted to focus on the old Dubai more than how it looks now so it is somehow like the beginning, the growth and the development. I created a background with a washy watercolor to reach this far was something I worked hard on and I’m really proud of what I’ve created to portray my city Dubai. For San Francisco poster I’ve seen this outstanding red bridge that I can’t get over when I think of San Francisco. I wanted to give the same watercolor feeling to the background to relate them together and I created the bridge using words that represents different districts of the city. I’m really glad and happy with the final results it was a long process but was worth all the time I spent.

NGER HUNT Word pair definitions Similarities Orderly: and Differences Clean and neatly placed, organized. In terms of San Francisco, the rows of colorful Victorians (obvious example: the painted ladies.) Some things that come to mind when I think of order in San Francisco: Dim Sum restaurants on clement, my job at the Day School before students come in, my shoe collection, fancy stores on Hayes, Starbucks down town, business men. Disorderly: Sloppy, mixed mashed. San Francisco is the dirtiest city in this part of the planet. Some streets are filled with disorderly trash and â&#x20AC;&#x153;stuffâ&#x20AC;? left out for others to find. Some things that comes to mind when I think of disorderly in context of San Francisco: My punk friends, green apple bookstore, xarts, soma, five points, my job at the Day School.

From the images Maha sent me, Dubai posses more modern and flashy feel. The plains and lines are well constructed and created to be perfect and new. While San Francisco has a more random and colorful look. With lines, plains and rhythms that are funky, old and even decrepit at times.

Poster Pair Reflection I really enjoyed the poster pair project, mostly because I was able to incorporate my personal style into the project. I really benefited from multiple critiques throughout the process. Unlike previous projects I had several chances to receive feedback from others and then think about it and make the necessary changes I

ISABEL TAYLOR

saw fit. I also enjoyed working with my partners in Dubai. I was able to take a photograph that some else took and transform it into something unique. The girls were creating posters that looked like it was an advertisement for the two cities, much like some of the posters created in my class as well. They spoke to the masses, inviting them to enjoy the two cities, advertising their greatness. I looked at the project more as a chance to create a piece of abstract art, with no purpose other then to look interesting and speak to my personal understanding of the two cities. I learnt so much about Dubai; this made this entire project amazing to participate in. I learnt about the dress, hobbies, nightlife, religion, views and so much more of these young people in this foreign city.

These photos show my neighborhood in San Francisco, the Western Edition and the Castro. Culutre booms from these parts of the city.

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MAHA JAMAL AND GHAYAH BIN FAHAD

PHOTO SCAVENG

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ISABEL TAYLOR

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POSTER PAIRS

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GHAYAH BIN FAHAD

POSTER PAIRS “This is Dubai and this is our beloved UAE; it will remain the focus of the world’s attention; it will continue, under its wise leadership and innovative citizens, to be a hub for business and finance; a centre for culture and humanitarian works.” Sheikh Mohd Bin Rashid

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GHAYAH BIN FAHAD

“The cool, grey city of love” San Francisco

“Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible.” Walter Cronkite

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ISABEL TAYLOR

POSTER PAIRS

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GHAYAH BIN FAHAD

REMIX POSTER Persona Description

ITS THE PROCESS OF HELPING YOUR PLANET BY RECYCLING FOR AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FUTURE, IN A CITY THAT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT.

Hessa is from the UAE, she’s 7 years old and she loves playing outdoors. She’s been growing in an eco friendly family has always recycle their water bottles and take their own grocery bags to the supermarket every time they go to it. Her hobbies are playing basketball and swimming she’s just like any other kid she loves playing outdoors with her friends.

SAVE THE EARTH Where cretivity meets sustainability

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Phase II Analysis In the end of our collaboration project I think that my partner did a great job and she remixed it well, and I think she read my persona well. I love ow she added the trees and the colors of the nature.

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This poster represents an event for kids of the reading age. My approach was to create a friendly composition for kids to enjoy and be attracted to go to this event.

ISABEL TAYLOR

EXCHANGE Persona Description Bobby is a 25-year-old San Franciscan native. He has participated in the green movement and does what he can with his family to improve the environment to the best of their ability. His wife, two-year-old son and himself compost, use solar panels to light their home, and participate in local fundraisers. He is also a well-known artist in the local community. He has worked with Recology artist residency for five years. He works as program director for the exhibitions put on by the Recology Artist Residence. Bobby also enjoys traveling; he has been to over 100 countries and often spreads his passion for the green movement to audiences across the world.

Phase I Analysis

WEEK OF GREEN TALK with david biello friday may 1st dill hall san francisco 2:00pm to 7:30pm

sustainability A LECTURE

on how cities like Masdar strive to be the brainchild of a sustainable urban future.

A DISCUSSION

is Masdar truly sustainable? does it generate wealth, have healthy and happy inhabitants and secure resources for the city’s future?

M A S D A R : an enviornmentally friendly city that rises from the middle eastern desert.

I like Maha’s poster. She has the title “Let’s Go Green” in huge letters, and I think it is very affective. I like the way she made her poster into three separate horizontal sections. The title is the first section, then information about the event and lastly information about the time and location of the event. I love the persona Maha has created. Essa sounds like a lovely little boy. ˆthink he would respond well to her poster design because of it’s simplicity and boldness in the title. It is hard to judge how a poster with only type on it “speaks” to a nine-year-old boy. Color and images will be what makes or breaks a poster targeting young children. We approached the assignment differently, but I believe that has to do with our targeted audience not necessarily cultural differences.

Phase II Response I love what Ghayah did with my poster. It is simple, edgy, and would defiantly get the attention of a person walking by. It specifically relates to my audience and character because it is cool like him. Sustainability is in big letters, also pulling in the audience. She interpreted the project in the same manner as me. If I would have finished the poster I originally sent her, I would be happy with this as the outcome.

WEE with K OF G frida davd b REEN T ALKS dill h y may 1 iello 2:00 all, san st pm to fran 7:30 cisco pm

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A L E C TURE

on how cities like Masdar strive to be the brainchild of a sustainable urban future.

A DI S C US S I ON

is Masdar truly sustainable? does it generate wealth, have healthy and happy inhabitants, and secure resources for the city’s future?

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MAHA JAMAL

REMIX POSTER LET’S GO GREEN The city must help its inhabitants generate wealth; it must make them, at least in their view, healthier and happier; and it must be able to continue to secure the resources natural and otherwise to continue. This event will be a chance for you to give back to the environment, there will be an energy generator placed on the participants bikes, the more you ride the more energy you provide.

Get your bikes & Join us! Zabeel Park Gate 1 Friday, May 6, 2012

Persona Description Children of the reading age are full of energy and life; they find ways to bring happiness to themselves and the people around them. Essa is an active 9 years old boy who goes to the third grade. As many of kids at his age he have a wide imagination and he enjoys physical activity especially football. After school he usually rides his bike in his neighborhood to the grocery store to get ice cream or a refreshing cold juice. He loves socializing with kids at his age and he enjoys gathering with his friends to play video games. Essa loves exploring new things and he enjoy taking care of his pets.

Phase I analysis As I’m familiar with the children of the reading age persona, it is interesting to read something similar from a different point of view. It makes me think of how children could be similar and different and a way that I could think beyond my imagination. Her poster portrayed the persona really well the bold curvy type used fits for children’s event. I changed several things in terms of hierarchy because everything is on a side and in an angle.

Phase II analysis Even though the collaboration was something great to experience, the remix that my partner Issy did wasn’t something I would use as a poster for people of my persona ‘Children of the reading age’. I was somehow disappointed with what I received I wished to get something with much effort on and not something literal in terms of ‘ Let’s go green’ and everything green is put together.

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EXCHANGE

MAHA JAMAL

LETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GO GREEN A city must help its inhabitants generate wealth; it must make them, at least in their view, healthier and happier; and it must be able to continue to secure the resources natural and otherwise to continue. This event will be a chance for you to give back to the environment, there will be an energy generator placed on the participants bikes, the more you ride the more energy you provide.

Get your bikes & Join us! Zabeel Park Gate 1 Friday, May 6, 2012

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IN SUMMARY

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MAHA JAMAL

ISABEL TAY L O R

G H AYA H BIN FAHAD

The collaboration was a great way to share and explore ideas cross culturally, the project was quite interesting but it had some negative and positive sides of it. Working with a group of people with completely different timing was a bit hard in terms of communicating and discussing parts of the project. However, having to work with a person from a different part of the world made me realize and challenge myself to think outside the box. It was such a great experience as a graphic designer to try new things, meet new people and learn to take or leave whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good and whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bad out there.

