Processfolio Graphic Design
2015- 2016
I LIKE - NOT
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SLART
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FUSE
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WERKVELD
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You can also find my journey on my blog: www.sarahdimani3bagvsintlucasantwerpen20152016.wordpress.com
Further you will notice that this processfolio mainly contains images which worked inspirational to me and articles related to the subject. The process is displayed chronologically with its clarification.
With the start of this last intensive bachelor year we've been given the task to design and maintain a processfolio. This processfolio includes every step I've taken to accomplish different projects as designing SLART, I like - not book, my own website and as last but not least my bachelor proof, Fuse magazine.
Introduction
SLART Those papers also included a small year overview and a briefing about each project..
At the beginning of this school year the students have received several papers about the upcoming projects. Starting with this small planning which kept us updated about which teacher we can expect on that specific date to consult and to receive feedback.
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We started with an intensive brainstorming session about the elements we already have, need and wish for at school.
The first -group- project we started with was the Kunstcampus project. We basically had to design a book with our needs, expectations and wishes about the new campus of Sint Lucas.
After dividing the class in three big groups we tried to make an overview of the elements we defintitly wanted to discuss and go deeper in.
As soon as we got our long list with elements we had several class discussions about how we could start this project in an effective way. We finally could divide this project in three big elements as infrastructure, communication and signification.
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While we tried to sort things out Werner Vandermeersch came with crucial information we needed in the future for the content this book. This image shows us how the surface is divided already.
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Groundplan for the ground, first, second and third floor of the new campus.
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The next thing we did is having a smaller and more specific brainstorm session on the woord MOOD, which was one of our important elements.
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So I immeditately started to write down thing I could not miss as taking surveys and lay out idea's.
The step we took next was dividing the elements into spaces or rooms so every student could start his own research in his own field. I had the presentation room and the entrance hall.
One of the results of a student from illustration design.
As I mentioned before we had to take surveys to discover the needs of the other students from other departments as illustration design, jewellery design etc. I made an online survey and there further I took interviews with students I spontanious met at school.
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Once I had the results of the survey I collected all the details I got from Werner to keep them in mind.
I came up with the moodboard theme. This theme is the perfect solution to visualise what we were reaching for the new kunstcamopus.
Time passed by and I had to start coming up with idea's how I could visualize all the gained information.
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LO B B Y S P A C E
Infrastructure
Before I got started lay- outing on Indesign I went searching on pinterest for some inspiration.
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I went searching for different types of moodboard on pinterest.
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In the meantime I pinned other images which illustrated the mood and need the students mentionned in their answers on the survey.
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Then the designing started.
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During the first brainstorm session we were asked to come up with a name for the new campus book. We tried to agree with one name which was impossible. So at the end everyone chose a name she or he prefered. I went for SLART which stands for Sint Lucas Art
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Result
Unfortunately the entrance space isn’t that big to catch 500+ students and teachers. But this might be a great inspiration to know how to divide your space.
The survey showed us that seats and tables are still high requested in the campus.
A lot were complaining about that they are in need of a lounge place where students of each department can relax and meet.
Visualizing the needs of the students for the head entrance of kunstcampus in several moodboards.
Van Schoonbekestraat 143
2018 Nieuwe kunstcampus
of the students were in need of storage places. A lot where complaining about the amount of materials they have to carry.
Botanical mood.
Organic, clean and slightly industrial look.
A problem we bump into is the lack of space. It’s imposibble to create locker space for each student. Another problem is the size of each locker. This is why I came up an effective solution
By using a wire facade you still keep your space open and transparant.
On the previous page I metioned that not every student is in need of the same amount of space. This is why I advise to create different sizes of builtin lockers through the whole campus.
positive effect of plants on employee perception and disposition.
Surveys and studies
perceive interior spaces with plants as more welcoming, relaxed, and upscale.
To save more space in the campus we could create built-in lockers. Which works effective, clean and blends in to your interior.
Studies have shown that plants workplaces help reduce stress, increase productivity, enhance employee attitudes, help in “green building” design, and improve air quality.
Although the need I highly recommend to not place any lockers in the entrance room. It will distrub the clean look we’re achieving.
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With daylight streaming into the rooms, you don’t need to use lamps during the day. Large opening glass walls allows light and reduce energy bills.
more inviting.
Glass walls bring in an abundance of natural daylight that makes a lobby seem
The transparency of glass and changing a solid wall into a window or opening glass wall brings in sunlight which creates a feeling of open space.
Studies show that natural daylight is proven to elevate energy and boost moods.
This kind of window allows the light to travel in and also breeze during spring and autumn season.
Lockers mood.
Poster for the Open Campusdag based on my SLART book.
Window mood.
Seats mood.
At bright/sunny days the refelection of the sun and wi.ndow can create another dimension into the room.
Instead of using big windows there is a possiblity to create patterned wall which shows us a game of light.
The rent system. Locker rentals allow us to ensure that lockers remain in good condition and that locks are not left on unused lockers, reducing the number of lockers available.
Information wall mood.
The survey showed us that students would like to have an information wall at the new campus instead of only publishing things on blackboard.
These kind of message boards are the most effective ways. Easy to adjust and is space saving.
