INTRODUCTION HOMAGE TO GREY COURSE TYPE EXPERIMENTS INSTRUCTOR LIAN NG PROJECT TYPOGRAPHY POSTER SERIES
HUGE BOX: A JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET FILM FESTIVAL COURSE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS INSTRUCTOR MARC ENGLISH PROJECT FILM FESTIVAL
JIL SANDER WHITE COURSE PACKAGE DESIGN INSTRUCTOR VALERIE TAYLOR-SMITH PROJECT HOME PAINT PACKAGING
HOW MONEY BUYS HAPPINESS COURSE VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS LAB INSTRUCTOR JEREMY STOUT PROJECT BOOK
NUMI TEA COURSE PACKAGE DESIGN INSTRUCTOR VALERIE TAYLOR-SMITH PROJECT TEA PACKAGING
KELLOGG'S ANNUAL REPORT COURSE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTOR JESSICA PELTZ PROJECT ANNUAL REPORT
EDGAR ALLAN POE COURSE TYPE SYSTEMS INSTRUCTOR LIAN NG PROJECT BOOK AND WEBSITE
REBRANDING ASI COURSE NATURE OF IDENTITY INSTRUCTOR GORDON MORTENSEN PROJECT REBRAND AN EXISTING BRAND
DOKKAN COURSES THESIS DIRECTED STUDIES INSTRUCTORS JEREMY STOUT, WILLIAM CULPEPPER PROJECT POP-UP RETAIL EXPERIENCE
THANK YOU
INTRODUCTION I picked a brush, dipped it in paint and wrote on those pages. I used my hands to design this. It's full of imperfections, but that's OK, because I believe that imperfections like these make designs much more interesting. They add individuality and character to the design. They add a humble human touch. They give the audience and the designer a chance to connect through design.
HOMAGE TO GREY COURSE TYPE EXPERIMENTS INSTRUCTOR LIAN NG PROJECT TYPOGRAPHY POSTER SERIES
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Design a series of 12 posters project along with a cover and housing. The subjects of the posters were open, but there were two rules: 1. The series must be tied together by a color theme. 2. All the subjects must be visualized typographically. WHAT I DID Grey is my favorite color. The choice was easy. It was time to pay my homage and I was delighted to do that. Experimenting was so much fun, and it made way for surprising outcomes. The result was a series of conceptual posters all alluding to the idea of grey, if they weren’t showing it clearly. I used many different materials like ash, concrete, water, and hair to create the posters. I explored diverse concepts and ideas, and took over 1200 photos to reach this final selection.
HUGE BOX: A JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET FILM FESTIVAL COURSE INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS INSTRUCTOR MARC ENGLISH PROJECT FILM FESTIVAL
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Create branding, marketing, advertising, informational materials and promotional ones for a film festival for a director of your choice. WHAT I DID A film festival? Yes! Amélie is my favorite film of all time, so, I chose Jean-Pierre Jeunet as the director to feature in this project. In the research phase at the start of the project, I watched so many interviews of Jean-Pierre Jeunet to get to understand him, his style, and vision more. In one of the interviews, when he was talking about one of his films he said that it was like “a huge box packed of ideas!” And that metaphor stuck with me. Huge Box. HUGE BOX. That title provided a lot of inspiration and elements to play with and utilize. I collected cardboard boxes, cut them, scanned them, and photographed them. The color palette I used was taken from Jeunet's films, which have a very distinctive visual style. I steered away from depicting a box in the logo; however, I created it in a way that eluded to the name. The words are huge and they are boxed in and packed. The project included a big number of different deliverables other than the identity of the festival. It included a catalog, folded schedules, posters, ads, DVD packaging, souvenirs, tickets, uniforms, and a website.
Part of the ads I designed for the festival are guerilla ads. These literally huge boxes are to placed in prime locations around the city the day before the festival begins to generate buzz and interest for the festival.
The fillms' entry tickets are designed like shipping labels.
JIL SANDER WHITE COURSE PACKAGE DESIGN INSTRUCTOR VALERIE TAYLOR-SMITH PROJECT HOME PAINT PACKAGING
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Choose a well-known designer and create a sub-brand for a new line of household paints products under their brand or in accordance with their style. WHAT I DID I chose the fashion designer Jil Sander. Times magazine reported that “Sander has been described as the Queen of Less.� Her designs stood out for their austerity. She, and her brand are unwavering champions of minimalism. Jil Sander, the brand, has a sub-brand called Jil Sander Navy, so I went with the same notion in coming up with the name for this sub-brand. I called it Jil Sander White. The concept of the brand was to have a range of solely white paints for sophisticated men and women with appreciation for quality and minimalistic aesthetics. After an extensive research on the brand and its system, I created a sub-brand that really looks and feels as though it came out of the real Jil Sander. Because the paints are all white, I went with transparent cans to add to the minimalistic approach of the design elements. The interior and exterior lines are very easily distinguished by customers. The front, although minimal, is eye-catching with the use of size contrast. The information hierarchy makes finding what a customer needs effortless. I also worked on the type on the back to make it as easy to read, understand, and follow as possible.
