Now thats cool!
Its high time dubai hosts its own animation festival and the guys at Capacity World seem to have taken on that responsibility full on. Wissam and I met them a few days back and they seem to be running unbelievably fast with the whole thing (i am a little sceptical about their animation background though) but nonetheless – its a great pioneering effort. Initially scheduled to be held on October 23rd – they now believe that its not going to happen any time before Janurary.

I’ve asked them to screen my film ‘Gifted’ and i am hopeful that it might appeal to them – which reminds me that i should either get back to making another film for thr next round of festivals or start sending out ‘Gifted’ to the major fests again and hope to get lucky. The Latvian Film festival and the Dresden Festival has been sending me the next round of invitations for the 2005 festival and i have just decided to put them aside for now and push them down the priority list – even though my hands ache to pick up a pencil and start animating again.

Whats absolutely awesome is that Barry Purves is the president of the festival !! Now for those, who are unaware of who Mr.Purves is, here is a little bit of an update –>TimeOut Dubai Article on Barry Purves

When i told Kirrily about Purves coming down to Dubai for the festival, she got all excited (as she does) and told me that she had a picture with him (taken at Exeter) …. hahaha kirrily ?? when you told me that in the picture ‘you were slightly off in the distance, i had no idea you meant this!! – you are soooooo funny! (miss you kizzie)

Amidst the Festivities and Celebration of Durga Puja, a lot has happened over the past week and i only but wait in anticipation to announce the outcome. A month of repeatedly tossing the coin is about to end…. hmmmm what could i be talking about?

The annual durga puja festivities commenced last week and bongs from all over the emirates gathered in festive spirit to celebrate the arrival of goddess durga and her children. Now, i have been told that it is a sight not to be missed in Calcutta ~ one day i will see it for myself, but for now and for here, it remains the much practiced convention of dressing up well, visiting the temple, jumping from one social circle to another, shaking hands, wishing each other ’shubho bijoya’, enquiring about life and business in general…. could be a little more exciting – i agree!

My sweetheart design chum nada just launched her website www.nadaabdalla.com and it think its worth the visit. A little bit about nada though – one of the most talented and expressive woman i have ever met – so if you ever come across her, make sure to take a few steps back and then approach with caution. She is a time bomb waiting to explode
(ofcourse – you know i meant that in the most nicest possible way – dont you luv? *snigger* *snigger* *snigger*)

Nada’s old site can be seen at nada.abdalla.tripod.com

Awright ! its that time again and since Pixel 8(a Dubai Blogger who surfed onto my site last week) asked me about the printing company – ‘Reinbrow Printing Industries’, i decided to dedicate the content of this post to the same.

Before i begin telling you exactly how dissapointing my experience has been in dealing with this particular company, i feel its essential to express my respect for all those involved in the printing industry. Its these people who work nights and weekends and yet end up taking the bullet (on behalf of the glitches that designers make). It’s not a rare sight to see a frustrated ‘mac operator’ at a print house grumbling and cussing away whilst he fixes the color and bad artwork sent by a designer – all to make sure that the job goes into print the next day and the deadline is met.

However, there are some entities that do not deserve the same appreciation and clearly come across as ‘the unethical pricks of the industry’. Beware designers !!!

‘Reinbrow Printing Industries’

Early this year, on a visit back from Melbourne, i decided to get a few business cards printed for myself and in the pursuit of the same i randomly shortlisted a few printers who seemed like the kind that would be able to turn out a small job effectively within time. One such printer was Reinbrow Printing Industries who i had dealt with in the past.

They showed me a few samples of their work and the image below seemed like the popular identity image of the company. Everything from their business cards, diaries, cartons and swatch books bore this image on it.

Now, i personally did not have anything against that image except for the fact that it was ‘i who had designed it a couple of years ago’ and Reinbrow Printing Industries claimed a ‘Mr. Zubair Somebody’ as the designer of this piece – which naturally was not acceptable.

So the question remains – how did Reinbrow Printing get a hold of my design ? (below – as designed for class project)

In a nutshell, a few years ago when i was in design school, a batch of designers (including myself) were asked to design a poster that was themed ‘Printers’ as a class project. The same Reinbrow Printing were invited to comment over these entries and they consequently decided to take away 4 such designs for the purpose of DECORATING their office. My entry was one such design that appealed to their senses and it seemed like a great form of appreciation at the time.

They obviously did not have the right to use the image anywhere else especially when the design bore my very own personal identity i.e my finger print. When i confronted the owner of Reinbrow Printing Industries about the matter, he quite naturally denied any wrong doing on his part and instead decided to blatantly accuse me of ‘disrespecting him’ – WTF !??? did he just expect me to bend over ?