I LIKE - NOT As every project I started brainstorming about the subject.
The second project we had was creating an I like -not book. It is basically a book with all your prefereces and your dislikes. The purpose of this book was a preparation of the final and last project, the bachelor proof.
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VOORKEURENBOEK
37 Assignements by I.Sinkel.
Choose one thing, object,word,term. The more specific, the more you can zoom in, go into details,the better. Take it to pieces. Deconstruct it. Include and mention every detail that, in your opinion, makes it complete. Look at it from perspective you have not looked from before.Discover it in different ways, work very specifically to the point, accurately.
The I like -not reminded me of my voorkeurenboek I made in the first year. I used this book to help me a little bit out.
So basically the first idea I had was working with mixed media. The reason why I wanted to do this is first of all beacause I like to experiment with different kind of mediums and secondly I have seen so many interesting exampkes so I wanted to try it too.
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Unfortunately the feedback was not that positive as I wished for. It worked way too confusing and the possibility existed that a book fully in mixed media theme would work out boring.
My next move was inspired by a picture of myself. This polaroid picture was taken on my first school day ever. I was thinking to create a polaroid story, so capturing everything whch was and is important to me and makes me - me.
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So I made list after list and tried to find objects which I could capture with my polaroid camera.
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Before I realized I took plenty of pictures that symbolised a specific element of me as a person.
A picture of my favourite sneakers would be the first picture of my I like section.
Once I got my pictures I went on pinterest to find some inspiration on how I could visualise this as best in a book. This picture is from Andy Warhol, he made a range of polaroids pictures which are very famous.
Found this wall at the Urban Outfitters Store in Antwerp. Worked kind of inspirational.
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However, this polaroid project did not feel right and convincing enough. I got stuck with this feeling for a long time. I tried to find a way how to visualise it in my book but I only got more frustrated. Anyhow, I went to different musea and events to find some inspiration and a way how I could solve this problem.
After getting some pinspiration I tried to divide my pictures in themes. So it would be clearer to me.
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The pictures above are taken at an exhibition in MUKHA. This exhibition was from a Turkisch artist Huseyn Bahri Alptekin, who questioned the real, the promise and the banal.
Next stop was at an event of APBC, Outbox an creative jungle, where I got an interesting lecture about the use of paper and the different kind of papers.
The next event was organized by Espectro. An inspiring evening by young artists living in Antwerp. In this picture you see a fabric which is handmade.
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Fashiontalks, this event where I got invited to is all about fashion. Great people fromt the fashion industry share their story.
So without any concept I just tried to find strong images which symbolised my like or dislike and inserted it in my Indesign file.
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If you analyze Michaela Norocs pictures you immediately recognize them. She has her own stamp and I eventhough I did not take the pictures in my book myself, I wanted to add a stamp on it with the clarification.
While searching for strong images I bumped into Michaela Noroc. A photographer who has a special way of capturing portraits. I was so fascinated how strong one image can be and tried to achieve the same in my book. Finding strong images which captures the specatators attention.
So as first I tried to collect my images and next I tried to catagorize them. I made four sub themes :Roots, Cultures, Fashion and Random.
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Result
WERKVELD For the course - werkveld - we had to create a website and a tool whathad to be a reflection of who you are as an artist. Thereby we were given the task to find a selection of websites that we liked. You can find my selection below.
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The first idea's I had for my tool was re-creating an agenda, kind of file or a guide to who I am as person and or artist.
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Back to my website. After making my selection I tried to figure out what I liked and definitely wanted to bring back to my own website.
The main issue or mistake I make as a designer is that I have the urge to create something beautiful. It was difficult to me to step off the achieving the aesthetic idea.
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One of the websites of my selection had a beautiful slideshow on the homepage. This inspired me to work with photography and typography. Further I made the decision to work with the concept of the notebooks, that I use a lot as an designer.
I really had a long research process, creating a content that reflects you as an artist is one of the hardest things to visualise. So I tried to answer questions as: What can I show as a graphic designer and who am I as a graphic designer.
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Created a mini studio at home to capture a great picture for my homepage.
As every project I went on pinterest to inspirate myself before getting deeper into my tool.
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So I searched for an alternative and published an online portfolio on issuu.com. In the meantime I worked on my website.
Eventhough we've been through every step, the launch of my website was very difficult. I had issues with buying my link and programming everything took way more time than I thought.
After creating my homepage I had to decide how I will display my work. I knew that one of my favorite graphic designer, Kate Moross had a fun slideshow on her website, so I wanted exactly the same.
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Back to my tool. I think it is important to create an unity in you website, tool and portfolio. So I went searching for opportunites on how I can link those three elementes together.
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I used the notebook concept also for my tool so my website and tool got linked to eachother. So I collected the notbooks I already had and observed how they are designed.
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This notebook gave me the idea to insert words in my book which represented me as an artist. Thereby I also decided to give a shot preview of my works in my book. I kept the design very simple and very similar to my website.
