Beyond product and furniture design, graphic design is presented across various exhibitions this design week. From regional influences to international icons, the contemporary history of graphic design is presented through the RCA, Tashkeel and various other events. For participants looking to gain experience and knowledge in the field workshops and talks are also offered allowing the design curious to expand on their skills.
Beyond product and furniture design, graphic design is presented across various exhibitions this design week. From regional influences to international icons, the contemporary history of graphic design is presented through the RCA, Tashkeel and various other events. For participants looking to gain experience and knowledge in the field workshops and talks are also offered allowing the design curious to expand on their skills.
The RCA will be presenting, GraphicsRCA: Fifty years and beyond, an exhibition celebrating the milestone anniversary of a graphic design course at the RCA that marked the beginning of a break with commercial art, and heralded an era that saw graphic design emerge as a major force in business and culture. Tolasse will host an exhibition of eight architectural icons in Dubai which have been digitally recreated by Tolasse using a mixture of photography, architectural lines and layers of dynamic, graphic coating. Curated by Fann à Porter @ The Workshop, the pieces are contemporary, fresh and appetizing to the discerning eye. For those looking to gain first hand experience, Sharabassy will present an Arabic Type Workshop, allowing participants to learn how to create, design and use different materials to create unique Arabic type.
In Iconic City: Loading Casa, works by Moroccan illustrator and graphic designer Aicha Beloui will be one of five design elements on display, Aicha will translate Casablanca into a graphic mural landscape within which the exhibition content will sit. At the abwab pavilion, Dubai-based Lujain Abulfaraj’s project ‘DHADH’ is an homage to the Arabic language, and is named after the letter that is unique to it. Comprising eight unique modules that can be combined and recombined to create the entire 28 Arabic letters, Abulfaraj has expanded her typographic experiments into huge foam structures with a trilateral purpose – as a furniture piece, a plaything and a letter-form.
In Once Upon Design, Diana Hawatmeh presents a series of graphic posters experimenting with elements of heritage from the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on customs and oral traditions inherited through generations that are implicitly linked to spaces.
At the American University in the Emirates, visitors can preview student work in TYPEUNITE Dubai 2017, an International Typographic Poster Design Exhibition organized by College of Design at AUE and TYPEUNITE, an International Alliance of Design Professors for contribution to typography education and practice. In the tucked away enclave of Nad Al Sheba, Tashkeel will bring the Weltformat festival to Dubai, introducing design enthusiasts to different poster trends in Switzerland and promoting the making of posters.
Expanding on this exhibition, Weltformat DXB is a collaboration between Tashkeel, Welformat (a collective of graphic designers from Lucerne), Cairo-based designer Engy Aly and Mobius Design Studio’s Design House, with the support of Pro-Helvetia. The collaboration will host four poster design workshops, three public talks and a publication including:
- Rediscovering Manuscripts by Engy Aly
A look at commonly used elements in medieval manuscripts like detailed ornaments, gold leaf and precious stones, how they produced emotions of wonder and awe, and how to generate similar emotional responses using experimental and contemporary tools and visuals.
- Type Bazaar by Erich Brechbühl & Noël Leu,
Working with limited materials, the group will design the lettering of a fictional shopfront by hand, and design their own A1 black and white poster using their new font.
- Riso gig posters by Sarah Alfarhan
Participants will be introduced to Tashkeel's Riso ME 9350 Printer to create an edition of 30 bilingual, A3 gig posters in Arabic and English to promote a selection of musicians. This digital, eco-friendly printer uses soy oil based ink.
- STOP AND COLLABORATE! By Mayar El Hayawan
Participants will work in groups to design a Welformat-sized poster to encourage collaboration and experimentation. Young graphic designers will be encouraged to discover different practices and methodologies, when faced with the challenge of designing a poster in a short period of time.
- Re-scripture: How medieval manauscripts shaped contemporary design practice
Investigating the aesthetics, design and materiality of selected manuscripts, and how they informed the content of two very different projects.
- The influence of typography on our perception
This lecture will explore how typography influences our perception and how it is always embedded in a broader context.
- Poster town Lucerne
An exploration of the different factors that have informed this small city’s vivid, internationally recognised graphic design scene.