Sotra & Lace

I wish im in Jeddah to make it to this event.

Sotra and Lace collaborated together and brought to us 

" a state of Lemonade " .. 

 check the adorable video and dont forget to bring 

ur family and friends.

When: Sunday, March 25th @ 6pm
Where: Sotra (Ana Special Mall) on Prince Sultan St. Jeddah
How: RSVP facebook.com/events/131764070283235/

Did you check destination jeddah's last issue?

if you didnt see destination jeddah magazine- march issue which 

i designed its cover :D, go check it now because theres some pages about me and my book "junk" :)

the cover

lovely words by the lovely Rayyan Khayyat:

 

"Going through Sarah Taibi’s Junk

  It's a pleasant thing when someone from our community has written and published their own book, especially when it's from someone as young and creative as Ms. Sarah Taiba, *ahem* I mean Lastika. "Kinda bilingual" and wholly composed of her own illustrations, Junk is a messy collage-scrapbook of a diary to be shared. Part autobiography and part a letter to the world around her, Ms. Taiba uses clever expressions and black ball-point sketches to create this book of scattered ponderings and bittersweet musings.

         On a special Saturday over Turkish coffee with a skeptical friend, Ms. Taiba’s “brain was working in a sweet way…[she] could eat it.” She remembered some of her old scanned illustrations and decided to draw some more and maybe, just maybe, she could create a book *WHOA.* Her friend laughed, “Make a book?” Taiba said “Fine. I’ll make a book” Unfortunately, she sometimes finds her doodles in the trash and once in the kitchen garbage can. “MAMA WHY?!!!” Her wonderful mother replied “Sorry baby, I thought it was just junk.” That’s pretty much when Ms. Taiba realized she must fix and organize all of these penned thoughts and ideas. And although named Junk, to appropriately umbrella all of the randomness, the result is a disorderly harmonious and composed piece of work.

         The comical illustrations in Junk are visually striking, with a style that’s half political cartoon and half school-day doodles, but as the book progresses we gain more of an insight into what these stories are trying to tell us. Her quirky little characters seem to be fed up with the frivolities and contradictions of their society and are attempting to live through the perplexities of modernity and matters of questioning and understanding.  It’s as if they’re caught between a supposedly *real* but bizzare world and their own imaginary sensible one. Some of those one would meet along the way include the Lonely Ice-Cream Cone, Octopus Girl and a thieving ninja. Ms. Taiba also reconciles these illustrated conflicts with musical lyrics brightly come to life, whimsically detailed food recipes and more of what truly holds all of this clutter together. 

In the introduction, Ms. Taiba recounts the story of a girl who used to live in this curious purple bubble where everything seemed to be almost too special and ideal. She had some really colorful and feathery friends with her but somehow it just didn’t quite work out. And even though she now has to make her way through a bleak and thorny wasteland, far from the purple perspective she’s familiar with, she’s able to share some of the wonderful things she saw in there with some in what turns out! even better and *realer* friends. And her so-called junk is some of what she brought with her."

layout design by cutie basma filimban

 like Junk's page on facebook by clicking here

one of my favorite songs-A TOO COOL version

and then this is the original song which is already really cool as well

not anymore :)

Amishka doing her thing

it all started end of 2011 in al balad when Sarah Mohanna Alabdali AKA Amishka called Nahla and I and said: lets go spray... we're all crazy so yeah we went there..

  and she sprayed for the first time her amazing piece 

of work which a lot of you might recognize ...

then finally in early 2012 she participated in Edge of Arabia 

with her artwork.

 

 i just love it .. and love her even more :D 

click here to check her craziness

and now i just saw this video and couldnt be happier <3

 click here to check it NOW

illustration is all i see

أحِنُ إلى أُمِّي

Joe Ciardiello is brilliant.

I'm in love with Joe Ciardiello. the way he illustrates and the way he colors his illustrations and how he suddenly decides to leave uncolored areas .. its unbelievably cool .. he inspires me .. and i love him for real.

he attended The High School of Art and Design and college at Parsons where he earned a BFA degree.  Over his 35 plus year career he has worked for most major magazines and newspapers as well as for corporate and advertising clients, book publishers and record companies.

some of his amazing work

 check his website.. click here

Fahad, you are awesome.

this is how i cheer up my friends and make them smile. 

i let random people tell'em how awesome they are.

كيفو هالحلو؟

 

البنت مو هِيّا و الولد مو هُوّا

this is my favorite song. ever.

Gotye- Hearts A Mess

... Let me occupy your mind

I'm Saudi, I live in San Fran, & my heart is in Egypt

ok if you're reading this and you know me very well then you'd know how much love i have for Egypt and Egyptians. i swear i cannot describe it right now.

and if you didn't know this about me .. well now you know.

It was a Friday night ,, i was walking alone in Geary St. SF, had no plans, and as usual I'm surrounded by amazing galleries, then suddenly something caught my attention ...

 

Nights in The Square- A.Sameh Elkharbawy

"can I join?" I asked 

" yes, please." a lovely lady said that

"please tell me the artist is here!" i said

"yes yes he's here" she said

A.Sameh El Kharbawi .. started his speech saying " the revolution didn't start in January 2011, it started 6 months earlier" when a young "ahlawi" kid who plays guitar and chats everyday with his brother who lives in the U.S and his friends, Khalid Saeed got killed.

and he talked about the story from the beginning and i felt as if I'm listening to it for the first time. I don't know it just felt different.. the Egyptian spirit was all over the place and at the end of the day I'm still in San Francisco .. it felt different .. good different though.

lets go back to the main topic .. A.Sameh said .. one day in June khalid Saeed Went to an internet cafe in Alexandria and suddenly some police men came in and dragged him to another building and started attacking him until he died .. all that happened because he uploaded a video on you tube which was obviously revealing horrible things some of the police did...

and i guess we all know the rest of the revelation and how Egyptians wanted to speak up and of course he talked about wael ghonaim who i personally admire and appreciate and he talked about the Egyptians including himself because he was part of it all .. the tears .. the laughs .. everything happened in that indescribable square .. Tahrir square.. all what they wanted was a peaceful change "سلمية شعبية لا دينية و لاحزبية" and what they got was ... i dont even wanna go there,
and we all know the rough times they had and probably still have ... 

 

and you all know the rest.. i guess or you wouldn't be 

reading this now.

"every revelation begins by telling itself that this will change the world" A.Sameh

a part of his speech

 

 some of the amazing photographs

finally tears were all over my face .. I walked to A.Sameh and told him "you have no idea what you made me feel, I'm so far away and all i needed was this to feel little bit closer to Egypt"

"can i tell you a secret? what you're saying means the world to me." He replied

one of my favorite ads- Lipton

I designed the cover of Destination Jeddah Magazine this month :D

I designed the cover of Destination Jeddah Magazine for March 2012, the Issue is Dedicated to living green...

I LOVE DESTINATION JEDDAH