Asawar Center

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FRONT COVER

Cover Type: Hardcover, Imagewrap Book Size: Standard Portrait 8x10 Page Count: 140 Paper Type: ProLine Uncoated (100# Text, Eggshell Texture)

MAHER SINJARY GRAPHIC DESIGN MFA THESIS

ASAWAR IS PART OF A COLLABORATE

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MAHER SINJARY GRAPHIC DESIGN MFA THESIS

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MAHER SINJARY

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

Copyright © 2016 Asawar Center for Cultural Autonomy - All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without express permission from Maher Sinjary.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

This book is dedicated to Asawar thesis project, Asawar is a Kurdish word for ‘Heritage�, I picked a topic that is personal for me and also is a major problem around the globe, which is the cultural identity versus political boundaries. Asawar Center is a part of a larger collaborative which is EthnoCultural and it focuses on ethnic groups that have been too often defined by others rather than themselves, such as the Kurds, Basques, and Palestinians.

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CELEBRATING THE HERITAGE OF KURDISH PEOPLE, PALESTINIANS, AND BASQUE COUNTRY, TELLING REAL STORIES FROM REAL PEOPLE, FOCUSING ON THEIR NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AND SEEKING FOR INDEPENDENCE.

INTRODUCTION

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CONTENTS

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02

BACKGROUND

RESEARCH

THE ISSUES

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LOOKING FOR TOPICS

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BASQUE COUNTRY

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EXPLORE

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KURDISTAN

20

EXPRESS

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PALESTINE

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ASKING QUESTIONS

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

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IDENTIFYING AUDIENCE

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EVENT PLANNING

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GETTING TOGETHER

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PARTICIPANTS

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DESIGN

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PRESENT & PROPOSE

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SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS

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SURVEY RESULTS

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BENCHMARKING

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CONTENTS

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BRAND IDENTITY

FINAL DELIVERABLES

NAMING AND KEYWORDS

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SOLUTIONS

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LOGO PROCESS

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WEBSITE

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FINAL LOGO

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EVENT

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LOGO COMPONENTS

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FESTIVAL LOGO

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LOGO VARIATIONS

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FESTIVAL DELIVERABLES

120

INCORRECT LOGO USAGE

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THE KURDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

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PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE

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MARKETING

136

GRAPHIC ELEMENTS

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BRAND STRUCTURE

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COLOR PALETTE

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PALESTINE WEBSITE

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PATTERNS

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PALESTINE POSTERS

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TYPOGRAPHY

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BASQUE COUNTRY WEBSITE

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VISUAL LANGUAGE

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BASQUE COUNTRY POSTERS

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THANKS

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WHO AM I AND WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS TOPIC

AUTHOR

I was born and raised in Duhok, Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. I hold a BFA in Fine arts from Saladdin University of Hawler (Erbil) or SUH. For the past few years, I have been teaching art in Iraqi Kurdistan, and came to San Francisco in Fall 2012 to study Graphic Design, a field that I have always been interested in. It’s complicated to be a Kurd. I identify partially as Iraqi, because Kurdistan is not yet an independent country. This means that whenever I introduce myself, I have to say, “I am from Kurdistan, Northern Iraq”—I can’t simply say Kurdistan. Sometimes if I just say, “I am from Kurdistan” they think I am talking about Kazakhstan in Southern Russia!

When I tell Americans that I am from “Northern Iraq,” they immediately envision a war torn region, and I have to try and explain the Kurdish situation, and impart a little bit of the Kurdish history to explain why things are the way they are.

My national identity, with all its confusion as well as the strength and courage of my people, has been a story of an ethnic group struggling for their cultural independence. This is what has led me to choose this topic.

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SECTION TITLE

“A PEOPLE WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR PAST HISTORY, ORIGIN AND CULTURE IS LIKE A TREE WITHOUT ROOTS.” —Marcus Garvey Jamaican Political leader

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BACKGROUND

01

BACKGROUND

THE ISSUE

Many nations around the world such as the Basques, Kurds, and Palestinians struggle to express their identity and speak for themselves, these nations have slowly disappeared because the countries surrounding them have total control over their independence. The idea of not being able to speak your own language in public is unbelievable but true for instance the Kurds in Turkey were not able to speak Kurdish in public until 2008, giving that over 20 million Kurds are from Turkey, that’s the northern part of Kurdistan. And the complicated case of Palestinians that they do have a country but they are controlled by Israel and never actually accomplished their goals by speaking for themselves. As well as the Basques, where they have their own language, culture, history, and lands, yet they are not independent and it has been divided by France and Spain and each say we own it.

