enOUGH of lonDON!!!

10 days to enjoy before heading back to Singapore. Looking forward to my jobs, too ambitious!!

It's finally over!!! I passed my course

entry with no name

Project Branding

 ACDT POSTER 1


ACDT POSTER 2


ACDT POSTER 3

ACDT COLLABORATORS POSTER


ACDT FAQ PAGE

NAME CARD



ACDT CURRICULUM BOOK COVER


ACDT LETTERHEAD



ACDT WEBSITE

exhibition

Poster for Exhibition (cross cultural design on thursday, 10/9.09)

A very Favorable reply from "The Citizen Foundation"

Dear Shan,
The Cross Cultural Exhibition sounds wonderful, I will definitely like to attend and take photographs for future FTCF publicity.
I will bring some literature and a few TCF Annual Reports with me. The website link you sent me does not seem to be working, can you kindly send me the address and time for the exhibition next week.
Do let me know if there is anything else I can bring.
Thank you for inviting FTCF and for your commitment towards educating the underprivileged children of Pakistan.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you and warm regards,

------ XXXXX

Fundraising Officer
Friends of The Citizens Foundation
Lyon House, 160-166 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1JR

Tel: 0845 230 1947 I 020 7173 5129 / 5101 I Fax: 020 7183 7085

Collaboration Request from top NGO "The Citizen Foundation"

Dear ----,

I hope you are fine.
My name is Ahsan Uddin Shan, an academic lecture from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore's premier education institute.
I'm pursuing MA design studies from Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design, University of the Arts London.
For my Master project "How can Pedagogic Innovation enable Pakistani student to compete more efficiently in the global design market?", I have developed an artifact––innovative design curriculum, which I will exhibit next week in London for Cross Cultural exhibition organized by Chinese Society, University of the Arts London and supported by Embassy of the People's Republic of China.
With the great track record of providing quality education and leading NGO in the field of formal education in Pakistan, It will be a great opportunity to promote "The Citizen Foundation" in the exhibition and I therefore, would like to request you for a possibility of collaboration. Here are the details of the exhibition:

The Exhibition
“Cheers :)” Exhibition, organized by the UAL Chinese Society, is an annual exhibition with one of the largest group of artists and designers participation. It has the support of the Chinese Embassy and both British and Chinese media. The performance is the main highlight of the night of the private view, serving as the introduction to the entire exhibition, followed by important guest speakers.

The Website
www.exhibitioncheers.com

If interested, I can provide you further details on the collaboration.

Sincerely,
Ahsan Uddin Shan

NICE COMPOSITION

Browsing through old photo gallery and picked this one. I miss shanghai and miss Ziggy too.

Asfandyar Khan (youngest brother)

another hectic, stressful but rewarding day

again . . . I was late for tutorial . . . . damn. . . . . it took me 1 hour to step-out-of-the-house and into CSM . . . always give myself 1-plus hour before scheduled class but was never on time :)
It wasn't my fault though, the bloody tube stayed at white city for longer than usual 2 minutes, I sent a text message to JS (junshi), but was so worried as this has been happening for every other week. I rushed out of station and ran from the holborn tube station to CMS but relieved when Aisha (my tutor) smiled at me (you again!!! couldn't help). Later she asked, "Shan, why you are always late(I usually late for 2 to 5 min)?", and I had no answer, as I always leave home on time :(
Any way, I had a great tutorial as usual, she was very happy with my project journey. I had to go through my journal with her and noted, lots of suggestions, critiques, etc.
Later this evening had a meeting with communication team to run through website architecture for the exhibition. Every one seemed to appreciate and like the simple, elegant design (used lots of CSS coding). They are great bunch of ppl from print and design background. So here is the final layout of the website:

exhibition website

Just uploaded our exhibition website (central saint martins MA design studies).
This is the first prototype which I will refine accordingly after tomorrow meeting with communication team.

ACDT(art, craft. design and technology)

I have been away for long three months to work on my project in Pakistan and hence, couldn't updateed my blog.
I have been working on innovative design curriculum (acdt) for third world country and finally have developed my artifact which I will showcase on my website. Attached is the first prototype of acdt website.

A life full of roses: My 2 months stay at Greenford, Middlesex.

I'm gonna move back to Sudha & Gaurav house for two weeks before heading back home (Karachi, Pakistan) to work on my project ––innovative design education in third word countries.
Tuesday, July 21st is my last day at 223 Oldfield lane, Greenford, Middlesex. I have had a great stay with my multinational housemates, all with big hearts. If its not for my project, they may force me to stay on. I'm gonna miss Kaksha1, Kaksha 2 both from Poland, Valentino a.k.a Valyy, Agnes, Marek. Kaksha1 seems to be very emotional and she couldn't control her emotion, tears rolled down her cheeks when she heard of me moving out, I was amazed and honored, someone get so close in just two months [she has a bf, Valyy, a great Romanian bloke:)].


Agnes, Kaksha1, me, Kaksha2

A letter from Guru Jee and my reply

My guru jee from Singapore text me if I'm still alive and attached is my reply.

