The Holy month of Ramadan - Day 1

Ramadan? What is it? Why is it such a big deal? Here is an explanation on one of the most celebrated holidays in the world today.

Origin

Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and is considered the holiest month. The actual word Ramadan is derived from the word Ramida which stands for scorching dry heat. The word Ramadan was adopted to represent the early days of fasting during the summer. The pronunciation varies among Arabic dialects but it is primarily pronounced "Ra" (as in rumble) - "ma" (as in must) - "da" (as in the) - "an" (as in dawn). Muslims believe that the Quran's revelations were passed down to the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him) through the angel Gabriel (Gabril) during this month and that is why it is considered the holiest month.

What is Ramadan

Ramadan is a month of opportunities to self-cleanse yourself as a Muslim. During this month, Muslims offer themselves up for prayer 5 times a day; they donate money (zakat); they feed the poor; they fast from dawn to sunset; and abstain from any wrong doings. All in efforts to become a cleaner, better person as a whole. During this month of Ramadan, Muslims are practicing their patience, their self-righteousness, respect to all mankind, and conservative behavior.

Fasting during Ramadan

When people think of fasting in general they only assume it is just food or drink but fasting during Ramadan is far more than that. During this holy month Muslims refrain from using foul language, exercising sexual tendencies, eating food, and consuming any and all drinks. The purpose of fasting during Ramadan is to practice patience and perseverance. 

Prayer during Ramandan

The month of Ramadan is a cloud of an opportunity for any and all Muslims to repent to god and ask for his mercy. During this month Muslims pray the obligatory 5 prayers and additional prayers at night; called taraweeh prayers. During taraweeh prayers of each night the Islamic leader (Imam/Sheikh) recites a few chapters from the Quran until it is finished. Typically this takes 1 to 2 weeks but that is only an assumption. To find out more information on the actual act of praying you can go here How to pray as a muslim.

Zakat during Ramadan

Charity (Zakat) during Ramadan is one of the biggest parts of participating in Ramadan. During this month Muslims are supposed to donate  relatively 2% of their income to the poor or to the mosque. Zakat can also be considered offering your self to a specific service during Ramadan, or providing food and drink during the breaking of the fast. Donating consists of more than just money.

Breaking of the Fast at sunset

During Ramadan, Muslims break their fast at the 4th prayer of the day; Salat al Maghrib (Evening Prayer). Before they pray the 4th prayer it is tradition to eat a date (fig) because the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) used to do so. Muslim communities gather together to offer food during each night of Ramadan as a form of charity and good doings. Sometimes I myself would contribute by purchasing a few 12 packs of soda and water. During this month of Ramadan, the females tend to make special dishes for dessert like baklawa, tamari and others. My favorite is the katiyif.

Exemptions during Ramadan

So you might ask "What if I'm sick, young, pregnant, or ovulating". Ultimately Ramadan is supposed to be practiced if you are mentally and physically capable. Usually the parents prescribe their children to fast so they can get used to it but ultimately if you have the capacity to do so, then you must. Muslims who are on their menstrual cycle, who are pregnant, who are sick and elderly should not participate in the fasting portion of Ramadan. During these situations, food and drink are required to maintain a physical and mental state of well being and therefore should not be refrained from consuming. 

During Ramadan as a kid, I used to get thirsty after phys ed and drink water. I would then go home and pretend to fast with my mother because I wanted to follow her footsteps. These sort of moments are okay because I didn't have the mental and physically capacity to practice fasting during Ramadan.

I wish all fellow Muslims a Ramadan Kareem. May Allah bless your wishes and your families. To all Non-Muslims, I hope this was informal enough to increase your understanding of this huge chunk of our religion.

Thank you, and Asalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmut Allah Wa Baraktu

Social Media Campaigns - Intrusive?

In general, corporations spend millions of dollars on social media campaigns to help generate revenue. Social media campaigns include e-newsletters, blogs, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, online gaming such WOW, and Second Life. All of these medias have high user generated content (UGC) which make it easier for businesses to reach out to more people quicker.
But are some social medias more efficient? More efficient to the extent they are intrusive? Why would you even care? Well, lets find out.

To answer these questions, it helps to understand how these different medias work, with respect to social media campaigns. Facebook allows businesses to buy ad space and will search through your profile to see if any words will match their business ad. It is sort of like reading the classifieds were the ad has about 20-30 words to get your attention. In YouTube, businesses will create commercials and other videos relevant to a product or service to help attract your attention. When you search in YouTube, other related videos will appear in the ad space, trying to get your attention to buy something.

When I first heard of this, I tried it out. I went to Facebook and opened my profile. With my profile open, the ads were related to my profile. Check it out:

As you can see, the advertisements and my profile are both talking about Information Technology. Facebook is quite brilliant for thinking of this way to attract users to generate UGC.

The other social media YouTube does relatively the same thing but with the types of videos you search for. For instance, I went to youtube and made a search about weight loss, and the ads were related. Check it out:

The whole point of this blog entry is to help you realize the best way to market your business by determining which social medias are efficiently promoting your company. Yes, you may buy ad space, and web pages but if your not using it effectively, it will mean absolutely nothing. This reminds me of what an old time resume critiquer told me - "Ali, you can have the best resume out there. It may look spectacular, but to whom?" 

Ali.