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FRANCE

BASQUE COUNTRY SPAIN

2+

BASQUE COUNTRY

MILLION PEOPLE

DIVIDED

BY TWO COUNTRIES THE CULTURE OF BASQUE COUNTRY IS DIFFERENT FROM THE FRENCH AND THE SPAIN CULTURES THEY HAVE THEIR OWN CULTURE AND LANGUAGE THAT’S UNLIKE OTHERS.

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WHO ARE THE BASQUES?

BASQUE COUNTRY

The Basques are an indigenous ethnic group who primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.

Since the Basque language is unrelated to Indo-European, it has long been thought to represent the people or culture that occupied Europe before the spread of Indo-European languages there. A comprehensive analysis of Basque genetic patterns has shown that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula, about 7,000 years ago. It is thought that Basques are a remnant of the early inhabitants of Western Europe, specifically those of the Franco-Cantabrian region.

Basque tribes were already mentioned in Roman times by Strabo and Pliny, including the Vascones, the Aquitani, and others. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that at that time and later they spoke old varieties of the Basque language.

In the Early Middle Ages the territory between the Ebro and Garonne rivers was known as Vasconia, a vaguely defined cultural area and political entity struggling to fend off pressure from the Iberian Visigothic kingdom and Muslim rule to the south, as well as the Frankish push from the north. By the turn of the first millennium, the territory of Vasconia fragmented into different feudal regions, such as Soule and Labourd, while south of the Pyrenees the Castile, Pamplona and the Pyrenean counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza (later Kingdom of Aragon), and Pallars emerged as the main regional entities including Basque population in the 9 and 10th century.

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WHERE IS BASQUE COUNTRY?

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

The Basque region is divided into at least three administrative units, namely the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre in Spain, and the arrondissement of Bayonne and the cantons of Mauléon-Licharre and Tardets-Sorholus in the département of Pyrénées Atlantiques, France.

The autonomous community, known as in English: Basque Autonomous Community, is made up of the three Spanish provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. The corresponding Basque names of these territories are Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and their Spanish names are Álava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa.

FRANCE

BASQUE COUNTRY SPAIN

BASQUE COUNTRY

HISTORY Due to similarities in place names and personal names, the Basques are related to a people called the Vascones that lived in Northern Spain.

The Basque people had already lived in the Pyrenees for thousands of years when the Romans invaded the Iberian peninsula in approximately the first century BCE.

CULTURE The culture of Basque Country is different from the French and the Spain cultures they have their own culture and language that’s unlike others. Traditional Basque plays known as pastorales, which possibly related to medieval mystery plays, are still performed at festivals.

FLAG The Basque flag was created in 1894 by Sabino Arana (founder of Basque nationalism). The name of the flag in the Basque language is ikurrina.

Although the meaning of this word is flag, it is actually used only for the Basque flag. While not a flag of a nation-state, it nevertheless serves as a unifying symbol for Basque everywhere.

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40

KURDISTAN

MILLION PEOPLE

SURROUNDED

BY FOUR COUNTRIES WHOSE LONG TURBULENT HISTORY REFLECTS THE WORLDS POLITICAL STRUGGLES ON A GLOBAL SCALE.

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WHO ARE THE KURDS?

KURDISTAN

The Kurdish people are a heterogeneous ethnic group whose ethnic background comes from many regions including Iraqi Kurdistan, and parts of Iran, Turkey, and Syria. The Kurdish ethnic group includes many ancient ethnicities that have been absorbed into modern cultures including Iranian, Azerbaijani, Turkic and Arabic cultures. In this sense, the Kurdish culture shares commonalities with many other regional cultures, and celebrates a unique level of cultural equality and tolerance.

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WHERE IS KURDISTAN?

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

There are 40 million Kurds who are forced to be divided between four countries, which are Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran, there are about 5 million Kurds in Northern Iraq, 20 million are located in south Turkey, 2 million of them are in East Syria and about 6 million of them are in West Iran. The rest are all over the world because of not having their own country they were either forced to leave their areas or preferred to live in peace in Europe and the United States.

KURDISTAN

HISTORY Nationalist movements gained popularity throughout Europe in the 19th Century resulting in establishment of nation-states in Germany, Italy and Greece as well as autonomy in the Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria) that were under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

Nationalist fever did not go unnoticed amongst the young Kurds.

CULTURE In addition to political repression, the Kurds have also experienced cultural repression. In Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, there were extensive campaigns at forced assimilation. Kurds were forbidden to speak Kurdish in public, they had to change their names to local ethnic names if they wanted a job or to enroll their children in school.