The collaborative project brought forth more individual styles and preferences then it did cultural differences, debunking what I originally envisioned happening. All the girls in both classes created interesting and unique designs. It was challenging to alter, edit and critique my partners with out ever meeting them or understanding deeper context to their work. Comments on color, placement, size and other such aspects were easier to communicate about but I found it difficult and strange to give constructive criticism to a person I have never met. My partners produced very modern posters, which interestingly enough reflects the modern city they live in. Do we invent our styles of design based on the things we see around us on a daily bases? I learnt a lot about Dubai through this collaborative project and hope to continue expanding my knowledge on the culture and one-day visit it.

The collaboration project was one of the most interesting projects that I have worked on till now, it allowed us different people from different continents to collaborate in a single project and I think the final result was amazing. Just like any other project it had its pros and cons but we managed to complete it. For me the cons were is that at first I started with another partner and for some personal reason she couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be part of this collaboration, the pros are is that I was assigned to work with my classmate and we both worked with our overseas partner.

BIOGRAPHY MUNA OBAID

SOPHIE S C H WA B A C H E R

My name is Muna and I was born in Sharjah. I lived in Fujairah for six years, but then I moved back to Sharjah. I am a shy person, that’s why I don’t speak a lot with anyone. Being a student in Zayed University has change a lot of things in me like being more confident than before. I was so exited to study interior design but I transformed to anther major, which is Graphic design.

My name is Sophie and I am a positive person, relatively speaking. For most of my life, I lived on a ranches out in the boonies of Wyoming and California. Now, the city of San Francisco enthralls me. As a child, I spent hours upon hours roaming outdoors, my teenage years were cantankerous and now, I am blind to my lifestyle. For my future, I am still confused and open-minded but I tend to believe that art will somehow be involved.

This quote is from our many emails.

“ I attached few ideas of what i am doing for my dubai poster, enjoy and tell me what you think!” This made me so happy because she asked several time about my opinion about her work that was so nice of her to ask about my opinion.

“I talk a lot -.-‘ but only here if you see me you will not see me like this because I’m so shy. ” I really liked this quote because it gave me a sense of who Muna was to me, in our emails, but also how she acts towards other people in real life. This is something that I knew I would most likley never get to witness so it was a small glimpse into her world.

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PHOTO SCAVENG Similarities and Differences My partner Sophie said that San Francisco is a great place to be and would always recommend someone to come visit and stay a while. In my opinion, Dubai also similar to San Francisco. It is a great place and people from all around the world would like to visit this city. Morover, Sophie said that San Francisco is different from Dubai. Sophie thinks that foreigners see the city in a very positive light. To people from other places it might seem like a small city, which is accurate in comparison to other larger cities. Also, she thinks

I took these pictures in Dubai to represent the word professional.some of them are buildings in Dubai. In my opinion, that how simple and formal design of buildings make them look professional.

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Word pair definitions that foreigners see it as a place with a lot of personality. The history of San Francisco probably impacts a lot of the views on the city with the memory of the hippie era. Moreover, from her experience of living in San Francisco is different than foreigners because she actually gets to explore the city more deeply that a person visiting for a few days or weeks would. Also, she still see the city in a foreignerâ&#x20AC;şs light though because she really have not been living here for long and it is still so different from where she came from.

In my opinion the word professional mean when I see the buildings in Dubai the word professional comes to my mind and how simple and formal design of buildings make them look professional. In the other hand, I thought of taking photos of buildings, which where design and decorated it represent the word playful. I liked how Sophie defintd the words pair. She said that she would use the word playful much more than professional to described San Francisco. Even though there are professional looking buildings and work places.

NGER HUNT Similarities and Differences My partner Muna interprets Dubai as a very large and populated city. She uses the words global city and business hub as key points and ideas when looking at her city. It is the second largest city in the United Arab Emirate and is a center of business and economy. She emphasizes the mix of traditional and modern that is seen throughout the architecture. Muni explained that Dubai is the center of trade and tourism in the Middle East. She has made Dubai seem like a very exciting place to live or visit. Many of her pictures were of the architecture and interesting buildings. I can see that Dubai is pushing many boundaries. It seems to be a very

contradicting city. In comparison to San Francisco, Dubai seems very different. It seems much more focused on economics and business. With our words professional and playful we found many different things. Muna is not from Dubai; instead she lives in a city called Sharjah that is close. She is specializing in Graphic Design and is 22 years old. She goes to Dubai often with her family to hang out or go shopping. She said that she spent a lot of time in the Al Mamzar Park or the beach. She said that she also goes to malls a lot. I found that very interesting because it seems like malls are a common socializing spot for people in Dubai. She goes to beach often. Contrastingly, in San Francisco the beach is not normally very sunny. We are surrounded by completely different worlds.

SOPHIE SCHWABACHER

Word pair definitions Originally, my concept of professional was someone who has a job that they take seriously. In my most stereotypical idea, one who is professional always wears suits and carries a briefcases and my idea for playful was something that made me think of children. It describes someone who is fun and enjoys games. Jolly, light-hearted and giddy are words that I thought related to playful. After taking pictures, I started figuring out that San Francisco is not really the idea of professional in the normal sense. Instead, I started looking at it more as something to do with a profession or a job. This changed my definitions to the ideas of work versus play, or how people in San Francisco work compared to the kinds of things that they do for fun.

Most of these pictures are in my color folder. I never realized how bright the all the little things are in San Francisco. I guess that is one of great aspects of photography.

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MUNA OBAID

PHOTO SCAVENG

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NGER HUNT

SOPHIE SCHWABACHER

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MUNA OBAID

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection Poster pair project was new and unique experience for me. When I hard about the project from my teacher, I felt it would be difficult and I didn’t have idea how we will do it. After my teacher had explain it to us, I felt it will be really new and exciting thing to do. The project was about working with partners from student in San Francisco. My partner was Sophie Schwabacher. We were asked to now our partners by emailing them before we start the project. I was so exited, when I wrote for Shophie. After starting the project we emailed each other and shear photos by Dropbox. It was new thing to do in this class and it was very helpful to share a big amount of photos easily. After emailing each other during the proses of the project. I wasn’t expected that my partner would send me an email to ask me about my opinion about her work. Maybe it was my first time to communicate with someone in email. I felt bad because sometime

I couldn’t respond to her but on the other hand she always respond when I need something. I learned a lot from my partner research about their city and her thoughts and ideas are clear. Also, I asked her some questions and she answered me. After starting in that project we were surprised that one of student from their class. Even we faced some issues with emailing each other we learned few things about our cities and new things about our own city, which we didn’t know about. I wished to visit their city after I learn about San Francisco and seeing the photos, which was taken by my partner. She had send a lot of beautiful photos even that i didn’t use them in my poster because i felt it is better to find picture which represent San Francisco. Also, I had great chance to explore Dubai. Moreover, i find chance to see Dubai in different way by looking to architecture and typography. Finally, it was a good chance to learn how to work on InDesign program.

The images to the right , I found them while doing a research about San Francisco. I uesd the first and the third photo in my San Francisco poster.

The image to the left is the photo which i have used in my Dubai poster.

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SOPHIE SCHWABACHER

Poster Pair Reflection The poster pair project was one of my favorite projects. When we learned about the project, I was so excited. I loved that we got to talk to people on the other side of the world and learn from them. My partner, Muna, did not seem as interested in me as I was in her. There were many times that I emailed her and never got a response. I learned that the mall and the beach were places that she went to the most. I would have liked to learn more about her clothing and traditions but we never really got there in our conversations and I did not want to ask it off the bat. I am so curious to how the girls in Dubai perceived our class. I think I have a pretty good understanding on how we see them, but it would be really interesting to see the other side. I feel like I could have learned a lot more if she had emailed me back. Despite my issues with emailing Muna, I learned quite a bit about Dubai considering I pretty much knew nothing before. The architecture there is outstanding and so creative. It really makes me want to visit and travel there. It was really great that Zeina could go visit the class in Dubai and tell us about them. It made more of a connection between the two classes, which I think most of our class liked. I really wish that one of their students could have visited us on their spring break. It would have been so nice to meet them.

The pictures that I received from Muna were difficult to work with, but that made me more creative with the project in general. In the end, I did not use any pictures that she sent me and instead went a completely different direction. I learned a lot about InDesign and have gotten to like it quite a bit. There, of course, is still so much to know. I would like to learn more about the technology aspect of the program. For example, packaging and linking files and making sure everything is saved properly. I want to know why sometimes the images look good in indesign and sometimes they do not, even if you view them in high quality. I want to know how to solve the problems that I create. I recently saw Munaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poster pair. She did not use my pictures, but that is fine. The direction she went was pretty cool. Her design for the word Dubai was really excellent and I would love to learn how she did it. I think it would be very interesting to see what the whole Dubai class did for their designs. I was really proud of the design I ended up with. It may be my favorite design that I have made in this class. I am so glad that Issy volunteered to model for me and let me use her arm because she was perfect for my idea. I would like to know more about typefaces and how they have been used previously so that I can be aware of how they are perceived by viewers.

