Rackn Em Up

Producing a weekly online issue of Dia Magazine has been such a challenging project. I manage more than 10 writers and carefully choose images to go along with our mix of stories on designers and artists in the Middle East. These are my some of my favorite issues! We are now on our 12th issue and they just keep getting better. Check out Issue 12 here.

Some images stay with you forever

the prototype

Project: Design Agency

Description: I have been working on this design agency for more than 6 months. This is the prototype website. Agency Obai & Bash is in the business of providing graphic, digital, and illustrative design services in the corporate and consumer brand industries.

I really get a kick from launching a new brand or project. I can't wait till this is live.

A Moment of Silence

Now that the Sketchbook Pop Up shop is over and done with I can now take a moment and really take in the magnitutude of the project. With all the frenzy of setting up (32 artists working for 48 hours) and working for 64 days straight I still find myself in awe of how my team and I managed to pull this off with only two weeks of preparation to start off with and being able to mastermind more than 100 events, lectures, workshops. But at the end of the day when I flip through the Guest Book and look at our visit count (9000 visitors) I just can't help but be completely speechless. What a ride this has been.

And to think I have to re-fuel and do this all over again in a month or so.

Sketchbooky Diaries

Some of my favorite images taken of the Sketchbook pop up shop were by Street Style photographer Jill of STREET STYLE:PICS BY POLKA DOT. She has a fantastic blog with more than 1000 followers and takes some of the most beautiful street style photos.

Jill was also invited to give a talk at the Pop Shop as part of our 'GETTING STARTED' lecture series. Read our review of the lecture here.

Lecturing @ Chelsea

So I was asked to come lecture at the University of the Arts London and share my experience as a design student all the way to the launch of Sketchbook and becoming the editor for the Dia Magazine. It was a phenomenal expiernce and I was asked to lecture again next year. Really looking forward to it!

Sketchbook writer Elizabeth Pasquale attended my series of lectures and covered it for the SB blog. Read more of it below!

Our Editor was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of the Arts, Chelsea College of Art and Design where she used to be a student. Asked by her tutor Emily Artinian, she was invited to discuss her experiences during her foundation year all the way through completing her Bachelors in Interior Design, as well as her experiences working with fashion and starting-up her own publication.

It was an intense turnout with over 400 students who attended her two part lecture. ‘What happened to students ditching or turning up late?’ she asked me as rows of foundation students showed up a half hour early.

Wafa started her lecture by discussing her home country of Bahrain and painting a picture of what the art and design scene was like there. She then went to discuss her culture shock going from an American style high school to a British Art school one and how shocking the crit system was to her as a student.

Moving on she described having a double life when starting her BA and working practically full time with designer extraordinaire Liza Bruce. ‘I never said no to Liza, I worked weekends/summer holidays at one point doing 6 days a week. Working with Liza and her husband Nicholas was my first experience working with designers that were passionate about what they were doing, and doing it for a living. I really felt like I was being mentored going from sales, to PR, to buying, to window display, to pricing and assisting with all parts of the running of the business.’
Having graduated Wafa then went on to create her own blog, Fashion Ambitions where she aimed to document her work experiences assisting Marko Matysik, interning with On/Off, working in fashion journalism and publishing her work with Prim and Borderline magazine.
Wafa then went into great detail on how she managed to start up Sketchbook, with no budget; and emailing more than 200 people a day to request contributions and illustrations. ‘Everyone told me that I would never be able to launch a print publication, at the recession, with print media dying. But I did and Sketchbook was born. I also never met anyone in the first 5 months because as soon as people saw I was a 22 year old girl fresh out of university they didn’t want to work with me. I had to really sell the concept via email.’

We spent a few minutes with Wafa after she was done with her lecture. Read the rest of the interview here..

A day of an Editor at NY Fashion Week

11th Feb:

10 am - Run

11 am - dressed in ---- and out of the door

12 30 getting hair done at g salon with Maria

1 00 - first show of the day Duckie Brown. Sitting across from me are Diggy from Rev Run + Ugly Betty's nephew.

2 00 lunch with Jooj on her lunchbreak in cafe metro in times square and some mapping

3 00 le pain with features editor Luma Bashmi looking through invites, tabbing our new york guide for off shows, and emailing the girls back at sketchbook hq.

4 55 at press lounge - so crowded , food is being served , homous and cheeses , and pickles , everyone has to bring their own laptop ! London has a string of 30 macs outside the lounge. No where to sit. 5 30 answered 29 emails

6 00 queing for Farah Angsana, sore feet in heels

6 10 chatting to a reporter from seventeen magazine in row a-6, spotted Kate Lampier sitting front row with gorge white hair+Whitney Port's friend from The City

7 00 catch a cab to off schedule show on 313 bowery lane. Karoline Zmarlak is presenting in a cool grungy