FLAG First appeared during the movement for Kurdish independence from the Ottoman Empire. Consisting of a tricolor of red, white, and green horizontal bands with a yellow sun disk of 21 rays at its center, it is now the official flag of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

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ISRAEL

MFA THESIS

1.7

PALESTINE

MILLION PEOPLE

CONTROLLED

BY ISRAEL THE MAJOR ASPECTS OF THE PALESTINE SOCIETY & CULTURE INCLUDE THE CUSTOMS, LANGUAGES, LITERATURE, ART, COSTUMES & MUSIC OF THE LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS.

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WHO ARE THE PALESTINIANS?

PALESTINE

A Palestinian can mean a person who is born in the geographical area known prior to 1948 as Palestine, or a former citizen of the Mandatory Palestine, or an institution related to either of these. Using this definition, both Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews were called Palestinians.

Before the establishment of Israel, the meaning of the word Palestinian didn’t discriminate on ethnic grounds, but rather referred to anything associated with the region. The local newspaper, founded in 1932 by Gershon Agron, was called The Palestine Post. In 1950, its name was changed to The Jerusalem Post.

In 1923, Pinhas Rutenberg founded the Palestine Electric Company, Ltd. (later to become the Israel Electric Corporation, Ltd.). There was a Jewish Palestine Symphony Orchestra, and in World War II, the British assembled a Jewish Brigade, to fight the Axis powers, that was known as the Palestine regiment.

Since the establishment of Israel, its citizens are called Israelis, while the term Palestinians usually refers to the Palestinian Arabs.

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HISTORY Palestine was a common name used until 1948 to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. In its history, the Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires have controlled Palestine and now it’s controlled by Israel.

Palestine never had a country.

CULTURE The major aspects of the Palestine Society and Culture include the customs, religion, languages, literature, art, costumes and music of the land and its inhabitants. The culture of Palestine is still alive in the countries of Israel and Diaspora, although they are separate from the territory of Palestine.

FLAG The flag is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green) overlaid by a red triangle issuing. These are the Pan-Arab colors.

The flag is almost identical to that of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and extremely similar to the Flag of Jordan and Flag of Western Sahara.

WHERE IS PALESTINE?

PALESTINE

The population in Palestine has been divided into two main ethnic groups.

The Jews and the Arabs. For study of demographics of Palestine has been divided into two distinctive territories. The West Bank and the Gaza strip. The population of West Bank in 2004 is estimated to be 2,535,927.

It is estimated that 187,000 additional, Israeli settlers are there in the West Bank. The population growth rate according to 2007 is 2.985%. The birth rate is 30.99 births per thousand people and the death rate is 3.85 per thousand of the population. The literacy rate of the West Bank region is very high. 91.9% of the male and 96.3% of the female population above 15 years of age are able to read and write. The Palestine Arabs constitute 83% of the population, the Jewish comprise 17%. Islam is the predominant religion and 75% of the population are the followers of Islam. 17% are Jewish and 8% are the Christians.

TINE

PALE S

ISRAEL

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“IF ART IS TO NOURISH THE ROOTS OF OUR CULTURE, SOCIETY MUST SET THE ARTIST FREE TO FOLLOW HIS VISION WHEREVER IT TAKES HIM.” —John F. Kennedy

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RESEARCH

02

RESEARCH

LOOKING FOR TOPICS

I started the first lab with writing, we were asked to write three pages every day for seven days, which helped me write about my ideas for investigation and I went deep in detail to write about every angle of my topics or ideas that came to my mind at that point. First of all, I was thinking to continue working on my previous topic for the last semester, which was about cultural identity versus political boundaries, but then I got the impression that whatever topic has to be done about outside the U.S. the committees are not going to accept it, so I came up with five new ideas, one of them had to do about resident crisis for artists in San Francisco, another one was about generation differences, I also wanted to work on teenagers using social media and the others had to do with printing challenges after a good design. I was more interested in working on a topic that has to do with cultural identity, and I was surprised when Phil Hamlett, the Graduate Graphic Design Director at AAU told me “Why are not you pursuing your Kurdish case topic again?”, I said, “I thought you didn’t like it.” Well, then I did work on my initial idea with more knowledge and a stronger statement.

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AUTOMATIC WRITING

RESEARCH

This is all about writing, not necessarily about topics that I was thinking to work on, but I took the opportunity and wrote a lot about my five topics for seven days to get more ideas about what I want to do. The automatic writing took me to places that I never thought I could write about, meaning I was able to go deep in ideas and think about problems and find solutions for it, as a graphic designer how would I solve them. Because I was interested in writing about my cultural identity so I took the time and wrote about all the issues that people like me face, and also because I have taken this class in Spring and Summer 2014 I knew what are the next labs, so I was writing content for my upcoming assignments ahead of time.

