Street Vernaculars

     Street Vernaculars can be classified under Street art which is settled in public spaces.  Street vernaculars are present on communal streets; they can be typographic, illustration, or a mix of both. In Lebanon, in the meantime, out of the economic and political situation we got just too many street vernaculars. Consequently, I decided to study the reasons behind these vernaculars and separate them in to different categories. My map study was considering Saida’s street vernaculars in general and Helaleyeh , Abra , Ayaeah, Kornish in particular.

Vernaculars expresses social and political messages which is common characteristic for all vernaculars, usually they refer to illegal messages, on unauthorized areas opposing to government sponsored initiatives. The essence of these typographical messages is communication and visual expression of what inside.               

      Vernacular messages is a type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings.Particularly spray paints and marker pens are the most commonly used medium to write the message and the resulting visual. In all vernaculars typography varies in typeface and in size due to the spacing available or to the mean of abstraction. The expressionists are not concerned with the visual as much as their concern with the message they want to deliver, these people are rather worried with questioning the existing environment with their own language. The writer of this street vernacular uses his abilities to communicate with others (like in typography) and shares his personal expressions (like painting his name on a wall). Many choose to protect their identities and reputation by remaining anonymous.

     Street vernacular can be explained in images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property , I divided saida’s vernaculars into censored vernaculars , names vernaculars , mamno3 el wokof ( parking ) vernaculars , political vernaculars, and message vernaculars  grouped all under the same category which is street vernacular.

   

men hon w honek

A new approch of vernacular art found in the Lebanese street is billboards and posters done by Lebanese graphic designers. Designers are taking advantage of the Lebanese vernacular language and the Arabic language in its broad meanings. Visual arts now a day are getting creative in choosing their slogans and benefiting from the difference of meaning of the same word in vernacular and Arabic language. For example the poster on the below is a campaign against civil war in lebanon, the designer used the word “ nwalea’ah” which means to turn fire on as a slogan. The designer used the vernacular language to make a better preception to his work. Using dialect slogans would reduce the sophistication of a design and would make it simpler for people to precieve. Designers are looking outside the aesthetic and cultural ideologies of the profession in search of more direct and innocent forms of expression.

Here is some ads and posters that caught my attention and contains alot of vernaculars:

(note: none of these ads are my design )



This visual initiates the hotline of Kafa foundation."Enough Violence"





Leo Burnett Beirut has won another award for “Khede Kasra”, a campaign developed for The Hariri Foundation, an organisation in Lebanon focused on empowering women.



Bags?! WHEREEE?!!!!

For centuries people have been collecting things like cards, postcards, stamps, gem stones etc. However, more collections are comprised of idiosyncrasies that have little value compared to the emotions of the collector. People collect things to satisfy a sense of personal aesthetics, to please personal tastes, to show individualism by collecting  weird or unusual items, the collector’s need to be complete. For me am a person who enjoys and loves collecting shopping bags. Bags are characterized by their functionality and attractive designs. Shopping Bags come in a wide range of styles, such as clear, colored, low and high density poly, clear frosted, printed plastic handle.

Collecting bags is not a new habit for me it all started with my mother. My mother is particularly offended if I try to transport any object out of home in a less-than-nice shopping bag. "Wait, let me get you a _nice_ bag," she says, pulling five or six out from behind the fridge so that she can find the exact perfect size to hold whatever I'm carrying. I always thought Mom was insane, but now I've got a shopping bag collection of my own.

Here are a variety of everyday plastic bags that cover the basics of my bag collection.
Collected from a variety of businesses, most of them are from local businesses.
The collection shown here displays the variety of colors and shapes that shopping bags are known for.

I divided my collection into categories:

Typographic:

This kind is the simplest design form in shopping bags. In most bags the logo is centered in the middle or centered to the lower part of the bag. The background is plane color. But what make this type of shopping bags interesting is the spread of knowledge about typography and the layout grid system.

Pictures and digital illustrations:

The most eye catchy bags. They pop out easily because of shapes and vibrant colors used in them. Usually these bags contain photos of models, cartoon characters, some icons. Designers use a block of plane color under the logo to let it stand out and have a hierarchy.

Strips and patterns:

A new trend used now a days, aligning lines with different stroke weights under each other choosing two or more colors that have a harmony in them and then placing the logo in the middle. This trend is seen a lot nowadays, the question is what makes this kind of bags different, how can I tell the identity of this shop from these stripes, is it the stroke weights, the colors or the placement of the logo that gives it the identity?

Shopping bags are mobile ads. Their designs should convey what's inside -- both the bag and the store. Through my observation very few bags have a design that follows the identity of the whole shop specifically in local market. The question is who is responsible for this is it the designer? The shop owner? Or the viewers?