Categories
Design Kuwait

The BKME and Osoul New Logos

Have you guys seen the knew BKME logo? Its depressing. How can a bank like BKME be so stupid I don’t know. I don’t blame the designer. The designer is crap, I am sure he knows that already. I blame the people at BKME who accepted such tragic work. My god, its a disaster! Firstly, before I start talking about the logo, lets talk about the 4×3 Mega’s on the road where the logo is on. You DO NOT use yellow type on a white background. Its very unreadable. They not only used yellow type on a white background, they used it on their outdoor ads!! If you are driving up to the ad on the street you will not see “Al Awsat” written in yellow until you slam into the ad. Its impossible to read when its in a newspaper yet alone an ad on the street 50 meters away while you are zooming buy in you car at 100km/h. Thats their first mistake. Lets talk about the logo. Is that a pearl? Come on, who was the genius who thought of that? Very creative. I am sure no one ever thought about it before (Note: I am being sarcastic here). Even Gulf Bank uses the pearl for their Dana account. Anyway, whatever, fine, go with the pearl, but at-least be a bit more creative about it. It looks like a shop that sells marbles for kids. Their logo really pisses me off.

You know what the problem is? People think being a designer is easy. People think anyone can be a designer. People think that if they take a course in Adobe Photoshop at some trashy institute in Salmiya they automatically are designers. Thats bullshit. If thats true then what did I do for 4 years at university? Why do designers go get their masters then their PhDs? Taking a course in Photoshop at an institute just means you now know how to use 5% of Photoshops capabilities. Thats all. We spend the first two years of university not being allowed to use any computers in our design work. They teach us that the computer is just a tool, its just a means to get what you have in your head onto paper. Thats all. So they spend the first 2 years teaching us about other tools like drawing, painting, silk screen printing, sculpturing, stencils and tons more stuff. Not only that but as a designer you need to be creative, and have taste, both things which many people lack. Why is GianFranco Ferre designing clothes and you aren’t? Why is Philip Starck designing everything from hotel rooms to sneakers and you aren’t? They got it you don’t, its that simple.

Anyway it doesn’t matter. BKME is the one losing here. The new Osoul logo even has a readability problem. Osoul in arabic can be read as Osoul or Osoud. The reason for that is the L in the end is not shaped correctly. The L could look like an L or a D. It goes both ways. Fine the majority will read it as an L but the fact that it might be read as a D is a problem. Now the logo is out and I am sure Osoul is getting comments about it. It could have been so easy to fix but it wasn’t. Below is just a mockup I did in 2 minutes of what could have been done to avoid this Osoul/Osoud mix up.

osoul logo Osoul Logo

osoul logo fixed Osoul Logo Fixed

But anyway this post has become to long so I will stop. Its just very frustrating for me because these bad designers give us all a bad reputation and image. The client needs to be able to trust us and bad designers make this trust harder to form.




Categories
Fashion Interesting Links

Make Your Own Tshirts

Me and nibaq tried this before using another technique but we never posted step by step pictures. Today I found a site with an easy tutorial to follow and has pictures. here is the link.




Categories
Video Games

PSP Kicking Ass in Japan

Here is the latest Top 10 list of consoles sold in Japan:

PlayStation Portable: 43,644 (Annual: 580,120)
PlayStation 2: 40,270 (Annual: 602,316)
Nintendo DS: 22,446 (Annual: 429,545)
Game Boy Advance SP: 11,013 (Annual: 197,776)
GameCube: 3,357 (Annual: 70,016)
Game Boy Advance: 477 (Annual: 6,253)
Xbox: 345 (Annual: 4,606)




Categories
Video Games

PSP vs DS Vote

Just checking on the status of the of the PSP vs DS vote on cnet. Sony is currently winning with 73.5%. [Link]




Categories
Interesting Internet Links

Celebrity Blogs Part 2

David Duchovny
Rob Zombie

Celebrity Blogs Part 1




Categories
Automotive Kuwait

Element in Kuwait?

Just past by Marina Mall, on my way out I noticed a Honda Element waiting. Are Elements now available in Kuwait? The one I saw was grey with dark grey. Don’t know the Element? Then click here.




Categories
Video Games

The End of the DS?

