bijan berahimi

Neighbors

Bijan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:39:37 +0000

This semester we are introduced to basic photo and video. So far the class has been great, we’ve learned a lot about studio lighting and by spring break we need to have something ready for print. I’ve always wanted to do a series of graphic photos. This is the first portion of my series titled “neighbors.” I’ll be shooting the second portion of the project this week.

Spoon – Written In Reverse Live

Bijan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:11:14 +0000

Spoons new album, Transference, was released in January and I have been listening to it constantly since then. That’s all I want to say for now, I will write an article on their new album shortly. Enjoy.

2010 Olympics

Bijan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:14:30 +0000

The 2010 winter Olympics are being hosted in Vancouver, Canada – above are shots of the beautiful architecture of the Olympic village.

Second Semester

Bijan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:49:55 +0000

One semester and winter break have passed rapidly and starting today, I enter my second semester of school at CalArts. I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I recently wrote about practicum and the Antoine + Manuel workshop which we just finished. By we, I mean my two fellow class mates, Chris Burnett and Pierre Nguyen who collaborated with. The project turned out great, it took a lot of patience and craft but we were able to work with the time constraints and material to create something beautiful. Having free time and doing cool projects with A+M is now over, class with Scott Zukowski is back in session. But before I get to what our first project in Graphic Design is, let me talk about the first FISK event we hosted last week. Some fellow students and I have been planning the ‘FISK Fiesta’ for quite sometime now. Of course the day we set it on, Friday the 5th, happens to be the only day it rains the entire week but with quick thinking we were able to have a change of venue. In the end the event turned out great – we had live music, a raffle and we exhibited work from a few of the practicums. Hope to have another event very soon.

My new project for Graphic Design is do an image series. I chose lighter as my object. Here are the directions for the project: define your subject, through of a series of images, words, shapes, & logos and present them in the form of a book. I’m excited for this project although I know it will be challenging in many ways, I’m eager for the obstacle.

Below I’ve listed my classes for the semester:
Graphic Design I
Dreaming as Unconscious Thinking
Design Issues
Publication Design
Intro to digital photo & video
Independent Study

Good night.

Practicum 2010

Bijan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:07:05 +0000

Practicum is something CalArts does. It’s three weeks of ‘work shop’ classes after winter break but before you start your main classes. You’re allowed to pick two from a list that has plenty of variety – with wilderness, to live action shooting, to knitting and screen printing. It’s easy to find something that interests you. Every year the graphic design program finds a famous graphic designer to teach a work shop, a few years ago they had Jonathan Barnbrook and this year they got Antoine + Manuel. Together, they are one of my favorite designers and after waking up at 7am (on a night where I got home at 5am) I was able to get the class. Being first year students we were required to take ‘Screen Printing Survival’ which was great, we learned the ins and out of the screen printing process (and all it’s variables). We made a little project out of the practicum, above is my final print. It feels great to have everyone back in the studio – it was getting a little lonely working alone in the studio over winter break. I have one more week of practicum then it’s back to starting regular classes, which means lots of work and no sleep.

Antoine + Manuel

2010 Postcard

Bijan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:48:28 +0000

Starting with 2010, I’ve decided that I will design and mail out postcards after the new year. Above is my first one for 2010 – I printed and sent out 50 of them to friends and family.

I like the idea of mailing things out, it’s nice to receive something personal in the mail along with all of the routine spam and bills so I thought why not send some out myself. It’s also an excuse to design something and show it off to friends and family. The color forecast for 2010 is turquoise (says Pantone) so I thought why not use the color of the year for my new years postcards. I plan on continuing this tradition, unless it’s a really awful color one year. Until 2011.

Adam

Bijan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:05:06 +0000

Rather than writing a post on Avatar (amazing film) which I was close to doing – I’m writing about a movie I recently rented called Adam.
Here’s a few lines on the what the movie is about:

Adam is a 2009 romance-drama-comedy film written and directed by Max Mayer, starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne. The film follows the relationship between a young man named Adam (Dancy) with Asperger syndrome and the woman of his dreams, Beth (Byrne).

I intended to see Adam in theaters but it got an extremely limited release so I waited for it to be released to DVD. It was worth the wait, Hugh Dancy did an excellent job in this film – he and Rose Byrne were exceptional together. The film takes you through all of the ups and downs of someone with Aspbergers from daily routines to social interactions at work and parties. Most importantly, it shows you how a young man with this syndrome appeals to a normal, self-centered, woman. You become hopeful for Adam, which we should be.

Links: Adam (Film) Wikipedia

Solvang 2010

Bijan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:12:02 +0000

It’s officially a new decade. I had an amazing New Years Eve and I started 2010 with a two day trip to the beautiful Danish land of Solvang, CA.
Here is some information about Solvang:

Solvang was founded in 1911 on 9,000 acres of formerly Spanish land by a group of Danish educators, who traveled west to escape midwestern winters. The city is home to some bakeries, restaurants, and merchants offering a taste of Denmark in California. The architecture of many of the buildings follows traditional Danish style. There is a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen, as well as one featuring the bust of famed Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen. A replica of the Copenhagen observatory Rundetårn in the scale 1:3 was finished in 1991 and can be seen in the city centre.

It was a relaxing trip where I ate too much Danish food (mostly pastries) and took a lot of pictures. Oh and I finally signed up for a flickr account, you can see all of my Solvang photos there.

Links: Solvang Visitors Bureau, Flickr

Merry Christmas

Bijan — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:31:09 +0000

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you’re all relaxing and enjoying this time off.

FISK Holiday Zine

Bijan — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:55:18 +0000

Something I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this semester has been the graphic design club I initiated at school called FISK. I had been planning to start this small organization since summer and things worked out better than I had expected.

By the last week of the fall semester we published the FISK Holiday Zine which features work from over 23 students in all seven year levels including a special faculty guest. I couldn’t be happier with the end result. It was a great opportunity to meet and collaborate with other year levels and the school was quite excited about it which didn’t hurt.

You can view the entire zine, spread by spread here.