I'm in love

...with this book:

Today I was at RGD, and they sent me on an errand to a copy centre down the street. While I was waiting for the job to be done, I slipped into Swipe to peruse some of the design books. The one above caught my eye and I was instantly drawn to it. I love the illustrations in the book (illustrators from around the world contributed their drawings), the silver foil & embossing, and just the whole book in general. So I bought it, along with a copy of Verso - our Design program's student-run magazine... which has one of my works in it as well. (I haven't taken it out of the plastic wrapping yet, since it was a bit costly, and I would like to find one at a cheaper cost somewhere if I can.)

Turning to school, I'm really getting interested in the Design Internship course my program offers. It lays out the foundation for me to build on many skills that would be necessary in the real world. We're looking at cover letter/resume writing (note to self: due next Wednesday), telephone etiquettes, doing a portfolio review... even down to details such as signatures on letters and the "right" way to make an introduction and shake someone's hand. Right now, we're divided into groups and so we'll have to interview a Design firm in Ontario and present our findings to the class. We saw some samples of work from last year and personally, I'm excited about working on this project.
The other major part of this course is finding and securing an internship position at a Design firm in Canada (or even abroad, if it's approved) for 3 weeks. I'm a little nervous about it, but still ready to take it on head-first.

My other classes seem to be going well (although I'm a bit confused about what's going on in Information Design 2). I'll really love my Packaging Design class. The first assignment calls for taking evolutionary and revolutionary approaches to redesigning a national brand product. I'm thinking of doing Al-Safa's horrendous carton packages. If I go ahead with it, then I can see myself having a lot of fun with it.
Sidenote: (this issue came up with my choice during our class discussion...) When designing packaging for a new ethnic brand of food items, I had a discussion with the Marketing Co-ordinator of the store and he pointed out that if you give the customers something that looks modern and stylish, instantly the reaction becomes, "If it looks that professional, there must be something doubtful about it's Halal-ness". How sad it is that bad packaging design has become synonomous with authentic halal food. Show's how much the Muslim community (and us desis in specific) need to be exposed to good design.



I haven't made any significant contributions to my blog since last week. My uncle passed away over the weekend and it was really shocking to hear about it --although he had been hospitalized for a week. Even though he lived halfway across the world, it's really hard to get over the fact that he's no longer there. To add to it, he wasn't even that old... out of my dad's six brothers, he ranks fourth. I still remember when they came here to visit 10 years ago. I have a lot of fun memories.
Each person is a Trust from God, and He takes His Trust back whenever He Wills.

I felt like I had more on my mind to write, but I've come to the end of the road for now.