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Result
A New London Art Collective Grows as an Empowering Space for Muslim Women. An Interview with the Co-Founder of the Variant Space Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al-Lail One of the most pressing issues in today’s society is the need for us to share our own stories. As Muslim women our voices and narratives can get misinterpreted and twisted in the mainstream media. This has further perpetuated misconceptions of who we are, where we are from and what we believe in. We are often seen as one homogenous group, our rich cultures, backgrounds and identity gets stripped away from such generalisations. To be able to tell our own stories is one of the greatest tools we can use to help our communities move forward, beyond the stereotypes. I stumbled across the Variant Space exhibition on Cultural Bonds, on a friends Facebook page, and I immediately knew this was something that was needed in our community. The fact that it was a grassroots group, run by young female Muslim artists dedicated to reclaiming their stories, made it even more appealing and exciting. The exhibition highlighted the diversity of cultures amongst the Muslim community, breaking stereotypes that see Muslims as one identical group. The exhibition
explored the tripartite interaction between culture, faith and self. It included a diverse collective of artists from different cultural backgrounds, from East to West. Each artist brought different technical expertise to the exhibition, these included fine art, installation, photography, videography, painting, surface design and textile. It was refreshing to see young female Muslim artists sharing their unique stories and experiences to a wider audience. By engaging with the artist’s stories the exhibition also gave me the opportunity to reflect upon my own identity, as a Muslim, and as a daughter of Pakistani migrants residing in the UK. It was just the other day when I was at work greeting one of my colleagues when he forgot my name and referred to me as Maryam, the only other hijabi in the office. I laughed it off and corrected him politely, but it still amazed me how he got us mixed up. At the time, I suddenly felt as though Maryam and I had become one person, despite our different cultural backgrounds, characters, and styles, we were identified solely by our hijab,
to do more work. We started to realise how it was problematic for us to do something with each other where we were not compromising some creative agency. Creative agency is so important because anyone can take your work and manipulate it to what they think it is. It is very important for us to tell our story behind our work. You put so much thought Sara Chaudhr: What was the inspiration and intricacy towards every single detail, behind creating variant space ? for that to then be misinterpreted can be really difficult to deal with. Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al-Lail: What is If you don’t tell your story no one is going interesting is that when you are in art to say it for you, and even if they do, they school you never find someone who has won’t do a good job of it. We want to show similar thoughts to you. After graduating, there is nothing holding us back. I didn’t feel like my work could ever fit into We really need this space because it something. doesn’t exist. You don’t want to fit into I was the only Muslim in art school and this art industry that doesn’t cater to I was casted as the exotic type and not you as a person. It is not the place you looked at for my work. My work does not want to belong in. Therefore, by creating talk about any of those ideas they think this organic environment where you it is talking about. My work is very subtle can belong, be an artist, experiment, in the way it is autobiographical, my art and be free as much as possible is very is telling a story. Me and Nasreen Raja important. This is not just for us but also became friends through Instagram and we everyone else around us. found a lot of similarities between us. When you are around someone who is creative all the time, it pushes you
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rather than as different individuals. This narrow-minded perception of Muslims has to change. I believe the art of story telling in all forms, is one way that we can help facilitate meaningful dialogue in our communities, in the hopes of creating better understanding and cohesion in the globalised world we live in today.
Sara: What feedback have you had from people in the community? Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al-Lail: We have had really great feedback from everyone. Our friends and family have been so supportive throughout the process. During our launch of the exhibition there were lots people supporting us. Not just from the Muslim community but there were a mixture of people from different backgrounds and faiths. They weren’t just all gallery goeroes.
We want to continue to show people that Muslims aren’t just in the Middle East. There is a great diversity in the Muslim community. We spread far and wide. Two of our artists are reverts and for us that is really important to show. By highlighting diversity, sisterhood, and culture, we hope to work with other artists to help break stereotypes and barriers in our communities.
Sara: What are your plans for the future and what is the next step for Variant Space? Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al-Lail :Variant Space started off as being an online archive for anyone to find out about artists they never used to come across. We slowly grew organically and started working with other artists, which was an incredible experience. In the future we hope to continue to do more collaborations with other artists across the globe. We are also hoping to get funding for a bigger exhibition, which will take a lot of time and planning. In the meantime, we would like to do more workshops because we believe they are important. By doing workshops you get to interact with people in the community, getting a better understanding of how people see your artwork, and also how much they would like to partake in your skill.
'We are trying to express ourselves as a collective, with the hope that we can break any barriers along the way.’
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Wij zijn geen knuffel Marokkanen. Mous is fotograaf, Rachid trendwatcher en Youssef grafisch vormgever. Drie van de negen kinderen Lamrabat, uit Marokko maar vooral uit Sint-Niklaas, gaan de creatieve toer op. Ik wil waardering voor mijn werk, maar geen medelijden complimenten omdat ik Marokkaan ben. Wat is de kans dat er uit één nest een grafisch vormgever, een fotograaf en een trendwatcher komen? En dan nu nog eens anders geformuleerd: wat is de kans dat er uit één Belgisch-Marokkaans nest een grafisch vormgever, een fotograaf en een trendwatcher komen? Ik stel de vraag en voel me al meteen schuldig om die haast ingebakken paternalistische houding. Ik vind het jammer dat je dat zo zegt, zegt Youssef Lamrabat 24, de grafisch vormgever van de familie. Maar ik moet je wel gelijk geven, mensen zien dat zo. Later in het gesprek zegt hij: Ik wil geen medelijdencomplimenten. Ik wil two thumbs up krijgen over mijn werk van mensen die goed zijn in hetzelfde vak als ik en die mij respecteren om wat ik doe, niet omdat ik een Marokkaan ben. Hij verwijst naar Adil El Arbi, de regisseur die de voorbije weken niet uit de media weg te branden was. Krijgt hij zoveel aandacht omdat hij echt een goede regisseur is of omdat hij Marokkaan is? Ik weet het echt niet.
