eMags…

I’ve been keeping tabs on jellyfishmag.com and monkey mag and i can totally see what they are doing – after getting past the ‘interesting’ (ahem) aesthetics. I like the way you can link to shopping sites and i like the way video is intergrated into the editorial, although occasinally it is clumsy. Taking the traditional magazine format and reproducing AND adding extra bells n’ whistles has made the 2 mags work quite well. I cant imagine either mag being able to hold its own on the newsstand but on the web, the feature lengths are just right for the format and the intended audience.

There has been a lot written bout Monkey, Jeremy has written about it at Magculture and it dawned upon me today, that lil’ old me may have to eventually like to do something in ‘eMag’ format, so i am in the process of coming up with something…WATCH THIS SPACE.

I will hav something to put up soon…i have a title and i think i can do a very basic interpretation of an eMag, the danger is my flash/interactive skills may let me down…so if there are any Flash whizzes out there up for a tiny project – give me a shout!

I’m BACK

It’s been a few days since i’ve posted, but had few days of from EVERYTHING!
I have a week booked at GQ, which should be interesting, it’s defo something i’ve wanted to do for a while…

I’m free for freelance bookings after then, so if anyone out there has any work for me give me a shout. My CV.My CV

I came accross this article and i LOVE cars. I love fast cars, slow cars, old cars, new cars, square cars, round cars, english cars, european cars…you get the picture? I’m also really interested in alternative fuels, the article is interesting ‘cos it discusses a company converts gas-guzzlers into green-fuel-sipping- this in itself is nothing new BUT the difference is the cars that are converted are cool (…in america). I love the fact there are people out there doing this, but i still have questions…

1. Can we do it in the UK?
2. If so, is there a steady supply?
3. Why do manufacturers of main-stream green cars think drivers have no taste? pig ugly cars are NOT cool, and they are SLOOOOOOW!

Anyhoo i’m off, hungry and time for a screen break.

It’s SO OVER…

There are rumours flying all over the place about SoLondon closing.
i have been freelancing there for last few weeks… not sure what i can or can’t say… i guess watch this space hey?

there is a Guardian link here

My typographical heritage…

That above is my name in urdu calligraphy… and ‘cos urdu and arabic are related languages that is also my name in arabic. There is something quite beautiful about the loose swooshing lines. I’m by no means an expert. I dabble from time-to-time i scribble designs, form and words down in pen, usually in biro, then magic marker and then inevitably (as above) i use adobe illustrator. My calligraphy, however is a far cry from the ‘real thing’. Traditionally each letter form would have been painstakingly drawn/written with a calligraphy pen and then reproduced, often these books were HUNDREDS of pages long…!

This brings me onto newspapers and magazines. As a child we used to have old issues of an urdu mag knocking round the house called ‘Shafaq’. I always wondered what the typewriters must have looked like… i stumbled accross this article which KINDA answers that, the typewriter was a PERSON! I always knew this… but it is sad to see there is only ONE handwritten newspaper left in the world. I feel i want to go there and offer them my services, i’m not sure how many times my name can appear in the newspaper…

Be sure to look at the link there are pics on how this manual style of typesetting takes form.

WIRED…and the future of mags

Hello again, i bought WIRED mag today. Haven’t bought it in ages, looks great! Right up my street. Lot of diagrams, graphics and bold design. Over the last few years i have visited the WIRED blogs a lot, lots of news and reviews of gadgets and gizmos. This got me thinking about web/mag design ‘convergence’ or the much discussed ‘future of mags’.

