Interview with Abnodesigns

Design has always been a part of our lives. Since school days in Amman, our major was in art and design then moving on to college in Toronto where we both studied to design schools.
In our early years we wanted to become Artists, in our college years we got to really understand the difference between art and deign and that is when we wanted to become designers.
We have always been designers by nature.

After we get a detailed brief about a project, we sit together to brainstorm and research. This part is essential for any of the designs we create. Sketching comes next, until we agree on directions for execution. We then sit for hours in front of the computer to bring form to our vision.

It differs, each day is a new day. We design almost daily, so our emotions vary. In general, when we're working on a big project, we feel super inspired and excited. It is usually a calm, zen feeling that you need to be in in-order to be able to produce beautiful designs.

Global exploration. Travel is essential to our growth as designers. We draw inspiration from tiny details in marble, tiles and textiles to the tallest skyscrapers; from the natural world to gastronomy and culture. Our designs embrace influences from east and west and everything in between. Travel inspires us to do what we love most: DESIGN.

Our Jordanian and Palestinian roots. We grew up surrounded by the warmth, hospitality, and traditions of Arabic families. Jordan is a communal culture, with an emphasis on family and extended family. Our designs reflect this sense of unity and confidence in identity.

Our Arabic language. We are influenced by the Arabic language and its typography; we think, speak, live, and breathe in our mother tongue. Our bilingualism allows us to approach design with no preference for right-to-left, or left-to-right. We see and understand linguistic patterns and connections, weaving this insight into our branding and identity design.

The landscape around us. We draw strength from the hills of Amman, deep wadis where unexpected flowers spring up, the minerals of the Dead Sea, and the solitude of the desert. As part of this landscape, we reflect on the courage of our people and the significance of our place. In a country surrounded by revolutions and wars, our designs demonstrate longevity and sustainability. We create out of necessity. We design to declare our existence.

Specializing in festival designs. We have been branding different festivals for the past 8 years, we now want to be the specialists in that. We want to be able to work from anywhere and everywhere internationally whenever we want.

Do whatever it takes to learn, explore and travel. Always do it with love.

Live, eat and breath design. Do it out of love and passion.

We like to change things up, so our days are not very repetitive. The only common thing in our working days is that we always meet up at our studio, usually between 10 till 5. Different things happen in different days.

We travel to a lot of design weeks around the world. Travel is essential to our growth as designers. We draw inspiration from tiny details following all new trends and designs in the different design festivals. It keeps us up to date as we return fresh and inspired back to our studio.

Good design lives for a long time. We always make sure that whatever we design can last at-least five years and up.
Also, the concept behind the design is a big distinguisher of a great design. And makes it live longer.

You just know, with experience. We listen to our gut feeling.
Plus, once the client is convinced, our job is done.

Creating the 7up vintage photo booth, we created an activation in two malls over two weeks. We had to design, execute and finalize the whole thing in a short duration. It was a rush and we had to work all nighters to get it done. It gave us satisfaction to see the hype it created after all the hard work.
Also, the Petra local beer cans designed and created along with Heineken in Amman/Jordan.

Sagmeister, people behind Gucci Decor (which really baffled us in Milan Design week), Toilet paper magazine and their collaboration with Seletti. Also, a lot of fashion design brands highly inspire us.

Our Jordanian and Palestinian roots. We grew up surrounded by the warmth, hospitality, and traditions of Arabic families. Jordan is a communal culture, with an emphasis on family and extended family. Our designs reflect this sense of unity and confidence in identity.

We balance creativity and professionalism. To us, creativity is as important as delivering our design, on time and efficiently. From naming to production, we create brands that give form to vision.

We make the commercial cool.Getting out of the norm is our usual. Our designs reflect a bold mission and strong purpose. We make our clients visible through conceptual and aesthetically timeless branding and advertising. We SELL design.

One love. We created a T-shirt that says One Love in Arabic and spread it around the region. With every shirt one dollar was put aside for charity. We took a western concept and eastern-ized it by writing it in Arabic. We felt we needed it in times of revolution in Egypt and wars all around.

International recognition… We need it as we plan to expand wider around the world.

The biggest motivation is to enhance visual communication, give meaning and to beautify the world we are living in. It was never a conscious decision to become a designer, it just happened naturally.

We can say that we are designers by nature, ever since we were kids.

We create brands, designing everything that comes with that. Starting with the logo, all the way to the actual space and everything in between. We have been designing a few music festivals for the past 8 years and that is what we wish to design more of.

Live, eat and breath design. Do it out of love and passion.

The conceptual part, and also the professionalism.

Good design lives for a long time. We always make sure that whatever we design can last at-least five years and up.
Also, the concept behind the design is a big distinguisher of a great design.

Good design affects the human race on a conscious and subconscious level. Good design can elevate our daily experience and enhance productivity and positivity.

Many things. We would love to design beer cans, international music festivals, exhibitions/products/services for BIG brands.

Creating a brand with a big idea that will last for long, such as Nike, Dolce and Gabbana , Qtips and Absolute vodka just to name a few.
Or maybe branding design weeks in places such as Milan, New York, Toronto or even Copenhagen.

