Tuesday: 

On Tuesday, Maryam Razi explained about the Hox Zodiac project that she worked with prof. Vennesa. She is a curator, eyewear designer, and graphic designer. I was really impressed that she made a font for the Hox Zodiac project and she shared her experience with the dinner component.  Moreover, Maryam showed us a video about saffron crisis and I could realize why the saffron sales with very high price. It also showed up the crop crises that happened over the years and it could also impact on our current climate change.

This week we presented our slides as our final project proposals to some class guests.

Link to google slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zfndYq6pLtVcaVgfxb9i_QkiIS6mWm2dcu0c1r6eTZg/edit?usp=sharing

On Tuesday, Maryam Razi came to class and shared a presentation about Saffron and talked about her graphic design process for the Hox Zodiac game she created with Prof. Vesna. Maryam designed the game’s typeface to resemble bones, which I thought was a great way to embody the animals through design. I also found the saffron harvesting process poetic and fascinating because it requires tremendous patience and care. Growing and distributing saffron authentically requires an immense amount of delicate work that many aren’t able to do.

On Tuesday, guest speaker Maryam Razi spoke about her contributions to the Hox Zodiac project, her work process, and saffron. It was interesting to see the inspirations behind the graphic design of the project, including the typeface that she designed that was inspired by the shape of animal bones. I loved seeing this process because I am also inspired by organic silhouettes in my own artwork.

TUESDAY 2/7:

Week 5: Saffron, HOX Zodiac, Final Ideas

Tuesday (2/6): 

This Tuesday, Maryam Razi, an Iranian artist, visited our class to discuss saffron, environmental issues, and her own contributions for HOX Zodiac.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we are lucky to have Maryam Razi visiting our class as a guest speaker. She is a graphic designer, curator, and interdisciplinary researcher on topics of food, science design, and culture.

 On Tuesday, Maryam Razi shared her work in progress board game, HOX Zodiac. Maryam is a graphic designer, eyewear craftswoman and independent curator based in Tehran and Southern California. She spoke of her HOX Zodiac dinner party in Tehran in which she asked a chef friend, Shahram Javanbakht, to prepare dinner for 15 guests; the main course was a baked fish fillet on a green silky round bed.

Tuesday started off with a talk from designer Maryam Razi. Razi is a curator, eyewear designer, and graphic designer. Razi designed a typeface for the Hox Zodiac project and also shared about her experience with the dinners component of Hox Zodiac. Razi bravely hosted a dinner with friends in Tehran which brought together perspectives and allowed for a culinary journey from a year of the dragon chef.

On Tuesday, artist Maryam Razi led a short guest lecture, mainly talking about Hox Zodiac, the board game she designed. She designed the entire visual style, element, and fonts of such a project. I was impressed by how she integrated the structure of genes (DNA)into the letters, and how she used the embryos to represent each sign. The design elements and styles she chose are extremely organic, vivid, and “biological”. And the game mechanism is also quite interesting, particularly the part that every player should come up with a story for each recipe card.

Tuesday 

We started this week off with our guest speaker, Mariam Razi, who discussed her career as an artist, designer, and game maker. Mariam is part of the Hox Zodiac group, and she showed us her Illustrator file where she created the unique Hox typeface used in the majority of the project’s material. Additionally, Mariam also discussed the Feminist Climate Change movement and its  importance on viewing climate change from beyond the binary, and in Iran, beyond the border.

On Tuesday, artist Maryam Razi visited our class to present her board game prototype based on the Hox Zodiac. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into her typography process. It was very inspiring for me, as someone who wants to develop my own typeface but has always been too intimidated to try. The premise of Maryam’s game is also very intriguing- it encourages players to generate their own zodiac-influenced recipes by rolling a dice.