3” 75MM FOR ALL PAINTS 100% POLYESTER
JIL SANDER Italia S.p.A. Piazza Castello 1 Milan 20121 Italy
Hang brush with bristles downward Store in dry place
Rinse brush with warm water Shake brush to remove moisture
JILSANDER.COM
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TO CLEAN
HOW MONEY BUYS HAPPINESS COURSE VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS LAB INSTRUCTOR JEREMY STOUT PROJECT BOOK
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Rigorously investigate a specific subject and present your findings in a designed book. WHAT I DID I chose the subject of happiness, how money can buy it, and why spending money on experiences (as opposed to materialistic objects) can leave people with a bigger sense of satisfaction and happiness. I presented all the findings and insights gathered during the process in this book. I designed it in a way that compliments the subject. You can instantly sense that this is a happy book. The colors are happy, the diagonal stripes are energetic, and the italic slab serif is fun.
NUMI TEA COURSE PACKAGE DESIGN INSTRUCTOR VALERIE TAYLOR-SMITH PROJECT TEA PACKAGING
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Choose a brand that you can update, rejuvenate, or contemporize and redesign a line of their tea products. WHAT I DID The brand I chose was Numi Tea. The first thing I did after the research stage was to start sketching new logos. I made sure to steer away from the overly used leaf depiction for a tea brand. Instead, I created an abstract representation of a teacup with the brand name Numi in it. Then, I redesigned the packaging of their loose-leaf tea line. I chose these contemporary-looking cans with a window at the top to see the delicious loose tea inside, and I designed labels for them. There are four different lines within this: black, white, green, and herbal tea. I used color to distinguish between the lines. For the back labels, I created simple icons to make the information easy to read and understand at a glance. I also created a sample pack box with identical miniature cans and used the same brand system to design them.
KELLOGG'S ANNUAL REPORT COURSE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTOR JESSICA PELTZ PROJECT ANNUAL REPORT
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Choose a publicly held company and design an annual report for it. WHAT I DID I chose Kellogg’s for this project. One of the things I did in the research stage was to go out and purchase their products, and learn more about them. I learned that Kellogg’s as a whole started when one of the Kellogg brothers accidentally flaked corn, so I decided to make that the cover: a single corn flake. For the interior spreads, especially those that focus on a single successful statistic, I used the actual Kellogg’s products that I purchased to make the charts. And for the text-heavy interiors, I tried to make the tables and charts simple and clean to make them easy to read. I used Kellogg’s red as a spot color to guide the eyes to important parts and add interest to the spreads.
EDGAR ALLAN POE COURSE TYPE SYSTEMS INSTRUCTOR LIAN NG PROJECT BOOK AND WEBSITE
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Design a book based on a theme. We were free to interpret the theme in any way but all elements of the design had to be of our own creation (no stock images of any kind). WHAT I DID I selected tales and poems of the brilliant author and poet Edgar Allan Poe. His writing style is often very dark. The narrators he creates are usually psychologically troubled, which makes them very interesting and, some would say, weird! Their line of thoughts can be fragmented and over the edge. I wanted to create a modern representation of his works instead of the classical Gothic style often associated with him. I carried the qualities of his writing and characters to the design of the book. I created a solid grid and I broke it. Words go over the edge sometimes. Paragraphs and images are fragmented sometimes. Some pages are very dark. The photographs I took were all black and white. Some were blurry, some were multiple exposures, and they were all grainy. They always complimented the poem or tale they accompanied. I also added typographic elements with some of the tales and poems that acted as illustrations.
At the beginning of the book, I created a detailed timeline of Edgar Allan Poe’s life along with some worldwide events as reference points. The aim was to make understanding Poe’s life easier and put it in context.
At the beginning of each tale or poem, a different section of the timeline is repeated. It acts as a title page that shows when this particular piece was written during his lifetime.
The project also included a website designed to promote and sell the book. I carried the same design system I created for the book into the website.