The image to the left is my original inspiration from Muna. It game me the idea of layering with traditional designs.

The image to the right is my original picture of Issyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arm. I was so lucky to have a great model!

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MUNA OBAID

POSTER PAIRS

San francisco beautiful city to explore

San Francisco is a unique city. The famous icon of the San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. it has renowned museums, and its unique neighborhoods which are treasures of its own. We can discover the variety of sites, shops, and restaurants that reflect the City's great ethnic and cultural diversity.

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The rising city During the last 40 years, there was a huge development in Dubai. Moreover,it has exerted a range of efforts to establish itself as a tourism, re-export and finacial hub. It has taking full advantage of its position near the head of the Glf. Dubai has developed prestige hotels,massive port facilities and a rang the of free trade to attract During last 40zones years, there both manufacturing and services industries.

The rising city was a huge development in Dubai. Moreover,it has exerted a range of efforts to establish itself as a tourism, re-export and finacial hub. It has taking full advantage of its position near the head of the Glf. Dubai has developed prestige hotels,massive port facilities and a rang of free trade zones to attract both manufacturing and services industries.

SOPHIE SCHWABACHER

San Francisco: where your heart is For the people who live in San Francisco, it is the best city in the world. The city inspires passion and affection that its inhabitants. Known for being a place than accepts many lifestyles and types of people, San Francisco is home to diverse and expressive communities.

from ONE

WORLD to ANOTHER

WORLD

Dubai: the global city Dubai is the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates and is a center of business and economics. The mix of traditional and historic motifs and modern world architecture make it one of the most complex places in the world. It is constantly growing and breaking new bounds.

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MUNA OBAID

REMIX POSTER Persona description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

My persona was about Grandparent. It about Ali he is a -52year-old retired police officer that lives in Dubai. He had studied in the policy academic. His wife is a teacher and she is gone during the day, leaving Ali himself. They have four children all of them are married and each one live with their own family. Moreover, he has seven grandsons. Moreover, they live in the same city. He started to become more interested in TV after he retired from his job. Therefor, he occupies his time with television such as family shows, news, and series. Moreover, he is interested in reading that’s why he sometime spends his time reading books, newspaper and magazines. Also, he goes to see his grandsons and spend his time with them. In the holidays all of his children and his grandsons come to visit him and sometime they go out together. Sometime, he goes with his friend who works with him. Also, he is retired police officer and he live in Abu Dhabi and that’s why he doesn’t see him a lot. However, they sometime go with each other to conference in the policy academic. Also, the both of them have the same hobbies such as fishing, hiking, reading and gardening.

I was confused that she send me two poster, I thought that she want from me to choose one of the work on it. Moreover, It was my felt because I didn’t asked her. Also, I send her an email to tell her that she didn’t›t send me her persona. She didn’t replay and i had no time to wait because I needed to finish remixing her poster. I came up with simple poster. I felt bad that the poster not be like what she aspects to see. After, I finished from the poster she send for me that she had difficulties to send me back because her email wasn’t working. I was Shocked that her persona was about children. She wrote about eightyear-old girl named Hannah and she wrote in detail about her.

When I saw the poster after my partner had remix it, I wasn’t surprised because i was thanking in the same way that I was going to do like what she did. I liked it was simple but it need something to add. I liked the color what she had added to my poster but I was suspired because I chosen almost the same color for her poster. I though that Sopihe and I has the same ideas.

Documentary film about

How d oe of eco s the drop no affect mies had ed pe thinki ople ng? As economies around the world continue to shrink, how many people will start thinking about selling their bodies? Two years ago, the global market in human flesh looked like a humanitarian issue. It was a problem for those poor people in developing countries , not for us. But global capitalism doesn›t care what color your skin is, as long as you›ve got some to sell and you need the cash. And, increasingly, people need the cash.

As economies around the world continue to shrink, how many people will start thinking about selling their bodies? Two years ago, the global market in human flesh looked like a humanitarian issue. It was a problem for those poor people in developing countries, not for us. But global capitalism doesn›t care what color your skin is, as long as you›ve got some to sell and you need the cash. And, increasingly, people need the cash. Place: Police academy, Dubai Time: Wednesday, at 4:00 pm

How have failing economies affected how people think? A documentary film

How have failing economies affected how people think?

Place: Police academy, Dubai Time: Wednesday, at 4:00 Pm

A documentary film

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SOPHIE SCHWABACHER

EXCHANGE Persona description

Phase I Analysis

For my persona, I drew the little slice of paper that said child. I thought this might be slightly difficult considering that my article was about how people are finding unsusal ways of making money by selling their bodies and adverstising just by using flesh. She is an eight-year-old girl named Hannah. Her parents are separated and have been since she was five. Hannah is from a small town in Northern California. She has been to San Francisco a few times because her aunt (on her mother’s side) lives there. Her aunt has two chil

I thought Muna came up with a good poster for me to work with. I thought that she did a good job of making her typography work with hierarchy. When you read it, it is easy to know what to read first and then second and then last. Her design was very simple. It seemed like my job was to make it a little more of something one might notice. There was defiantly time to spend trying to play with the text in ways that made it eye catching and interesting.

dren that are twins, and are two years younger that her. She likes to read, but is also good at math. Hannah plays soccer on a co-ed team at her small public school. Her dad works in construction but she isn’t sure exactly what that means. Her mom teaches science at the local high school. Hannah has one older brother, Gale, who is twelve. Hannah’s mother’s family is very close, but her father’s is not. Hannah likes to garden with her mother and enjoys being outside in the open air. She does not especially like school though she receives relatively good grades. She has short brown hair and green eyes. She is also one of the taller girls in her class. At her mother’s house she is rarely allowed to watch television, but her father is more lenient. When she watches television at her father’s house, her brother normally snatches the remote control first and therefore she often watches what he puts on. Hannah has two best friends. One lives a few doors down from her mother’s house and is named Lisa. Her other best friend lives on the other side of town, but they often have sleepovers.

Muna’s partner persona was very clear and specified. He was a fifty-year-old man named Ali who had grandchildren and was a retired police officer. Some parts of her persona explanation were confusing. I do not know how Ali would respond to Muna’s design. Her work shows a clear train of thought that might be appealing to a man of that age.

Phase II Response My initial response to Muna’s remix was surprise. This is because she remixed something that I did not mean to send her. I realized that the first file that I sent her had another older idea that I had created when I was brainstorming. I should have been more aware of what I was sending. Muna added color. I tried to use some of the colors she used but also wanted it to be bright because I was advertising to a child. A big problem for me was just getting over the design I was expecting. There was a while where I was trying to incorporate aspects of both posters and it was not coming out attractive. Eventually, I completely scratched what I was doing and started over, which helped a lot.

President

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Ballerina

Doctor

Teacher

Astronaut

Firefighter

Writer

Actor

Muscian

Body Advertiser

Today you can be anything that you want, but more and more people are turning to odd jobs. To learn more visit the Civic Auditorium at 3:00 on December 25th. Bring your friends and family right after school to learn about your future!

Work at a restaurant Shave your noggin Mow lawns Start a paper route

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president lawyer actor doctor teacher body advertiser

What do you want to be? Today you can be anything that you want, but more and more people are turning to odd jobs. To learn more visit the Civic Auditorium at 3:00 on December 25th. Bring your friends and family right after school to learn about your future!

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IN SUMMARY MUNA OBAID

SOPHIE S C H WA B A C H E R

I think it was a very good experience. Even I felt it would be difficult to not see your partner and not communicant in front each other. Also it was better for me because I am shy I felt it is match better to communicant with my partner by e-mail. Even that was difficult to communicate in e-mail because we may face some problem like Sophie couldn’t some time see my e-mail because her e-mail has spam. on the other hand, i haven’t have chances to reply to her when i was in our spring vacation. I had learned how to share things to help each other like some thoughts and opinion. I think it was very helpful and see how people can make things in different ways even the process and the topic are similar to each other and it depend on how person deal with thinking and designing. There are same quotes from our many e-mail which I will not forget them like

My understanding of visual representation/ visualizing information has changed quite a bit since before we started our collaborative projects. I think the biggest aspect is that people look at things very differently from different places , but we still have many similarities. Even they are so far away, we still are girls around the same age. The project surprised me a lot because I did not realize how difficult it would be to send files and only contact each other via the Internet. I take for granted all the people I can talk to and call when I have an issue with something. I really wish Muna and I had set up an easier way to communicate because we are both sporadic email checkers. One of my favorite quotes from our many emails is

“If you have any questions about my pictures or anything at all please ask!” She always ask me if i need something and response when I send her email. On the other hand, i didn’t be able to be like her. It was new thing to me to be intact with someone in email. Even that If I had the same chance I will be more prepared and have an idea how I should act in next time. Moreover, I think because it was a new experience for me maybe if I had other chance to do the same thing it will be much better than last time.

