Sketching their needs!

Nisreen Krimed who graduated from the same Fine Arts Department in Damascus, now works thousands of miles away from Berlin as Senior Art Director at Impact BBDO/Dubai. She seems to agree with Alia. Nisreen, who has been into the advertising industry for 8-years, defines the reasons for its underdevelopment in Syria, saying: “The lack of experienced educated professionals on both sides, the agency and the client.”

Saadi Alkouatli worked for 6-years with “McCann-Erickson New York” then accepted an offer as Creative Director at TBWA/RAAD Saudi Arabia. He claims that: “Agencies (in Syria) often accept mediocrity as an easy way out!”

May

May Alshekh Atieah, an alumnus of the same university as both Nisreen, and Alia, currently works as Art Director at “Promoaction DDB – Jeddah. She thinks that “the spirit of competition (in Syria) is absent, so is the choice for customers.” This, she believes, is a result of limited exposure and interaction with the outside world through free media and other communication mediums.

Ghalia

Ghalia Yasin Sarakbi has been living in Holland since 2000. She is continuing her graduate studies in design at “Sandberg Institute-Amsterdam” and works as a freelancing designer. Ghalia stands as an ideal example of what a talented creative Syrian can do if she/ he receives proper education, and is open to choice. Like her peers, Ghalia started her studies at the Fine Arts Department at Damascus University. She then went to Holland with both positive and negative memories of her experience in Syria. She recalled saying: “I was lucky to have some good teachers who I will never forget, and naturally, some bad ones who were totally against computers and technology. They used to make us invest our resources in completely worthless and inefficient projects.” Sad or inspiring, Ghalia is still keeping one of these ‘worthless and inefficient’ projects above her bed in Holland. When asked about the reason(s) that might make someone hold on to a bad memory, she said: “It is to remind me that you don’t get knowledge by copying. Creatively, you need to search to find knowledge, and you need to develop your own style, and rather than copy the style of others!” Noreen talked about education as a dynamic process, considering it, “a key, not only for designers, art directors and planners, but for clients as well. The education process is an ongoing one where the rules are meant to be broken if not redefined.” Nisreen blames Syrian businessmen for “the absence of the holistic approach towards branding” and adds that advertisers are “responsible for educating their audience about branding and not underestimating their intelligence.” Education is vital she adds, for ones own self—and for the audience as well. The whole communication field is based on science, where one needs to constantly measure and plan. Saadi agrees, commenting: “As the saying goes: Advertising without planning is called art. Advertising with planning is called advertising!”

Clients in Syria and abroad

Ghalia raises a critical point about Syrian advertisers, “The client wants advertisements where his/ her product and company looks very hip and Westernized. We don’t believe in our identity!” Alia thinks that “because the whole level of advertisement in Syria is quit low, the client won’t learn to differentiate between what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s really bad! “ And Nisreen thinks that Syrian advertisers “want to play it safe by doing what others are doing or repeating what they’ve done before.” Saadi thinks “What works is universal and simple. All you have to do is to push the envelope in a smart, thoughtful and relevant way.”

If the spirit of creativity and the concepts of advertising and branding are late at the commercial domain then we can consider them as being absent at the socio-cultural one. Ghalia believes that in our country there is “too much advertising and very few cultural projects.” She thinks this is a natural result as ”design has always been a commercial tool not a culture activity.” She mentions one of the projects she worked on during the year 2006, “we had to come up with an original idea for the city Amsterdam in September, the month of love, and we choose the theme: “Love For Your Neighbors.”

Alia states that, “In Europe you see that the same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious recruitment, etc. Advertisement in Syria is only consumer oriented!”

Working in a conservative country like Saudi Arabia, May raise a good note: “Creativity doesn’t have to be a naked woman or people drinking [alcohol], the advertising here is conservative yet [very] creative. This shows that even in the most conservative countries we have a challenge to make very good quality ads.”

Ghalia wraps up saying: “You are like a writer, an actor, or a musician. You all tell things in different ways.” In advertising, however, one needs “to tell the truth, without thinking that people are stupid!” She adds, “Get closer to their daily lives so you can, reach them, talk their language, sketch their needs, and touch their feelings.” Syrians are creative. If equipped with proper education, and permitted to follow their dreams and go beyond the experimenting spaces, they can contribute abundantly.

Syria needs creative Syrians. This will contribute both commercially and culturally to society. This article is another bell. You can go to pray, you can run to attend your class, or go hide in a shelter. For me I think its time to attend my new lesson in life.