REBRANDING ASI COURSE NATURE OF IDENTITY INSTRUCTOR GORDON MORTENSEN PROJECT REBRAND AN EXISTING BRAND
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT Find an existing dead, dying, or defunct brand and come to the rescue: revive, reinvent, recreate the brand and expand upon it. WHAT I DID I chose Arts and Skills Institute, an Australian higher education institute based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Some good artists and designers have graduated from ASI in the past, but the brand needed to be reinvented for the institute to stay relevant in the market and present an image that reflects and inspires the vision they have. The new brand needed to be contemporary, sophisticated, and simple. The project was robust, and the results were the new logo and brand system, stationery, brand guidelines book, and brand extensions: artists’ aprons, and sketchbooks. The Brand Book tells the story and process of the course and project.
DOKKAN COURSES THESIS PROJECT DIRECTED STUDIES INSTRUCTORS JEREMY STOUT, WILLIAM CULPEPPER PROJECT POP-UP RETAIL EXPERIENCE
WHAT IT WAS ABOUT To successfully complete the MFA program, we get the chance to work on a thesis project of our choice and create a difference with design. It is the largest and most robust of all of the other projects in the program, and spans over the longest period time. WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT When I started thinking about possible subjects for the thesis project, I was noticing how the world is full of so many cultures and backgrounds, and how today, people know more about other and people people around aroundthe theworld worldthan thanever everbefore. before.This Thisknowlcultures and knowledge can create understanding and respect, sometimes edge can create understanding and respect, sometimes though, it though,the it creates themisunderstandings opposite; misunderstandings and disrespect. creates opposite; and disrespect. Arabia.and Western media I was especially thinking about Saudi Arabia how Western presents a negative picturepicture of Saudi people assume media presents a negative of Arabia. it. ManyMany people assume that thatnegative the negative aspects ofSaudi the Saudi culture all there the aspects of the culture they they hear hear is all is there is to is to know. needs be a positive portrayal the Saudi know. ThereThere needs to beto a positive portrayal of theofSaudi culture culture and to people to combat this negativity, to present a differand people combat this negativity, to present a different perent perspective Saudi culture and people. spective of Saudiofculture and people. WHAT I DECIDED TO DO My goals were to use design to show a new perspective of Saudi Arabia through their cultural products, inform the western world about Saudi Arabian culture, and promote positive connections to Saudi Arabia and its people. WHAT I DID I created a traveling pop-up shop presenting and promoting a sample of Saudi Arabian culture and history through its products. I called it Dokkan, which means shop or store in Arabic. I designed a contemporary identity inspired by Saudi's traditional architecture where the shape of the triangle recurs over and over again. The logo was constructed based on a triangle, and when you flip through the coming pages, you can almost always spot a triangle in the design. I also added Arabic typography as a visual clue to the audience to pull them in and let them know almost instantly from which part of the world this is coming. This project included designing the brand identity, packaging of existing Saudi cultural products, creation of new printed materials like posters and postcards, designing the interior and exterior of the storefront, which is the traveling shipping container, designing a website for Dokkan, and the ads and arrival event materials.
Each of these bands around the boxes tells the story of the product, how it is used, what it symbolizes or what the word means.
Studies show that when you engage more senses of people, you have a better chance of leaving a lasting impression. I tried to design Dokkan this way. The audience will have a chance to taste gahwa, the Saudi coffee, and dates. They will smell bukhoor, the scented woodchips. All products are on display for the customers to pick up and touch. I designed Dokkan to not only sell Saudi cultural products, but to also embody the culture. Hospitality is one of the most strong qualities of Saudis and it's something they take pride in. Dokkan always serves coffee, Saudi style, to customers.
Before Dokkan arrives in a city, advertisements like this one (and the ones on the next page) will be placed on the same spot the container will be situated at to invite people to be here when it arrives.
All the furniture and products fit inside the container when it's closed and in transportation.
Other than the basic contents in a brand guidelines book, this book also details the attitude of the staff, and the attributes that must be in a location to be suitable for Dokkan.
MY INSTRUCTORS
MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITING SAMAH ALRAJHI VISIT SAMAHALRAJHI.COM EMAIL HI@SAMAHALRAJHI.COM SCHOOL ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY SEMESTER SPRING 2014 COURSE GR 650 PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTOR JEREMY STOUT PRINTING/BINDING BLURB PAPER PREMIUM MATTE 100# (148 GSM) SOFTWARE ADOBE INDESIGN, ILLUSTRATOR, PHOTOSHOP CS6 TYPEFACE GOTHAM COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY SAMAH ALRAJHI All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without express permission from Samah Alrajhi