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“What is your Specialization? What are your hobbies? Did you use the cable car?” I thought this was a funny quote becasue it gave me an idea of what people think of San Francisco and our cable cars. I do not think I have read one the whole time that I have been at school. I even forget that they are here. However, for someone who only knows a few things about the city, cable cars would be an obvious thing to ask about. I just remember the first day we were told about the project we were about to do. We had been doing some of the pieces for it, like taking pictures of the city, but we did not know what it was all going to lead up to. It was the best surprise our class has had and it completely came out of nowhere. I really did not aspect it whatsoever. This project really makes me want to get to know other cultures and get out of my box more. Who knows, maybe even visit Dubai!

BIOGRAPHY RAWDHA ALAJMANI

HANNAH S C H WA R T Z

I am an enthusiastic 20-year-old Graphic Design student in Zayed University. People may think I am a shy introvert when they first meet me, however I can get really hyper and loud by time. Growing up in a family of artists, I was always afraid that I was the only one with now artistic abilities. However, after trying it for few times, art has now become a major part of my life. I really enjoy drawing, painting, or just even looking at art.

I still can’t get over that I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. My current obsessions are wallpaper, ice hockey, Eames rocking chairs, and earl grey tea. My most present goal is to adopt a cat, for I live alone and a furry companion would be agreeable. I prefer conceptual art that is mesmerizing in uncomfortably hypnotic ways.

Hannah’s clear fondness towards her city showed in her e-mails where she talked about how great San Francisco is. It absolutely made me want to visit even more.

“San Francisco is a beautiful city with lots of character. If possible, one should really explore the city by foot because there are so many fantastic views and great walking trails in the parks.”

In corresponding with my partner, Rawdha, I learned a lot of things about her life and her city. One of my favorite quotes from her emails is:

“Even though I have never been to San Francisco, I’ve made my research and found endless amounts of interesting facts about the city! I would love to visit San Francisco one day.” Rawdha’s positive impression of San Francisco made me smile.

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RAWDHA ALAJMANI

PHOTO SCAVENG Convenient/ Inconvenient

I think Dubai is very convenient to live in, because the government tries its best to provide the necessities, but also made it super easy to employ and use. However, because it’s one of the fastest developing cities in the world, there are many things that are inconvenient. For example, anyone who lives in Dubai would tell you the worst thing here is the traffic. If you are not smart enough to avoid rush hours, you can get stuck in the traffic for hours. Moreover, construction is never ending in Dubai; they finish building on fix one road and they close another one, so this makes the road congestion ever worse. Another inconvenient thing in Dubai (as most of the people will agree) are speed radars. Because there are many highways in Dubai, they are usually filled with speed radars. To fix the traffic problem, the government put tollgates around Dubai. This could be

considered as a huge convenience in Dubai, however some might consider it is an inconvenience because of the places they live in forces them to pass under these gates and pay several times a day. On the other hand, convenient things are all over Dubai. For instance, we have people who fill our tanks in petrol stations, instead of us doing it by ourselves. Also, because of the weather conditions in the United Arab Emirates, all our shopping malls are indoors. Dubai Mall is one of the leading shopping malls in Dubai, and to help the public follow their news and promotions, they have a twitter account and an iPhone app. Also, being one of the world’s largest shopping malls has indoor taxis (club cars) to help you move from one side of the mall to another if you get tired. Dubai mall also has an indoor ice rink. In 2009, the first line of Dubai Metro was open for use, which also helped a lot with traffic.

Similarities and Differences After researching about San Francisco, as well as through my partner’s images and paper about San Francisco, I discovered it is very similar to Dubai. Both San Francisco and Dubai are both highly multicultural cities, where you can find people from all around the world. Also, traffic and rush hours seem to cause problems in both cites. As of the differences I noticed between the two cities, I think one of the most obvious difference is the landscapes and terrains. Dubai has a very dry flat desert landscape, while San Francisco’s landscape is very green and mountainous. Moreover, another obvious different I can point out is the climate of the cities. Summers in Dubai are extremely hot and the temperature can reach up to 48C, however my partner wrote in her essay about San Francisco that the weather can get chilly even in July and wearing shorts and tank tops is not advised.

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Convenient

Inconvenient

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

NGER HUNT Convenient/ Inconvenient The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the words convenient and inconvenient in terms of San Francisco is the public transportation system. Muni and Bart are both convenient for people without a private means of transportation, yet frustratingly inconvenient because of constant delays and the reduced number of buses due to budget cuts. Convenient also reminds me of the city’s recycling program because they try to make it as easy as possible to recycle and compost. You no longer have to sort your recycling and the city even takes care of your compost.

However, if you don’t have an outdoor area to store your compost the smell can become quite inconvenient. I also think of all the huge hills in San Francisco as an inconvenience. Although they provide spectacular lookout spots, the hills are a pain to navigate in car and on foot. Market Street is a huge inconvenience for drivers in SF. You can never turn left, and the taxi/bus lanes along with muni tracks and bike only lanes are so confusing! It is hard to know if you are driving in the right lane sometimes, and all the stoplights and pedestrians make you travel at a snail’s pace.

Similarities and Differences I have learned that Dubai is a very consumer-based society just like the US. I have also learned that branding and advertising is a dominant part of their visual culture. Through my partner’s images it also seems like the mall is a popular social community center for young women. Through my partner’s and my images, it is clear that traffic and infrastructure construction is prevalent in both San Francisco and Dubai. The images of traffic jams in Dubai reminds me of the 101 during rush hour, especially when merging onto the Bay Bridge. In both cities, visual ads pollute the malls and consumerism is valued. The cities differ in their emphasis of the natural world in and surrounding the urban landscape.

For my word pairs, I focused a lot on the parking permits and street construction in my neighborhood. Permit parking can be convenient or inconvenient–it depends on if you have the correct permit for the area! There is a bigger bike culture in San Francisco than there is in Dubai because of the more agreeable climate. San Franciscans tend to incorporate the outside into their daily lives as much as possible.

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RAWDHA ALAJMANI

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection Coming up with an idea and a concept for the Dubai and San Francisco posters was not an easy task. However, once I started experimenting and sketching, I started getting a clear vision of what message I wanted to conceive in the posters. For the Dubai poster, I decided to use Dubai’s Arabic tagline, which translates to “The City of Life”. I used Adobe Illustrator to illustrate the skyline of Dubai, and to make it more energetic and alive, I used quirky fresh colors. I added the roots I added underneath the building to make the buildings look like they are plants growing from the ground, thus adding more meaning to the “The City of Life” poster.

I used the same concept for the San Francisco poster. I researched taglines used for San Francisco and found that people call it the “City of Freedom”, so I used it because it works well with the Dubai poster. I illustrated San Francisco’s skyline, and added waves to represent the sea in San Francisco. At first, I did not quite understand that we had to include a short paragraph or a quote in each of the posters, so I just wrote the taglines in very funky font and colors. However, I noticed that it did not work at all for my posters, so I editted the typography and added quotes from the e-mails sent between me and my partner . I believe that the posters look much stronger that they did with the funky typography. I also changed the layout of the Dubai poster from horizontal to vertical.

First drafts of the Dubai and San Francisco Posters.

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HANNAH SCHWARTZ

Poster Pair Reflection Creating my San Francisco/Dubai poster pair was a new kind of challenge for me. As a student of art history, I am constantly critiquing other artists’ approaches and executions of conveying certain meanings or emotions on an analytical level. Very seldom do I engage in the physical act of creating art, and it is hard for me to create a visual representation of my sometimesconceptual ideas. Since I didn’t necessarily have to create or produce the images for my posters myself, I tried to take a more curatorial approach by selecting images that helped make my ideas and concepts more concrete. However, I am drawn to conceptual art and writing, so my posters still retain an abstract quality to them. Through the tools in Photoshop and InDesign, I was able to manipulate my chosen images to create the desired effects. For example, I wanted

I wanted to juxtapose San Francisco’s emphasis on natural preservation and sustainability with Dubai’s more primary focus on development and cultivation.

to overlay an image of the Dubai cityscape on top of Rawdha’s image of the constant construction through out the city in order to portray the city’s affinity towards progress. One of my major downfalls on this project was going overboard with all the fancy text effects and embellishments to the point where some of my text was illegible. I have now learned that just because effects are available it doesn’t mean you have to use them! I think I was afraid that the posters would look too plain without the fancy text, but now I understand that clean simple lines are sometimes the most effective. I also learned about the importance of seemingly minute things, like lining up the text in the same place on both documents, in order to create a cohesive aesthetic style. This project helped me become a lot more comfortable with InDesign, but I am still not very confident with Photoshop.

