Friday, July 11, 2008

The July War 2006 in Information Design

By Bachir Habib


33, is the number of days it took to implement a new Middle Eastern equation. On the 13th of July, only one day after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in Northern Israel, behind the so called “Blue Line”, Israel declared an open war on Lebanon. Hezbollah called its operation “The Truthful Promise” and Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that its goal was to capture Israeli soldiers in order to exchange them with Lebanese prisoners in Israel. Two years after a war that devastated large parts of the country in just 33 days, Hezbollah is proving he is standing by his promise as we stand days away from the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel.
Very few books have been released so far on this conflict and its outcome. But in the months and years to come this topic will become of high interest to Geo-strategists and Historians. In the meantime this war was also a source of inspiration in the artistic sphere. Pamela Hraoui, a Lebanese student of Information Design at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London decided to use the theme for her Masters project.
In her book titled 33, with a pitch black cover, Hraoui’s concept is articulated in three different movements. The first one is displaying opposing information by contrasting the headlines of the Lebanese Daily Star and the Israeli Jerusalem Post. The second is again opposing two main pictures, one from Israel and the other from Lebanon. These pictures have no legend and speak for themselves! Her third movement involves mapping the human, economical, and military cost on both sides, day by day, with forty novel design characters and symbols of her own creation.
In this unpublished book, each day of the war is summarized in six pages based on visuals, graphics and journalistic information.
Below are snapshots of the book (copyright: Pamela Hraoui) she kindly agreed to post on Arabdemocracy in memory of the July 2006 war.










3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Pamela, from the little I see, it looks an interesting book. However, I am curious to know more about it, it is unpublished and I wonder how I can see the rest. 3 years ago you promised me a copy of your previous unpublished book, I am still waiting 
102

Unknown said...

Dear Antoun,
Thanks for the comment! We could meet up discuss and debate about this book and give the promised previous one.

Pamela

Anonymous said...

Pamela, I saw this at the end of year show and was utterly blown away by it. The media of the press failed to communicate what happened during the 33 day war in meaningful human and statistical terms, and this succeeded. I have been looking for your work online since and somehow I only found this today when randomly searching for you on Google (I'm not a stalker, honest). I would love to have a copy. Is there any chance of that?

As an information designer, I'd love to see more of your work. Do you have a portfolio online?

Regards,
Barney