Category: Design

The Ministry of Interior have redesigned their website (for the worse in my opinion) and with it have removed an English version. You can’t view an English version of the site which means expats will have a much more difficult time trying to check and see if they have any speeding fines and other online services. Luckily they still haven’t deleted the old English site yet and it can still be accessed by manually replacing the word arabic in the url with the word english.

Arabic site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/varabic/
English site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/venglish/

Thanks Avay

A forum member brought up an interesting topic which I hadn’t been aware of before.

It seems the one dinar note has a picture of Shuwaikh port on one side. The picture is supposed to be of the first ship which docked at Shuwaikh. It happened to be a Swiss ship, so it had a cross on the chimney, like the one that appears on the Swiss flag. For obvious reasons the cross was colored out. I of course didn’t believe the story, but then I happened to come across one such note.

The picture above is the KD1 note he came across that has the Swiss flag. I quickly opened my wallet and checked the KD1 notes I had and noticed the chimney on mine didn’t contain the flag (check image below).

I thought this was very interesting specially since I hadn’t heard of this before. It reminded me of the Saudi airlines logo which used to have a hidden cross in it as well (not deliberately of course). Below is a scan I made from the design book Pentagram: The Compendium regarding the Saudia logo and also a brief mention of the Swiss flag and the Middle East.

Thanks lloyd_911

This is just amazing! I can’t stop laughing. The Arabic lines read:

Istanbul in Hawalli
Restaurant and coffee shop under Turkish management
Hawalli – Beirut Street
Next to Al Ameed Coffee, in front of the Pakistani School

Thanks Phoenix

Awhile back a reader sent me some PDF files related to the construction of the Kuwait Towers and Kuwait Water Towers. The PDF’s contain photos, sketches and information regarding the projects. For example according to one of the PDF’s the total cost of the Kuwait Towers was KD4,700,000 (or $16,450,000) while the cost of the Water Towers was KD2,800,000 (or $9,800,000).

Among the different sketches and architectural plans lies an interesting bit of information. According to one of the diagrams (close up crop above) there was a discotheque and dance floor planned in the Kuwait Towers on top of the restaurant along with an indoor garden. That would have been a pretty cool club although I don’t know how efficient the elevators would have been carrying the crowd up and down. You can download all the PDF’s and check out a ton of pictures from the construction to the completion of the towers by following this [Link]

Wow… [Link]

The very stylish Octium Jewelry is holding a special exhibit at their 360 mall boutique from Sunday May 2nd to the 5th. They’ve invited some world renowned designers who will be showcasing some of their latest work. The designers who will be visiting are:

Selim Mouzannar
Bochic
Crivell
Verdi Gioielli

The event will be from 10AM to 10PM except for today (Sunday) it will be from 6PM to 10PM. What I like about this event is the fact that people will be able to interact with the talented designers.

Symphony Mall have placed their logo on top of their building but I have no idea what it is. Anyone have a clue? Kinda looks like a falcon maybe? The whole thing looks kinda squished up there, not enough room for it. It’s like I mentioned last time, building signs always seem like a sloppy last minute addition here in Kuwait.

Thanks Issa!

Update: Turns out it’s Doctor Zoidbergs claw!

The Cool Hunter are coming to Kuwait for an event. I just got an invite and I don’t know how much I can share since its a private event so will just share the bare minimum. The event will be held next week and it’s called A Kuwaiti World. The invite contains a username and password (which I won’t share) that allows you to log into www.akuwaitiworld.com and find out more info on the event. The Cool Hunter is the world’s most-read culture and design site. I previously mentioned them in a post when they featured the Octium Jewelry store at 360 Mall on their website. Will post pictures and details after the event.

While shopping at a local Co-op, Patrick from ProjektCyan spotted what looks like the new KDD logo. It looks better and cleaner than their previous one but not sure the leaf shape is working with the typography. [Link]

I got an interesting email from Mohammed Boland the creative behind local fashion label Capital District last night. It seems a Saudi based fashion label called Kalimah Jeans has copied one of his popular designs. He was walking at the Avenues when he spotted the familiar design in a shop display. Understandably he’s upset and he knows that very little can be done about it which must be really frustrating. I’m not sure which store in Avenues was selling the shirts but maybe if the owners found out they would be willing to withdraw the item from the store and return it to Kalimah as a way of supporting local talent.

Not going to attach a picture so I don’t ruin the surprise. I am trying to figure out what they sell or where to start from and I can’t figure it out! Oh and make sure you raise your computer volume for the full effect. [Link]

Seems Arwa has gotten a face lift. A new water bottle and label design is going to be introduced, and compared to the previous bottle, it looks better. It’s not a great redesign but its better than before.

I’ve decided to start documenting the different types of bus stops around Kuwait. Why? Because I am pissed off. I really love the old bus stops which we still have lying around randomly in different parts of Kuwait not being taken care of and left to wither away. The new bus stops on the other hand… it’s just very depressing. In any case I don’t know what I am going to do yet with this, I took some test shots yesterday just to see if there is something in this project and I think there is. What I need is some help. Does anyone have any information about the bus stops in Kuwait, like who designed which ones or the dates the different designs were introduced in Kuwait?

I just found an article with pictures of The Avenues Phase III and it looks completely different from Phase I and Phase II… and in a good way. The picture above is one of the shots and the caption talks about how it was designed to look like an outdoor space while the picture below is supposed to be a section that’s modeled on a traditional Kuwaiti souk and would contain an exhibit for the rich cultural heritage of Kuwait. Check out the article for more details and pictures. [Link]

[YouTube]

Before I left on vacation I got an email telling me about how beautifully lit Ahmadi is at night because of the KOC 75th anniversary. I didn’t have time to pass by and now that I am back I still haven’t been able to pass by (I’m too lazy and Ahmadi is far) but I found some videos on YouTube that show some of the light decorations. According to a friend the lights are still up so if you want to pass by you probably should hurry up before they taken them down.

[YouTube]

And here is one more [YouTube]