I hate to resort to namecalling but this guy was such a fathead that he started to ask me stupid questions like
‘ How can you prove that this is your design? ‘

I mean – Hellooo! the design bears a finger print ? Does it not ?
Like all human beings, i have a finger print ?
Like all human beings, my finger print does not change from year to year and the print that was on the design is MINE !!!
Was this guy even thinking straight !?? i dint know anymore, because he threatned to kick me out of his office after he turned sweaty and pale — ofcourse

Later on in the week, after much deliberation i was able to get a reply from them over the case… here is what they said –>

After investigating your complaint further it has been determined that our designer used your design as a resource and did not scan or use any digital file in the design creation.
gee!! the word resource refers to ’something that can be used for support or help’ – i guess its just luck that your designer happened to replicate my finger print exactly the way it is.

If you take a close look at your design, which was left with us, you will notice that although the design does incorporate certain design elements it does not match exactly, as would happen when using a scanned image. You will notice the layering of the CMYK elements is much different, again eliminating a scanned image.
this guy obviously doesn’t know that the order of layers can be altered once an image has been vectorized… but am not even going to get into that right now

In discussion with Mr. R we have decided to remove any reference to our designer on any such promotional products printed in the future. I would hope you feel some sense of pride in your design being used in such a resourceful and pleasant way.
is this guy for real ? what about the 50,000 promotional products he has finished printing and distributing already ? and he wants me to feel proud because of all the people who he could f!@#k with ~ he f!@#*ed with me !??? ….. these guys are terrible at even covering up !!! … If they werent guilty why would they remove any reference of their designer on their promo products ? need i say more?

Lesson Learnt
Never ever give your design away to anybody (whether it be in print or digital) and if you have to – make sure you get a contract signed by them that states the purpose for which your design is going to be used for. Always make sure your design bears the copyright symbol next to your name at the bottom of the artwork – and then just play smart.

I cant help but point at the irony of it all – the poster was titled ‘Its all in the Printers Hands’

Mecca Cola ??? Dude ! Something about this just aint right !
Tia pointed this out to me at the Emarat convenience store a few weeks back and i’ve been meaning to put up an image of this on the blog since…

Did a quick little surf on Mecca Cola and i found that the drink is being promoted primarily to cash in on anti-American sentiment around the world and that Tawfik Mathlouthi (the french entrepreneur behind the new soft drink) hopes to make Mecca Cola the soft drink of choice for Muslims everywhere and thus push out that icon of American capitalism Coca-Cola.

DUDE !! cmon !! get real !!! okay – if its selling, its obviously working —> but is it just me who thinks that bringing religion and fizzy drinks together is ODD ?? Granted that establshing a substitute may be considered as a righteous move towards American imperialism and Zionism – but am sure that was possible with a better branding and strap line instead of ‘Mecca Cola – No more drinking stupid, drink with commitment’

Whats next? MeccaDonalds – i’m prayin for it ?

Anyway… all that aside – i have been told by a few people lately that one of my previous post ‘Dubious in Dubai (part1) was a little vicious and so i have now decided to not name the dubious people and their businesses anymore. However, i am going to be a little more constructive by offering my two cents worth of advice after i get around to talking about why these people should be approached with caution.

What’s worse than having a hangover ??

Apart from waking up in the morning with a splitting headache and a dry mouth, its the bit when you start recalling the stupid things you did or said to the ‘more sober’ or ‘less drunk’ people you came in contact with the night before… .. because you know for a fact that they will remember and come back to you at some point and tell you what a drunk clown you were ! yikes… makes me want to run and hide behind a tree

But last night was actually good fun – great way to kick off ramadan – i thought!
Happy Birthday Tia !

Spent most of the day chatting with mom about future plans and issues that have been bugging her for awhile and then by noon time i had a sudden urge to paint. So i took out my airbrush and compressor and my tapes and then sat there in front of my canvas ‘blank headed’ – i knew my work had to be related to the concept of recycling ( for reasons that will be evident later ) and in some way i wanted to desperately talk about religion – hinduism in particular ( as i do ), so i started on some light research and came across some really neat stuff in the book ‘Purifyng the Earthly Body of God
Religion and Ecology in Hindu India’ by Lance E. Nelson | here is an excerpt —>

Because of the anthropological fieldwork of many of these scholars, we get a good sense of what people really think. It is often surprisingly different than an idealized, theoretical version or, just one not considered before. For example, convincing people to recycle or use recycled goods has been difficult in India because, as Frank Korom explains in “On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Recycling in India”, there is an association of garbage collection with the dalits, the so-called untouchables in the caste structure. And yet, he points out, Bombay alone produces 5,800 tons of garbage each day! http://www.rsiss.net/indianrel/purifyingbody.html