Above are the original images that I used to create my poster pair. My partner, Rawdha, took the first photo of the construction in Dubai, and I took the second photo of the Presidio in San Francisco.

I wanted to convey the hustle and bustle of Dubai’s nonstop development through overlaping an image of the city’s modern skyline with Rawdha’s photo of scafolding from a construction site.

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RAWDHA ALAJMANI

POSTER PAIRS THE

“

In Dubai you’ll find the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, and big and the small, the pretty and the ugly, the good and the bad…etc. It is literally one of the most diverse city in the world, people wise and city wise.

CITY OF ”

LIFE

Final poster conveying Dubai as the City of Life.

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HANNAH RAWDHA SCHWARTZ ALAJMANI

THE

“

San Francisco is truly an amazing city. I have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit around the world, but I have yet to find a city that is comparable to my beloved San Francisco.

”

CITY OF

FREEDOM

Final poster conveying San Francisco as the City of Freedom.

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RAWDHA ALAJMANI

REMIX POSTER Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

Alya is a 26-year-old market from the United Arab Emirates. She was raised in Abu Dhabi, where she graduated from a private school and entered Zayed University as an Interior Design student. Two years later, she moved to Ajman with her family so she moved to the Dubai campus of Zayed University. Alya then realized that she was not interested in Interior Design like she thought she was, so she changed her major to 3D Motion Graphics Design. She did an amazing job producing a bunch of short movies. Alya enjoys drawing and painting which also was part of her studies in Zayed University. After she graduated, Alya worked for a year as a marketing executive in a company called Al Wasl. A year later she changed jobs, and is now working as a business development/marketing executive in Ajman Free Zone Authority. She loves traveling and visiting historical and art museums wherever she goes. In her free time, Alya usually watches TV shows on her laptop or surfs the Internet and reads fashion website and blogs. She loves knowing all the latest fashion trends.

I really liked the title Hannah put for her poster. It makes the viewer want to know more about the event. I think the composition of the poster is great, however I was afraid it did not speak to its target audience; it looked more like its targeted to a 20 something age group audience. So I changed the composition, the typefaces, added a small paragraph from the assigned texts, and changed the size of some of the text. I also added some color to the background. I purposely stayed away from adding images because I personally think it looks more effective and clean and easy to the eye like that.

Hannah decided to keep the composition of my poster the same and just add a color to the background and a gradient color to the title. I added the gradient effect to the background instead of the text itself to make it look like a sky. The text I was assigned at the beginning of this project is a manifesto written by Graphic Designers talking about how Graphic Designers can do more than advertisements and billboard. So, I decided to make my poster ironic and add an illustration of a billboard sign with the text inside, and leave the rest of the poster clean.

GRAPHIC CON our problem e worthy of pursuits mor ronmental, There are dented envi . s. Unprece our attention solving skill s demand g cultural crise l marketin social and ions, socia vent inter ral exhibitions, Many cultu magazines, s, s, book rams, film campaigns, ision prog n al tools, telev rmation desig education other info causes and and help. charitable our expertise ntly require projects urge

Murjaan Conference Hall, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai 24-26 JUNE 2012 10 AM to 4 PM

My final edited remix poster. I wanted it to look like a billboard sign to make the poster ironic.

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EXCHANGE

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

Persona Description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

Alistair is the owner of a small but successful fine arts and design quarterly in the UK, but has recently removed himself from some of his major responsibilities at the agency to focus on more philanthropic activities. The quarterly focuses on global visual culture and identity within the arts and encourages critical discourse concerning currently accepted arts institutions.

I really like the graphic aesthetic of Rawdha’s remix poster. It is simple yet bold, and I like how the text is streamlined. The only major concern I had with her poster was that I wasn’t sure if the purpose or intention of the event was clearly communicated. I had an idea of what the event was from Rawdha’s character persona that she sent me, so I decided to add a blurb about the structure and objective behind her event, “Graphic Con.”

I think Rawdha did a great job recreating and improving upon my remix poster. The added text helps give more background and clarification to my event, while the simplification of the primary text caters better to my target audience.

Alistair studied at the Royal College of Art, London, but frequently felt out of place among his more posh classmates. Subsequently, Alistair was inspired by the 1964 First Things First manifesto because of the document’s reaction against affluent British society and the laziness of the design world.

The blocks of color break up the text into visually pleasing compartments that help the viewer’s eyes travel down the poster. The colors are bold, but not assaulting .

I also added a background color to make the text pop, and I created a gray scale effect on some text to add more visual interest. My last edit to the poster was straightening out the subtext next to the word “Con” for better legibility.

Many of his philanthropic interests have to do with the arts, especially with promoting responsible and sustainable design practices. Alistair is involved with Philanthropy by Design, British Design Innovation, and Society for Environmental Graphic Design.

F I R S T

T H I N G S

The scope of debate is shrinking; it must

e x p a n d .

FF III R R SS TT

WHAT: ADBUSTERS’ UK LAUNCH PARTY FOR THE RENEWAL AND REEXAMINATION OF THE “FIRST THINGS FIRST” 1964 MANIFESTO TO BE FEATURED IN ADBUSTERS, EMIGRE, EYE, BLUEPRINT, ITEMS, AND AIGA JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC DESIGN. WHEN: FRIDAY, MAY 26, 19:00-22:00

The scope of debate is shrinking; it must e x p a n d .

FIRST THINGS

FIRST Consumerism must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

WHAT: Adbusters’ UK launch party for the renewal and re-examination of the “First Things First” 1964 Manifesto to be featured in Adbusters, Emigre, Eye, Blueprint, Items, and AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. WHEN: Friday, May 26, 19:00-22:00 WHERE: Haunch of Vension Gallery, London W1S 1st.

WHERE: HAUNCH OF VENISON GALLERY, LONDON W1S 1ST

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IN SUMMARY RAWDHA ALAJMANI

HANNAH S C H WA R T Z

Working with the girls from San Francisco has been an absolute pleasure. It was such a great idea from both our professors to plan the whole collaboration project. Not only did we learn many things, things that maybe you wouldn’t have learned if it wasn’t for the collaboration, but we also had a blast working on the projects. For the first project, we had to design two posters, one for Dubai and one for San Francisco. After getting to know our partners by sending them questions, and writing a paper about Dubai, we had to photograph the design principles found in typography around Dubai, and we were also given two words (ex. Convenient & inconvenient) and had to photograph according to those words. I think this step helped us a lot in the process of the project, because we saw and learned things from a local’s point of view, and things that can’t be found over the Internet. The only difficulty I faced while working on this project was not getting feedback from my partner. I was later informed that my partner had some personal problems that made her fall behind in this project, but I am very happy she was able to catch up with us for the next project.

The 8092 Collaborative Project was one of the most unique opportunities I have had in college. Not only did this class teach me the basics of design history and introduce me to industry standard software, it gave me a chance to visually communicate culture through the design principles learned within the course.

For the next project, which I found even more fun than the previous project, we were given an article and were asked to create a poster for an event that has to do with that article. Each student had a specific age group she had to focus on. I loved this part because I think it helped us learn how different composition and colors can affect each age group. This project taught us how important it is when designing a poster to think about every aspect; how different events and topics affect the composition poster, how different audiences can affect the color, typeface, and language used in the poster. Another thing I found useful in this project is getting to remix other people’s poster and seeing how things can be adjusted step by step. It really taught me that when designing a poster, it is really helpful if we turn away from the poster for a while, and look at other people’s work, and then go back to our own poster. In that way we will be able to pin point our mistakes, if we had any, and it makes it easier to fix them after seeing what others did.

It is clear that people in Dubai spend most of their time inside within the comforts of air conditioning, so it makes sense that places like big indoor malls are social gathering centers. Weather permitting, people in San Francisco try to spend as much time as possible outside. In SF, there is a bigger emphasis on preserving national parks and community rec centers.

In conclusion, getting to be a part of the collaboration with students from San Francisco has been a new experience and an absolute pleasure. If I had another chance to do it again I would definitely be more than happy to be a part of it.

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Working with the class in Dubai also forced our class to think more globally when discussing successful uses of semiotics in our posters. As a result, I learned quite a lot about the customs and cultures of Dubai. Zeina was completely open to our questions and gave us honest and candid answers about daily life in Dubai. I don’t think I would have understood some of the customs of Dubai without Zeina in our class, we definitely lucked out! I think what I was the most surprised to learn was that there are many similarities between San Francisco and Dubai as metropolitan cities. Both cities are concerned with progress, consumer culture, development and tourism. Traffic seems to be a common issue for both cities, although I must say it looks much worse in Dubai!

I really enjoyed this project and it has made me want to go to Dubai even more than I previously did. Hopefully someday I’ll be lucky enough to have the chance to go!

