We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Aly Bassam ("AB").
Aly Bassam is a Lebanese graphic designer who is in his middle twenties. A young graphic designer who was able to prove himself among a great number of designers who exceeded him with experience and age. For Aly, neither his age nor his years of experience mattered, it was only his wide creativity and persistence that lead him to be from the few designers that have a vivid future awaiting. When it comes to achievements, it is important to mention that Aly got a lot of his artworks published in international magazines like the "Photoshop magazine" and also adobe itself shared one of his artworks. He got known by time and is working with agencies in his country and willing to work internationally. The society that aly belongs to got used to his way of communication, it is the touches that he adds to his work that directly reflect his point of view toward any discussed issue. Of course, not forgetting to mention that what makes him unique and interesting is the perseverance and patience he has that is shown in all of his artworks, they took time and efforts; however they are always eye catching and meaningful.
Aly Bassam Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Aly Bassam.
Designer Interview of Aly Bassam:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
AB : It all started long ago, since I was a kid all what mattered to me was to get to know more about art without paying attention to the situation itself. While other kids used to play regular known games for them I used to be playing with photoshop. It was a kind of curiousity and love of kowing new things that got me on this roas and lead me to become a designer.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
AB : My design studio is an escape area where I can put all my crativity in. It is the place were you would find me if I am lost. A humble room in my house were I can work freely and give out the messages I want to express.
DI: What is "design" for you?
AB : Design is a broad word that derives alot of things after it. It is the way of expressing a certain and important message in an effective way that must be built on creativity, and also carrying a message for the audience.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
AB : When it comes to what I like, I choose photo manipulation artworks because I believe that they express and show all the feelings and efforts done by me on them.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
AB : The CD cover argonaut by Jo Blankenburg is my favorite one up to now, it is an interesting piece of art that reflects the kind of music in its details, and showing us the upcoming future with technology apocalypse.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
AB : The first company I designed for was an agency named Tania Travel.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
AB : VR is my favorite kind of technology.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
AB : In the morning, it is the best time I feel more creative because at then I have the full energy to give it out.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
AB : I love focusing on details in design, the details that help it not to e fake, one of them are the lighting and shadowing.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
AB : These aren't called emotions, when it comes to feeling, it is passion that attracts me toward designing.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
AB : Fulfilling emotions of respect when I get to know that my designs are being realized, it is a great pleasure to see that you have achieved a place where your designs are being recognized by others.
DI: What makes a design successful?
AB : What makes a design successful are many, one of them is giving it all the passion and attention that you have, another thing is to have design aspects to work on as a good concept and creative ideas.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
AB : Regarding the importance of havind a strong concepts, As I mentioned before, details are what mostly matter to me, as long as the design doesn't look fake it is very good to me.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
AB : From my point of view, I believe that every designer should work on giving the highest quality he could give inorder to show the society and surrounding always new levels of innovations.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
AB : Design field is evolving as humans are, each generation has it's own way of thinking. Hence, the future of design is going toward technology and what's so as all the upcoming generations are.
DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
AB : My last exhibition was a local one in Lebanon, the next one is going to be in Italy it is for A design awards.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
AB : My inspiration comes mainly from movies and video games, I ffed my creativty from their creative details they add.
DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
AB : If I get to describe my design style, it is the one affected my movies and video games I watch, I find their details quiet much interesting. My style is known as photo manipulation and I am willing to always give out the best up to dated designs.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
AB : I live in Lebanon. A country with a huge known cultural heritage, a country that has a mixture of all cultures also. Of course this affected my design in a positive way were it taught me to always work on being objective so I couldn't offend anyone around me, as for the cons its only our current situations we are having such as Political ones that are deriving many other cons with it.
DI: How do you work with companies?
AB : I have dealed with different companies in different ways, Tried full time jobs, Part time jobs, and alot of other situations. But what I preferred the most is wornking as a freelancer because it gives me more space to work freely and build up all my creativity
DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
AB : I advice the companies that work with designers to always search for innovation within the designers themselves. Being in a stable job or place isn't what I'm talking about, the more you give the designer some space, the more he can get out with creative ideas. I could suggest more Freelance designs.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
AB : It started long time ago since I was w little kid, about 12 years old. At first it was nothing but a hobby, and by time going on and after watching alot of tutorials I loved it till I studied in in the university. The process was a matter of time and more acknowledgement.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
AB : I kind of favor only one item, which is my personal computer that I work on, it is the main and only thing that could help me in my career at home.
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
AB : It is a very busy day were you need to fix between working. meeting clients, friends, family and getting your own rest time.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
AB : I advice them to always put aims and goals in front of them, to never give up easily and to know that they have a very long distance to reach what they really want to be. I am one of them who is still in his journey.
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
AB : Being a designer has alot of pros and cons, one of the pros is being able to see life in a different way from others, however the negative thing is that while always seeing the world from their side they never have enough time to do all tasks "not much rest time".
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
AB : having depth in composition and contrast in colors.
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
AB : For a designer, it is most importantly to always stay up to date with his surrounding, to always know what to give the audience in a creative way.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
AB : I mainly use adobe photoshop in almost all my designs, to be more specific, I use alot the brush and pen tool in it because they help me alot to control my design and make it easier for me to deal with what am working.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
AB : As I said before, it is a matter of time. You have to work hard at first so you could be able to figure out the perfect timing that helps you pull out all your creativity. For me I work in the early morning so I could give out the best I can.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
AB : It always depends on the type of the project that I'm dealing with. Some take one hour while other might take ten hours or even more.
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
AB : I get asked many questions, like where do I get my Ideas from. Do I prefer to work individually or no? and many others.
DI: What was your most important job experience?
AB : Each job I got into or a client I got to deal with gave me a different experience. there isn't actually a comparison I could build in here.
DI: Who are some of your clients?
AB : Swatch Bank Audi Hariss Company Burger king Mikesport
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
AB : I enjoy photo manipulation because I consider it the most realistic among many.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
AB : As many designer, I am willing to open my own business later on and not forgetting also to always give the best that I can concerning the quality so I could always get involved in winning awards and so.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
AB : At fisrt, I was working by my own and reached where I am today from an individual on. In present time I started working as a team.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
AB : I am currently orking on something and going to share it soon on Behance, stay tuned! and don't forget to check my Behance: be.net/AlyBassam
DI: How can people contact you?
AB : ali_bassam@live.com