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency.
If you don’t keep at it, day after day, year after year you may loose it. SO CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

Sagmeister, people behind Gucci Decor (which really baffled us in Milan Design week), Toilet paper magazine and their collaboration with Seletti. Also, a lot of fashion design brands highly inspire us.

Nike branding. Simple and memorable.

Our branding. It has been created ten years ago and it’s still relevant and makes sense today. We even won an award for it ten years later.

Travel, Travel, Travel and explore. We make it an aim to travel all around the world to discover and learn about design in different cities and cultures. Traveling for design leads you to the coolest things/shops/places in any new city.

We would have either gotten into music (pianist) , dance or psychology.

Design is laying out things in a way that makes your eyes smile and your brain move positively.

Firstly, our parents, providing us with great design education. Then friend and partners who always believed in us.

The partnership that we have combined with (what we would love to think) a good taste in design.

Being from the Middle East as women, it was sometimes a challenge to break the norm in a conventional settings.

In a basic clean manner, let the design speak for itself.

We are specializing in branding music festivals, we are currently working on Sandbox Festival 2019 in Egypt and a few branding projects in Amman and Dubai. Bigger festivals coming up in the future.

Creating memorable designs that sell and last.

We don’t like expectations. It’s always customized to the clients needs.

Design can create awareness, affect people’s choices, and spread knowledge like no other.

Designing and branding a huge automotive showroom.

The Harley Davidson Jordanian symbol. It was great to work with an international team to come up with an approved design from Harley international. Also, the 7up photo booth, we created an activation in two malls over two weeks. We had to design, execute and finalize the whole thing in a short duration. It was a rush and we had to work all nighters to get it done. It gave us satisfaction to see the hype it created after all the hard work. Also, getting recognition from 7up offices in New York.

More print, less screen time. More actual than virtual.

Robotics. We even saw a Puppy pet robot designed by Sony this year in Milan Design Week!

Depends on deliverables. Anywhere between one month to a year.

Research/ brainstorming and sketching.

Ideas need space.

It’s like “what comes first, the chicken or the egg?”

It has a big role, but that role comes in after we brainstorm/sketch and come up with the concept that we want to design.

Adobe in-design, photo-shop, illustrator.

All these elements and a lot more come together to create the whole look and feel of whatever we are creating.

How did you think of that?

We wish we did that.

Our ideal design partner is our existing selves. We definitely believe in co-design, both of us wouldn’t have lasted as much if we weren’t doing it as a team. There is a saying in our country that we believe in that says: “One hand alone, cannot clap.”

Each phase had different people, but mostly clients.

Applied Arts Magazines, Dazed and Confused Magazine.
Brutal Simplicity of Thought, Human Kind for Leo Burnett, Damn Good Advice (for people with Talent), My name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic, How to be a graphic designer, without loosing your soul and Work for money, design for love.

Practice makes perfect.

Steve Jobs or maybe Bach.

It’s always the beginning, there is always a lot to learn.

Oh wow, this is a tough one. We traveled a lot in search for the best design places. From sketch in London to Carlo e Camilla in Milan, to Taj mahal in India and Guggenheim museum in New York. We always try to concentrate on the now, because there is always a favorite place/color/food/brand and thing, but season WE LOVE SUMMER.

When we didn’t know the difference between Art and Design. We also didn’t know what Macintosh computers were until we went to university.

Global exploration. Travel is essential to our growth as designers. We draw inspiration from tiny details in marble, tiles and textiles to the tallest skyscrapers; from the natural world to gastronomy and culture. Our designs embrace influences from east and west and everything in between. Travel inspires us to do what we love most: DESIGN.

We were always soo into Art and Design, and we always created and designed the games and toys we played with as children.

A million possibilities can happen, creativity is endless.

We are Abeer and Noor. Born in Amman, we’ve been twins in inspiration since we met in 1995. After completing degrees in Advertising Design in Toronto, we co-founded abnodesigns in 2006. We are best known for our minimalistic and bold designs. Our work is infused with influences from our middle eastern heritage and our travels around the globe.

abnodesigns is a creative studio based in Amman, Jordan. Founded by design duo Abeer Zoumot and Noor Issa, the full-service studio specializes in strategy, design and execution across all mediums.
The studio is best known for Branding Design, Art Direction, Festival Design and Online Communication.
With clients in Amman, Egypt, Dubai, London and New York, abno bridges east and west to reach a global clientele.
abno helps clients create their brands, guiding the entire visual journey. The studio’s founders (who have been best friends for over 20 years) love building brands to boost businesses and help their clients earn brand loyalty.

Design is laying out things in a way that makes your eyes smile and your brain move positively.

Many things. We would love to design beer cans, international music festivals, exhibitions/products/services for BIG brands.

Our branding. It has been created ten years ago and it’s still relevant and makes sense today. We even won an award for it ten years later.

A Bud light poster for the hockey season in Toronto immediately after graduating from university.

Fabrics/ Books and magazines and the Wacom tablet.