Het woord knuffel-Marokkaan valt. Lachend, dat wel. En hoe ze dat niet willen zijn. Het komt van Mous 30, de fotograaf. Hij zag zijn werk de jongste jaren in glossy magazines en modebladen. Het was onze grote broer Mo die het allemaal heeft gezaaid, hij was de eerste artistieke broer van de familie, hij deed van alles. Hij heeft ons ook in contact gebracht met zijn Vlaamse vriendenkring, die iets alternatiever was, en via wie we hier in huis muziek hoorden van Tracy Chapman en Toto, wij als Tupac-fans. Het gaf ons een rijkdom, een breedte die we anders niet hadden gekend, zegt Rachid 34. Als trendwatcher en etnomarketeer zoekt hij uit hoe je de economische noden van de moslims kan koppelen aan niet-moslims, om het in de woorden van hun vader te zeggen, aan wie het niet altijd simpel uitleggen is wat zijn job inhoudt. Hij was het die schoenenbedrijf Torfs inspireerde om ook die nieuwe Belgen mee te nemen in hun communicatie.
Koekjes en zakgeld
Beste Nederlands
We zitten in het ouderlijke huis in hartje Sint-Niklaas. Hier groeiden ze op, de negen kinderen van de familie Lamrabat. De drie jongsten zijn in België geboren, de zes anderen in Marokko, in het Rif, waar de meeste Belgische Berber-Marokkanen hun roots hebben. Jarenlang werkte en leefde hun vader in zijn eentje in België en reisde hij geregeld terug naar het gezin in Marokko. Daarna verhuisde het hele gezin naar Sint-Niklaas. Het is een scheidingslijn die dit nest onvermijdelijk mee bepaalt. Ook nu nog. Youssef was een van de kleinsten. Die kreeg zelfs sapjes mee naar school, en koekjes, en zakgeld, hoe raar was dat?, lacht Mous.
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In Sint-Niklaas kregen ze via hun oudere broer niet alleen de artistieke jongerencultuur mee, ze gingen er ook naar een katholieke school, in die tijd als bijna de enige Marokkanen. Dat maakt allemaal ook dat je kan meepraten met mensen met wie je anders niet zou kunnen meepraten, waardoor we niet geïsoleerd geraakten, zegt Rachid. Mous: Dat dat een katholieke school was, daar hebben we nooit bij stilgestaan. Voor ons was dat een gewone school. Alleen met de communiefeesten en met de nieuwjaarsbrieven moesten we iets anders verzinnen. Youssef nuanceert: Als je jong bent, is het echt niet cool om anders te zijn. Rachid: Je probeert je wel in te passen, Ook als het over de relatie met hun je staat aan de kassa van Delhaize vader gaat, speelt het. Rachid: Youssef is en denkt: ik ga mijn beste Nederlands geboren toen de hele familie al in België eens bovenhalen.Dat is een typische woonde. Papa heeft de zwangerschap karaktertrek bij ons in de familie: je best meegemaakt en heeft die jongsten dag doen, zegt Mous. Rachid: Ja, de brave, na dag zien opgroeien. Toen Youssef geïntegreerde Marokkaan zijn. lacht zes was en thuiskwam van school, kreeg Of het een streng nest was? Toch wel, hij een knuffel en keken ze samen naar klinkt het uit één mond. Onze generatie televisie. Toen wij zes waren, liepen kende veel probleemjongeren: rondhangen we twee kilometer om gist te kopen aan de post en zo. Papa wou absoluut niet lacht.. Het is totaal niet rancuneus dat we daartussen zaten, zegt Rachid, bedoeld, integendeel. De totaalmix van Papa was en is heel gerespecteerd, en dat verschillende sferen maakte hen tot wie ze speelde ook. Andere vaders kwamen hem zijn. vertellen wanneer hun zoon met een van ons omging en waren dan bang dat hun eigen zoon een slechte invloed zou kunnen hebben op ons.
CHANGING Helen Zughaib mixes familiar Western motifs with traditional Islamic abayas in an attempt to bridge East and West and confound predominant stereotypes. I am an Arab American, born in Beirut, Lebanon. I also lived in Kuwait and Iraq with my family, before coming to study art at Syracuse University in New York. Though I am an Arab American Christian, I feel that my background in the Arab world provides me with a platform to address issues that affect both Muslim and Christian women, especially after 9/11. With much of the media focused on negative stereotypes of Arabs and Arab Americans, I began to work on a series I call Changing Perceptions. In these paintings, I use the black abaya and veil, juxtaposed with elements from recognizable Western artists such as Picasso, Mondrian and Lichtenstein, to create a new vision of the abaya, so often misunderstood in the West. In these pieces, I weave together East and West, symbolizing a shared identity and dialogue, as opposed to a separateness between the two. To me, the abaya represents tradition, modesty, and in many cases, shelter and comfort. In my experience, I have not seen the abaya as restrictive or inhibiting though on recent travel to the Middle East, I did notice some women in more complete covering, with only their eyes exposed.
