It feels so good to know that my right hand can still handle tools other than the mouse. It is so satisfying to practice something in a calm environment, fully concentrating on the particular movement of my hand. From right to left, contrary to the left-to-right visual culture that I am actually used to. For three weeks I’ve been taking part in a calligraphy workshop. The workshop, run by the calligraphy teacher of my colleague Hussein, allows me to understand more about and to get a feeling for calligraphy (and to learn writing arabic – a great side effect).

If you wonder what contributions arabs have made to the world, take a closer look at calligraphy. Just look at examples and you will understand that its main purpose is to represent the immense beauty of words – of the prophets’ words.

While earlier on I felt reminded of little insects when looking at calligraphy, today I see music: the letters are the notes. You feel that there is rythm (and by the way, the act of writing does produce various sounds when the reed bows the paper). There are various instruments, and see them working in the hands of an experienced composer is awesome.

I suppose that I look at calligraphy from a different angle than the other, arab participants. I don’t read what I write. Actually I do not write, I make shapes and curves and strokes. For somebody who cannot read or write arabic it is a different experience, but I can still feel that arabic and calligraphy belong together. Calligraphy wouldn’t be what it is without arabic, and written arabic wouldn’t be what it is without calligraphy. The arabic letters seem to long for calligraphy, as if calligraphy were the only valid form for them.

Getting curious? Listen to some calligraphic pieces on our teacher’s blog.

The renovation of Jabal Amman’s Rainbowstreet seems to be nearly completed, as was pointed out yesterday by 360east. It is already my favourite neighbourhood in Amman (I’m glad to live here) and the renovation has enhanced the area even more.

Pretty much in the middle of Rainbowstreet they created a location with a terrific view ranging from Jabal Al-Weibdeh to Citadel Mountain. It will most probably become a spot for people wanting to have a late-night chat with a friend. During day-time it offers everybody a good view over the city’s center. A sign explains some important places that can be seen on the opposite hills. Installing that sign was clever, but the sign itself is not.

Apart from the fact that they took the picture when there were still lots of trees impairing the view (add to that the photos’ poor quality), they unfortunately forgot about non-arab-speaking visitors when designing the sign. And I suppose that this viewpoint could become a destination for visitors from all over.

So like Rainbow’s street signage they had a good idea (who is ‘they’? does anybody know?), but then failed when executing it. Why not contracting an experienced design agency instead of having amateurs work on these important tasks?

Letztes Wochenende nahmen ein paar Freunde und ich an einer Tour durch Wadi Assal (”Tal des Honigs”) teil. Wadi Assal liegt unterhalb von Karak, und führt zum Toten Meer. Im Unterschied zu Wadi Mujib ist es jedoch eine etwas breitere Schlucht und kann ohne Führer begangen werden.

Eingang zum Wadi

Um 9 Uhr morgens und bei T-Shirt-Wetter machten wir, eine Truppe von 45 Leuten, uns auf den Weg. Anfangs ist die Wanderung unbeschwerlich, nach ein paar Stunden wird die Schlucht jedoch unwegsam, wilder. Man muss sich durch Unterholz zwängen und über kleinere Felsen klettern. Oft ist der einfachste Weg der durchs Wasser, dass meist nur knöcheltief ist. Aufpassen muss man vor Allem, dass man nicht einen der vielen Krebse oder Frösche zertrampelt.

Nach ca. 10 km und einigen Ausrutschern auf glatten Felsen erreichten wir einen Wasserfall, und ohne Ausrüstung mussten wir hier umkehren. Nach kurzer Rast machten wir uns auf den Rückweg, um vor Einbruch der Dunkelheit am Parkplatz anzukommen.

One of the hardest challenges for a graphic designer in this region is to establish trust in his or her profession.

I have witnessed cases in which clients gave the design agency’s work to a second company to have them continue working on it simultaneously. I have witnessed clients asking for the files of their new Corporate Design, to allow them to “change a few things here and there” themselves. I have witnessed clients telling graphic designers which layout of an existing website they are supposed to copy and what exactly the navigation should look like.

