Date posted: April 11, 2008

Arabesque, Some Great Street Art and More

Two years ago I wrote enthusiastically about New Visual Culture of Modern Iran. So I rejoiced when earlier this week I found a new book Arabesque. Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia. It remains fascinating to see how graphic designers in the Arab world stretch the limits of Arabic type and calligraphy.

The title is a bit of a stretch, since some designers included in the book are based in Europe or the US and some aren't even Arabic, but that doesn't really matter as it emphasizes that the world of graphic design has no boundaries.

Part of the book is devoted to innovations in Arabic typography. I must say that I myself am more interested in how type is used in posters etc. The editors also included street art by artists such as L'Atlas and Herakut.

From browsing through the book it appears that the Cairo design scene is thriving. I found the work of George Azmy very striking. It's a delight to see the use of mixed media (e.g. Farhad Fozouni), when many graphic designers covered in books such as Contemporary Graphic Design appear to be stuck behind their computer and locked within the framework of their Adobe Creative Suites.

I also came across We Come At Night, which brings together work by some cutting edge street artists. I just love the work of French artist Zevs, who creates his work by selectively erasing dirt from a wall using professional cleaning equipment, instead of applying paint to it. The text says "I am not allowed to pollute the walls of my town". Some of the featured projects were part of the Outsides project sponsored and initiated by Red Bull that took place in Wuppertal, Germany in August 2006.

You may already have heard or read about An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, a project by photographer Taryn Simon. She travelled across the US to photograph sites that are normally hidden from view: a nuclear waste storage facility, the CIA headquarters, an avian quarantine facility and a hibernating black bear with cubs, in the forest of West Virginia and more.

The x-ray photo was taken by US border patrol at the US Mexican border.

Where is Bin Laden? They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. See if you can find him. Taken from SZ Magazine, 19 July 2007. Solutions (in German). Illustrations by Daniel Lalic. Get the book.