When asked, women told me that wearing hijab or covering depended more likely on the tradition in their particular village, indicating it was a personal choice rather than something imposed upon them. When further questioned, some expressed a certain freedom and appreciate the anonymity the abaya offered. In fact, many women consider it a kind of equalizer, in that women become less objectified and are not judged solely on their appearance. I feel that all women, regardless of faith, wish for this same respect. In Damascus, where my great grandmother was born and raised as a Greek Orthodox, she wore a mandeel, the Arabic word for the Spanish mantilla, as did her peers. It was usually a pale blue, grey, or black scarf, used to keep the sun away and her hair in place. The tradition of covering one's head in church was also seen as a sign of respect and modesty. Many also wore gloves and covered their arms. I feel that in my series, Changing Perceptions. I try to cross boundaries and borders between East and West by using Western motifs, for example, Wonder Woman in my painting,
PERCEPTIONS The Wonder Within. Her strength and almost masculine attributes blend and blur stereotypes of Arab women and question notions of oppression and repression. I ask the viewer to not judge by outward appearance alone, as in I Am Not Who You Think I Am. In Abaya Driving,I project freedom and the power of women, free to control their own lives. I feel that these values of equality and freedom cut across all lines, regardless of religion and are desired and fought for by all women.
and the Arab American National Museum in Detroit, Michigan. In 2008, she served as United States Cultural Envoy to the West Bank, Palestine. In 2009, she was sent to Switzerland under the State Departments Speaker and Specialist Program. Most recently, President Obama gave one of Zughaib’s pieces to Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki of Iraq, upon his official visit to the White House, and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, gave one of her pieces to the King of Morocco.
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About the Artist Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, living mostly in the Middle East and Europe before coming to the United States to study art. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe and Lebanon. Her paintings are included in many private and public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate General, Vancouver, Canada, American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq,
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Examples of Helen Zughaib work.
Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project Who: Yunique, Brooklyn Even though I don’t look like a traditional Muslim, I am still super modest in the way I dress. I'd like to think my style is a bit eccentric but is still influenced by Islam. When Muslim women look at me in my Brooklyn neighborhood, they know I’m Muslim. I want to be able to identify with them and have a desire to say,Peace be upon you and feel that connection. But I feel like I canot because of my queer appearance. Islam was first introduced to me when my mom and her brother would always go to this place called mosque. I was happy for her, she seemed completely submerged in a spiritual happiness I had not seen in a while or ever. It seemed like she found something bigger than herself. She sat me down one day to finally tell me what she had been up to. She told me about the Prophet Mohammad and invited me to come to the mosque with her. By letting me decide whether or not Islam was for me and what religion was going to look like for me, she gave me a platform to
choose my independence at 12 that has progressed throughout my life. I felt proud to be Muslim. I wanted to investigate how queerness applies to me and to find self care within my beautiful black identity. For a while, I even converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with my moms support. But I learned that there is a lack of black identity and inclusion within Mormonism ,although I did discover Jane Manning. Being Mormon was a good segue from being a Muslim. They have somewhat similar beliefs but queerness is what caused me to leave Mormonism and to go back to the Muslim faith. Allah never left me. I never left Allah. In my day-to-day life I hold Allah close to my heart. I feel the guidance, and that is my relationship with Islam: Allah guiding me through my everyday life. My mother also introduced me to some astonishing black female musicians when I was younger. Tracy Chapman is a prophet to me. Her music gave me critical thinking, made me reflect upon the world as a whole and one self. She meant so much to me in so many different eras of life. She made me realize I was gay. She taught me that I am cool even if others disagree. That I am black, I am darkskinned and I am good. Her music helped my mom and I bond. My mother had me at a very young age so I think it was her way
As an immigrant queer Muslim woman of color, I feel non-existent, sometimes even within my queer community. There are not many like me who are out there and visible. But for now I am content with that, I am still trying to figure myself out first and taking this new collected visibility one step at a time. In Brooklyn, I have supreme people of color around me. I feel like we are storming through the oppression. We were slaying separately and now finally, we are slaying together.
Who: Christelle, Paris People question how I can be queer and Muslim or why I do not have a Muslim sounding name or do not cover myself. I have even been asked how I can be black and Muslim because of how Arabs treated Africans during the Arab slave trade. People want you to think your whole identity is haram but hey, it is just between me and Allah. I grew up in a family that is half Evangelical and half Sunni Muslim. Some of my non-Muslim family is really Islamophobic. My Muslim family members had to practice Islam secretly because they did not want to be rejected by my non-Muslim family members. I recently saw some of my family members after 15 years because they did not want to have anything to do with us, 101
of saying hey listen to these words as I am learning them for myself. We would sing her songs together and it helped us both grow. Rita Marley, Anita Baker, Patra, Grace Jones, Lady Saw, Missy, Nina and Lauryn Hill were all influential. Hill was also very transformative for me, she has a lot of subtle reference to the Nation of Islam and that made me feel connected.