WIRED mag is pretty much what you expect, beautiful editorial and nice meaty features. The mag also has news and reviews on new products, but it’s only the best of the best. The WIRED blogs however cover almost EVERY little development in the technological industry. Every time there is any Apple, Microsoft or Sony rumour, it’s fed straight throught my RSS feed. It really has become the forst source off gadgetry news – it is the ONLY RSS feed that gets me excited, even if the news is rubbish and i dont even read past the headline. (i would still rather have a physical mag in my hand though…)

So it seems WIRED have created a seemingly perfect model, the cross-over and convergence of web seems to work seamlessly. There are elements of the design/brand which have been ported over to the web too. To quote Samir Husni ‘The problem we have in print today is not the medium but the message’ and i think the WIRED blogs and WIRED mag live comfortably side by side, the messages in both mediums is right. WIRED have also given us a glimpse into the future of mags (other mags like Vogue and Monocle have similar strategies). In the coming months i’m expecting lots of free wi-fi spots and eventually the iphone and other smart phones will appear and i will be able to recieve WIRED blog feeds on the move.

This blog was titled ‘WIRED…and the future of mags’ – i think for a few days i might stop thinking about the future and ENJOY THE PRESENT.

The Budget…

‘The Gord’ gave us possibly his last budget yesterday, was blown away by the HUGE increase in road tax for ‘gas guzzlers’! If that doesn’t discourage people, nothing will.

I wonder how his budget will affect me? Apparantly i will be £5 better off every week, so i guess i can buy another mag… Maybe i will buy 4×4 monthly!

2006 A recap. part ii

Once InsideOut was launched the mag was beginning to find its identity. We were commisioning great illustrators and photographers and the mag was looking btter with each issue. Fast forward a few months and dare i mention my nomination for the Press Gazette Magazine Design Awards under the catergory of Young Designer of the Year, it was quite funny cos i only SCRAPED through as ‘young’ – if the deadline was 3 days later i would have officially been un-young! but hey ho…

(i will put up loads more pics of InsideOut once i get to grips with this and get a lil’ more time)

So in November, in preperation of the awards i bought myself a spanking new suit, precision tailoring does a hell of alot for self confidence! i don’t usually get nervous and the build up to the awards was no different, i wasn’t really too fussed, was well chuffed to have been shortlisted. When was reading out the nominations thats when i got a lil’ nervous…once he said my name out loud the nerves vanished. The team were right there and made me feel fab, this gong was for all of us – Debi, Jo, Phil and Michael – and of course the brilliant and ever supporting subs team!

Few months after the awards i began to think about my next move…and InsideOut was also becoming less and less interesting to work on, i was all interior-d out and the direction of the mag was heading somewhere i didn’t want to be at.

Throughout the year i had been working on my own freelance clients too, one of which is Zenzeni Noodle Bar, for whom i designed EVERYTHING! It was great, we launched the restaurant, created the identity and designed all the promo material. That took up most of my weekends but it’s great to see them doing well and the brand having a strong identity.

that pretty much was 2006 for me…

Worked with fab people at insideout and on ‘06 was a good year…roll on 2007!

-sorry if this is all sounding like a diary…

2006 A recap. part i

I started work on ‘InsideOut’ at News Magazines in November 2005 and we were right in the thick of it. It was great, had a fantastic launch design desk, headed by Debi Angel. The brief was to create a brand new interiors mag with a more hands-on section as its USP.

‘Foundations’ was that unique section, my section. The section was going to be an information led and full of ‘how to’ guides and tips and advice from various experts. Foundations was printed on different stock, a matt stock which re-inforced the more hands-on idea. I created the graphic elements of the section, the roof, the border and the side bar all to re-inforce the more masculine hands-on feel of the section. Once we were all happy with the look and concept I worked closely with Jo Cochrane to get the section tightened up and ready to template, Jo is a genius at this!

So Foundations was born, allbeit living within InsideOut, we were working flat out and produced a mag without doing a relevent dummy. We had a research dummy which was created WAY before any of us had joined the company, so was out-dated and some major ideas had been re-thought. Away we went. We launched the 1st issue in March 2006 and had a TV and press campaign behind us, the mag had a fresh look in a crowded market place and we did make an impact at the beginning.

Pics will follow…

First few posts

I am putting up some older news, it may not be in any real order, so i will try and put them in some order…

Current status / So London

I have been at a new mag called So London since last week, it is a nice mag, the original design comes from www.estersonassociates.co.uk It is a glossy weekly lifestyle mag aimed very much at socio-econmic group AB.