As soon as we come back from a design trip. It always feels so inspiring and our creativity flows faster than ever.

The conceptual part.

It differs, each day is a new day. We design almost daily, so our emotions vary. In general, when we're working on a big project, we feel super inspired and excited. It is usually a calm, zen feeling that you need to be in in order to be able to produce beautiful designs.

Satisfaction.

Good design lives for a long time. We always make sure that whatever we design can last at-least five years.
Also, the concept behind the design is a big distinguisher of a great design.

Aesthetics is always the first impression. But when that part is good, definitely the concept determines a good design and makes it live longer.

Good design affects the human race on a conscious and subconscious level. Good design can elevate our daily experience and enhance productivity and positivity. Designers need to know that and apply it.

Robotics. We even saw a Puppy pet robot designed by Sony this year in Milan Design Week!

We don’t usually exhibit our work. The work we produce is usually released in the market and sometimes produced for the masses.
We have recently designed the local beer can “Petra” that was printed on one million cans and spread around the city. The market is our exhibition place.

Global exploration. Travel is essential to our growth as designers. We draw inspiration from tiny details in marble, tiles and textiles to the tallest skyscrapers; from the natural world to gastronomy and culture. Our designs embrace influences from east and west and everything in between. Travel inspires us to do what we love most: DESIGN.

We are best known for our minimalistic and bold designs. Our work is infused with influences from our middle eastern heritage and our travels around the globe. Our design style is flexible enough to fit within the requirements of various clients.

We live in Amman Jordan.
Our Jordanian and Palestinian roots are a big part of who we are. We grew up surrounded by the warmth, hospitality, and traditions of Arabic families. Jordan is a communal culture, with an emphasis on family and extended family. Our designs reflect this sense of unity and confidence in identity.
Our Arabic language is also an essential part. We are influenced by the Arabic language and its typography; we think, speak, live, and breathe in our mother tongue. Our bilingualism allows us to approach design with no preference for right-to-left, or left-to-right. We see and understand linguistic patterns and connections, weaving this insight into our branding and identity design.

The landscape around us. We draw strength from the hills of Amman, deep wadis where unexpected flowers spring up, the minerals of the Dead Sea, and the solitude of the desert. As part of this landscape, we reflect on the courage of our people and the significance of our place. In a country surrounded by revolutions and wars, our designs demonstrate longevity and sustainability. We create out of necessity. We design to declare our existence.

Our projects are customized according to the needs of different clients/companies.

The vibe is very important. If the vibe works between the client and designer, then great things can come out of it as a result.

After we get a detailed brief about the project, we sit together to brainstorm and research. This part is essential for any of the designs we create. Sketching comes next, until we agree on directions for execution. We then sit for hours in front of the computer to bring form to our vision.

The piano, Books, light fixtures, posters, and the pillows we collect.

We like to change things up, so our days are not very repetitive. The only common thing in our working days is that we always meet up at our studio, usually between 10 till 5. Different things happen in different days.

Do whatever it takes to learn, explore and travel. Always do it with love.

Positives is that you get to see the world from an aesthetically pleasing manner. You get to explore all things design which leads you to the coolest things all around. Negatives would be that it might drive you a tiny bit crazy at times, trying to make everything look good and have meaning. Hence our slogan, we used to be normal but it drove us mad! haha

We balance creativity and professionalism. To us, creativity is as important as delivering our design, on time and efficiently.

We make the commercial cool.Getting out of the norm is our usual. Our designs reflect a bold mission and strong purpose. We make our clients visible through conceptual and aesthetically timeless branding and advertising. We SELL design.

Flexibility, art of selling, and attention to detail.

Sketchbooks, computers, Adobe in-design, photo-shop, illustrator, books, magazines, fabrics, pantone books, items we’ve collected throughout our travels.

We have a big white board with a monthly schedule that we take seriously.

Depends on deliverables. Anywhere between one month to a year.

Where did you find this?

Creating the 7up vintage photo booth, we created an activation in two malls over two weeks. We had to design, execute and finalize the whole thing in a short duration. It was a rush and we had to work all nighters to get it done. It gave us satisfaction to see the hype it created after all the hard work.
Also, the Petra local beer can created along with Heineken in Amman/Jordan.

Heineken/Amstel Jordan, Nacelle Event Management/Cairo, Pepsi Co. Amman, Harley Davidson, The Delights Shop and Airportray, Sequence Advisory, The Color Experiment, Inna Carton.

International Festival design. A lot of aspects come to play creating one holistic experience that we love to be part of.

Specializing in festival designs. We have been branding different festivals for the past 8 years, we now want to be the specialists in that.

We definitely believe in co-design, both of us wouldn’t have lasted as much if we weren’t doing it as a team. There is a saying in our country that we believe in that says: “One hand alone cannot clap.”

There are a few projects that are in the pipe-line that we are excited about but its too soon to talk about them now. Maybe designing a showroom of some sort!

Best thing is by email: abno@abndoesigns.com
We are also on instagram as abnodesigns

A million possibilities can happen, creativity is endless.