The PSP got released 2 days ago and already there are 17 games reviewed on Gamespot. On the other hand the Nintendo DS got released last year, and till now there are only 16 games reviewed on Gamespot. Poor DS, its Virtual Boy Redux.




Categories
Interesting Video Games

GT4 and Shuffle

Today my brother did something very cool. He took an Apple iPod Shuffle, plugged it into the USB port on the front of his Sony PS2, copied pictures he took in Grand Turismo 4 onto the shuffle, then plugged the shuffle back into the Mac and copied the images onto his desktop. I think this is the coolest thing I have heard about the PS2. [IMG 1] [IMG 2]




Categories
Interesting Kuwait

History of the Kuwaiti Flag

I was at my favorite flag site trying to get the exact colors of the Kuwaiti flag when I noticed something funny. The site lists the Kuwaiti flags from the begining till now. Check out Kuwait’s current flag! [Link]




Categories
Design

Pediatric Center’s Bad Logo

apc logo
Badly-executed logo for a pediatric center in Virginia. [via]




Categories
Kuwait Technology

He’s Back!

Tivo Guy is back!! [Link]




Categories
Technology

The Sinclair C5

I don’t know why I hadn’t heard of this until today but I just found out about the coolest fucking thing ever, the Sinclair C5. It was released back in 1985 and it was supposed to be the Segway of that era. The C5 worked on rechargeable battery that would last up to 30KM, if the battery finished you could pedal your way back home. Best of all it cost only 150KD. But, the Sinclair C5 was a commercial disaster. It got very negative media coverage and in the end only 12,000 C5s were produced and the project was killed off.

I really want one now, I checked eBay and they are selling for like 100KD only. Imagine me driving one down to Sultan Center or something. Its amazing!! Now I just need to find someone who would be willing to ship one from England to Kuwait.

Here are some links:
Sinclair C5 Enthusiasts
Sinclair C5 on eBay




Categories
Kuwait Photography

B-Side 131 25/3/05

I actually started 2:48AM so I can post pictures that didn’t make the cut on Miskan.com. This picture is from yesterday but I decided to go with the visually more attractive Caution sign. This fire is from near my house. A garbadge bin was set on fire and there were 2 cops standing near it waiting for the fire trucks to come. One of the cops saw me take a picture and called me over. When I went to him he asked me if I was a journalist. I told him no. He was like why are you taking a picture? I told him because its something interesting. I asked him if fire trucks were gonna come, he replied saying they were. Then he asked me if I want to take a picture of them. I told him I couldn’t since I had to leave. I said thank you and left. [large pic link]




Categories
Video Games

PSP Dead Pixels

From the Dept. of We Tried to Warn You, Sony user forums are already starting to fill up with laments about PlayStation Portables with dead pixels and other screen defects.

The PSP’s Japanese launch was accompanied by scattered reports of glitchy screens and Sony indifference to the defects. U.S. consumers can pretty much intuit the same from reading Page 13 of the instruction manual:

“Red, blue or green spots (bright spots) or black spots (dark spots) may appear in certain locations of the LCD screen. The appearance of such spots is a normal occurrence associated with LCD screens and is not a sign of a malfunction.”

Translated, that means Sony and its retail friends get to decide when a PSP screen is defective enough to merit replacement. Clerks at Sony’s PlayStation store in San Francisco, for example, appeared to be fairly generous with replacement requests Thursday, but results may vary with other retailers and Sony’s customer support phone line. [via]




Categories
Fashion Technology

PodBrix Launches PodShirt.com

ishirtPodBrix has launched a new site called PodShirt.com to sell shuffle integrated apparel. The first product is the iShirt. Similar to the PodBrix Brixwear 1000 shirt, the iShirt features an integrated patent-pending magnetic clasp system to secure your iPod shuffle to the front of the shirt.

No modification is needed to your iPod shuffle. Simply place it over the clasp area of the shirt and it locks into place. The shuffle stays firmly attached even with vigorous activity. A quick pull easily removes it from the shirt.

PodShirt is the extension of the Brixwear 1000 concept into other styles. We wanted to be able to create a variety of designs using the shuffle clasp system and not be bound only by the style concepts of PodBrix.

The iShirt is NOT a limited edition. It is available for purchase now at PodShirt.com for $28.99.