Am still waiting to be struck with a strong concept… the premise exists – the means are there – the idea is loose.
However, it would seem at this point that the idea would deal primarily with one (or more) of the following aspects that Lance E.Nelson has himself highlighted-

-Can the ascetic approach be used to foster ecological reform or does it negate concern?
-Can the Hindu understanding of karma be “reformulated to support a positive sense of connection to, and moral responsibility for, the natural universe?
-How does the Hindu world view – particularly the idea of Kali Yuga, the age of destruction – “influence environmental activism?”
-What effect do ideas such as caste, ritual practice, concepts of purity and impurity have on environmental issues?

I’ve been wanting to make this post ever since i started a blog and i realized that there was no better time than now to get the ball rolling and telling people.

I am sure we all can think of just too many dubious practices going on in dubai, but for the fear of getting shot, i am only going to highlight the few that relate to the design and branding industry. Here is one to start that wissam pointed out to me at the office;

Isn’t it odd how both the ‘Dubai Autism Center’ and ‘Cingular’ – US second largest wireless company have the same logo. Wonder who the designers were and who took who for a ride ? (Check it out for yourself – www.dubaiautismcenter.com vs www.cingular.com)

The other dubious practices that comes to mind has more to do with the dubious characters in the regions industry such as Mervat (XXXXX Advertising, Dubai), Jameel (XXXXX Journal, Dubai) and Rami (XXXXX Printing Industries, Sharjah). Unfortunately, i have had the misfortune of being involved with these individuals in the past, so here is a little profile on them (based on personal experiences), so that others can be a little cautious when dealing with them…

Mervat of XXXXX Advertising is one of the first sleazeballs i met when i first graduated out of high school. I was hired as a freelance designer by her company to do a set of caricatures for wheel covers for ‘their client’ called BTCO. The deal after much haggling was agreed to be a meagre 10 Dhs per drawing (which is somewhere close to 2$ US for every drawing).

The job upon completion (which included numerous changes and alterations – all unaccounted for) was submitted on time and presented to the client. This technically meant that as per agreement i was supposed to be paid a sum of 120 Dhs for my 12 drawings, however when the time for payment came i was handed 50Dhs and with a flick of a finger asked to leave the office and not say anything else. I contested the treatment and underpayment – but in the absence of a contract no body would take me seriously, let alone the fact that i was just a 16 year old at the time.

The funniest bit however was the fact that without any concience she called me up two years later for another caricature job for ‘Dubai Water and Electricity Department’ and after i had undergone two years of design school, they expected to pay me at the same rate they paid me before ( or did not pay me infact )… i naturally walked out. Some people just dont give up – do they?

I believe the company is still in operation and i pity any individual like myself who may have worked with them. Their website www.xxxxxxad.com is currently not accessible – probably too busy ripping off student designs to pay for web hosting.

Stay tuned for ‘Dubious in Dubai’ (part2)

Ive been meaning to do a little recap on the branding trends in the region and my recent findings in the same… but been a little preoccupied. Anyway… i better jump to it.

Rebranding the Golden Arches
Found an article in the newspaper the other day that said out lound ‘Re-branding at McDonalds on cards’ – definitely got me curious – could it really be ?? would they do that ? what are they upto NOW ? There is no doubt that in the past two years a rather interesting yet gradual wave of change has been approaching the fast food industry and McDonalds has hogged the limelight of change for a while. Last year, i remember spotting McDonalds at Melbourne Central promoting salads and cereals and that raised more than one eyebrow for sure!

Then Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock went on to make his satirical documentary ‘SuperSize Me’ aimed at uncovering the physical costs of America’s hunger for fast food. Read more about the film on the website http://supersizeme.com

As if things weren’t bad already, Mcdonalds CEO Jim Cantalupo (who was the architect of the mcdonalds healthy food revival), dropped dead of a heart attack and his replacement- Charlie Bell went into surgery for colorectal cancer soon after… one health kick after another under the golden arches – could it get any worse ?

I guess they really do need to take a drastic step – maybe temporary rebranding ? I couldnt find any references to the mcdonalds rebranding initiative online but i was able to take a quick scan of the newspaper article i mentioned earlier.

Article ‘ReBranding at McDonalds on cards’ from Gulf News Thursday, October 14, 2004

In all this, what i find most interesting is being able to come to a partial conclusion that ‘Branding’ in general may be taking on a unique direction. Branding has always been associated to a certain sense of permanence, however with the mcdonalds issue, it seems that branding may soon become a little loose and temporary in the near future – almost like an advertising campaign.