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EXPLORE

EXPLORE

We started the first lab with writing we were asked to write three pages every day for seven days, which helped me write about my ideas for investigation and I went deep in detail to write about every corner of my topics or ideas that came to my mind at that point. First of all I was thinking to continue working on my previous topic for the last semester, which was about cultural identity versus political boundaries, but then I got the impression that whatever has to do with outside the U.S. the committees are not going to accept it, so I came up with five new ideas, one of them had to do about resident crisis for artists in San Francisco, another one was about generation differences, I also wanted to work on teenagers using social media and the others had to do with printing challenges after a good design. I was more interested to work on a topic that has to do with cultural identity, and I was surprised when Phil told me why I’m not pursuing my idea again, I said I thought you didn’t like it, well, then I did work on it again and you’ll see step-by-step process.

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EXPLORE

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EXPRESS

EXPRESS

What does it mean to me “Cultural Identity vs. Political Boundaries” I wanted to represent myself and speak for others that want the world to hear their voice, so I came up with three ideas for three posters, one of them was about the invisible nation which refers to Kurdistan because it’s invisible in the U.S. and to make it visible I needed to relate it to some issues in California that’s why my second poster is about breaking California into six states and the third one was about myself and my need for an independent country.

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ASKING QUESTIONS

ASKING QUESTIONS

We had to ask 50-80 questions and create a 12-page 8x10� brochure, I collected my questions that I had in my mind and I talked to people to get more questions about my topic, and started my design, I wanted to keep it dynamic and simple at the same time, during the class my brochure was voted number one from all my fellow students they thought my design was the best, and that made my day.

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ASKING QUESTIONS

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

MAKING CONNECTIONS Another way of finding insights, but this time we’re bringing a giant sheet, we put five categories of impacts then add words that are relevant to our topics, then we connect them, I found interesting connections during this particular assignment, meanwhile we also had to take images and then find connections between my connected words and images. We presented 18 cards for this assignment, that had to be double-sided, so we gave a description on the rare side of each card. Phil pointed to me and said no need to use stock images, I told him that those are all my photographs and he was surprised that I took those images.

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IDENTIFYING AUDIENCE My target audience is people between the ages of 24 and 50+ who are interested in international politics and cultural identity. There appear to be many Americans that fit into this category.

Knowing your target audience is very important for any project, to get closer to our audience we were asked to create 8 archetypes, that means people that I want to deliver my message to, and people that I think they will find my topic interesting.

I chose voting cards as my vernacular because I thought it’s relevant to my topic, I made 8 cards and tried to put different ages of Americans in my target audience, we had to make two cards for those who are out of our audience, so I made them as well in negative color so they stand out.

AUDIENCE

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EVENT PLANNING

EVENT PLANNING

To host an event I had to create invitations, so I made two invitations online and printed version, I invited my friends and people who I don’t know. The party was on October 30, 2014, at 5:00pm and it took place at a Mediterranean Moroccan restaurant called Ziryab on 528 Divisadero Street in San Francisco, CA. I created a program guide that included an overview of my topic and a list of questions that let my participants think about even before joining the event, as well the a timeline that explains what will happen in the event, I sent it to my participants with the invitation so they know what they are invited to. I gave them homework to fill out a simple survey by answering some questions at home. Then I had to ask them more questions during the event.

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DISCUSSION EVENT

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GETTING TOGETHER Two days before the event I made a reminder to all participants and wanted them to confirm that they are coming. In the day of the event, two American friends didn’t make it and only one hour earlier they told me about it, however, I had eight participants showed up and I thought that was awesome for my event. And I interviewed two other separately in a different day. We sat on the patio and it was a nice afternoon, I served them drinks and we started talking, I explained my topic more, then asked them my first question, and that’s how we started the conversation, it was very helpful because I learned things that I didn’t think about before.

It’s always very important to share ideas with others and look at it from different aspects.

PARTICIPANTS The point here is to discuss my topic with other people to get more insights, especially meeting with interesting people that have information about world events, meaning they understand where I’m coming from and what I want to accomplish.

GETTING TOGETHER

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WELAT BINAVI

DINA WILSON Age 52 years old

Age 32

Gender Female

Gender Male

Nationality American

Nationality Kurdish

Occupation ESL Teacher

Occupation Artist

Educational Background Masters Degree

Educational Background MFA Sculpture

Do you watch world news?

Everyday I get news updates from the Global Post, and the New York Times.

Do you watch world news?

Yes, everyday.

BRUCE HUNTER Age 56 years old Gender Male Nationality Scottish Occupation Consultant

NOZAD BARWARI

Educational Background Ph.D Consular

Age 33 years old

Do you watch world news?

