Graphic Design Students' Achievements and Award Winners
The Graphic Design program in AUC Center for the Arts is an exciting yet a challenging journey in the eyes of the design students. Because of this intimate process, students graduate with a strong vision to excel and acquire diverse skill sets to achieve their goals. It is important to mention the great efforts that graduates of the Design program accomplish post their undergraduate studies. Graduates Aley Barakat ’20, Alia Tobala ‘22, Nora Abushadi ‘16 and Donia El Shimy ‘21 are graduate named winners for the Cairo Design Awards (CDA).
Aley Barakat is an Interactive Narrative Experience Designer focused on creating immersive AR/VR and mixed reality experiences. He believes in the power of harnessing skills and knowledge from various fields. Motivated by this belief, he pursued a double major in Computer Engineering and Graphic Design as well as a minor in Mathematics at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Furthermore, he earned an MA in Independent Games and Playable Experience Design at Goldsmiths University in London.
His work has been acknowledged internationally: two of his projects “El-Manseb” and “The Game of Me” were recently awarded both Gold and Silver for the Cairo Design Awards 2022. His interactive installation “The Game Of Me” has been exhibited in EGX London, A-Maze Berlin, Laval Virtual France, Playtime Bruges, Blon Lithuania and got nominated for BBA Artist Prize Berlin 2022 and the Best Digital Moment Award 2022 at A Maze Festival. His work revolves around exploring the accessibility of knowledge in relation to power and relies on emotional design and tries to channel his personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions in his projects.
Donia El Shimy is a graphic/UI UX designer where she had hera bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design at the American University in Cairo. As a graphic designer, ElShimy is interested in taking part in creating these solutions and expanding the ways in which design can impact our future and societies in every way possible. Donia El shimmy’s project DemiCare won an honorable mention at the CDA. DemiCare is an application that aims to support the daily lives of dementia patients and informal caregivers by organizing the patient’s daily routine, training patients with cognitive tests and games to track disease progression overtime. It also aims to raise awareness and educate caregivers on the different types and stages of cognitive impairment. The application is created to support the well-being of both caregivers and patients.
Farah Eid’s passion for footwear can not go unnoticed. Her project Zahw has won two honorable mention awards in the Global Footwear in 2021 and the Cairo Design Awards in 2022. According to Eid’s research, redundant designs are one of the major problems in The footwear Industry. Her project aims to create original and unique shoes based on a conceptual design, inspired by the old Egyptian identity found in El Moez Street. The main inspiration is derived from the Mamluks’ dynasty, focusing on The Qalawon complex. Zahw portrays the beauty and delicateness of the Islamic Architecture of the Mamluk’s Dynasty and aims to encourage accepting the beauty in each authentic identity that lays true harmony.
Farida majored in graphic design and did a minor in entrepreneurship in Fall ‘18. After graduation, she took several courses to enhance her knowledge of footwear design and pattern-making. She received an award for one of her designs and got featured in a footwear leading magazine in Europe. Now she is designing footwear in Mintra Sports, the first leading sports footwear factory in Africa and the Middle east.
Undergraduates like Ziad Osama, whose project 'Diversity Builds Unity’ got selected and published for the Ads for the World Awards. It’s a campaign that aims to define diversity. For Ziad, it keeps people together and united. The poster features flying doves representing the peace and freedom that occurred due to the unity expressed in the bigger picture by the lungs. The freehand lettering of Arabic letters of the Word (حرية), which means freedom. His project ‘Branding the City’ was also selected in CDA. It was a multi-sensory branding project aiming to enhance the experience of Shubra people, making them proud of their neighborhood. Shubra was chosen since it is a unique district in Cairo.