BIOGRAPHY ROUDHA MALIK

K A I T LY N MORSE

I’m Roudha born and raised in Dubai my hometown.I’m studying at Zayed University majoring in Graphic design and a minor in Psychology Art is my passion.I must say it was not my first choice but all in all it’s awesome and I love it. I am a person with so many interests,I like reading writing drawingtraveling and the list goes on why stick to one thing when you can try everything yes? Also I love animals specially cats.I already got a bunch they are amazing. When I graduate I will surely try out so many design jobs. Sticking to one thing, not my style. I have been on contact with my partner through the process of this project and one interesting quote that i liked

I’m a junior majoring in Art History/Arts Management at the University of San Francisco. I grew up in Martinez, California. I love going garage sailing, traveling, reading, playing monopoly and sewing. My favorite thing to do in the city is to go to the Legion of Honor museum. I look forward to traveling in France this summer. Rohda was very generous and shared a lot with me about her life in Dubai. One quote I found particularly interesting was

‘‘I love living in SF. I take the bus everywhere and don’t drive. It’s really small but there’s a lot to do. I love all of the different kinds of people I meet living here’’ This was a nice experience that i went through. Collaborating with someone from another continent was informative. I noticed how different are styles are. Plus working together and combing both styles.

“… we have formal clothes that we wear called the ‘kandora’. Both men and women wear them but women not so much anymore unless it’s the National Day. Older women do still wear the kandora but you wont find any new generation girls wearing it.” I am fascinated by cultures that are different from the one I was born and raised in. It’s so easy to fall into negative stereotypes about other cultures, so hearing about Rohda’s day to day life was really rewarding.

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PHOTO SCAVENG Similarities and Differences Of course one might not see the similarities between SF and Dubai at first because of what you think you know. But i realised from this collaboration with my partner that there are some similarities. Maybe not when it comes to sky scrappers and religion but the all and all look and feel. Both are modern, and both have history within them.

Word pair definitions So my word pair was Formal and Casual. What do both mean to me? For this project applying a word to a picture was a bit challenging, since I had to go around Dubai which isâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;nt a small city at all and take shots of what is formal and casual. Formal to me means something that is stiff and modern. It also has to do with rules and being constrained. While Casuual which is the total opposite has the free spirit about it. Casual is loose and taking it easy. Dubai is both casual and formal. Some places like Jumeira and downtown Dubai are very formal. You get the sense of formality from the buildings bricks and signage in that area. To contrast you will find casual in more residential areas. Where signs and the feel of the place itself has a casual look to it.

Reflections This project gave me the opportunity to explore my design skills even further. I learned new things that will help me in my future decision design wise. Not only that but collaborating with some one so far away was no piece of cake, but it was a nice experience. I found out we have totally different views when it comes to design. It was interesting noticing the differences. I noticed that the girls in SF used photos in their posters more. Whereas we stuck with illustrations and the sort, a huge difference with our design views. But I must say all is nice in its own way. It was a nice experience being on contact with a person who lives in SF. I liked asking her questions, and her responses were helpful.

I was inspired by photos that my partner and I took that highlighted some of the similarities of San Francisco and Dubai.

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Word pair definitions Reflections Formal can be slightly stuffy- maybe even snobby at times. Formal is a special occasion or something official or important. San Francisco architecture is very formal, especially anything in the financial district. Street signs, official logos and signs are all formal too. Casual is relaxed and easy going. Casual can be bright and cheerful, even care-free at times. Casual does not require a lot of thought, unlike formal. Casual is usually not “official” in any way, shape or form. San Francisco is home to many casual, handwritten signs and organic elements in design.

Similarities and Differences It would be easy to assume that Dubai and San Francisco are complete polar opposites. However, after exchanging emails with my partner in Dubai I realized that they’re not as different as I originally thought. While Dubai has a certain religious element that we lack here in San Francisco, they are both big metropolitan cities with neighborhoods that also have a more smalltown feel. Dubai and San Francisco both love technology, however San Francisco combines technology and history, like Victorian architecture and cable cars. Dubai and San Francisco both have their own unique traditions and diversity. Dubai certainly has more sky scrapers than San Francisco, and San Francisco’s public transportation makes it easier to get around the city.

This project was a really good experience for me. I enjoyed working with a partner whose perspective was really different from mine. It was good for me to practice working with someone so far away. I learned that the girls in Dubai are not so different from us out here, except maybe they shop a bit more than I do! I found it fascinating to hear about how tradition and religion influenced my partner’s every day life. I don’t have that kind of experience out here in San Francisco. It was also interesting for me to answer my partner’s questions about San Francisco. Growing up in the suburbs I never did much serious thinking about San Francisco. I have always loved the city and knew I wanted to come here for college but I have never sat down and explained this city to someone else. It was fun to pass on my love of San Francisco to someone so far away.

I also really enjoyed the critique for this project. After you stare at your work for a certain amount of time it gets hard to realize what could be changed to make it better. The critiques of my classmates and instructor were very constructive and helpful. I appreciate Kelly working with me to make changes to the final poster that took into account the critiques that were made in class. I’m very happy with my final poster now. I wish we had more time in this class! If I wasn’t so far into my college career I would consider taking on a design minor- not because I think I am very good at design, but because I enjoy learning the programs and working with the software and typography. I enjoyed seeing what my partner did with her poster pair. Our posters are very different but each one stands out in its own way.

This project was also a good reminder for me to be better about my time management skills. I felt really bad when I submitted my photos so late to my partner in Dubai. She was very gracious about it, but still! I loved editing my photos in Photoshop. It didn’t take very long but the results were really great even with my simple modifications. I enjoyed the whole process, from selecting the most interesting photos to cropping them to their best advantage.

Examples of formal and casual elements in San Francisco architecture and typography. Quirky pub signs are contrasted with offical looking Art Deco office buildings.

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PHOTO SCAVENG

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POSTER PAIRS

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itan city. glish or Arabic. s way with s its place.”

KAITLYN MORSE

San Francisco

“San Francisco is an interesting blend of new and old. Technology and history both feel equally at home within the city’s limits.” —Kaitlyn Morse

Dubai

“Dubai is a very cosmopolitan city. Everyone speaks either English or Arabic. Modernization has had its way with Dubai but history also has its place.” —Roudha Malik

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REMIX POSTER Persona description Lamya is 23 she graduated from university with a degree in women studies. She is considered as a feminist. She was born in the middle east, Dubai to be specific. But when she was 12 her family and her traveled to London and settled there till she graduate from university. She now works at a law firm. She likes going back to Dubai during holidays, she likes the weather and she does have some reltives there. Other than that she likes going to other gulf areas. She likes reading books and checking the news now and then. She has cats to keep her company. On her free time she likes going to a nice quite coffee shop and enjoy some reading.

Phase I Analysis

The overall outcome was ok, but her design might need a bit more life and excitement. Maybe a different font, colour, or a bit of variety. She has purple and only played with the purple shades. Why not contrast? Maybe that’s what her poster is missing - a change in colours. Plus I don’t see any shifting in the remix .

“Does this mean that picture taking is an issue for females internationally, regardless of cultural and religious beliefs? Perhaps.”

P.S. Please Don’t Take My Picture “It’s a ‘pause’ button of you going ‘fast forward,’ a ‘past’ that follows your ‘future’ life.” (We don’t like the picture-taking unless we are fully prepared for it.)

“Me, you, her. Many girls don’t like to have their picture taken even if they don’t have the cultural reasons, even if they trust the person holding the camera.” Discussion and Book Signing with

Ghina Alkatsi Grand Library | Dubai August 17th 2012

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Phase II Response

The work was not creative. I think it looked a little bit dull. Purple is the typical colour one might think off when it comes to women. The layout though was fine. But centering everthing does make it look like a flyer rather than a poster. The essay we had was talking about women all over the world and how not only veiled women don’t like their picture taken. Yet every women out there might not be ready for some one to take her picture randomly. So in my poster I added an illustration of a sad girl. But my partner added squares sure it has a nice contrast with the background but i didn’d feel that my partner’s poster was eye catching or even giving the message.

EXCHANGE

KAITLYN MORSE

Persona description

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

Mary is 19 years old. She is a college student in Berkeley, CA. She was raised in an upper middle class family in the suburbs of the Bay Area. She is an English major and works part time at a small bookstore. Mary likes to go jogging with her dog in the mornings. She doesn’t own a car so she uses her bicycle to get around town. Mary is currently taking a Women’s Studies course, which has been discussing women in Muslim cultures. Mary is interested in politics and how women are portrayed in the media. Her writing revolves around strong female characters. She identifies as a feminist. Mary would like to travel to Europe and the Middle East when she graduates. She shops at Trader Joes and the Farmer’s Market for most of her groceries and she tries to eat healthy and organic. She buys her clothes from local boutiques and online stores like Etsy. Mary and her friends study at a coffee shop around the corner from her apartment. She likes to go into San Francisco on weekends to see live music and visit friends.