Gender Male

Yes, 5 days a week, I get

Nationality Kurdish

major input from N.P.R, we want to see accurate info

Occupation Filmmaker

about the world.

Educational Background MFA Cinema

BAYAR A. Age 34 Gender Male Nationality Kurdish Occupation Animator Educational Background MFA Animation Do you watch world news?

Yes, sometimes.

Do you watch world news?

Yes, nowadays I check the news every hour.

PARTICIPANTS

MAHER SINJARY Age 32 years old Gender Male Nationality Kurdish / Iraqi Occupation Student Educational Background BFA Fine Arts Do you watch world news?

Yes, on a daily basis.

SAMIRA AHMED Age 29 years old Gender Female Nationality Kurdish

KHAIRY ADAM

Occupation Employee

Age 33 years old

Educational Background Economic Admin.

Gender Male

Do you watch world news?

Yes, I do. Actually I watch Kurdish news everyday.

Nationality Kurdish Occupation Artist Educational Background MFA Fine Arts Do you watch world news?

Almost everyday, especially news related about my country.

Diana Parker Age 57 years old Gender Female Nationality American Occupation Retailer Educational Background BA English Do you watch world news?

Yes, everyday.

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DELIVERABLES For my deliverable I chose a brochure as my deliverable, I received a lot of information from people that I met, I learned a lot about my topic and worked much harder to try to put everything together, I invited many people but only, we met at Ziryab Moroccan restaurant on 528 Divisadero street, I served food and drinks and everyone was happy, but more importantly, I was gathering information from each individual that participated in our discussion, I gave them a little activity by asking them written questions that were different from the questions that we talked about in our long conversation, because sometimes people can express more by writing on a paper than speaking, which gave me even better results.

MFA THESIS

DELIVERABLES

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DESIGN

DESIGN

This was the time to create slides for our first presentation to pitch our idea in midpoint, we were asked to design 40 slides or more and then compile them according to a narrative that tells a story about our topics that will turn into a 3-minute video for our thesis proposals. I collected all the information I had from previous labs such as questions, insights, images, connections and target audience to put them all together and create my video. Using the same color scheme and typography to feel like the same topic.

I refined my visual language and typography by this time, like I made all my images black and white, which worked very well with color scheme at that point. The idea was about when people are identified by their neighbors not by what they want to be called, they get eroded and slowly disappear.

Because country leaders are only paying attention to their own political and economic interests rather than traditional cultural identity.

I discovered that there are much more ethnic groups and nations in the world that are seeking independence, as a graphic designer I was interested in pointing out these nations and help solve this problem through my three deliverables.

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DESIGN

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MFA THESIS

DESIGN

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PRESENT & PROPOSE

PRESENT & PROPOSE

The whole idea of designing these cards was for presenting a three-minute video, which I did turn my slides into a video with a little bit of animation, but then I thought I’ll keep it simple, finally I presented my video for lab 14, I used a visual language that can easily communicate with viewers, each statement on my slides should be readable, so I picked an easy reading typeface DIN and I kept my text as minimum as possible in order for the viewer to be able to catch it all and understand it.

Since I’m repeating my topic from previous semester, Phil told me that the visual language is fine but you can improve it, so I used almost same visuals and improved my typeface as well as the imagery, and I got rid of the Serif typeface as Phil suggested, at the end of lab 13 before the midpoint review Phil said that my video is perfect and it doesn’t need any changes, that was such a relieve.

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SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS

MFA THESIS

SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS

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SURVEY RESULTS

THINGS AUDIENCE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

HISTORY TRADITIONS POLITICS FOOD CONFLICT Insight: The audience wishes they knew more about the history of the Middle East.

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%

61 % 61 %

44 % 44

%

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MFA THESIS

OF THE AUDIENCE BELIEVE THAT A NATION DESERVES INDEPENDENCE WHEN THEY HAVE THEIR OWN LANGUAGE, HISTORY AND CULTURE. Insight: If the audience is shown that ethnic groups fighting for their freedom to have their own language, history and culture they may be more inclined to support their cause.

THE AUDIENCE TRAVELS INTERNATIONALLY AT LEAST TWICE A YEAR Insight: The audience may potentially be interested in travel information about cultures within the country they are traveling to.

SURVEY RESULTS

OF THE AUDIENCE GET THEIR NEWS FROM TV AND WEBSITES Insight: The audience goes to the TV and web for news.

THE AUDIENCE READS NEWS THAT IS: POLITICAL CULTURAL ECONOMIC HISTORICAL OTHER

32%

55%

23%

11%

Insight: The audience reads more political news than historical and economic news.

