THE STORY OF ALIF
‘If I had known there was such a thing as Islamic Calligraphy, I would never have started to paint. I have strived to reach the highest levels of artistic mastery, but I found that Islamic Calligraphy was there ages before I was.’ — Pablo Picasso
A workshop/talk I conducted as a guest speaker at the Aga Khan museum. The participants created their own ‘Tugras’ as a part of the workshop. The pdf document shows some examples.
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DESIGN THINKING – 1
‘Design can help to improve our lives in the present. Design thinking can help us chart a path into the future.’ ― Tim Brown
Part 1 of this course touches on the basic concepts and skills of design thinking as an interdisciplinary subject. Alongside, it emphasizes creative and critical thinking in the design process; providing the student with the theory and operational skills necessary to solve design problems in the realms of symbolic and visual communication, material objects, environments, and organized services and activities.
I started teaching this course in 2014 as a part of the CCIT [Culture, Communication, Information, Technology] joint programme of Sheridan College and the University of Toronto. This course is designed by Dr. Ann Donar who mentored me for this course and I owe my success in this course to her and M.P. Ranjhan who I looked upto when I needed advice and he was always there.
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DESIGN 101:
‘Design is like life; it is an ongoing process of development & discovery’ — Thomas Vasquez
This is an introductory course that involves a studio inquiry into the nature of basic design principles and visual problem solving, exposing the student to a unified design language that is equally applicable to studies in art, design and architecture. This course is the first in the programme of courses leading to a BFA in Design, Fine art and Architecture, tailored to equip the student with the basic visual concepts and principles needed to proceed in any of the above fields.
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ADVANCED IMAGING:
‘Anyone can learn techniques but it’s how you choose to use them that will set you apart and make your work unique.’ –Margo Chase
In this course students are challenged to create visuals through traditional techniques and digital manipulation resulting in unique and original design solutions. Hand generated artwork, compositions, collected unrelated materials, found objects & textures, scans and photographs are computer manipulated, mixed and layered to create new visual relationships.
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