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Alan Aboud (born 13 May 1966) is an Irish graphic designer and creative director, from Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin from 1974 to 1984 and the National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Dublin where he completed his foundation year and began his degree in graphic design before transferring to Saint Martin's School of Art in London in 1986. He graduated from there in 1989, with a first class honours degree.
He founded the creative agency Aboud Sodano in 1989 with fellow Saint Martin's student and photographer Sandro Sodano.
The pair enjoyed a loose creative association for many years combining Alan's talent for art direction and typography with Sandro's distinctive image making. In 2007, Aboud Sodano became Aboud Creative, when their full-time collaboration ceased.
For over 20 years, the agency worked extensively with strong and creatively innovative fashion, beauty, fragrance and lifestyle brands including Paul Smith (Sir Paul Smith), Levi's, H&M, River Island and Neal's Yard Remedies.
Aboud created the Paul Smith identity using a Multi-stripe textile design originally created for shirting in 1997. Spotted at his degree show by Paul Smith's head buyer in 1989, he began working for Smith two days a week on his advertising and graphic design whilst setting up Aboud Sodano - his working relationship with Smith flourished and continued uninterrupted until June 2015. He continues to work on advertising for PAUL SMITH COLLECTION, the company's Japanese higher line.
He has rebranded his agency to ABOUD+ABOUD, reflecting his move into creative consultancy for agencies such as GREY LONDON, where he collaborates with them on brands such as HUGO BOSS fragrances. The agency also continues to work on editorial design, fashion advertising and more recently Creative Direction for fashion short form films.
Aboud has three children, twins Victor and Milo Keating-Aboud, and a daughter, Georgie Alma Best Aboud.
"I really don't think that my vision of the future of graphic design is that relevant or indeed important. Every aspiring designer should stick to his or her beliefs. What I do care about in my work is that it is original, appropriate, and never patronising. My long-term goal is to achieve a healthy and equal balance between design that works strategically but doesn't pollute the environment and design that creatively pushes boundaries, whether they be aesthetic or about choice of medium. I would ideally like to use the skills that I have as a designer to take on board some social responsibility as I am actually aware that it is designers of my generation and the one previous that are responsible for the saturation of the High Street with ubiquitous and meaningless design." [1]
1. you can find inspiration in everything* Paul Smith Published by Violette Editions ISBN 978-1-900828-29-1 Contributor's p. 296
2. New Design London: The Edge of Graphic Design Edited by Edward M. Gomez Published by Rockport Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-56496-562-7 p. 16
3. The Graphics Book Edited by Jane Austin Published by RotoVision SA ISBN 2-88046-550-8 p. 13
4. Graphics - Real-world graphic design projects - from brief to finished solution Published by Rotovision ISBN 2-88046-315-7 p. 12 - p. 19
5. Graphic Design for the 21st Century 100 of the World's Graphic Designer Published by Taschen ISBN 3-8228-1605-1 p. 38 - p. 43
6. Wear Me: Fashion + Graphics Interaction Edited by Liz Farelly ISBN 1-873968-55-8 p. 144 - p. 153
7. Great Graphics on a Budget Written and Designed by Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi Published by Rockport Publishers ISBN 1-56496-948-7 p. 96 - p. 99
8. Fashion & Graphics Written by Tamsin Blanchard Published by Laurence King Publishing ISBN 1-85669-338-4 p. 128 - p. 139
9. Problem Solved Written by Michael Johnson Published by Phaidon Press ISBN 0-7148-4174-9 p. 257
10. Communicate: Independent Graphic Design since the Sixties Edited by Rick Poynor Published by Laurence King Publishing ISBN 1-85669-422-4 p. 88
11. Dialogue Relationships in Graphic Design Written by Shaun Cole Published by V&A Publications ISBN 1-85177-434-3 p. 30 - p. 39
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of design and of the fine arts. Its practice involves creativity, innovation and lateral thinking using manual or digital tools, where it is usual to use text and graphics to communicate visually.
A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface. The term usually refers to the arts that rely more on line, color or tone, especially drawing and the various forms of engraving; it is sometimes understood to refer specifically to printmaking processes, such as line engraving, aquatint, drypoint, etching, mezzotint, monotype, lithography, and screen printing. Graphic art mostly includes calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics, and bindery. It also encompasses drawn plans and layouts for interior and architectural designs.
A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos ; and directs & translates the creative peoples who produce the end results. Creative director positions are often found within the television production, graphic design, film, music, video game, fashion, advertising, media, or entertainment industries, but may be found in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well.
Motion graphic design, also known as motion design, is a subset of graphic design which combines design with animation and/or filmmaking, video production, and filmic techniques. Examples include kinetic typography and graphics used in film and television opening sequences, and station identification logos of some television channels.
Graphic design careers include creative director, art director, art production manager, brand identity developer, illustrator and layout artist.
Mel Byars, is an American design historian.
Roger Fawcett-Tang is a British graphic designer with a special interest in book design and calendars. He has written several books about design.
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Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes in topics related to graphic design.
Nick Shinn is a typeface designer. He attended Bedford School then Leeds Polytechnic, where he earned a Dip. AD in Fine Art.
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Rick Poynor is an English writer on design, graphic design, typography, and visual culture.
Jeffery Keedy, born 1957, is an American graphic designer, type designer, writer and educator. He is notable as an essayist and contributor to books and periodicals on graphic design. He is also notable for the design of Keedy Sans, a typeface acquired in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 2011.
Sedley Place is a British design agency based in Clapham, London and employees 35 designers, graphic artists, architects, web designers and account teams.
Stephan Van Dam is a cartographer, graphic designer and information architect. He is the president, principal and creative director of New York–based VanDam, Inc. Van Dam holds several patents in the field of paper engineering and origami map folding. Twenty-six of his maps are in the permanent Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
John David Lloyd is a British graphic designer who in 1975 co-founded the international design consultancy Lloyd Northover. He has worked in all fields of graphic design but has specialised in corporate identity.
Alan Kitching RDI AGI Hon FRCA is a practitioner of letterpress typographic design and printmaking. Kitching exhibits and lectures across the globe, and is known for his expressive use of wood and metal letterforms in commissions and limited-edition prints.
Brian Williams, from Dublin, is an Irish graphic designer, developer of advertising commercials, and short film director. A graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology, Williams is a winner of multiple industry awards who has worked with U2, a number of TV stations and a range of major brands.
Jan de Fouw was a Dutch graphic designer and illustrator who lived and worked in Ireland. He was influential on Irish design in the 20th century.
Adrian Shaughnessy is a British graphic designer, writer and publisher.
