Author: Maya Zankoul

  • Making-of Meedan video

    meedan video storyboard

    I was approached by Meedan to design/animate a short video explaining the concept behind the website “in plain English” and “in plain Arabic”. A BIG thank you goes to the lovely Mohammad Kayali (from Hyperlink Podcast) who recorded the sound & translated the text to Arabic on a very short notice, and to SMEX Beirut for providing me with the flip cam to do the video recording. Here’s the outcome in English!

    Meedan in Plain English from Meedan on Vimeo.

    Go toΒ Meedan News & scroll downΒ for the 2 versions!

    And on another note, what’s a Monday morning without some music! Here’s the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun.

    In other news, this blog was happily selected to be Blog of the Week on Lebanon Aggregator because next week we’re turning 1 year old! So happy about it! Thank you so much! πŸ™‚

    Have a great week πŸ™‚

  • iPhone Apps for Lebanese needs

    Post featured on itoot.net

    I was very excited to collaborate again with the amazing Qifa Nabki on designing icons for iPhone Apps tailored to fit the Lebanese lifestyle needs!

    To know the story behind every app, click on the image below!

  • Curiosity killed the cat

    Finding some old video tapes

    I can’t believe the DVD guy WATCHED the videos I sent him. Not only did he watch them, but he also had the guts to comment about the fashion & lifestyle of the 80’s and how we spent our time back then. Wlak at least don’t SAY that you watched them! Apparently he didn’t have much to do during the day. Lebanese & their curiosity.

    Anyway, I just felt like holding a pencil and scribbling & here’s what came out πŸ™‚ Couldn’t possibly let you go to your weekends without a quick post!

    Have a lovely weekend my darlings! And here’s Chick Corea’s “Love Castle” from his album “My Spanish Heart”.

    01 Love Castle

  • Defining Entrepreneurship

    This week’s comic for InteractiveME


    Yea I just had to say what I really think about the term “entrepreneur” being overused like that over the web.

    Check out PART 2 of “Defining Entrepreneurship”.

    Wish you a lovely day! πŸ™‚

  • The return of the kamikaze

    Remember when I told you about the kamikaze phenomenon about a year ago?

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    Well, I witnessed a highly enhanced version of it. On Dora highway. Which proves that our population is getting more and more enlightened.

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    Presenting.. the kamikaze family! "Yalla mama, when I say go, we run!"

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    Mother and children crossing highway

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    .Mother pauses in middle of highway, wondering whether she should grab the papers dropped by her son. Cars around start panicking.

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    .They eventually crossed the road. And the boy cried for his papers.

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    .When will people wake up and smell the hazard of walking through a highway?

    I was horrified to see a whole family crossing the highway (autostrade) by foot!! What was the mother thinking? Has common sense disappeared from humanity? She even had a “thinking break” right in the middle of the highway to contemplate whether she should take the papers dropped by her little kid! Suicidal! This is just beyond my understanding, and the scene has been replaying in my head for the last two days. It was that disturbing and does not make sense to me. Thought I’d start the week with some road awareness, we can never get enough of that! Road idiocy is born with humans apparently.

    Here’s a song to brighten up your day by my very adored Nick Drake. “Time has told me”. And check the lyrics for extra beauty.

    Have a lovely week! πŸ™‚

  • Hospit(i)lity

    Visit to my granma

    Granma: "Let me get you something to snack on"

    Granma: "here you go.

    Thus, the altercation begins

    Last time I put it in my bag, it was a disaster

    Give up

    Candy placed in bag.

    Have another one

    Why me? Why?

    Forced eating

    I’m sure most of you have been through the complicated process of “diafeh” (=offering a snack for your guests). Especially with older people. They assume you’re too shy to accept or that you would think they aren’t generous/hospitable enough if they accept your refusal from the first (or tenth) time. But what if yes meant yes and no meant no? Wouldn’t that be easier?

    So, now that I have this out of my system, here’s a song for you my darlings! Enjoy, and have a great weekend! πŸ™‚ [Madonna’s True Blue! 1986, from the year I was born]

    [Sorry the player doesn’t show in RSS feeds πŸ™ I can’t upload music in here as my connection is TERRIBLE – yes, I knew today that Lebanon has the 5th worst connection in the whole wide world! Isn’t that amazing?]

  • Insurance comic

    Commercial Insurance decided to spice up their car accidents booklet. They approached me to illustrate the opening page: explain the post-car accident steps through comics. Very cool to see comics being implemented for such serious booklets! The text was needed in French & Arabic, but I translated it to English myself just for you guys πŸ˜‰

    Arabic:

    Commercial Insurance Lebanon Illustration

    French:

    Commercial Insurance Lebanon Illustration

    & home-translated English:

    And before I leave you, here’s another Andy McKee (Drifting) since I got lots of positive feedback about his music πŸ˜‰ Enjoy!