the Muslim part of the family while I was growing up. My cousins were not allowed to stay at our home during the holidays because their parents were afraid that they would come back Muslim. A lot of the Islamophobic behaviour included physical abuse. Both sides of my family are really religious but I have only felt ready to come out to the Muslim side of my family, not the Christian side. What made me feel ready was how the Muslims in my family express their tolerance towards queer and trans folks. I am glad that I finally came out because they accepted me as a queer Muslim.Growing up in Paris as a teen, I felt lonely for a very long time as a black, queer mentally-disabled woman. I feel part of the black community and the black womanhood community but I do not feel part of the LGBT community in Paris because it is really, really white, mainstream and dismissive of nonconforming genders and other sexualities from the BTQIA spectrum. I only know a handful of other queer Muslims in Paris and I met them recently. I am an art enthusiast and I love photography. I am an activist and a social worker trainee. My main goal is to make people more aware about intersectionality, including ableism and mental disorders that are often considered very taboo to talk about in black communities. I would also like to work towards helping provide housing to abuse victims and sex workers. Who:
Tarek, Paris I grew up in a suburb of France where a lot of people of color live. It is basically a ghetto. My parents were not really practicing Islam while I was growing up but the religion gets more and more present in their lives as they get older. I try to create my own relationship with Islam and try to not get attached to how my parents approached Islam, which was very dogmatic. I would like to discover Islam on my own. My relationship with the religion is much more complex than following all the rules. At this point in my life, Islam is much more about spirituality. I feel like I am a blank page and I have to write new stories. I do not usually talk about my faith because when I try, I feel isolated. It is definitely a personal thing. I express myself through poetry.
Azad, Istanbul I thought I was bisexual for the longest time. Five years ago, I got engaged to a guy and on the night of my engagement, I realized that I am a lesbian. I gave him the ring back the next morning and came out to my parents. Being queer in Turkey is taboo. People are afraid to lose their families and fear risking their family’s peace and reputation. But I think it is harder to be gay in Istanbul than be a lesbian. I hold my partner’s hand on the street and never get any bad reactions. When girls hold hands or kiss publicly, people just think they are best friends. It is not the same for men. What happened at Pride in 2015 was a complete disgrace. How the police dealt with the situation was despicable. After the incident at Gezi Park, ErdoÄ&#x;an is afraid of any gathering of people, whether it is a protest or a celebration. The police taunted everyone, even people who were not part of the LGBTI community. However, they did not crush our spirits. We still managed to dance and celebrate through the backstreets of the city.
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I write about my queerness, my Arabness and my feelings about how I negotiate different parts of my identities. I try to connect all of this stuff in an experimental way. I basically use a lot of repetition, which allows me to create new words in French. I love the complexity of language and what I can do with it. When I first started writing this way, I read the text in front of my creative writing class at university and all the students hated it. Maybe because it was too experimental. But my professor loved it and said I won't leave you alone until you publish your poetry.
We, They, and I These 12 self-portraits show at least three different perspectives on the Islamic head scarf. In the photographs we see a woman with the headscarf. On the one hand you see the headscarf from the desired perspective of Muslims, while on the other you see it from the cliched perspective of non-Muslims. The women with the red headscarf represents the many facets of a Muslima, which usually do not conform to the usual stereotypes of a Muslim woman.
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From the divine to the infantilized, these playful selfportraits illustrate the desires, stereotypes, and diversity of Muslim women.
BACHELOR PROOF
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Because of my quiet sucessfull instagram account and my appearance on the cover of the dutch magazine Flair I've been contacted by Uitgeverij Halewyck to publish a book about my journey and about myself. This opportunity was once in a lifetime chance and had a perfect timing so I could use this opportunity as my bachelorpoof.
So I immediately got into action and wrote down what I absolutely wanted to mention in my book. I made a list with my goals and preferences.
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In the Dutch newspapers they call me Mipster which stands for Muslim Hipster. This term is pretty new in Belgium but is not used in the right way. So what I definitly wanted to do is to clearify that word in the right context by doing some research on Youtube.
My research clarified a lot, the theme of the Mipster was way more bigger than I thought. I personally also got confused on how the media framed everything different. So instead of writing and designing a book only about me I wanted to write a statement about muslim women and media framing linked with the Mipster issue.
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Unfortunately my idea was not approved by Uitgeverij Halewyck. I had to make a basic book with fun facts about me and keep it simple instead provoking a statement. I refused the offer which meant the end of our deal.
After a few talks with different teachers they advised me to release a new book without the help of Uitgeverij Halewyck and maybe try to find another publisher. Honestly I did not want to go further with it because I really got frustrated about what happend.
An end of a deal means a new start and finding a new idea. I immediatelly started over and wrote things I wanted to work around like my Arabic roots which keeps fascinating me.
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I really had no idea in which direction I wanted to go besides the fact that I wanted to do something with my Arabic roots so I went pinteresting again with the hope that a great idea would pop into my mind.
It could be an installation art where the East meets the West.
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Or more in the direction of fashion.
Werner Vandermeersch advised me to go on with the concept of the headscarf so I tried to find modern ways of how the veil was used but I also looked in the history of the East and West about how the veil was used.