My initial response to the poster is that it’s a bit jumbled, and there may be a little too much going on here. The fonts that she used work really well with the design. Her design might benefit by being a bit more organized. Also there are some grammatical errors. I was surprised that we got the same age group for our persona! I thought she did a good job of creating a realistic persona. I would suggest that my partner remove the top left text of her design. I think my partner’s persona might be a bit put off by how jumbled some of the text is. I think if she clears that up and adds some more interesting design elements her persona would be drawn to the poster. I like that my partner wondered if her issue was an international concern for women regardless of their culture.

I like the addition of the red background with the white font. She changed the quote and there are a lot of spelling errors. I’m not too crazy about the italics and the other color she used in the title. The drawing she added is nice but I’m not sure it’s representative of the event because the essay talks about women using veils, and the drawing portrays a unveiled woman. I don’t think that I would have used a red background like she did, but I really like it and I definitely think I will keep it. My partner’s contributions present somewhat of a challenge to me because of the spelling errors.

Photos From the Back

A documentary film based on the essay by Ghina Elkatsi

Please Please Don’t Don’t Take Take My My Photo. Photo.

$8 general admission $5 students UC Bekeley Auditorium June 21st, 2012

Girls dont like having their picture taken,especially in this culture.A girl‘s photo is not welcome;she will be criticized or at least this is how it’s always been since i came here.

Photos From the Back A documentary film based on the essay by Ghina Elkatsi

Please Don’t Take My Photo. “Girls don’t like having their picture taken, especially in this culture. A girl’s photo is not welcomed; she will be criticized, or at least this is how it’s always been since I came here.”

$8 general admission | $5 students UC Bekeley Auditorium June 21st, 2012

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IN SUMMARY ROUDHA MALIK

K A I T LY N MORSE

This collaboration was very useful. Not only did I learn about a new city I also met a new person. The design process made be see how others view design too, and how different our approaches are. This process helped me see my city in a whole new way. It is like I discovered it all over again. Typography wise and architecture, thanks to this project I know my city now better than ever. Another thing is that by exchanging photos with an actual San franciscan you get to see the city from their perspective which was something new to experience, rather than just googling.

I have gained a deeper understanding of visual representation because of our collaborative projects with Dubai. Through exchanging ideas with my partner and the response of my peers I have been better able to think critically about design and develop my own creative process. The collaboration was challenging but worth the effort. I have always been the kind of person who doesn’t like to feel like I don’t have control over something, so it’s been a good learning process for me to share the creative “ropes” with another person. I also really enjoyed learning about Dubai from the perspective of someone who lives there.

This project gave me the opportunity to explore Adobe Indesign further. Also the collaboration helped me see Dubai and SF differently. Of course they are totally different cities but they do have some similarities.

This project has allowed me to think critically about San Francisco, something I’ve never done before. It was a gentle reminder that although Dubai might feel like it’s worlds away, we really aren’t all that different.

Working with a partner was no challenge for me, I am ok with it but I don’t prefer it. However the process was exciting. Getting to know some one new and viewing their design perspective was interesting.

“Exchanging pictures, learning new things, and designing a poster. Who wouldn’t like to try that? ”

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“Through exchanging ideas with my partner and the response of my peers I have been better able to think critically about design and develop my own creative process. ”

BIOGRAPHY SHEFA ALHAMMADI

MATEA FISH

HESSA BIN HURAIZ

I’m 20 years old, from UAE, whom born in Khoorfakkan. Ambitious graphic design students at Zayed University. I enjoy cooking, feel freedom while riding horses, having fun in camping and handcrafting. My best colors are the dark ones, like black, royal green and red. I am being exited when it’s about learning new things and engaged in adventures. My real enjoyment is graphic design, photography, and painting. My graphic design experience in real world, was when I started my own business, since I was 16 years old. Achievements in art world, that I participated in many different exhibition in UAE and KSA, such as the national day exhibition in Masafi. Also, choose my photo as one of best photograph for Abu Dhabi through your eye’s competition, which runs yearly by Emirates Identity Authority. In this collaboration project, I don’t learned sharing designs only, it’s sharing cultures, and communication skills, and here is what our friend sent us when she was in Hawaii “Aloha! Hawaiian word for hello and goodbye”.

Born in Bend, Oregon, I am now an Art History student at the University of San Francisco. This is my first artistic contribution to a book publication. I enjoy card games, sushi, and taking long walks on the beach. My favorite color is blue, because it doesn’t come in an ugly shade, and always looks good with black. In one of my first few conversations with my design partners in Dubai, they depicted a perfect day in their beloved city:

Born in Dubai, I am 20 years old. I am now a graphic design major at Zayed University. My favorite color is blue, because it’s calming and relaxing color. My hobbies are photography, cooking, exercising and travelling. My favorite kind of food is sushi. The first email that my partner in San Francisco sent starts with Aloha! (Hawaiian word for hello and goodbye)

“In Dubai you can start your early morning with a delicious breakfast... Close your eyes and you will suddenly find yourself horse riding in the beautiful dunes of the desert...In the afternoon enjoy a crazy match with your friends in Al Khor paintball club. Later on enjoy your night at one of the many movie theaters...” This gave me an idea of what they do for fun, and why they love Dubai so much.

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PHOTO SCAVENG Word Pair Definitions There are many meanings that define the word Soft, for instance, the sea which is very smooth and soft, the desert or the sand is also soft and warm, the Family gathering is also considered soft, the old people like our grandmothers and grandfathers make me feel very happy and comfortable, and the UAE flag is also considered soft when it is very high waving in the sky. Also, soft is the cultural and kind people around the city. It’s the hospitality and the smile which goes through people and how they treated each other. On the other hand, for example, the buildings in Dubai, the traditional dancing and their equipment or tools, the business men or women who work very hard, Hard is not just a word it dose reflect the busy life of Dubai, it’s also describe the difficult life which our grandparents lived to build the future , which is the present-nowadays. It’s also show the skyscrapers-and different buildings. The hard of civilization which grows up between past and nature.

Similarities & Differences In this collaboration , we learned how to recognize and discover cities without travel. We knew a lot about San Francisco, and we discovered that there are many differences and similarities between two different countries with different cultures and settled in really different areas. Similarly, have history, and their past is the basic of their present. In addition, Both are modern cities which are crowds with buildings and skyscrapers. Also, Dubai and San Francisco have nature around, so it’s not only modern. However, both cities are multicultural, people from all countries meet in these two cities. On the other hand, both cities have differences such as the claimant. Also, the culture are different. For example, here we obey our religion by covering our heads with shayla and bodies by abaya. And it becomes as a cultural thing so its not allowed to walk around the city without covering as what in San Francisco.

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Word Pair Definitions Hard could be represented in objects that are solid, rigid, unbreakable, frozen, dense, impenetrable… or conversely as something strenuous, difficult, or problematic. In San Francisco we see rigid forms all over the place in our infrastructure, street signs and lights, cars, books, etc. I could find people working hard (construction work, hard hats, perhaps), as well as the difficult cultural state we’re in with the economy and the recent Occupy protests.‘Soft’ could be represented by something physically mushy, squishy, malleable, supple, smooth, furry, or silky. It could also mean a soft voice, or soft demeanor. It could imply delicacy, gentleness, and sensitivity. As it pertains to San Francisco, I see softness in the people who smile on the streets, my cozy bed on a cold, foggy day, or the illusion of softness in the haze of the fog rolling by. But most off all, when I think of San Francisco in terms of these two words, I think of the juxtaposition of the two. You can simultaneously enjoy the rigid architecture and hustle of city life and the softness of nature nearby, the quiet of fog, and the kindness of people inspired by the history here.

Similarities and Differences Throughout our collaboration I have learned many things about Dubai, and discovered both its similarities and differences in comparison to San Francisco.So far I have learned many things about Dubai. Shefa and Hessa gave me the basic breakdown including that Dubai is the financial hub of the UAE and is also the most popular of the seven states. I learned that the tallest building in the world, which resides there, is named after their president, and infrastructure is really important as the first things she talked about were that building and the shopping malls. But what was particularly sparked my interest was that Shefa who got the email from, but I think collaborated with Hessa said that what makes Dubai special for her,is its location between the desert and the sea, the way that it is linked to both; she said it has a way of combining “modernity and nature life.” This concept is really similar.

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PHOTO SCAVENG

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MATEA FISH

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POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection

The special aspect of San-Francisco is San Francisco bridge-golden gate. So I used it as a main object that describe San Francisco on my poster. First thing I did is illustrate the bridge.

