Active I became.

I was concerned about everything! Everything started to matter to me. I got on the Student Union as the GD rep, and with that role I decided to do something. In a school with many communication and integration issues, I wanted to gather students together and run a workshop to address these issues and come up with ideas for improvement of the school. So I did it. I planned it, promoted it, gave speeches about it, organized it, structured it, and documented everything. I ran 5 sessions to gather enough content from students in all departments. I then took it to the Board of Governors and Sara Diamond, spoke up about it, and had it added as an appendix to the Strategic Plan of 2006-2012 that was at the stage of approval before my forums. I met a lot of people I had never met before through this process and learning took on a different meaning for me. Activism became a passion. Small things, planned out and structured and presented well with a purpose became my mission. Step by step, moving towards a vision.

OCAD offers a Mobility/Exchange in third year. There is a list of participating schools that you can choose from. I invested a lot of time into research and investigation of all my options. I then applied to 3 schools: RISD, Ringling and OTIS, and got accepted into Ringling (in Sarasota, Florida) for the Spring 2007 semester. My work at the 2006 AIDS Conference and my web design abilities enhanced my application. I was a perfect candidate to bring depth to a technical school.

The only class before my trip to Florida that stands out in my mind was with Gary Blakeley. Awesome British man. Great teacher, great projects. Very intelligent and supportive. I enjoyed all of his projects and his blunt, bold and upfront attitude with student work. I always had something to say. Ghazaleh always has something to say! War of Words, E-Life and Toronto Transit were all meaningful and practical projects for me. Graphic Design with depth, meaning and purpose - he always gave interesting and well prepared lectures that had me fall in love with Typography and become very sensitive to it. His daughter is going to be brilliant - I know it.

I flew down to Sarasota and stayed with the loving Sarah who I found on Craigslist for sharing a house, 3 minute bike-ride away from Ringling. I got my bike cheap, from a non-profit bike alliance. I biked everywhere. Ringling disciplined me. I produced a lot of work for my portfolio. I stood out - no doubt. The narrow mind-frame of “design” doesn’t cut it for me. I need meaning. I need leadership and I need open-minded thinking. Ringling was great because I needed to show my abilities as a designer and produce graphic design work that could differentiate me from others. Every project I did, I spent excessive hours in its making. I cannot produce work I am unsatisfied with. I got in touch with myself, nature, and obsessed with reaching for more.

Dave Mason came to Ringling to present the new identity of the school that SamataMason redesigned. He was from Canada too and he liked my work. So one thing led to the next and I ended up in Chicago as an intern for the summer after Ringling.

More biking, more photography, more blog writing. I went through a lot of stress at the internship with my fellow interns. It was hard to go through but again, I learnt a lot about teamwork and my strengths and weaknesses.

I was ready to take on 4th year with a thesis in mind a year in advance.

It was Ghazaleh time.

I saw even more with Lewis’s GD1 class first semester second year. I realized that I could have fun in this field and learn a shit ton of things. I didn’t know that - never thought I would be given the “alphabet” as my brief; never thought I had to design a drink, or find 100 images for one word or make a book of time with one piece of paper. I cried, yes I did! Because I was learning! I was being exposed to so much so fast. Think Tank came: had me scavenging for survival in a park; recording my consumption in a week and writing a design manifesto. My voice got louder. I began to rise up. Classrooms had it. If I was in the class, you got my opinion, no doubt about it. The art of articulation became my specialty. Ghazaleh’s got something to say - that became who I am today.

I stopped the retail of 3 years in 3 different malls with Athlete’s World and Footlocker. I left my sport years behind with the consumerist, material indulgences of the cultural landscape. History of Typography made me understand what language means. Visual Culture made me rethink everything I saw. I became connected, aware and prepared for something new to explore.

TakingITGlobal took me when I chose them. AIDS Conference in the summer of 2006 employed at TIG elevated my level of thinking prepared for the next phase of design: activism.

Done.

Graduated, screwed over, beaten-up, torn, burnt, lesson learnt, grown, explored, snored, my last resort.

It was OCAD that I attended with smiles on my face. It was OCAD that I chose between York/Sheridan Design program in 2004. It was OCAD because of its degree - its Bachelor in Design. I didn’t know what OCAD really was - I just listened to the experts in the field who said, “yea, for sure go to OCA”. I just knew Graphic Design was something I was doing, good at and wanting to pursue. I entered OCAD.

I wanted to skip first year badly. I wanted to get out and go forward with Graphic Design. I knew I was going into the damn field. I did my internship at Compass360 in highschool. I had researched all of Toronto for the best graphic design firms. Top choice I remember was Concrete. I did my research long before my future classmates knew what graphic design was coming from highschool.

I got a little confused after first year. I realized I needed depth and I realized there was more to me than just Graphic Design. I needed excitement. I wanted cool stuff, fun stuff, fun people, activation, running, jumping, dancing. I wanted energy. It wasn’t my environment. I learnt a ton in first year. It was really great to go through classes that I went through. That drawing class that I got 60 in, that Interaction Design class that had us baking cookies; that Form & Structure that had me learn about Zaha Hadid; that Design Process class that made me think about the design of bathrooms and for the first time question where the waste from shoes went; that Colour & 2D class with the coolest assignments ever and one of the most interesting pieces I had ever made (writing numbers in 100 different languages) and Keith Rushton’s class in 2D Communication that had my eyes popping out of their sockets and latched onto him for the rest of my years.

I then began to see.

the only mistake

is when you are not true

dance dance dance
all i wanna do is dance
forget about
the second chances
the romances
of fearful advances

i want to dance it off
so i forget
why i like music

m u    s i   c
letters
no word at my tongue
beat
not a message
sounds
not a song
just happy letting loose
at this moment
just for fun