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Interesting portraits by Aalia Ali
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I followed the advise that has been given to me and from my own experiences I came up with an idea to interview different kind of muslim woman and even not muslim woman about what the headscarf meant to them. So I took suverys with 30 different kind of women to discover their vision about the headscarf. You can find 5 strong stories below.
Hijabstories 1.
When I was younger, a headscarf symbolized adulthood to me. You know, like how little girls walk around in their mothers heels, I used to drape different kind of veils in all colors on my head while admiring myself in the mirror. In fact all women who looked up to wore a headscarf. But the choice to wear a headscarf came years later. I was and still am so convinced that using your hands and face is enough to communicate with the world. The rest of my body is mine. This makes me strong, that I can claim myself and that I can choose to wear what I want whenever I want. The Hijab, headscarf, is obeying my Lord and at the same time it means that my appearance does not define me. I want to be adressed as a human being, being valued at what I do and what I can do.However, I do wear my Hijab for religious reasons, which is by the way totally no symbol or a way to show that I am a muslim to the world. Just as every other woman I make every morning the decision of what I want to cover or not. It is a right. To me its mainly important that every woman should be able to make a decision without being influenced how people see her. Ofcourse we can only dream about this. Prejudices are here so a woman can be judged by the length of her skirt right? But that is fine, prejudices exists to prove the wrong and to make them dissapear.
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It is now two years since I reverted to Islam. Way before I reverted I have been researching a lot about Islam. To be honest, before all this, I never knew that wearing a headscarf was obligated. I always thought this idea of the headscarf came from the man himself. Even stronger, as a number of people I always thought that the woman had a weak position and that a woman was not valued as in - our- culture. During my research I have read that wearing a headscarf came from the religion itself and right after that I have came to know that a woman is actually very precious, valued and protected in the Islam. My mind and thought became very clear and peaceful after reading this. I used to be the girl that was insecure eventhough I was consious about the fact that some men saw me as a sex object. I remember that I have been harassed plenty of times by different kind of men. I bascially never felt inner peace. Anyway, after a while I felt that my love for Islam grew. I realized this when I turned 25, I prayed that morning in a local mosque eventhough I was not converted and for the first time in my life I found the peace where I was searching for. I honestly did not knew where I should go with my life, so I kept flirting for a week with the idea if I should revert or not. Because if I wanted to revert I wanted to do it correctly.
Anyhow I bumped into a small obstacle. Eventhough that wanted to revert my family was not aware about this huge step. So every time when I used to go home I took my headscarf off because I was scared for their reaction about it. This did not felt right and somehow I felt guilty towards myself. So one day I just got up and thought I should make an end with this guilty feeling and I told my family about it. So, I explained that I want to revert and why I wanted to become Muslim and I also mentionned that I wanted to wear Hijab so my style would change a bit. My parents are Christians and I have to admit, it was not easy for them hearing this, especially the first year. So as I promised to myself I started wearing the hijab and became Muslim. The feeling at that moment was a once in a lifetime experience.
Unfortunately things got harder right after that. My father could not bare the fact that I wore the headscarf so I moved out. I moved to another city and started my life all over again. New house, new job, new people. Basically everyone that I met has met me with a headscarf. But I missed my family though, after a year we got back in touch. I do not know what exactly happend, but somehow my parents changed. They treated me with respect again and they have realized how Islam turned me into a better person, they could see the happiness in my eyes after years. Now, at this moment, my family have accepted me completely. Even stronger, my mother is so proud of me! So proud that she is happy to tell people that we have different religions and still can get along together. That we are able to see the common elements instead of the differences.
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The next thing I did was buying some headscarfs and dresses and I tried them out in other city's where I knew nobody. I did this to experience how it felt like and if I want to dress like this for the rest of my life. This little test turned out positive, I decided to revert and wear the headscarf as it should be. It felt so good, I finally found the inner peace. People treated me with respect and I litteraly got overwhelmed by positivity.
3. I basically grew up in a family where nobody wears a headscarf. Also none of my friends used to wear a headscarf whereby I had a wrong image of the women who wore it. As I grew up I got more in touch with this subject and I got the idea that more and more women started to wear the headscarf. Because of this wrong image I thought they were anomalous and I had struggles with understanding why people would wear the headscarf. In fact I always thought that those women had a different lifestyle, had no freedom and basically just were different. This way of thinking changed when my best friend suddenly decided to wear a headscarf. At first it was a little bit difficult because I was not used to it and I always knew her with long strands of brown hair and suddenly out of the blue she was wearing a deep pink headscarf. The first thought I had was that our friendship would be over. I was wrong. The way our friendship kept untouched, her personality did not changed a bit has let me realize that Muslim women or young girls who wear the hijab are not different at all. Today, the hijab, to me means a sacrifice that has been done by strong women. The kind of women I look up to. I admire their love for their God, that they are able to sacrify things to get His approval. Personally I do not wear a headscarf eventhough I am a muslim but I see this as a weakness as I get older. I am just afraid to wear it, afraid of the reactions, especially from my family.
4.
The Hijab has always played a major role in my life. I grew up in an Islamic family where my mother, aunts, cousins and grandmother wore a headscarf. When I was a kid I always had the habit to do what they do, so when I was six I used to wear a headscarf too. I was so proud of wearing it and I never experienced problems with it because that time I lived in Morocco. Side note: People always think that wearing a headscarf is a part of the culture of Morocco but it isnot. I used to be the only kid at school wearing a veil. Anyway, to be honest, I did not wore my headscar ffull time, so I took it on and off for several times. This because I did not feel like wearing it and matter of fact I was way too young to realize why people wear a headscarf in the first place. When I was 11 years old my family and I turned back to Belgium. I remember with the first step I took in my new school I immediately got the comment to remove my veil from my head. I never imagined that it would be so hard to remove something that is a part of your personality. So from that day on, I always removed my scarf before entering my school, a real struggle. This game of putting my hijab on and off got me thinking about removing my scarf at all. At the first place because the school has not let me be who I wanted to be,secondly I realized that this is not how it should
be an example to all. It was just over a year when my parents decided to move back to Antwerp and basically my dream shattered. I tried to keep hopeful but after searching so long I did not found a school that allowed the headscarf. So I went back to it again, everyday taking my hijab on and off at the school entrance. It had a huge influence on myself esteem. One day I felt like I could handle the world and the other day I felt weak and insecure. On top of that I was the only student at school who was veiled and that made everything way more difficult. Besides my personal struggles people kept making comments like - I like you more with your hair -, -it is stupid to wear a headscarf.- Those kind of comments had affected me badly, so after a few months I took it off again. Now, I am 19, still studying and I know more about my religion. I also try to learn everyday a lilttle bit more about it and about the concept of the headscarf. So now I am waiting for the right moment to wear my veil without removing it. As you have read my story I have struggled a lot but I still keep dreaming and loving it as the beginning, even more.
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be so I basically felt guilty and as third I realized that me and the other girls who wore a hiijab had different intentions of wearing a veil. I was young and I wore it because I liked it so much but honestly, I did not knew a lot about my religion as the other girls and that was the main reason why I finally took it off. I did not wanted to be like them. I did not want to be seen like one of them. This was a huge step to me, and I made myself the promise that once I graduate that I would wear the Hijab again and for the right reasons. So the years passed by and my love for the headscarf became bigger and bigger. In the meantime I learned a lot about my religion but it was a slow process and besides that I also moved to Brussels. I was 16 at that time, because I had no time I just picked a randomly school and signed myself in. So the first day of high school arrived and when I got inside the class I was in chock! The hijab was permitted in school and in class. It was like a dream came true, from that moment on I knew I would wear it again. So after a month I wore it with proud and this time I wore it with the right intentions so it felt right. I had my own vision about it, it literally means so much to me, I tried to behave way better, treat other people with more respect, being helpful, I wore a huge smile on my face and smiled to every type of person. To those who are all tatted, to the jews, to those who had prejudices. I wanted to show the world that a hijabi is openminded. I wanted to
My plan was to visualise those stories on textile. At first I wanted to screenprint them but the scarves were way too big so another alternative was to print them digitally.
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Finding a way how to visualize them was a tough job. I wanted to make different kinds of scarves design as in a typographical way but also with an illustration.
I decided to go for a pop art style because this style tells us a story which is exactly what I did. So I began drawing in a pop art/ comic style.
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The teachers instead were not a fan of my drawings and at the feedback moment ,they advised me to find another way to visualize the stories. So went back to pinterest to find some inspiration.
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Another alternative was playing with typography, so I went searching for Arabic ways of playing with typography.
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I finally found the courage to start with visualizing the first story but it did not went as planned. Writing Arabic in an European version of Indesign was nearly impossible so I had to make everything with the pen tool what took ages to complete one word.
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I basically got into a depression because I didn't find a way out. I was trying for months to find a solution but I just didn’t knew how. So after a deep conversation with Marie we decided it might be better if I started with something else. So after two failed attempts I had a month and half to come up with something new.
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This didn’t meant I threw everything away. I kept my stories and used them for my Bachelorclasses. In the pictures below you can find see a mini exhibition I held called Underneath the veil.
In full panic I tried to come up with another idea. I didn’t wanted to sit and start pinning again so I took all my magazines and collected every article I was interested in.
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While collecting all those articles I found out that the most articles are about culture and fashion or design. I kept brainstorming about it how I could link those three elements together and I came up with the idea to make a magazine which celebrates the surviving cultures of this century. My biggest dream is and was to work for a magazine so now I had the opportunity to design one myself. Besides that I got an internship at Charlie Magzine so all those pieces fell back together.
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The major problem I had was the lack of time. I knew I had a month to design a whole magazine and I realized this was nearly impossible so after a talk with Marie I decided to work out a range of covers and one subject of the magazine, which is the fashion section. So in a short time I had to get things more specific. I went searching for articles. I chose a theme for my magazine which will be appropiation. I went searching for samples, articles, stories, cover idea's and much more. I know their will be not a finished result on the deadline but I do have a long process and I want to complete the full magazine as my master project. Thereby I will be more experienced with designing magazines once I had my internship. So after three attempts I am glad that I found an idea which I'm totally convinced about. Better now than never.
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Sarah Dimani