So… its my birthday – 24th one.

And on my way to work today i pondered upon the fact as to how the past year has been different for me and i realised that while not much has changed for me – a lot has changed around me… and with that thought i am filled with some regret and some contentment… only time will tell what fills me more -> maybe another year? *sigh* 25th ?

Away from Blogsville and living in my head for a while.. The past few weeks have challenged my decision making abilities to the core ( and we all know how great i am at making decisions,,, don’t we? ). I stood at the crossroads between a seemingly perfect and monetarily secure future and an exciting but rather unstable career. I believe for the moment i have made the right decision ( perhaps i try to convince myself so ….and i try to force myself to feel at ease with the choice that i have made) It was important for me and some others to realize the things that we did and i guess i will never know the what would await me at end of the other road ;(

Take the road less travelled – they say?
You have to be rather foolish to do so – i say! – but then look who is talking.

The saddest thing is that my indecisiveness has actually cost me dearly.. as much as i tried not to burn any bridge – i walked away burning atleast half of one. I guess i learnt my lesson – you cant save every bridge that you cross – at one point you have to be ruthless and burn bridges if the need arises. Thanks a lot for standing by me Prashant – really appreciate your moral support.

To make things worse during bad times, my VW decided to conk off in the middle of the dreadful dubai-sharjah traffic. The car had to be towed away and much later I discovered that both the electric fan and the ignition switch had taken too much of a beating and finally called it quits…
oh well !! i saw this coming in a way but decided to just keep going ~ couldnt imagine a day without a car.. (how spoilt am i?)

Anyway…Sis had a dance show last Thursday at the Indian Consulate and it was grreat (a bit lengthy but still grreat) Muqeem and Samia’s Mom had come down to watch her perform on my request and they seemed to have enjoyed this cultural celebration with a difference. Muqeem, after having watched the show said ‘ i will sleep peacefully tonight’ – funny man.

It was also Sis’s first week at the Aviation College where she has undertaken the BTEC in Travel and Tourism Management. So far she seems to be enjoying it but at some levels she probably feel a little dissapointed at the fact that its very different from every other university and college ambience. Its more of a ‘lets get together study and then home you go’ kind of approach. As soon as she settles in a little, i will start looking around for classes that she can start attending outside the college to keep her involved in some extra curricular activities. I’ve been encouraging her to put up a blog of her day to day experiences as a student of travel – and although she seems to be a little apprehensive about blogging, i am sure she will get around to it eventually.

Been having a lot of one on one interaction with clients at work and am picking up some great cues from here and there – feels great to be in the frontline. I cant decide where i want to take the bullet though… guess a part of me still stubbornly believes that ‘ i can do it all and do it well ‘

Wissam and i met Niel, Lidya and Jubal at the Metroplex Coffeeshop to discuss our idea of the “festival” and although i felt that we may have kept them on for a little tooooo long – we did walk away with some great ideas and a clearer understanding of event management in the United Arab Emirates. If this idea for the “festival” does take off – i cant think of a better set of people than Niel and Lidya to be associated with. Lidya worked for Channel V and managed numerous reality based shows on tv such as “Popstar Search” and then also went on to manage the indian pop girl band ‘Viva’ for a year. Herself and Niel worked closely in organizing the Zee Cine Awards here in Dubai and it only made sense to be talking to the pros about our idea. Also introduced Salem to Wissam over coffee and we discussed his great idea about bringing the xxxxx show to this part of the world as well… i am ‘hopeful’ that this could turn into something grreat.

On the more personal work end – i have been slowly but surely working away on the omkara blog and althought i seem to be running out of server space, the blog seems is ending up looking quite comprehensive and perhaps the perfect pitch tool to get the omkara out to its next exhibition venue (if it is in any condition to be exhibited – that is)

Some of the most hilarious links that i came across at the work place and I am sure everyone of us has something to add to these hilarious and possibly-true accounts of day to day life – be sure to check them out

www.clientcopia.com
(mine is ’stupid client quote #308′ and i assure you i did not make it up)

www.grouphug.us
(i haven’t posted on this page yet… but i can think of a few)

James!! thanks for your email reminding me to update my website – i remember us ( yourself, stewart and me ) having a conversation in front of the fruity macs at the Aim Center where you both told me not to put up a definitive date on my opening page… hmmm well you two were right obviously… and dude! your daughter Charloette is going to grow up to be a babe – she is sooo adorable, i simply had to post her picture up on the blog for friends to see.