Weaving of design and community:

In the design world there are many designers who design for different aims and goals. Some take it as away of living. Some do it to become known and named as the best designers. While others beside design and being a designer dedicate their time and efforts to help their society by involving in projects for the good of the public which I see as a noble thing to do.

Most designers are faced with decisions and dilemmas regarding their work, because they are not designing to them selves. They had to keep a lot of things in their consideration to satisfy their audience. Good design can get you money easily but good effective design can be more rewarding than a check.

Therefore, designers can benefit them selves and their society by helping their community to over come issues they suffer from. Making the community feels that there someone who care which can strength the society and make the designer happy about him/her self.

Reality branding Addressing real concerns and real needs.

Branding is connected to the design. So, whenever we talk about branding we talk about branding we talk about design, since design is a tool of communication therefore reality branding leads to honest communication,which shows the responsibility of the brands towards the people.

All what this article is about sell what the consumers needs which is the real value of the products without the extra exaggeration, and change the role of design to meet consumers needs. A lot of times we see product promising the consumers with things that are not real or exaggerated.

For us as young designers we have responsibilities towards branding and we should keep in mind how to incorporate the product into our design. More than focusing on making the product look beautiful. But of course beautiful design is better than ugly design. Designers must be honest to what they sell to people, and should avoid hyperbole, and respect the consumer at the same time keep a personality to his design. 

I Love NY More Than Ever

In this article the author Steven Heller interviews Milton Glasser about I love NY logo. When Glasser at first did this logo it was for marketing campaign for New York city. Glasser expected that his design will last only for few months then it will die, but the unexpectedly, the logo become a successful icon and continued to be sold until nowadays.

Glasser modified his logo After 9/11 attacks, he added I Love NY more than ever with a little black spot on the red heart to symbolize the effect of that attack on people’s hearts. Many visitors to the city bought the I love NY T-shirts to show their support, unity to the people of this city. This logo has become apart of American Pop culture.

Changing a logo according to the events is a way to express emotions toward that event. We see a lot of logos changes according to events. For examples: google, and the latest events in the middle east when they changed icons in their flags. And what happened in the last two years in Jeddah floods, people changed the logo of the secretariat of Jeddah city logo to betrayal Jeddah. Or the logo of Jeddah Gheer to Jeddah Gheerget, which means Jeddah is drawn. A simple logo has an impact in expressing our feelings towards an issue and this simple logo sometimes can tells a lot than words.

Timing is every thing Lessons from the sphere Magazine

In this article the writer show us his fault when he published the sphere magazine cover. The cover was addressing an old issue that goes back 10 months of 2000 U.S election. But since it was published and distributed at the time of 9/11, it misunderstood by the public. Everyone thought it was about the 9/11 attacks, which they found disrespectful and serves no one. On the other hand, if this cover were published on earlier time it might had a very different reaction than what it had. This issue proves that timing play a major role in the success or failure of anything.

As designers, when designing something or even expressing an idea and got published in the wrong time your idea, concept, design or message will lose it’s purpose and may be misunderstood. A lot of things happens around us can be very successful or a disaster depends on the time it comes out to public.

A lot of companies and organizations take advantage of this point.  For example: they do limited editions for special occasions such as Christmas or Ramadan, which is a good use of timing. Therefore, we see how timing can be an important element in everything we do in life. 

Think globally upload locally:

Internet and web world have become very popular recently, and people are keeping up with any update on it. Almost anything and everything is out there in the web. It become like a public place that everyone can go to visit or stay, very easy to reach and a fordable to visit at any time.

People have moved from traditional publishing to the web world .for many reason such as: it is affordable, can reach a lot of people its available at any time you feel like serving the net. That's why it become very popular the way we see it now .It become the newest way of media and for that reason we see the web design took place in the design world. Since it’s the new way to keep up with the world.

Responsible designers should take in consideration the difference between web design and any designed are made to be published, because each one is different than the other. Although the web is the new media we as users should also be responsible toward what we upload to the internet, because web is available to almost anyone we should consider that there are people might understand our thought in wrong way, or maybe they are not filmier with our culture. So, they might misunderstand us or form his own idea about religion, values, believes about us as persons or community which is not based on reality. For example, when some one sees the driving campaign that happened in K.S.A. and don’t know any thing about the Saudi culture may think that women are abused to be barred from driving. I believe, since I was born and raised in the Saudi society allowing women to drive here in Saudi Arabia I think it is not a good  idea for now, due to many reasons for examples the mentality of the Saudi people plus the Infrastructure of our streets.

The recent add for united color of Benetton which shows Obam kissing some guy for those who have no idea a bout the company and its goal might think president Obama is gay. So, we as user also should be responsible of what we put on web that is available to all people. We should try taking in consideration the fact that there people might read or see or hear what we upload some are adult and mature, some who might believe any thing they know and that might change a lot in his believes as a person. Some are children and can be brain washed easily. Therefore, think globally before you upload locally.    

Socially responsible, advertising altruism or Exploitation?

Nowadays, people are more aware of social responsibility, they are more aware of its benefits to the society. Therefore, we see a lot of the big companies whither it is local or international that involved in social responsibility. Some people believes those companies are doing it for marketing purposes. That only benefit organization and doesn’t serve the social issues (which raises the question: is it altruism or exploitation). Some believes that even if it a type of marketing it services the community.  

I think that some organization take advantage of this social issues to advertise for their names rather than do it for sake of serving the community such as the united colors of Benetton which I think is obvious that what they do in their advertisement is to increase their sales, even though they tend to show that they are peaceful people against racism. But what I see is more advertisement for their brand and name rather than solving this problem in the society in their Awareness campaigns.

Some companies might use it as a marketing strategy tool, but they are really helping the community such as Albaik or Abdulatif Jameel . Even though there a lot of saying that Al baik is 100% honest on their campaign, but I still believe it is one of marketing strategy that tend using peoples emotions. 

These organizations play on the power of emotion to make strong impact on their brand. They take advantage of the social problem to enhance their income and productivity. They support art exhibitions, sponsor events, donate money, showing that corporation has a human side and usually donate so little money compare of what they have gain of the campaign.

However, whither the organizations are using social issue as a part of their marketing plan or not? We should look at the good side of it because if it helping our society in something that is better than nothing and society can use these companies the same way the company do to them. Life is a bout give and take.