83%

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BENCHMARKING THE KURDISH PROJECT The Kurdish Project is a collaborative effort to educate people on Kurdish values, culture and history. Their message is to raise awareness of the Kurdish case through true stories from real people. They became friends with us through our research and interviews. www.kurdishproject.org

SIX CALIFORNIAS This campaign is founded by a Californian billionaire called Tim Draper, he is aiming to create six states and he argues that California is a very big and people needs to be closer their governments. I can learn from the way they setup their seminars and meetings to tell about their plans. www.sixcalifornias.com

THE KURDISTAN TRIBUNE The Kurdistan Tribune is an independent platform for Kurdish news and opinion. Their mission is to speak the truth while promoting the well-being of Kurdish people and the cause of Kurdistan. We are also friends with the Kurdish Tribune team. www.kurdistantribune.com

ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE I like the way they have established this institute in San Francisco, to promote the Italian language and culture to Americans through cultural events. I’ll learn a lot from them on the way they host their events and mention everything about Italy and educate people about attractions and culture.

Which it has to do about traveling as well as the culture. www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it

MFA THESIS

BENCHMARKING

FOR MASON CENTER - SAN FRANCISCO What I like about this organization is that they are trying to bring the cultures closer to people through art, and that gave me an idea of presenting Kurdish art and music or even food to people and give them a closer picture of what exactly it looks like might help me bring people together and engage with them through our other interactive events. www.fortmason.org

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS Telling true stories of the Middle East, this is mostly a magazine, but I thought it will help me, and I like the idea of having books about the Middle East, that might be something that I can consider for my events to collect books and have people read them. www.wrmea.org

THE WHEELER CENTRE They have opened this home for everyone in Melbourne to talk about any topic, which helps individuals to deliver their messages across the city and share it with others in their communities. www.wheelercentre.com

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SECTION TITLE

“IF WE CANNOT END NOW OUR DIFFERENCES, AT LEAST WE CAN HELP MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DIVERSITY.” —John F. Kennedy

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BRAND IDENTITY

BRAND IDENTITY

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NAMING & KEYWORDS

POTENTIAL THESIS NAMES

POSSIBLE TAGLINES

1. Cultural Identity vs. Geographical Boundaries

Irrelevance of Geographical Boundaries

2. Cultural Independent Thinking

The Uniqueness of Traditions

3. Cultural Nationalism

Common Thinking

4. Cultural Individualism

Discrimination of Identities

5. Cultural Loyalties

Faithful to History

6. Cultural Identity

The Voice of Majority

7. Cultural Traditions

The Way of Living

8. Ethnic Dominance

The Spread of Common Thinking

9. Cultural Uniqueness

Particular Traits

10. Cultural Sovereignty

Independence of Ideas

11. Unity of Vision

The Idea of Togetherness

12. Asawar

Center for Cultural Autonomy

13. Hiwa

An Oasis of Hope

14. Ethnocentric

Events . Ideas . Discussions

15. EthnoCultural

NAMING & KEYWORDS

KEYWORDS Culture, independent, identity, unite, heritage, separate, identify, sympathize, resemble, favor, distinguish, belong, rights, announce, voice, ask, question, inquire, request, education, hope, discipline, togetherness, community, similarity, conformity, autonomous, liberated, sovereign, discrimination, uniqueness, dominance, traditions, traits, individualism, ideas, thinkings, boundaries, geographic, ethnic, history, vision.

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LOGO PROCESS

LOGO PROCESS

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REFINED LOGO OPTIONS

MFA THESIS

FINAL LOGO

FINAL LOGO

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ASAWAR MEANS HERITAGE IN KURDISH LANGUAGE

BRAND IDENTITY

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LOGO COMPONENTS

Logotype Signature

Tagline

Clear Space

Minimum size

1 inch

LOGO COMPONENTS

ASAWAR is a logotype, the concept behind this logo starts with the letter ‘S’ in red color which represents those nations who struggle to show their identity and have been almost disappeared, therefore it is behind the other letters that represent the surrounded countries who stop those nations from gaining their independence. The ‘S’ letter is fighting with those neighbors who prevent them from showing their own identity. The design system of ASAWAR logo applies to Turath & Andrea as well the two parts of EthnoCultural collaborative.

ASAWAR is part of a larger collaborative

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LOGO VARIATIONS

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

LOGO USAGE

INCORRECT LOGO USAGE

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PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE A collection of images from current events that happen around these nations, expressing their need for a land that they are supposed to own it, yet fight to get it.

PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE

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GRAPHIC ELEMENTS DECORATIVE RUG DESIGNS The idea of bringing these decorative rugs is that because each culture in the history has the tradition of creating handmade beautiful designs of rugs and home furniture and each design can represent a story from different people and different ethnicities.

GRAPHIC STYLE

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COLOR PALETTE At the beginning of my thesis journey I picked below colors, but I was told that they look too corporate for a cultural topic, so I had to change the color palette to a more cultural feeling colors that were inspired by decorative rug designs.

COLOR PALETTE

FINAL COLOR PALETTE CMYK 56 10 27 0 RGB112 184 187 PANTONE P 125-11 C HEX #71b8ba

CMYK 8 79 75 1 RGB 224 91 73 PANTONE P 52-14 C HEX #df5c4e

CMYK 82 61 47 30 RGB 53 78 92 PANTONE P 174-15 C HEX #354d5c

As noticed there is a color vibration and in this case it represents the conflicts between these nations and their neighbors.

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PATTERNS Inspired by rug designs to push my visual language further and make it more modern.

MFA THESIS

PATTERNS

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TYPOGRAPHY

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

TYPOGRAPHY

DIN BLACK

AaBbEeCcDdFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm 01234567890

DIN BOLD

AaBbEeCcDdFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm 01234567890

DIN REGULAR

AaBbEeCcDdFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm 01234567890

DIN LIGHT

AaBbEeCcDdFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm 01234567890

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VISUAL LANGUAGE I explored several visual languages and colors to express my topic and they were all looking like corporate identities, I wanted to have a cultural feeling to my topic rather than a corporate looking.

I finally got to this result after looking back to my mood-boards of different photos of people from the selected ethnic groups Kurds, Palestinians and people from Basque Country, as well as the cultural decorative rug designs that belong to each region, my goal was to use both in my design pieces for print and web, but at the same time they didn’t have to look very generic, I thought of combining both rug designs and human faces and integrate both, to give it a cultural feeling and make it more authentic yet modern.

Also to express the strength of their pride about their cultures the need of showing their identity.

VISUAL LANGUAGE

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VISUAL LANGUAGE

KURDS

FIGHT FOR THEIR LAND

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SECTION TITLE

“THE KURDS WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN IRAQ WHO WERE COMPLETELY UNGUARDED IN EXPRESSING THEIR GRATITUDE TO THE UNITED STATES FOR SETTING THEM FREE.” —Timothy Robert Noah An American journalist

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FINAL DELIVERABLES

04

FINAL DELIVERABLES

SOLUTIONS

After an intensive research and talking to the audience, I had to find solutions to better solve these problems and find the right deliverables.

I took Asawar as the case study for the Kurdish culture, I chose to have a website, event, and marketing. The website was created for the web-based center for Asawar, where we share stories from real people of these ethnic groups and give detailed information about each region, its people, and cultures. More importantly, the website would also promote our events that bring Americans closer to those ethnic groups with an event calendar page, and also to promote our events and raise awareness of Asawar Center and all other EthnoCultural events. I had to do marketing online and I chose social media as the best platform to reach my audience not only in San Francisco but country-wide.

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WEBSITE

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

www.asawar.org/thesis

Asawar’s website is targeting Americans and other nationalities in the U.S. and all around the world to hear the voice of these ethnic groups who have been slowly disappeared and bring the latest stories of their cultures, politics and history all in one place. The website is also a platform for promoting the upcoming cultural events such as the Kurdish Culture Festival was held on November 14, 2015, which was hosted by Asawar center at the Academy of Art University campus in San Francisco, CA. The website also includes the Palestinian and Basque Country parts of the EthnoCultural collaborative by sharing their stories, history from real people to the visitors.

Visit www.asawar.org to see the process behind this thesis project.

WEBSITE

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WEBSITE

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EVENT The Kurdish Culture Festival was held on November 14, 2015, and for the first time in San Francisco, it was one of main deliverables of Asawar thesis project. We celebrated and honored the Kurdish heritage with delicious Kurdish food, music and stimulating conversations with new and old friends.

EVENT

“I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD DANCE IN PUBLIC, BUT I ENJOYED DANCING WITH KURDISH FRIENDS.” —David Albertson, Festival guest

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FESTIVAL LOGO PROCESS To identify more with each culture we decided to create a logo for each of the events that we host, such as the Kurdish Culture Festival which was a part of ASAWAR, and the case study of this thesis. The same aesthetics go to TURATH which relates to Palestinian culture and ANDREA to Basque culture, as shown in this section.

FESTIVAL LOGO

FINAL LOGO

These the examples of how the cultural festivals of both Palestinians and Basques would look like.

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FESTIVAL DELIVERABLES A series of 4 posters one general poster focusing on the date and venue of the festival, the second one is dedicated to the festival of the Kurdish culture as well as two other to promote upcoming events for other ethnic groups.