Infographic - Good or Bad?

So this week we were instructed to search for an info-graphic; either a good or bad one and state why based on the 3 principles, restrain, reduce, and emphasize.

An Info-graphic is simply a graphic that represents numerical data such as pie charts, bar graphs, and others. Now a days, graphic designers have become far more creative with their info-graphics to keep the interest of the reader. Just think about it, who the heck wants to look at a boring pie chart or bar graph? Often times, information is hard to portray through text and sentences. The use of info-graphic uses a visual aspect of memorization to help the reader comprehend and remember the main point of the design.

So I found an interesting info-graphic on water consumption. 

Here is the image:

Restrain: The designer of this info-graphic does not include irrelevant information within this graph. Irrelevant information can often distract the reader from the main purpose of the info-graphic.

Reduce:  The designer of this info-graphic only uses 2 colors to keep things simple and uses 1 single type-font throughout the design. The design also is well proportioned and clutter-free. There isn't any information overload in one specific area.

Emphasize: So what did the designer emphasize? Well, the percentages are in bold and have a bigger size than the other text.  Additionally, the numbers are centered.

The designer of this info-graphic did a nice job of respecting the 3 main protocols of restrain reduce and emphasize. By doing so, the readers are able to comprehend the main point clearly without further reading.

Appethaizing Restuarant - Use of mellow colors for a sophisticate appeal

Today a few of my co-workers and I went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. When I went into the restaurant the first thing I noticed was the layout of the restaurant. Its use of mellow colors really makes every element of the restaurant blend well together. Although in this picture it shows there is carpet, they've replaced it with some sort of tile that blends well.

The place setting has uses such contrast in colors that it really does prepare you for the food to come. The food was excellent to top it off.

Lastly, since we are responsible for designing logos this week, I thought I would post the restaurants logo.

I have to say that the Thai in appethaizing was a cool idea. It sells the company perfectly. I would probably have used a different color for the text though because it sort of looks faddish.. I am not too thrilled about the orange background. Lastly, with the pepper underneath the wording, it sort of looks like a pizzahut logo.

Well Rounded Health and Fitness Logo

In only 6 weeks I've lost a total of 54 lbs of body fat. Sounds like your average ad/promotion? Well, this is actually true. Thanks to the help of the 'Project 42' fitness program offered by Well Rounded Health and Fitness, I went from a depressed, sluggish, always-tired 242lbs down to a fat burning machine of 200lbs. But this blog post isn't about my weight loss or promoting the fitness center, its about critiquing their logo to see if it fits who they really are.

In the readings for my "Communicating Online" course, we talked about logos representing the companies and the content in them. Here is the logo of Well Rounded Health and Fitness (WRHF)

The first thing that came to mind is that the goldish/brown doesn't sit well with the silver/gray color. Seeing that the goldish/brown is the primary color, I would have selected a complimentary color such as a shade of blue or green instead of gray. The second point I'd like to make is in regards to the type font. In this logo, there is 2 font types and which fails to unify the the message.

The fitness center in itself has a personality of charismatic, uplifting, and high class training. The personal trainers add to that personality as well.  

 As they say, no critique is a good critique without offering ideas on modification. I would make the font type and color of the text the same. In looking at the logo, I cannot determine if the R in "Rounded" swerves around or not. I would complete the circle in the background to help resemble the "well rounded" effect. I would probably make the circle  a blueish-green color. Lastly, make the horizontal bars black that way the goldish/brown text will stand out.
 

Print Ad Critique for type and design

So this week the class was instructed to select a print ad and focus on it's font-type and color schemes. I strolled through google's images and found a print ad promoting ping pong for kids. 

Here is the image:

 

The color of the kid's skin flows well with the blue shirt he's wearing. I probably wouldn't have chosen the blue gradient background although it almost looks black. It does flow well with the image however selecting the same color for the fore and background of an image isn't the best way to bring out the main focus of an image. I noticed this ad is using multiple font types which isn't necessarily the best case for unifying the message. When looking on the kid's forearms and I see the tattoo, it obviously is supposed to reflect his toughness but on the other hand it doesn't go well with the image. The organization's logo was poorly placed in the image as well.

"Design is Everywhere" even in our ordinary lives

So it turns out that Reynold's saying "Design is everywhere" applies to simple people like me. When trying to think of a post for module 2, I happened to stare at my girlfriend's shoe collection.

To sum up what Reynolds what saying, he basically states that design is in the air and we have to observe it in order to understand it. 

Take a look at the first shoe:

 

This shoe is very simple and would not stand out when placed against other shoes. The design is simple and a female can anticipate it's "form". In turn, the shoe can be overlooked. In my opinion, the shoe is not very interesting and it is pretty basic.

Take a look at the second shoe:

The overall design of this issue is very unique and will stand out amongst others in its category. The design only contains 2 different pieces of material yet it stands out. 

So I asked my girlfriend what were the reasons for choosing these 2 shoes and she said she chose the first shoe because it was simple and nothing too fancy. She then says the second shoe is unique in that it has a couple elements to its design yet it looks very interesting. 

By observing the design of these 2 shoes, I've realized how much creativity can be put into a small amount of material yet look very sophisticated.

References: Reynolds chapter 1, chapter 10

Introduction

Hello All.

This is an introductory blog entry to kick start this blog.