INSIGHT

 

Ramadan and Eid greeting cards are the top trending searches before, during and after Ramadan, with queries like “How to wish someone a happy Ramadan” and “How to make an Eid greeting card.“

We also discovered a high volume of users Image Search terms such as “Ramadan Kareem” then copy and paste the image into WhatsApp. The resulting creative quality of the images could be dramatically improved.

So we saw an opportunity to help people create their own beautiful, personalised messages to share easily during Ramadan in the way only Google can.

 
 
 

IDEA

Collaborating with 9 internationally renowned calligraphers and typography artists, we created hundreds of unique greetings cards in Tilt Brush, Google’s 3D virtual reality art tool, capturing the essence of this ancient and traditional art in a truly modern, innovative and shareable way. Named after the Arabic word for a calligraphy brush, Qalam was created.

 
 
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WEB APP

The bespoke art pieces were then incorporated into a responsive web app where users can easily personalise and customise their own Ramadan message.

High fidelity designs were created to encompass the artists creation and bring them to life. We sweat the details to ensure an immersive and smooth experience. Designing for mobile first ensuring the light web app succeeded in countries with low bandwidth.

 
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THOUSANDS OF VARIATIONS

The web app enables thousands of unique creative outputs varying from static images to looping animations.. Users embraced the platform and created a variety of messages to share with friends and family.

 
 
 
 

THE MAKING OF QALAM

Take a sneak peak from behind the scenes. Low fidelity scamps and prototypes were created to challenge and finesse the user’s experience with the users’ need and mobile first in mind.

 
 
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NEW TOOLS

Since multiple artists were to use Google’s 3D virtual reality art tool, Tilt Brush, to produce their calligraphy pieces I had to become a Tilt Brush expert rapidly and also quickly had to become a mentor.

 
 
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ARTIST COLLABORATION

After rigorous research 9 different artists were brought together from around the world to craft their pieces.

 
 
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PROTOTYPING

Quick and scrappy prototypes were created enabling us to fail faster and proceed to a better user experience for the end user.

 
 
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AWARDS AND CREDITS

 

ROLE

Art/Design Director at Google BrandStudio