The Learning Zone

LZ: Can you tell us a bit about yourself? And the art you create?

AN: My name is Aicha Niazy, I am from Egypt and this is my first year at OCAD, I’m transferring from UTM, University of Toronto Mississauga. My program is Graphic Design; and so far it’s very interesting.

What influenced your decision to major in Graphic Design?

It’s really weird to be honest. When I was in grade 11 and 12, I was not thinking about graphic design at all, it didn’t even cross my mind. I was going to go into economics and then changed my mind to anthropology, criminology, or marine biology and then I kept on going through lists of programs. I was also interested in psychology. But in my last year, grade 12, I decided that I really wanted to be a designer. It’s because I look around me and find some awful designs and then I would find the urge to fix them but then I also wanted to know how people design all these things because when I think about it graphic design is in every single aspect of our lives. Everyone needs a graphics designer, be it firms and corporations, schools, doctors’ offices and hospitals and the list goes on, this is when I decided to major in graphic design.

What is your creative process?

Observing, I really like to observe, and see a lot of details around me, it’s what informs me

Where are you most productive, tell us about your creative space?

During the summer, I would say the beach or the sea when I’m floating on the water. Otherwise it would be in my room or when showering. When I get an idea, I try to develop it to a certain extent before I Google it because I want to see where my thinking will take me and without being influenced by the Internet.

What two graphic design tools could you not live without?

Sketchbook and a pencil, to write down my thoughts or illustrate them in some way also Adobe software programs like Illustrator, Photoshop and inDesign, these are the programs I mostly use at this point.

Is there another medium you would like to work in?

I would like to experiment with painting, I’m not a painter myself, I’ve never painted but lately I’ve been feeling the urge to paint. So, I would like to experiment and see what I get, just practice and do some sketches.

I’ve noticed on your online portfolio, Format, you were working in photography was that something that you were always interested in or have worked on?

Photography has always been interesting as an approach where I can capture things. For example if you have seen my series City Lights? It’s of water bottles with lights reflected on them, this is something that I would not see without the lens of the camera, with the camera lens zoomed in, it makes the lights really stand out, that’s the one thing I would like to experiment with, see what the camera captures what you don’t see with your eyes.

Do you have a preference of analogue over digital cameras?

I don’t have preference, yet. I have only been taking pictures for a year. However, I loved analogue in terms of how I get to develop my own film and print out the photographs, it just reminds me of the old times with pictures in albums, and as a kid I would always wonder how it worked, now I know. I’ve worked in darkrooms and also created photograms which was so much fun. And I did my own pinhole and took a few pictures with it. It was cool to experiment with the primary method of how the camera came to be.

Would you like to keep the photographic aspect of your work separate from graphic design or would you integrate them together?

If I worked with photography I would integrate into my graphic designs.

You wrote a paper on the comparisons of calligraphy with architecture?

The paper was basically discussing the calligraphy we see inscribed on architecture, and how these are designs (typographic designs), and their beautiful impact on architecture. In Islamic tradition there is no use of images or pictures representing prophets, and calligraphy is used as a form to transmit the words of god, written beautifully, to glorify it.

The most splendid mosques that I have come acrossed are Taj mahal, Hagia Sophia Mosque in Turkey, Sultan Hassan, Al-Refai and Muhammad Ali mosques in Egypt. I learned that there are different calligraphic scripts such as Kufic, Naskhi, and more. They are displayed in square forms, linear and sometimes even combined with designs like floral designs, mosaics, arabesques and of course it depends on the medium.

What do you enjoy most about studying graphic design?

It’s totally up to me to create the design from scratch but also the professors direct you, they give you the basics, even when you ask, they try to navigate you without telling you what to do so, it’s your own creative design.

What do you do to relax?

I read, workout and if the sea is there, I swim.

What is your dream job?

I don’t have a dream job right now. but I have standards for a job; it has to be a space that fosters creativity that ‘s very important to me.

What is your favourite thing about studying in Toronto?

Toronto is full of artists, designers, film festivals, different art related venues and events, and I live downtown so I don’t have to commute.