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I used some of the photos that shows the nature and the green life on San Francisco, that Matea my friend sent them. As a background I used a map of San Francisco city which reflects some of the places and how this city is huge and this is the reason of being a multicultural life.

My concept is also about the history of San Francisco, so I used picture of San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s map to show the busy streets and places of the city, and the bridge is present the old city. Because it built since 1933-1936 and this is part of their history and that hold a lot of memories of the city and stories about SFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s streets, that I showed some of them inside the heart of the bridge.

SHEFA ALHAMMADI

The city of Dubai is a mixture of past, present and future. For Instance, our grandfathers lived a very hard life, there were two different types like some of them worked as fishers and the others worked in the desert as a Chippered or merchants. One of the most important in Dubai’s culture is the language. Arabic shows the soft word presented in the smoothness in the Arabic letters.

I looked for old Dubai which will be inside the palm project. That will present the same concept of Old Dubai is the basic of new Dubai city. I photographed some old buildings that around Dubai. this part i’ll do it in illustrator , just the outline. And this is only one photo from many. however, old buildings reflects the hard life in the past, and the soft of memories.

In this project i started to collected photos and discover the city. I used google map so I can take photos from up. however, the modern part of the city shows and reflect the hard of modernity and hard work to build the city. The sand is the nature of UAE in general and Dubai specially. you can see the development of the city dubai next to the nature which is desert land.

LEFT: Here I shows part of the process, where i’m done with the illustration of building and adding islamic texture so it reflects the old theme of old Dubai. so you can see the old that build Dubai, it’s the basic of building a new modern city. and the old inside a Dubai’s outline map. but modern Dubai is reflected on the sea because that what all world see, and on f these modern projects is the palm. RIGHT: In detail I choose every single part of the modern project «the palm» to contain inside it all the memories and the past life. Like the old buildings, deserts. Grandmother, and the language of the city which is Arabic. And about the Arabic text, it has a message that shows how the Arabic font is really nice and important. Also, it’s reflect the life in Dubai city by each letter and the shape of it. 159

MATEA FISH

POSTER PAIRS Poster Pair Reflection The poster pair project has been a very interesting process— both fun and frustrating. Working with my two partners, Shefa and Hessa, in Dubai was really eye opening to our different lifestyles, design styles, and personalities. I am proud to say that I know much more about Dubai now than I did before (which was very little, to be honest). This also made it kind of intimidating to share my work on Dubai, in which I impose my own interpretations and thoughts that may or may not be accurate from their perspectives. Fortunately, they responded really well to my work. As far as my own experience creating the designs, it was a bumpy road. I ended up abandoning my initial designs and starting from scratch—a decision I still do not know was the right one. I liked my initial concept and designs, but there was something missing from them. I did not want to spell out my intentions; I wanted the viewer to decipher his or her own meaning from the posters. But I was skeptical about the quality of the designs in conveying that message, and ultimately deemed they were inadequate. My final designs I think are more accessible, and aesthetically pleasing as well.

It was so interesting to see my partner’s work in comparison to mine; their styles are so different. Additionally, the techniques they used were vastly different from the ones I focused on. They both used stark color contrast, and computer generated images that were more graphic and abstract, whereas I used black and white photography as the focus in my two posters. Also interesting, was a phrase that Hessa used as the headline of her poster: “49 square miles surrounded by reality,” I have never heard this before, so it is funny that she came across it and found it important. I wonder where, or in what context, she came across it. However, it is a rather appropriate phrase in conveying a certain essence of San Francisco that is prevalent in popular thought. I had a hard time conversing regularly with my partners over the course of the project. While I almost never spoke with Hessa, Shefa an so busy, and she expressed being apprehensive about her grammar in emails. I think they are both really shy, so while they gave me good (albeit, brief) feedback, I wonder if they were honest. However, despite all this we have managed to exchange thoughts, ideas, and traditions that helped a lot with the project and were really beneficial for me in learning a lot about Dubai that I did not know before.

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‫ﻭ‬

‫ﺑﺎﻱ‬ ‫ﺩﺍﺭ ﻱ ﻣﺮ‬

‫ﺍﻟﻮﺻﻞ‬

‫ﻛﺎﻧﺖ ﺩﺑﻲ ﻗﺪﳝﺎ ﺗﺴﻤﻰ ﲟﺪﻳﻨﺔ ﺍﻟﻮﺻﻞ‬ ‫ﻭﺫﻟﻚ ﻻﻧﻬﺎ ﺟﺰﺋﻲ ﺍﳌﺪﻳﻨﻪ )ﺩﻳﺮﻩ ﻭ ﺑﺮﺩﺑﻲ( ﻳﺠﺮﻱ‬ .‫ﺑﻴﻨﻬﻤﺎ ﺧﻮﺭ ﺩﺑﻲ ﺍﻟﺬﻱ ﻳﺼﻠﻬﻤﺎ ﺑﺒﻌﺾ‬

San Francisco is a city of approximately 7 x 7 square miles, bounded to the East and North by the San Francisco bay, to the West by the Paciﬁc Ocean, and to the South by the Peninsula.

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POSTER PAIRS

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MATEA FISH

POSTER PAIRS Tho I die on a distant strand, And they give me a grave in that land, Yet carry me back to my own city! Carry me back to her grace and pity! For I think I could not rest Afar from her mighty breast. She is fairer than others are Whom they sing the beauty of. Her heart is a song and a star-My cool, grey city of love.

in dist

ct.pr

ovocative.hypnotiz

san francisco

Tho they tear the rose from her brow, To her is ever my vow;

ing

Ever to her I give my duty-First in rapture and first in beauty, Wayward, passionate, brave, Glad of the life God gave. The sea-winds are her kiss, And the sea-gull is her dove. Cleanly and strong she is-My cool, grey city of love. The winds of the Future wait At the iron walls of her Gate, And the western ocean breaks in thunder, And the western stars go slowly under, And her gaze is ever West In the dream of her young unrest. Her sea is a voice that calls, And her star a voice above, And her wind a voice on her walls-My cool, grey city of love. Tho they stay her feet at the dance, In her is the far romance. Under the rain of winter falling, Vine and rose will await recalling. Tho the dark be cold and blind, Yet her sea-fogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s touch is kind, And her mightier caress Is joy and the pain thereof; And great is thy tenderness, O cool, grey city of love! G E O R G E

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S T E R L I N G

MATEA FISH

DUBAI

where nature meets infrastructure

where modernity meets tradition

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve witnessed you from the desert bloom.

;

With such futuristic peacefulness. Your architecture delights my insight. And manifests my imagination... You arrest and I digest. Burj Dubai, Your towers sweep the sky. My eyes touch upon your impressions. Someday I wish to walk your boulevards. And witness your beauty Peaking. Above the sandbars, Of your magnificent Grace. LAWRENCE S. PERTILLAR

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REMIX POSTER Persona

Phase I Analysis

Phase II Response

His name is Mohammed, he is 43 years old. Moreover, Mohammed is from the United Arab Emirates, Dubai. Mohammed have his own business of trading cars, for instance he orders cars from America that we don’t have here in Dubai and sells them. Mohammed loves old-fashioned cars and bikes. In addition, he likes to read newspapers and magazines. Mohammed’s favorite thing in life is the gym, he loves to exercise and train a lot, and he is a very active man. Mohammed likes to eat healthy food, he always eat at home because he really hate restaurants, he believe that restaurants are really bad to health and can cause food poison. Mohammed also loves cooking he always tries to cook a new meal for his family. Mohammed’s favorite channel is food network; he always watches this channel in order to be updated by the latest food tips and instructions.

When I first saw Matea’s poster I felt that it is very crowded, but then when I read the persona I noticed that it is 45 years old. So, I think that this poster might grab a 40’s year old attention because old people like reading. In addition, the tittle is very large, clear and readable for this age. Moreover, I didn’t like the picture that Metea added because it doesn’t show and I think that there is no need for it. In addition, I didn’t like the black background behind some of the text, so these parts need to be improved, whereas the rest is fine. I loved Matea’s persona, I think that Tony is very Lively and active.

I really loved Shefa’s edit but the problem was that the text wasn’t showing very clear so that’s why I decided to change the whole picture and style so it can be very clear and readable.

I think that Matea’s persona will be attracted to the poster because of the readings and the large tittle that talks about food, which Tony loves. Furthermore, maybe if the poster is more balanced and organized without the picture and the black background in it, it will really speak very clearly to the intended audience.

Grilling Techniques

Techniques

Healthy Cooking

Event Name: Healthy Kitchens Place: The Dubai Mall Time: Every Thursday at 5pm After three days of “Healthy Kitchens,” she is now convinced she needs to teach her patients healthy cooking. “In a perfect world, I would have my patients meet me at the farm,” she said. “That would make me a really happy doctor.”