Books. In paper form, their days are increasingly looking numbered. And I have found myself hesitating before buying books in the past few years. They are not cheap. Especially design book. But more importantly, I find myself accumulating books that go partially or completely unread. There is so much to read for free on the web. The iPad has even invaded bathroom and bedtime reading. Then there is eBooks. Paper books are clearly on the retreat. Why buy paper books.

But, a 50% off sign on a bookstore is hard to resist!

As I was leaving Amman’s Baraka Mall with my wife and eldest son (after watching the new Sherlock Holmes movie) that 50% sign drew us into the Prime bookstore like a magnet.

What started as a small pile of books quickly turned into a full scale book buying binge. I decided that the first business decision of 2012 for SYNTAX would be an upgrade of our office library which recently has been getting pretty dated.

Now mind you. Prime books seems to be closing down or something like that. They obviously want to sell their stock and the shelves certainly look like they are not being restocked. And from what I saw, no book was more recent than 2009. But at 50% off, it was just too hard to resist to keep on piling on one title after the other.

It’s actually sad that the glory days of Prime Megastore are over. When they opened in Mecca Mall, it was, for me, one of the best things that ever happened in Amman. I covered its opening in one of my early blog posts in 2004 on 360east.com.

In any case, as our work takes on in increasingly architectural nature, designing cultural/art spaces, workspaces and corporate interiors, I though it would be cool to add a heavy dose of architectural books to the mix.

And I finally got that huge Le Corbusier book!

A good start of 2012, don’t you think?

We’re looking for people who are passionate about design and communication as tools to change the world. If you’re happy about how the world functions today, you’d better not apply!

We want to fill several project senior and junior coordination posts at SYNTAX. It’s a job that combines client management, creative consulting, research, proposal writing and problem solving.

It all happens in a respectful, creative and multicultural work environment, working with startups, corporate clients and cultural organizations. If you think this kind of challenge is for you, we’d love to hear from you.

careers@syntaxdigital.com

Geographically, it was one of the smaller parts of Abraaj Capital’s Celebration of Entrepreneurship, the two-day event designed to consolidate, connect and motivate the region’s entrepreneurial community. But although it only occupied a small triangular stage at the rear entrance to Dubai’s Madina Jumeirah Convention Centre, the spotlit Wamda Live Stage was perhaps the most conspicuous embodiment of the event’s spirit – and underlined the undeniable potential of Wamda.com, the site officially launched on the opening morning.

Developed, designed and delivered by SYNTAX over the previous eight months, Wamda.com combines the content capacity of a business magazine, the community functionality of a social network and the educational resources of an online university. The Wamda Live Stage, where in excess of 50 entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, government officials and SME facilitators were interviewed on camera, provided a realtime billboard for the site’s ability to capture the best regional content.

Representing several nations, a range of ages, both genders and a multitude of disciplines, the parade of guests shared their professional insights and entrepreneurial experiences in highly public interrogations that were either streamed live on Wamda.com or recorded for later uploading. The breadth of topics and the range of expertise will only add to the incredible mine of entrepreneurial stories and resources already available on the site.

Before lunch was taken on the first day, for instance, Tarek Dajani had explained the genesis and expansion of ClearTag, a Beiruti web development and consultancy firm, Pakistani Amir Anzur revealed how his first two ventures failed, the first leaving him with debts of $100,000, before his Webpreneur University finally began to take flight, and Dale Murphy from the Dubai School of Government reported on ongoing attempts to make the UAE legislation much more entrepreneur-friendly. By 6pm on the second day, we’d heard from twentysomething business owners, teenage internet prodigies, budding social entrepreneurs, senior MBA lecturers, leading internet authorities and even august officials from the US State Department. This wasn’t so much an entrepreneurial movement as a stampede.

As one of the interviewers, it was as exhausting as it was exhilarating. But it proved to be a microcosm of the Celebration of Entrepreneurship: energy, enthusiasm and excitement harnessed in bursts of engaging, enlightening discussion – and little of it encumbered by rigid orchestration or scripting. The presence of Pakistani cricketer-turned-social entrepreneur Imran Khan on the stage, and later Aramex founder Fadi Ghandour’s question and answer session with young entrepreneurs, even drew sizeable crowds, proof of the growing connection between the platform and its audience.

Ultimately, the Celebration of Entrepreneurship was about one word: possibility. Ideas turned into actions, connections created communities, meetings evolved into mentorships and principles becoming concrete policies. The Wamda Live Stage captured much of it – a spirit that Wamda.com will now take across the whole region.

And here’s a cool photo to go with this post!

Today, SYNTAX got the green light to announce the release of the public beta of Wamda, the entrepreneurial mega hub that has kept us buy for the last 7 months. This project not only has the potential to transform the entrepreneurial scene of the region, but it has already transformed SYNTAX.

I have just posted my initial thoughts on building Wamda (for our clients at Abraaj Capital and Riyada Enterprise Development) in a rather long blog post at 360east.com.