Flash Carribean Interactive map

So what!! it's not just usability lah

Usability has been key topic of my lectures. But . . .but.....just usability ain't all that important, its like a best Pakistani dish without salt. According to wordnet usability is the quality of being able to provide good service, its about user satisfaction, give top priority to your user. However what if the design is simple and usable but the end result is frustrating. I spent hours to search for the cheapest ticket and finally got one but when I was about to key in credit card details, it just crashed.
Another night mare when I tried to contact the agent from Terminal A site via their chat line but to no avail. The site have good usable design elements; however, it failed to provide customer satisfaction (see attached screen shots).
p.s. I waited too long for the agent, I reckon the agent must have gone on holiday too!!

SRC consulting website, first design

I have been working on SRC Singapore website for a week. After designing-redesigning, have created a basic frame. The design is simple, clean and usable. For the next couple of week I will be refining/updating the site. To view workable website go to http://www.srsconsulting.com.sg

What web designers could learn from print designers

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

What web designers could learn from print designers

View more documents from Erlend Debast.

Web Typography & You

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Web Typography & You

View more documents from Derek Bender.

Better Typography

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Better Typography

View more documents from markboultondesign.

final design

refined flyer

Flyer first wireframe

Garamond typeface

NDP DANCE TRIBUTE VIDEO //bIG thaNKS goes to Sabrina//

This is a great fun video of us performing belly dance (though, no belly movment) for Singapore natinal day at Ngee Ann Polytechinic. I was in in most hip, funky attire––orange trouser with big Ra-Bban shades.

NGEE ANN TEAM BUILDING RETREAT SIBU ISLAND FILM SOUND MEDIA 2002. //Many thanks and credits to Andy//

A much-awaited card finally reaches London: a humble and swEAT swEAT surprise from a great friend!!!

Finally, I received much awaited card just while I was having my breakfast. I was expecting the card for a while and wanted to open it right after my half-way breakfast but just couldn't wait and opened the envelop with a sharp cutter. Before opening the card, lots of thought running across my brain about the message, the writing, colors, design, etc. But it turned out to be a surprise––C$100 crisp note inside the lovely card .

The whole package was seems to be bursting with full of appreciation and compassion.

wow . . what can I say? i never expected this one .

A wonderful and sweet friend like you deserves all the treasures in this world. Take care of yourself!!!!


pata nishta chi so owyeam . . . .
chi ghussa yeam aw ka khussala . . .
da kho ta dir crazy car woko . . .
wala chi dera cute rata walagidi . . .

Desperate, helpless look from SWATAI (swat girl)

I started every day with scanning online newspaper from around the world and it seems that I stuck everyday with sad news, images coming out of Pokhtonkhwa (NWFP, Pakistan). Millions of people desperately fled from trouble areas. Many peoples have left their paradise for the worst camp life in different areas of Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi, Nowshera and Peshawar. Peoples are forced to displace– thanks to army establishment and Taliban (Zaliman).
OK, I'm a regular reader of daily ummat and attached image affected me so much that I have stopped logging to the ummat website. The picture is hanging there for a while and its the first thing reader would notice, just look at her and you would notice, the whole story is in her eyes!!!

Principles of graphic design

Four basics of effective graphic design:
1. Contrast
2. Repetition
3. Alignment
4. Proximity

Design Rules {in progress. . . .{

What you do when you are passionate about designing but have no design education background?
You love to create typography design but have no clue about direction, positioning, basic typeface, basic graphic design principles {Contrast.Repetition.Alignment.Proximity} and, what about the color, blending, etc.
You know the humble Dreamweaver tool to pull up the website but never understood the relationship of design elements, and you appreciate mighty Photoshop but again, failed to produce eye catching usable design.
For all above and for many other reasons, I am recommending following websites and great books on design that will make you a proficient designer:
Websites:

1)gomediazine:Design Rules, great post, good to get a refresher on the basics

2) Write Design: Use these as a good place to start.

3)BC home design: Everything you need to know about making the most out of colour in your home. More on interiors but great stuff on color, psychology, etc.

4)Nicely organized articles on design inspiration by Jacob Cass

5) Daniel Pink: a great site by Daniel H Pink

6)The Gestalt Principles In the 30s and 40s Gestalt psychology was applied to visual perception, most notably by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka who founded the so-called gestalt approaches to form perception. Their aim was to investigate the global and holistic processes involved in perceiving structure in the environment (e.g. Sternberg 1996). More specifically, they tried to explain human perception of groups of objects and how we perceive parts of objects and form whole objects on the basis of these.

7) The Gestalt Principles: The Gestalt principles of form perceotion

Books:
1)A WHOLE NEW MIND

2) Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands

3)The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams

4) The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

5) Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography by James Craig, William Bevington, and Irene Korol Scala

6) Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton

7) Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design by Noreen Morioka, Terry Stone Sean Adams

8) Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug

9) Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them by Bob Walsh

10) Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter

Adobe name card template

Please download Photoshop name card template form http://www.badongo.com/file/15722375 Thanks

SHYnz: final version

Front Views

Back view

Refine design C

Refine design B

Refine design A

Indesign tutorial Text Formatting

This simple tutorial shows you how to manipulate text in Indesign CS3.

Improved Version of designerChannel youtube banner

Color Sketch in PS

Open any graphic
Duplicate the Layer (Command J)
Image > Adjustments>Desaturate
Duplicate the layer (Command J)
Invert the the image (Command I)
Color mode to Color Dodge (on layer)
Filter > Gaussian Blur >set the radius 1 or 2
Hide the middle layer to to create colorful sketch

SHYnZ Belly Dance site