Part of the problem is that with the wide-spread access to computers everyone can handle graphic software after a relatively short period of training. No need anymore to hire a specialist, some people may think. It is a problem that designers all over the world face and are aware of. One step to convince clients of a designer’s added value has been to invent new forms or to recycle traditional skills other than the ones provided by a computer: Photography, illustration, drawing, spraying, cutting and so on.

Advertisement in a coffee bar in Amman

Another countermeasure taken by designers was to focus on conceptual work, on ideas, and on consulting. At our company we try hard to come up with new ideas, we discuss the impact of our work on the audience, we give intellectual input to enable our clients to reach their goals. That’s part of what we’re payed for: to translate a client’s objective into a visual and verbal language that talks adequately to the respective audience.

But in many cases we are asked to simply translate the client’s objective to the computer, without thinking, without asking questions. There’s nothing less satisfying than being a tool for someone else. Sometimes I reach a point where I ask: do clients actually pay us for handling a computer? Why do they refuse to profit from our intellectual skills?

According to what I hear or read, eying our profession suspiciously is a universal problem, but I feel that in this part of the world clients or people in general doubt our skills even more than elsewhere. So, looking at the market that we as a company work for (which is Jordan and the Gulf states), what are the reasons for the particular distrust towards graphic designers in this region?

People rather rely on themselves than on experts
There is a fear of losing power, which has to do with the way some of the societies in this part of the world are organized. People mistrust their institutions where they are forced to look after themselves, in states where social security is provided by the family rather than the state. People are responsible for their own well-being, and that’s why they are afraid to lose control over the things that they are responsible for. In case of a marketing manager that could be the design of the annual report, the corporate website, or the rebranding of the company. That’s why many clients are reluctant to take the leap of faith that eventually is required in every graphic design project.

High quality work is the exception
And there is a second reason why in the Middle East, or at least in Jordan, people mistrust virtually any profession: because customers are aware of the generally low standards. The lack of quality work has to do with the reason why lots of people do the job they do: Because they have to (for financial reasons), and/or because they are born into it (the son takes over his father’s business, for example). Besides, people are often not sufficiently trained and educated.

So sometimes there’s little passion and know-how in what people do, and consequently quality suffers. Companies frequently don’t pay attention to detail, customer service for many is a foreign concept, and many lack basic skills (I just wanted to buy some beef at the local supermarket, and the butcher seriously tried to sell me lamb under the label “beef” — although even the real label on the packaging said “lamb”, and even I can tell the difference between lamb and beef just by looking at it). The more surprising it is that most of the Middle Eastern societies waste half of the potential by forcing women to stay at home or depriving them of a decent education. But there’s hope. Quality will gradually rise, as companies are increasingly under public scrutiny. The companies who don’t listen to their stakeholders will fail, the ones who listen will succeed.

Lots of low-level graphic design
Graphic design faces a particular challenge: It can be seen. And people increasingly understand that the level of graphic design in this region is low, lower than in Europe, for example (though there are exceptions). The more they are exposed to media from other parts of the world, they sense that the majority of their own graphic designers drags behind. But as there is little competition on the local (jordanian) market, they don’t really have a choice (and contracting design companies from the occident is too expensive, and there’s too much distance between the two, both culturally and in terms of flight miles). Add to that the fact that Jordan and the gulf states only turned to modern consumer societies recently and that in this region graphic design is a relatively new realm, and we understand better why graphic design is so much undervalued.

If you live in Amman, if you look for the best place to eat Humus, Falaffel, Mtabbal, Fuul, Humus and Meat, Humus and Liver etc, and if you read this post, then you’re lucky, cause here is the solution: go to Osra in Abdoun. For 1,5 to 2 Dinar you can get a delicious meal (the bread comes directly from the adjacent bakery and is still soft and warm!) including a softdrink or tea. The service is impeccable: even if the restaurant is stuffed with people, you’ll get your meal within a few minutes. Although the waiters have to hurry from table to kitchen to table to kitchen, they are always friendly, always in for a joke.

