Monday 10 May 2010

A Life of Luxury

I would have to disagree with the statement : luxury is anything which pleases the senses, and it is also costly or difficult to obtain

saying that "luxury" is what is difficult to obtain seems like an inaccurate description of what luxury is.
for example: many people in africa have difficulty getting access to their basic life needs i.e: Food and water. so it would be difficult to assume that these necessities are "luxuries".


I also noticed that "luxury" has been defined by its comfort which is also a statement I strongly disagree with " Luxury could be something very cheap or easy to found but you called it luxury because it gives you that feeling of comfortable and pleasure your feelings."

"Comfort" is a highly subjective feeling which -going back to the example of people suffering from hunger in africa- could be fulfilled to its highest levels only by providing these basic-life necessities.
on the other hand, A man that lives in one of the richest countries, in one of the safest areas and has one of the jobs with the highest income could still remain feeling uncomfortable with his lifestyle and what he has.



Luxury, in my opinion, is anything that comes after the basic needs are fulfilled i.e: Food, water..etc
although even the basic life needs themselves have been long debated amongst nations.
some consider for example "education" a basic life requirements, although others are satisfied and content with being provided with food.
It all depends on the situation, time and place

Mental Whiplash

There may be uncountable ways for art to be taught and learnt, many of which we cannot frame within a certain criteria, but when it comes to a more professional level of Art education, i would have to agree on the requirements for any Graphic design teacher documented.
My observation is that many of our teachers seem qualified adding to the educational qualification i would also have to add the fact that they come from diverse cultures which could be an obstacle at first for them in order to understand such a different culture, but after a period of time, that factor becomes an advantage more than anything else for the productivity and creativity it spurs from the mixing of cultures.

2- The cases vary from each individual to another, meaning: there could be a new un-experienced teacher that is facing communication problems between herself an the students only for her lack of experience in teaching.
on the other hand, there could be an old experienced teacher that has a problem in being flexible with new ideas and new ways.

although both situations are hypothetical and may, or may not occur.


experience in work indeed is preferred for a teacher although even that experience will probably not be enough to making the teaching process easier considering each requires different skills, but an experienced teacher at work could higher the standards of the students being taught and teach them realistically the possibilities and difficulties that lay ahead of them

Who gets to say what to whom


"People are judging any design by its visual because they do not know what is behind this visual, so any amazing design that catches their eye stayed in their mind even if it was some thing that have wrong concept behind it."


for us to judge the public in not recognizing the concept " totally or even partially" is a notion i would have to strongly disagree with.
people remember and recognize logos for several reasons and one of the is having an idea of the concept whether that idea were true or false.
another reason is the logo's lack of complication and simplicity such as "Nike" having the tick , we may not fully know the concept of why that "tick" was used as a logo but each of us can speculate as individuals what the reason behind its use was, some examples are :
1- positivity
2-speed


and many other speculations which we could come up with.

although a logo that does not give the viewer the reign of imagination to connect a concept to the logo infront of him is simply a logo that will be forgotten soon enough.



"In addition, there are some designs that have wrong concept behind it but it is considered a very successful design, like Coca-Cola poster that Scratch Muslims in their religion"


the first point is that I wonder what a "wrong" concept or a "right" concept is...

and in the "coca- cola" case, i would have to say that it is an extremely egotistical notion for "muslims" to think that a whole brand identity with all its success in the market was created to target and offend a certain religious or political group .

however, i will not deny that this does happen in some cases, although i believe coca-cola is falsely accused in this specific case.

"As a result, graphic design is a very important field in the world and graphic designers have to have the power to express their feeling by their designs because designs weather it is good or bad, small or big can add or change things around us."


Graphic designers not only have the power to express their feelings through their designs, but also their beliefs and passion and so they, more than most other fields have the capability to convey their messages worldwide and become the symbols and the activators of drastic social changes and developments.

Reality Branding


The intention is the base for all actions, many companies care about reality branding for what we would all certify as "noble intentions" and an action derived from that intention will result in a series of actions some of which may involve the company's loss of money or so only for the mere reason that it should stick to its beliefs and good intentions in conveying the truth for the costumer

on the other hand, most companies would label their intentions as good ones just to serve their "marketing strategy" with the least concern to its truthfulness amongst the company's realm and that may lead to the costumer's reaction of anger and the feel of betrayal from the company itself and in the case of a region that has "Consumer rights" it might be extremely difficult for a company to pull an act such as that off.

So basically reality branding is conveying the truth about your product with a sense of exaggeration ( for it to be sold- marketing) but on a small scale
however, it is a must for the exaggeration not to interfere with the truth of the product in a way that will make it turn into a lie rather than a marketing strategy .
there is a thin line between good marketing and selling lies.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Healing with design

It is known that the world of words is a limited one, a world that symbolizes our deep expressions, feelings and desires, but only "symbolizes" and nothing more.
these symbols indicate the tip of the depth in which these emotions and thoughts spring from, and so, art is one of these expressions that humans have adopted to try to convey these heartfelt emotions and thoughts to the world around them in a manner stronger, and much truer than words can ever be.
it is a manner of expression in which you can unveil the artist in many psychological aspects and touch the perceiver in more ways than one.
Expression, is a vital step towards healing.

the psychological effect in which music, for example, has on a human is boundless, from all the serenity and contentment is gives to all of those extreme feelings of joy and sorrow. although i believe that the connection of an individual's psychological reaction towards a specific song or sound is highly based on that individual's perception of it, whether it be connected to a certain memory or that individual being "taught" that this music or sound is relaxing, joyful, sorrowful and so on.

1- so I would have to say I DO believe in healing with sound.

2- well it has been proven that the red does open up a person's apatite therefore, i would have to agree unless i have taken on my own research on the matter.

3- My choice of colors will depend on the culture i have the intention to spread my design in, like white may express purity in some cultures, although it may express death in others.