∞
It's been 6 months since I started my sabbatical on 23rd of October 2009. Without a doubt this single best decision I've ever taken in my life was to press pause, take a step back and review where I was and where I wanted to be.
The plan for the sabbatical was actually very fluid. When I was asked what I wanted to do with the time off, my general response was that I wanted to take some time to calm down, work on my graphic novel and see the family. That was actually all true. Most of my family questioned my decision to start work on my graphic novel in Saida, Lebanon. I've lived all my life in a major city, Athens & London. Saida is anything but a major city. It's a village. Made of concrete. With little in the way of excitement. What the hell was I doing?
I was taking the time to sit at my desk, do some drawing, live in my own apartment, look at the Mediterranean every morning, run on the beach, avoid public transport, see the family, eat some good food, discover a whole new city. I was changing my routine. How long was I going to last? I wasn't sure. What was interesting to me is that every month I kept extending my stay, against all odd. What can I say, the place has an irresistible charm. Other elements in my life also started happening (but I'm not ready to share those just yet, but needless to say I'm very happy with the way things are going on that front).
So I decided to look at the option for staying here would be. Could I find a job here? The truth is I did the interview rounds in March and April of this year. It was an amazing period for me, only because I've NEVER done a real interview apart from the one I took when I was trying to get into Arup. The difference of course is that i was in a unique position. I wasn't looking to leave Arup because I didn't like the place. The places i was going to interview had to basically CONVINCE me that I wanted to join them. I wasn't looking for a way out of Arup. I was looking for a way into Lebanon. The thing was I wasn't willing to compromise.
Finally after several interviews and even spending an entire week in the office, I've decided to take a position at Pierre Dammous and Partners. It's a small practice and feels more like a family than anything else. The great thing about it all is of course that I have a great opportunity to actually start building something around me. It's interesting in contrast I suppose to Arup where things take a bit of time and have to go through a greater hierarchy (the nature of a large organisation no doubt - although it does it much better than others).
So in a nutshell, I'm moving to Lebanon, having never spent more than a month, I'm now poised to stay here for the next few years at least. It's a massive transition for me which bring a great deal of opportunity for me.
So what did I actually achieve during this period off? I gained a great deal, no doubt, but what did I actually CREATE? Well most of these are documented in a fashion on this site. For my own benefit I'll list them here.
Aitus Moralis - This was my focus until the end of March. I would work on it for at least 6-8 hours a day. It wasn't as intense as I would have liked it to be, but I was learning how to do this. The final outcome is the first draft of the entire graphic novel, character descriptions and environment descriptions. I've also begun design many of the characters (of which there are over 50 in this the first of the series.
Logos - I finished off a couple of logos in the time off. These were mainly side projects that I wanted to do. I did a Habari logo (which obviously wasn't adopted, but was fun to make). I did a ViaSound logo for my friend Yanni (not sure if he's using it). I finished a Vivid Creations logo for my cousin Yahya (who I know is using it, and has used it in a great way).
POP4 - I completed several pages of this little idea of a comic. It's still on the cards to continue, however the truth is I need to get into a rythm, with work and life in general, which I don't have. The concept is simple, split an A4 piece of paper into 4 vertical panels. Spend 1hour a day on each panel. Don't think about it before hand, don't think about it after it's done. The whole point is to get some art done, in an hour. I stopped the routine as I was working on Aitus Moralis, but I will be getting into this hopefully once i get back to Lebanon and start work again.
Broken Kode - I completed this design that you are looking at right now. The thing about this design is that it's actually pretty solid (in my mind at least). So much so that every time I go to mess about with it, i end up going back to this single column, completely minimalist design. One of the great parts of this design is that I have been concentrating on the content itself and created a framework for myself to actually bring the content to the front. The illustrations page is one i am very fond of.
Family Portrait - This was a really fun side project. With the house being renovated in Lebanon, there was an empty door which we decided to try and do something about. The solution was to have a stained glass portrait of the family. It took me something like 3 months to finally get the drawing done (after many failed attempts) but the final outcome is unique.
Artwork - I did a decent amount of artwork at the start of the sabbatical, which ultimately I won't be able to use (maybe in the making of companion book to Aitus Moralis). However one of the greatest aspects of this sabbatical is that I FINALLY achieved my own style. No more am I a bad copy of such and such artist. You can see influences sure, but I strive for my own path now, which has been a long time coming. My main weakness at the moment is facial expressions so I'll be doing a lot of drills in the coming year to sort this out, because it's a terrible weakness which I have to resolve.
There is soo much to talk about, and even more to show. The coming year I will be beaming the 'Kode from it's second spiritual home. It will no longer be out of London as it has been since it's start, but rather from Beirut.
Probably not an ongoing thing, but I've recently found a few YouTube videos that should help you waste some time on this lazy sunday afternoon:
Earlier on in my sabbatical, my parents decided to sort out the house down in Lebanon, where I was going to be doing my creative drawing and writing. However, I did a couple of side projects as well. A couple of logos and decided to do my first large scale art project, a door of stained glass.
This was to fill a hole the size of a door into the living room in the house in Lebanon. The reason for filling it in is mainly to do with layout, but needless to say we're not using that door so having something that represents the family is more than a welcome addition.
To understand what this image means you have to know a little bit about my family history. My parents and I were born in Lebanon. We all migrated to Greece shortly after I was born, and five years later my brother was born in Athens.
This history is represented by the cedar tree (Lebanon) at the bottom and the three fish swimming up towards an olive tree (Greece) where a little fish is waiting.
So once the guys got it, they printed out and then began carving it out.
And here is the finally finished stained glass family portrait installed:
And here are some details:
So what do I feel about the final product? I think the carving process was superb, second to none. I think however that the colouring could have been done in a better fashion. There are mistakes and the final colours were not exactly as I had imagined, or chosen. The thing is that no matter these minor quibbles, it's nothing compared to the sheer joy I get when I look at it changing colours throughout the day, you forget everything else.
Sometime in February, my cousin asked me to sort out the logo for his jewellery business. I was obviously happy to oblige, and actually had some spare capacity to sort it out for him. The thing is, I sqaundarded most of that time, so he rings me on a Saturday to ask me how the logo was going....uh oh spagettio. Rushed to the only coffee place worth a shit in Saida and started sketching furiously. Pretty quickly I had my idea. In fact, the crazy thing is that by the end of the night I had created his logo and sent it out to him.
I played around with the colours (although his only request was to have the colour scheme be burgundy and grey). I thought it couldn't hurt for them to see what it would look like in different colours.
So after a couple of colour tweaks he asked for I sent it through. The reason he was anxious for the logo to be sorted out quickly was because he had an exhibition in Kuwait and had a stand. A few weeks later he was in Lebanon and he showed me pictures of the stand.
Reindy Allendra - Industrial Design portfolio of this Indonesian native. The KLM blimp being a highlight.
∞