Nur Ahmad Furlong

Blog

  • The Identity Scale – Markbixby.com

    I just read something on markbixby.com that gave a good laugh this morning.

    Client: “We really like Apple’s branding. Can you do something like that for us?”
    Designer: “I love what Apple is doing too, but your company’s a Mortuary?”

    If you’re a graphic designer you’ll completely identify with the hilarity of the scenario above and then maybe immediately after the laughter has died, down as laughter always does, you’ll think back to something similar you’ve experienced with one of your own clients.

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  • Live Earth 07 07 07 – If politics won’t save the planet maybe entertainment will

    On 07 July 2007 the world will witness another attempt to wake it up from the state of slumber it has fallen in with respect to environmental issues. Sponsored by many multi-billion dollar companies around the world and bring together more than 100 internationally recognized artists from a wide spectrum of genre will unite an effort to put the fight against global warming and environmental degradation in the forefront of world issue. The call will be made to each individual to take action in whatever way they can to make a small difference in preserving our planet and ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and the generations to come.

    The Official Live Earth Website had the following to say about the event:

    Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.

    Live Earth was founded by Kevin Wall, the Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, an event that brought together one of the largest audiences in history to combat poverty. Wall formed a partnership with Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection to ensure that Live Earth inspires behavioral changes long after 7/7/07.

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  • A reminder of a not-so-distant past

    I found this in a local Cape Town newspaper which was commemorating Youth Day on June 16th. It reminds us of where we have come from and should warn us of the results of unchecked discrimination and where we could end up.

    Beware of Natives - Apartheid South Africa

  • Official 2012 logo controversy

    London England, a place many will argue is one of if not the centre of design excellence worldwide, also the winner of the bid to host the 2012 Olymic games. The Olympic Games brings with it to those cities which bid and host it a refreshment of design practices, a burst of local expression and creative interpretation and for many brings a welcome boost to their creative businesses. I remember the time Cape Town was bidding for the 2004 Olympics. As a Graphic Design Student we were given a few Olympics orientated projects from designing icons to posters and an interesting paininting project.

    I first heard about the London 2012 logo controversy on Design Observer in an article entitled: “The 2012 Olympic Logo Ate My Hamster“. Off I went to have a look what all the fuss was about to to my horror, as explained in the article on Design Observer I was faced with something I still haven’t quite figured out. We have come to expect that an Olympic logo would contain the Olympic colours and brand Identity interpreted through the lens of the locality hosting the event. This may be a formula which isin need of changing but in my opinion they have just gone too far. I think it contains the number 2010 and if i squint really hard and maybe do some breathing exercises I might be able to see the word London in there as well

    The logo that’s caising all the fuss

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  • Getting Things Done – Black Belt Productivity

    As usual amongst knowledge workers, there’s no shortage of buzzwords and jargon flying around out there. A few months ago, after researching design thinking methods, I came across something called G.T.D.(getting things done). Usually these type of self-help approaches turn me off due to the large volume of overly complicated methodologies and hours of reading needed, but this particular approach seemed to keep popping up, and a few of the descriptions I came across interested me enough to get me reading further. As a designer I am a sucker for highly simplified yet highly effective solutions.

    So what exactly is GTD?

    According to Davidco, the website of David Allen, author of the book and creator of the GTD system, GTD is:

    the popular shorthand for “Getting Things Done®“, the groundbreaking work-life management system and book by David Allen that transforms personal overwhelm and overload into an integrated system of stress-free productivity.

    Implementing GTD alleviates the feeling of overwhelm, instills confidence, and releases a flood of creative energy. It provides structure without constraint, managing details with maximum flexibility. The system rigorously adheres to the core principles of productivity, while allowing tremendous freedom in the “how.” The only “right” way to do GTD is getting meaningful things done with truly the least amount of invested attention and energy. Coaching thousands of people, where they work, about their work, has informed the GTD method with the best practices of how to work (and live), in that most efficient and productive way.

    Wikipedia Defines it in the following manner .

    Getting Things Done, commonly abbreviated as GTD, is an action management method, a trademark and the title of the book which describes the method by David Allen.

    GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.

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  • Our frightening future requires urgent action

    When I arrive home after a stressful day at the office I like to put my feet up for an hour or so and watch something on the tele as many people do. Two nights in a row my viewing choices were environmentally focussed. I started with “An Inconvenient Truth”, a documentary/presentation style movie by Al Gore, a previous candidate for American presidency.

    He introduces himself as “The ex-next President of the United States” and in a recent post on design observer it seems some people would like to see him back in the running. The production and content have been put together in a build up to what results in a future forecast which is bound to frighten anyone with even the slightest sense of foresight. Some of the images presented of the results of global warming in remote regions of our planet were a startling revelation to the reality of what is currently taking place, and has been taking place for a many years now.

    Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.

    The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence.1 The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

    We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.

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