Title: 'From Wires To Computers'
A workshop by Antoine Abi Aad
Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanon

Abstract:  The workshop evolves through three stages.
First, students shape letters by bending (electric) wires. They form these letters from their imagination, logically inspired by or based on their handwriting. The difference is, with handwriting, they write mechanically/instinctively, while with wires, they take their time to innovate and to be original.
Next, when students pass to computers, these (unplugged) wiring techniques perpetuates in their style.
They will freely digitize the letters with a genuine loyalty to the physical letters they curled and looped.
After the flexibility and freedom stages, the students progress by experimenting limitations. They put order to their letters, following grids, yet they remain loyal to the freestyle letters they adopted from wired and adapted to computers.

Materials/ tools to be brought by student participants:
Students need to have laptops with Adobe Illustrator installed.

About Instructor:

Antoine Abi Aad

Faculty of Advertising and Graphic Design at Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA) in Beirut - Lebanon

After completing his masters and Ph D in design in Japan, he came back to Lebanon in 2008 to teach at ALBA. He also has exhibited, worked and taught in Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Dubai, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Lebanon, Morocco, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia and USA.
He has recently been elected as Vice President of Ico-D (formerly Icograda)