Interview: Ahmed Foula

Ahmed Foula, is one of the most active graphic designers in Egypt, we had the opportunity to talk with him to get an in-depth look at some of his projects and learn how his brain works.       Ahmed, we are honored to do this interview with you. For those who don’t know you, let’s start off with some introductions. Who are you and what you do, generally speaking?   I originally studied architecture, which was my first professional introduction to the field of “design”, and a first step towards my current occupation as a freelance graphic designer. In my design career, I’m consistently trying to deal with my graphic work as a product in itself; challenging the idea of using graphic design to simply advertise a certain product. Live and work in Cairo/Egypt.       Speaking about “Kasr El Malal”, could you describe how the idea started, and what was the process?   “Kasr El-Malal” (Breaking Boredom) is a project based on a historical game called the “Exquisite Corpse”. It first started as a literary game, where a sentence would be collectively formulated by a group of people – each of them inserting a word in logical sequence like “adjective, noun, verb, adjective, noun”, without knowing what the others have inserted– to build a “surreal” sentence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse       Inspired by previous re-applications of the concept in the area of graphic design, “Kasr El Malal” project brought together six remarkable Egyptian graphic designers (Engy Aly, George Azmy, Hani Mahfouz, Ibrahim Eslam, Mahmoud Hamdy and MoFa) in an attempt to drag the graphic design from its usual application as an advertising tool into a formula of collective artistic creation/production.       Technically speaking, the concept was to commission one of the six designers to design a 40cm x 60cm strip to start the “piece”. A smaller strip of 5cm x 60cm would be cropped from the bottom of the original design and sent to the following designer to “build” on it, and so on. The end result would be a collective piece made by 4 designers, measuring 160cm x 60cm. The exhibition was made of twelve collective “pieces”, each produced by 4 different designers.       Although it would have definitely been a great experience to contribute to the project as one of the designers, playing the role of the curator was even more exciting in my view. The curator role allowed me to have a bird’s eye view on the whole project, witnessing the –very– complex and amazing interactions between the designers: how each designer had to build, using only their imagination and their creativity, on the “unknown” of the previous colleague; and in the same time, how they technically dealt with the “riddles” of a 5cm high strip as a starting point to end with another “riddle” for the following colleague.               Could you explain about your work process? About how you start to work on a design project and how you finish?   The initial pillar of my work process is a meeting with the client!... I’m only interested in working with clients who present me with a real “challenge”. Let me explain further… For me, there are two types of clients: the clients who look to the graphic design as means to advertise a product, and the ones who look to the graphic design as a product in itself. The first type generally wants to arrange a number of pre-fabricated elements in a way that seems satisfactory to their own taste. While the second type come to you with an open question, or a “problem to solve”, for which they don’t have a pre-prepared answer. This is the true challenge: To solve this problem altogether, in a way that is both satisfactory to the client and myself at the end of the day, in the form of a design “product”.       After the initial meeting with the client, I take a Stabilo and a sheet of paper and start the “sketching phase”. The sketching phase is a chaotic period, where all what comes to my mind is spilled in a random fashion on the white sheet of paper. Ideas start taking shape, materialize, and then my eyes start discovering relations between the various elements. With more fine-tuning, the grid starts to emerge and the structure of the design is ready to move to the computer screen. The computer screen phase is the final part of the journey. It is a “geometrical” adjustment of the visual relations on a clear-cut –yet virtual– grid, using the sensitivity of the bear eyes, which leads the design to balance.       Do you like the business side of design?   I chose to be a freelance designer. Institutionalizing the design process is not an optimum situation in my view. To me, it is indispensable to personally listen to the client, to carry-on the design operation and finally monitor closely the production phase, in order to reach a final design product which enjoyable to create. I perfectly realize this is a personal choice or decision that suits me best, and might not be the optimum “business” setup for everyone. However, if I ever decide to expand my “business model”, it would be in the form of a “design collective” rather than a design agency.             Do you self-promote?   I’m very lazy about self-promotion. While this seems to be a disadvantage in business terms, it gives me a great opportunity to operate as I’m not “labeled” with a certain design style or direction. The reward comes when you affront clients’ surprise when they realize –for the first time– that two or more of the designs they have thought to be the work of different designers came from the same person.       What's your work area like?   It’s a very tiny space, limited by the couch and the computer table in my Cairene downtown apartment. It is an extremely messy space that I always failed to put in order!       What's the favorite part of your job?   It is no doubt the “Eureka” moment!             What's the most important lesson you've learned since becoming a designer that you'd like to pass on to everyone?   Try to remain in the lands of experimentation as long as you can, and never reach what might seem to be solid grounds.       What's your favorite piece of work you have finished so far?   It is a poster for an event that took place in Alexandria in November 2006, curated by “Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)”. The event was titled “A Two-Part Art in Public Spaces Project”, and consisted of erecting a building using plastic soft drinks crates by the significant Frankfurt based artists: “Wolfgang Winter” and “Berthold Hörbelt”. I loved this poster/flyer because it simply came with an “open brief”. The client had taken the bold decision to give me full freedom to operate, and was ready to fully share the responsibility of the final design product I was going to deliver.             What's happening in the Egyptian creative scene?   I will quote “Mohie-Eddine Al-Labbad” here: “Stronger aesthetics, weaker concepts.”       In your opinion, what country produces the best designers?   There are obviously environments that are more “enabling” than others, but geography has nothing to do with it, in my opinion.        What do you like to do when you are not working?   I look around, feeding my eyes. (Ba-basbas)             What design trend(s) do you expect to see emerging in 2009?   I believe that the role of the designer as a “thought leader” or single “author” to the design conception is fading-out. Computer is becoming a real partner in the creative process, taking us to unprecedented horizons on the visual front. More specifically, I’m anticipating that what is known as “Computational Generative Design Systems” would open up new territories for unpredictability in terms of design, which would lead to uncommon and novel design solutions that were not anticipated.       Our last question, how do you like to eat your spaghetti? :)   Bel-3assag ;)                           .. Thank you so much for your time.