How to reach: If you come from 4th circle/Abdoun bridge, on arriving at Abdoun circle you take the first road up to the right. You follow this road for a few hundred meters, then at the first opportunity you make a u-turn, drive the same road back, and after ca. 100 meters you turn into the first street on your right. Drive down that street. Still on the hill, before you reach the smaller roundabout in the valley, Osra is to your right.

“Osra” means family, but I am not part of it, I am just a fan.

I am optimistic that Rainbow Street in Jabal Amman will be a more welcoming place after the renovation is completed. Recently street lamps, small rubbish bins and benches were installed, and some trees were planted. And then there’s the new signage.

First of all I wonder why on the Falafel takeaway, Al Quds, there is a small, “official” sign that says “Al Quds”, like the big sign above the door. The small one is redundant. The sign itself looks clumsy and is hard to read. And it indicates a direction, it points to the right (at least from a Europeans point of view, who reads from left to right), though the entrance is to its left. In this case, indicating a direction doesn’t make sense.

Then there are the signs that indicate the street name, either attached to posts or even to private property – I bet that these signs on private houses won’t survive there long. And anyway, they don’t look very official, despite their blue color, that we know from official road signs. The ones in Rainbowstreet are rather small and hard to spot, and sometimes placed behind lamp posts where they are hard to see.

Finally there are the signs that indicate e. g. a car park, a crosswalk, and schoolkids. They didn’t use the official pictograms, but photos! Why would you do such a thing? They are not known, unlike pictograms, so you have to learn them. But as they are rather detailed compared to abstracted pictograms, and as they provide little contrast between background and foreground (look at the car park sign) it is hard to grasp their meaning, especially when you drive by, and these signs are meant to inform drivers, above all.

The funkiest sign is the crosswalk sign, a mixture of cut-out image and vector graphic. There’s something totally wrong with it. Or have you ever seen a shadow-absorbing crosswalk? Me neither.

It’s a shame that they supposedly spent a lot of money on renovating Rainbow Street, but then hired a company that has apparently no clue how to design a signage system that’s of help.

Eigentlich wollte der König seinen Geburtstag nicht an die große Glocke hängen, und so sollte der heutige Donnerstag ein ganz normaler Arbeitstag sein. Letzte Nacht hat es aber so stark geschneit, dass heute nur arbeiten kann, wer keinen Fußmarsch zum Arbeitsplatz scheut: Weder Taxen noch Busse sind an die Wetterverhältnisse angepasst und bleiben daher in der Garage. Schneepflüge und Streufahrzeuge gibt es nicht. Auf Ammans höchstem Hügel liegen satte 75 cm Schnee. Die Menschen bleiben also zu Hause, die Kinder bauen Schneemänner, ich spaziere.

Der Verkauf von Raubkopien ist in Amman ein einträgliches Geschäft. Selbst Filme, die noch nicht im Kino zu sehen sind, erhält man für 1 Dinar, also ca. 1 Euro. Weder die Polizei noch sonst jemand scheint sich daran zu stören, im Zentrum Ammans verkaufen zahlreiche dieser Läden die kopierte Ware.

Ein Freund von mir kaufte sich vor einigen Tagen für 2 Dinar eine Grafiksoftware (InDesign CS3, sonst ca. 700 US$) bei einem Straßenhändler, der seine DVDs vor einem Schawarmaimbiß feilbot (ob zwischen Schawarma- und Softwarekonsum ein Zusammenhang besteht, vermag ich nicht zu beurteilen). Eigentlich nicht der Rede wert, wenn man bedenkt, in welchem Umfang dieser Diebstahl vonstatten geht. Bemerkenswert an dieser Raubkopie ist jedoch der arabische Dreizeiler, der auf die Papierhülle gedruckt worden ist:

“Benutzen Sie diese Software ausschließlich für Dinge, die Gott gefallen und im Islam erlaubt sind. Sündigen Sie nicht mittels dieser Software, denn das könnte Konsequenzen haben.”

Da staunten sie, meine Kollegen, drückten ihre Nasen an den Fensterscheiben platt. Schnee! Ein seltener Blick aus unserem Büro, diese Woche in Amman aufgenommen: