Saki Mafundikwa: Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets

I have found a very interesting video about graphic design on TED.com. Graphic Designer and founder of the Zimbabwe Institute of Digital Arts, Saki Mafundikwa, shares his interesting thoughts about African origins of humanity as a whole and how African language, cultural aspects and origins has evolved into (graphic) design. You can see the talk here.

Poster For Tomorrow 2014 Competition

Today I've happened upon a graphic design competition, which I will give a shot. I would recommend anyone to take part not only because this gives you a chance to test your skills, but it is also for a good cause. 

The competition is open to graphic design professionals and students alike. Here is the brief, quoted from the article about the competition, www.graphiccompetitions.com :

"Work - either doing it or looking for it - is a fact of life. And in 2014, with much of the world still gripped by economic crisis and life expectancy increasing every year, more of us are looking for fewer jobs for more time. Yet this doesn't mean that the increasing demand for work should result in exploitation of workers. The right to work - and our right to work right - is a huge issue. It covers everybody with a job in the whole world - whether it’s legal or illegal - and that’s basically everybody. It covers people too young to work, people forced into work, people who can’t work, people who earn nothing and even people who earn lots of money if they’re not paid the right wage for their labour.

All of these people need to know their right to work without exploitation, discrimination or prejudice. And this is what we want you to help us broadcast this year.

An entry to the competition consists of a portrait format poster addressing the proposed creative brief. Posters may be designed by a single author or by a team. Designs submitted to the contest must be original artworks that are previously unpublished. The designs must consist entirely of the authors' own work and must not include any copyrighted material. Participants may submit up to 10 different posters. 

Designs must be presented in vertical format. Entries must be submitted as JPG files of 2953x4134 pixels at a resolution of 150dpi (corresponding to 50x70 cm in printed size) saved in RGB colour space."

The winning 100 posters will be displayed on the "Work Right!" exhibition as part of an event "a day for tomorrow" which will be cited in many cities around the globe to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of human rights.

The entry is for a good cause, so I will definitely give it a go.

Summer Photos

Here we go! Another summer photo! This one I actually took in the morning when doing my paper round, so the quality is not very good because I didn't have much time to take it.

More Summer 2012 photos

Today I posted another photo from summer 2012. This one was taken in the Scottish countryside. I like the lightning in this photo as well as the tree and the stone wall which act as a kind of "natural frame" for the sky.

Ross Lovegrove: Organic Design, inspired by Nature

I have just found a video on new.ted.com of an industrial designer Ross Lovegrove talking about his revolutionary vision of "fat-free" design and describes some of products he designed. I personally found it very inspiring. Lovegrove really impressed me with his philosophy. If you are curious of the future of design, I really encourage you to watch the video.

Summer Photography

Firstly, I apologize for not posting for a long time, but I was busy with school work. From today I will start to post some of the photographs I have taken in summer 2011 and 2012. Here is the first one:

It's a picture of a field in Scotland, taken in June 2011. I like it cause it has a feeling of freshness and relaxed atmosphere created by the harmony of the blue sky and the green field. I hope you like it!