Category: Design

The new redesigned CNN.com is up and I absolutely love it. I think this is the first time I actually like their redesign. The last two times they redesigned I sent them hate mail but this time I am going to to email them and tell them what a great job they’ve done. Its so pretty! Make sure you check out their video page to, its way better then before. [Link]

update: Wooowww, I just saw their breaking news banner, I love it!

If you don’t love it already, here are 10 reasons why you should. [Link]

I was at Gulf Bank today morning cashing a cheque when I noticed Gulf Bank’s Freedom Account logo. Its nearly a duplicate of MTC’s older distributors logo.

I just found out from Kuwaitism’s blog that the new 2012 Summer Olympics logo was just launched and I love it! Its extremely unique, comes in 4 colors and its funky! To read a lot more on the logo check the two following links:

London 2012
London, How do I Hate Thee? Let me Count the Ways, 1, 2… 2012
London 2012 – New Brand Launches

The new redesigned CNN website is online and can be accessed by going to beta.cnn.com. As long as I can see a lot of stories on the first page I don’t care what they do.

An interesting article detailing the way The Pentagon (US Department of Defence) building became a pentagon. [Link]

I was showing my partner at work the blog uncrate.com when we got to the post on the Obelisk chairs (pictured above and right below). I was telling him about how cool the design was when he told me his cousin has them in her store. So during our lunch break we both headed to his cousins store called Home House which is located adjacent to the Amiri Hospital on the Gulf Road.

Right as we walked into the store which was actually an old Kuwaiti house we spotted the Obelisk right in front of us. It was exactly like the one we saw on uncrate except we didn’t expect it to be this big. We were given a tour of the place and it turns out they have some really really nice stuff. I really don’t know where to start since I literally fell in love with their brands.

I guess I will start with my favorite brand they carry which is Vange. They have some of the most beautiful industrial designs. Just flipping through their website now while writing this is giving me goose bumps. Most of the Vange stuff is by order but they had the K-Baby, the K-Bench and the MAUI console on display. I loved the K-Bench and the MAUI series of shelving is just so hot!

After the Vange we were shown some stuff by Gandia Blasco. Their stuff are mostly for patios, chalets and beaches, they reminded me a lot of the stuff I see on CSI: Miami. Their style is the very modern outdoor furniture which comes all in white, very straight edged with white drapes and they are very very sexy stuff.

Finally we were shown some lighting systems by Tobias Grau. It was another brand I hadn’t heard of before but again they have some really really slick looking lamps. So minimal and so cleanly designed. If Apple were to make lamps this is how they would come out.

I am probably going to go back there and see how much the MAUI console and the K-Bench cost since I would love to have them in my place. I didn’t ask their prices while I was there for some reason so I don’t know how much they cost. The Obelisk costs around KD1,600 which although isn’t cheap, its still cheaper then in the US where they sell for $8,500.

If you want to pass by the place its very easy to find. If you take the right after the Amiri hospital you will find that the first house on the left is called Bait Al Cedra. They are located right inside Bait Al Cedra. Its right next to the Karizma gallery. You can call them on 253 0358 in case you get lost or visit their website www.homehouse.be

Here are the websites to the brands:
Vange
Gandia Blasco
Tobias Grau

update: I made a mistake. The store is called Home House not Bait Al Cedra. Bait Al Cedra is the name of the old house where Home House is located. I just edited the post above to reflect this.

I was taking a walk today in a Beirut district when I noticed some Arabic graffiti on the wall. I don’t think I had ever seen Arabic graffiti prior to this… I am not talking about the random scribbles regularly seen in Kuwait. I think graffiti agrees with Arabic really well, its because how nearly all the letters in Arabic are connected to each other.

Here are two layouts from the Young Lions competition. For those who missed my previous post, we needed to promote the WFP “Food for Education” program with our ads.

The body copy for the “I am hungary” one says:

Help educate children while providing them with nutritional meals. Find out how you can make a difference by donating towards our Food for Education program by logging onto www.wfp.org

The second layout the body copy and the headline wasn’t finalized because we killed the idea in the end. Supposedly the gold winner at the competition had a similar idea with the bitten pencil but I haven’t seen that layout yet to know exactly how close we were to winning gold.

Today was the Young Creatives competition in Dubai. Our flight arrived last night at around 1AM to Dubai and by the time we got to the hotel it was 2. Still, we managed to wake up at 7 and headed to Dubai Media City where the Cannes Lions competition was being held.

At 9AM we were briefed by the client which turned out to be WFP (World Food Program) and we had to come up with a campaign that would help promote their Food for Education program. We had until 6PM to come up and execute our ideas which was a surprise because we were told originally to expect 12 hours to work on it.

Anyway we managed to come up with around 19 different ideas which we finally narrowed down to three and then to just two which was the maximum amount of creative work we could present. We are pretty confident one of our ideas should get us in the top 3 but we will have to wait and see.

At the start of the event they introduced me and my partner as the only team that isn’t from Dubai. Turns out this was the first time a team from outside of Dubai participated which put Kuwait in the spotlight. My partner is Kuwaiti and I grew up in Kuwait so we were truly representing Kuwait.

Hopefully one of our directions hits the top 3, we should find out the results by May 8th I believe. I will try to post our favorite direction here but at the moment I am not sure if I am allowed to. I am going to go skiing now so will I post again later on tonight once I come back.

A large collection of old and new Egyptian movie posters. I don’t know whats funnier the posters or the names of the movies translated to English. [Link]

Thanks Holla

I will be traveling to Dubai on the 1st of May and I will be back on the 3rd. I will be going there with my partner from work to participate in the Young Creatives compeition thats part of the Cannes Lions which is regarded as the most prestigious international advertising festival. The Young Creatives competition is for creatives 28 years old or younger and you enter as a team made up of an art director and copyrighter.

Last year me and my partner wanted to participate but they were fully booked, this year we managed to get in luckily because I turn 29 in August so I wouldn’t have been able to participate ever again. To get to Cannes we need to qualify and thats why we are going to Dubai. Different creatives from the Middle East will be participating in the qualification process on May 2nd with the gold winner going to Cannes to participate in the main international competition.

This is how the competition works. They put all the creative teams participating into one large room. They then bring in a client which is usually a non profit organization to brief us on the job. Once the client is done briefing us, the teams have 12 hours to come up with a campaign and execute it. Every team will have a workstation to work on, there will be no Internet access (for 12 hours!!!) and you aren’t allowed to bring in anything with you either like CDs, cameras, laptops etc.. There will be a work station usually sponsored by Corbis or Getty Images where you can search for photos but there is a list and you have to sign up and wait for your turn.

Its a very exciting event and getting gold would be amazing since it would mean me and my partner will be traveling to Cannes in June and putting Kuwait on the map. You can check out the winners from last years competition [Here]. As you can see the work from last year was extraordinary. I am nervous but it should be a lot of fun.

Found this while waiting for the tow truck to pick up my car. Its a new pizza place thats opening soon. The logo looks very familiar…

Everyone is blasting this song in the office. [MP3 3.1MB]

via

My friend is going to Madrid soon and he was checking out hotels when he found this one. Every floor is designed by a different designer and is a completely different style and mood then the other. My favorite is is the Zaha Hadid floor, looks like something off an alien spaceship. [Link]