Invitation cards, that were designed as a business card size with important information about the festival.

Schedule guide that had all the information needed to know about attending the festival and the list of activities that could help invitees know ahead of time what will be going on during the festival.

Asawar leaflet was designed to give more information about Asawar Center with a call-to-action URL for audience to visit and follow us on social media.

POSTER SERIES

SCHEDULE GUIDE

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ASAWAR LEAFLETS

I N V I TAT I O N CARDS

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MFA THESIS

POSTERS

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MFA THESIS

POSTERS

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SCHEDULE GUIDE

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

SCHEDULE GUIDE

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FESTIVAL DELIVERABLES

You are invited to participate in the Kurdish cultural festival to experience the Kurdish food, dance and entertainment.

ASAWAR.ORG/THESIS

MAHER SINJARY 415.813.7673 INFO@ASAWAR.ORG

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THE KURDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL Asawar Center hosted an event celebrating the Kurdish heritage, Americans, and other nationalities were invited to the event and they experienced the Kurdish food which was catered by Gyro King restaurant, a Kurdish restaurant in San Francisco. In the middle of the event, I gave my presentation about my thesis and the event also featured popular Kurdish music were the participants put hands together and danced to Kurdish music, were Kurdish folks taught the Americans how to dance, and everybody had a good time.

THE KURDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

“I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE KURDISH FOOD BEFORE, BUT NEVER TRIED IT, AND I REALLY LIKED IT A LOT.” —Valentina Saduil, Festival guest

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THE KURDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

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“I REALLY LIKED THE KURDISH FOOD, IT DEFINITELY HAS A DIFFERENT TASTE, AND WE NEED TO HAVE MORE KURDISH RESTAURANTS IN THE CITY.” —Yaser Kaissy, Festival guest

THE KURDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

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MARKETING In order for Asawar to reach the audience quickly and everywhere in the U.S. especially in San Francisco, CA, I had to go for social media channels and I chose Facebook and Twitter as the leading channels, and it was the best opportunity to create the event page for the Kurdish Culture Festival by inviting friends and making it public for whoever was interested in joining. The social media are also a great way of posting our blog articles from the website and reaching them to the audience.

MARKETING

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MORE THAN JUST ASAWAR! ETHNOCULTURAL IS A COLLABORATIVE THAT HAS TURATH FOR PALESTINIANS AND ONDAREA FOR BASQUES

BRAND STRUCTURE

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WEBSITE

ASAWAR

MFA THESIS

www.asawar.org/thesis/palestine

Asawar’s website also leads to Turath the second part of EthnoCultural collaborative that is focused on the Palestinian culture and stories from that area for Americans to understand more about Palestine country and their struggle of having their own land.

Visit www.asawar.org to see the process behind this thesis project.

PALESTINE WEBSITE

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PALESTINE POSTERS

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WEBSITE

ASAWAR

www.asawar.org/thesis/basques

This section of Asawar’s website that’s dedicated to the third part of EthnoCultural collaborative that is focused on the Basque Country, the culture and stories of Basques for Americans to understand more about Basque Country and their struggle for an independent country that is completely separate from France and Spain.

Visit www.asawar.org to see the process behind this thesis project.

MFA THESIS

BASQUE COUNTRY WEBSITE

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BASQUE COUNTRY POSTERS

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SUPAS = THANKS

THANKS

Thanks to my parents for trusting me and supporting me along the way, special thanks to my brother Naif who has been a hero in my life and my sister Shahinaz for their support, and all my siblings.

Special thanks to all my instructors, who taught me how to become a better graphic designer and solve problems through communication design. I would like also to thank all my friends and classmates for being a part of this journey with me. God bless you all.

I hope one day I will proudly say I’m from a country called Kurdistan.

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School:

Academy of Art University, School of Graphic Design

Thesis Advisors:

Phil Hamlett, Anitra Nottingham, Bob Slote, Anthony Jagoda

Design & Writing: Maher Sinjary Telephone:

415.813.7673

Address:

San Francisco, CA

Email:

info@mahersinjary.com

Website:

www.mahersinjary.com

Thesis Website:

www.asawar.org/thesis

Thesis Process:

www.asawar.org

Book bindery:

Blurb

Photography:

Maher Sinjary, Ranj Abdullah, Pinterest.com, Flickr.com

Title of Book:

Asawar Center for Cultural Autonomy

Cover Stock:

Hardcover imagewrap

Text Stock:

Proline uncoated 80

Typeface:

DIN Family

Software:

Adobe Creative Cloud 2015

Copyright:

Š 2016 Asawar Center for Cultural Autonomy - All rights reserved.

No part of this publication can be reproduced without express permission from Maher Sinjary.

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