360east

Month: March 2007

  • Jordanians are fat-eating, smoking couch potatoes..

    ..and that why heart diseases kill 42% of them. That’s what Jordan’s Health Minister Saad Kharabsheh said in a medical conference [Arabic link] yesterday. The interesting question for me is: how did we, as a society, develop the culture of over-eating fatty foods, heavy smoking and lack of movement? Why does every restaurant need a…

  • Got to admire those Norwegians!

    Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh in Riyadh. From the Norway Post: Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who is attending the Arab League Summit in Riyadh, has had talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh. The Norwegian Foreign Minister has also had talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…

  • Mixed-sex boxing in Jordan. Shame! Shame!

    Where is the respect for values among today’s youth? Is it not a shame that ‘some’ in our society are willing to act in this disrespectful manner. I have obtained the video above of two so-called Jordanian designers, a young man and a young woman, BOXING EACH OTHER at a party. The people around them…

  • On the arrogance of architects..

    BusinessWeek’s Bruce Nussbaum has written one heck of an article about the state of Design today, entitled “Are Designers The Enemy Of Design?“. “Designers suck,” he says and he tells us why (Arrogance, Ignorance and Disregard for the Planet!). One paragraph I particularily liked was about the arrogance of architects: Let’s talk about the arrogance…

  • Amman map: A piece of Jordanian design history

    While doing a Google Image search about Amman, I stumbled upon this rather outdated map of Amman (click to enlarge) on some city guide site. There is a little story about this map I’d like to share. This map was originally designed circa 1995 by my wife and SYNTAX co-founder Salua Qidan. I also had…

  • The ‘Plastic Internet’: The Third World’s real information revolution

    In technologically advanced economies, things like broadband video-on-demand, municipal WiFi coverage and the mobile internet are becoming commonplace. But in place like Jordan and other ‘developing world’ countries even a dial up connection is a luxury that the masses cannot afford. The cost of connecting to the net in Jordan, for example, is higher that…

  • Making words from books!

    Amaztype: What a crazy site. Type in a word and see it get formed in front of your eyes out of an endless array of book covers. With a click you zoom in to get a closer look and more info about any particular book. Click a cover and you’re on that book’s Amazon page.…

  • Amman’s snow hides the mess 🙂

    Snow hides a heap of construction rubbish outside Amman’s City Mall Thursday, March 15, 2006 Read these related posts on 360east: Dude, so what if there is snow in front of my shop after nine days?? SYNTAX: creativity is messy and our studio proves it! Exclusive video: snow falls on Dabouq 🙂 Amman Art attack:…

  • Design in Jordan: something is moving

    The words ‘design’ and ‘Jordan’ rarely are thought of as belonging together. The practice of design in Jordan is still in its infancy. People who practice design are found in the growing number of advertising agencies (or graphic design firms, of which only a few exist anyway), in architectural companies (where the designers are called,…

  • Tootcorp moves into new “campus”

    Heavy work has been underway in the past few weeks to facilitate the move of TootCorp, the creators of such famous web inventions as Toot and Ikbis, into new corporate headquarters. Toot corp started its life in the SYNTAX HQ, in an office facility of around 100,000 square centimeters. But now, with the rapid expansion…

  • Trying to visit Amman’s Graphiclub

    I’ve been wanting to visit the Gaphiclub cafe/bookstore in Sweifieh but never had the time. Incidentally I think it’s fabulous that Amman has a graphic design ‘themed’ place like that. BTW: Does anyone have a URL for this place?? Yesterday I was inspecting one of our retail design projects in Sweifieh and I happend to…

  • Arab Heaven and Arab Hell

    Another hilarious cartoon by Hajjaj. Heaven is: A Syrian wife Lebanese food Emirati citizenship Jordanian security Egyptian tourism A Palestinian neighbor Saudi taxes Qatari salary Hell is: An Egyptian wife Emirati food Lebanese citizenship Palestinian security Qatari tourism A Saudi neighbour Jordanian taxes Syrian salary Read these related posts on 360east: What does a Viking…