    03 Drifting 1

  • Buzz off! (+fanart#9)

    This guy has too much work, too many emails and an abundant inbox

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    Sometimes, he gets distracted [by twitter birds]

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    Well, nothing a CTRL + Q can't fix. Quit and focus back on work.

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    Now, things will never be the same again...

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    Google Buzz is IN your inbox and you can't quit it!

    I will be posting weekly tech-related comics on InterativeME website! That was the first one that was posted yesterday. Now seriously, what do YOU think about this whole Google Buzz thing?

    Before I leave you back to your busy days I want to share with you this beautiful fanart by Peno Mishoyan. Thank you SO MUCH Penig πŸ™‚ !!

    And last but not least, here’s the song of the day, by an artist whose music has charmed me for the past few days: Andy McKee ~ Africa.

    09 Africa

    Enjoy! πŸ˜‰

  • Passport photo

    I need to take a passport photo - studio ludovic entrance

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    I thought it would be 3 easy steps: shooting the picture, taking it, and everyone is happy.

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    My turn. Photographer shouts in my face: " no no no too pale"

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    Blush fixation

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    Photographer asks me to act in a coy way, to which I answer that I would rather just take the picture

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    Photographer asks me for all the coyness of the world

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    Imagination break... I imagine myself forcing him to act coy

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    Photographer forcing me to sit in a twisted way for the photo

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    The outcome: very fake photos

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    All I wanted was a passport photo! i cry

    Yes my darlings. I kid you not. The photographer consciously asked me to “act coy” or “etdalla3 – Ψ§ΨͺΨ―Ω„Ω‘ΨΉ” in order for the image to turn out ‘beautiful’. When he saw I was reluctant, he asked for “all the dala3 of the world!”. Do I look like someone who would act all cute and coquette for a formal passport photo? HE’S WRONG! I should have known anyway from the photo samples he proudly displayed at the entrance of the studio…

    Anyway, what better to start your week with than Brad Mehldau’s genius?

    Here’s his piano interpretation of The Beatles’ Blackbird.


    Have a lovely day πŸ™‚


  • Sunday updates

    No comic today: it’s Sunday. Instead, here are the latest TV interviews I participated to this week (yes I know it’s weird, 2 interviews in the same week!)

    The first was on BBC Arabic, and was about the blogging experience in Lebanon compared to other Arab countries. Here it is:

    For the full episode, check out fellow blogger Samer Karam’s post who was also interviewed.

    The other was on mtv and was about the blog, book, exhibitons, comics, illustrations and life. Here it is in 2 parts:

    Have a great Sunday! πŸ˜‰

  • Traveling back in time

    Checking Twitter at work.. Sad expression

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    Sunshine appears above my head

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    More transformation. Avatars of old cartoon characters pop up over my head.

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    Transformation begins. Maya's metamorphosis to younger days.

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    Young Maya watching TV."Go Captain Majed!"

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    Suddenly I left the office and went back to the carefree days of watching Cartoons all day...

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    Thus, the Zankoulizer was born!


    Here’s the story: it all started when @arzleb changed his avatar to Grandizer. It looked odd but beautiful on its own in the middle of real-faces avatars. Then the trend started spreading, and each started replacing their photo with that of their favourite cartoon! Until @SamerKaram named it to: #ThemeThursday or #Thth. I must say my Twitter feed turned to a colorful page reminiscent of the old days when I would finish studying and watch Captain Majed or a Disney movie… It was a beautiful time travel day! πŸ˜‰

    I’ll now let you enjoy ‘A whole new world’ from the soundtrack of Aladdin. Good old days πŸ˜€

    Cheers!

  • Meet the 3 ‘ELLEs’

    Meet Vanessa, Nour & Ashley, the characters of my new comic that you will see every month in ELLE Oriental magazine. They’ll be discussing the month’s topic of the magazine from 3 different perspectives. They represent the different faces of the modern Arab women.

    Illustrations for feb 2010 elle oriental magazine

    This month’s topic is love & sex. Click on the image to view it in full size.Β (!)Β Text by ELLE Oriental editorial team.

    Comic for February 2010 ELLE Oriental by Maya Zankoul

    And let’s not break the tradition, I wish you a beautiful day with this song by Cat Power “Empty Shell”. Enjoy… πŸ™‚