A decade ago, a project like Wamda would have been probably conceived as the Arabic Fast Company or Inc magazine. But being born today, in the age of social networking and the real-time web, Wamda is more than a magazine, and it is wider than a website. The Wamda team at Abraaj, Riyada and SYNTAX has scoured the web for every regional entrepreneurial spark. As the Wamda.com hub launches it will aggregate hundreds of feeds from blogs, Twitter, company sites and mainstream media outlets, bringing together some of the best minds of the region into one vibrant conversation.

In building Wamda we have taken creative risks. We asked ourselves, how do we create a web interface at a time where the web is bringing together text, images, video, audio and that is increasingly reflecting the real-time life of people, companies and organizations.

Driven by the client’s mandate to innovate, we threw out the manual of conventional web design. Navigation, content display, layout, sharing, authoring and connecting on Wamda have all been reinvented. In doing so, we expect some user bewilderment borne out of unfamiliarity. But then, nothing great has ever been achieved by only sticking to the rules. A website is a living being that can change and mutate. We expect a lot of feedback from Wamda’s users which we will work back into the product to create a more refined experience.

The building of Wamda has also brought together our various disciplines at SYNTAX and Spring in an unprecedented manner. Beside the strategy, branding, user interface design and technology skills we usually bring to the table, our team has also developed the Wamda’s content strategy, researched the sources of potential stories, coordinated the actions of various content and production partners and produced massive amounts of content in-house. Our work on Wamda will usher in a new era at SYNTAX where we transition from a design-led to design and content led innovation firm. It’s an exciting time for us.

Read the entire post on 360east.

Our first few months (or years) on the job are always a little shocking. We discover how the client is always right, even if he or she has no idea what the hell they’re talking about. We come to terms with the fact that design is almost never creative; in fact, creativity is practically frowned upon. We realize that the bulk of what we our jobs entail is detailing and finalization.

I am very lucky that I started out my career in SYNTAX, the best design environment in Jordan. Lina — an amazing designer and one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever known — practically adopted me.

Let me share with you what I learned in my first few years as a design professional, in hopes that it will help you in your first few years as one too.

Read the full post on andfaraway

SYNTAX and Al-Balad Theater present:

“The New (Type)face of Amman”

German type-design rising star Yanone will be telling the story of his Amman typeface, created for the Amman Municipality’s “Amman Brand” project in collaboration with SYNTAX.

The result of this project is now FF Amman, marketed worldwide by FontShop, as one of largest bilingual font families ever.

Amman is probably the first Arab city to get its own typeface. The Amman typeface is now starting to appear all around Amman, on signs, posters and ads. It will become one of the city’s recognizable visual features.

If you’re a designer, design student, design and art lover or a Amman enthusiast, we’d love you to join us for an interesting presentation and discussion. Yanone will also preview the 15-minute film he has shot during his current visit to our city.

27 July, 2010
7-9 pm
Al-Balad Theater, Jabal Amman. You can find a map to Al Balad Theater here.

Facebook page of this event is here.

Today, we get to lift the curtain, just a little bit, and start the launch process for one of the most interesting and challenging project we’ve ever worked on at SYNTAX. Together with our friends at Spring, we’ve been commissioned to build what hopefully will become the region’s most comprehensive, dynamic and interactive entrepreneurial hub. So today we can tell you: its name is Wamda and the “coming soon” page and cool little trailer is up.
The teams at SYNTAX and Spring, along with an army of freelancers and partner companies are still hard at work. The next step will be going into a private beta test phase, where a limited number of user will be allowed in to help iron out any issues.

If you want to be notified when Wamda officially goes live, head over for www.wamda.com and submit your email. If you want to participate as a private beta tester you can submit a request too.

Wamda means “spark” in Arabic. And lot of bright sparks have already gone into this project. You can already join the Wamda community and add your own sparks by connecting with the Wamda team on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube (where you’ll find some more teasers

That’s it for now and stay tuned for more updates..

One of the coolest Arab media projects out there these days is Aramram, a web-TV project based in Amman. The Aramram team is redefining what local socially and culturally engaged TV means, with a progressive editorial line and a fresh/edgy visual brand of video communication. It’s everything mainstream TV is not!

Over the past year, Aramram has produced a dazzling array of video portraits, reports and shows that cover a wide range of issues and put Jordan’s diversity on full display. Interaction with the “channel” also has evolved with more viewers posting comments and embedding videos in blog and websites.

For the past weeks our team at SYNTAX and and our friends at Spring have been working closely with the Aramram team on releasing an upgraded new version of Aramram, focusing on improved usability and navigation and a tidying up of the site’s presentation, while keeping Aramram’s unique visual style.

Videos are now more easily accessible and findable. Content is cross posted under various classifications, enabling users to discover more of Aramram’s videos.

Check it out on Aramram.com
Project team

SYNTAX: Ibrahim Owais, Aseel Haddad.
Spring: Khalil Majadalwi, Sana Bataineh

The man in the picture is none other than SYNTAX senior designer Hussein Azaat. During the work day, he is busy creating websites, iPhone app design, logos and print communication for SYNTAX’s clients. But when night falls, out comes his alter ego. Hussein the Calligrapher.

Recently Hussein came into the office with a bunch of amazing photos of a series of murals he calligraphed for Amman’s Landmark Hotel. He standing in front of one of them in the photo above.

The texts depicted are odes to Amman, done in Hussein’s distinct calligraphic style.

More photos here.