OCHA hosts UN Designers Group in Geneva

A few months back, I wrote about how Geneva is a melting pot of communication professionals with plenty of active groups meeting to exchange ideas, challenges, and solutions to a constantly evolving field of work. I’m proud that ITU brought together the UN (graphic) designers group late last year with an inaugural meeting in November. … Continue reading OCHA hosts UN Designers Group in Geneva

OCHA by the numbers inspired by this peacock

I had to learn a couple of things when I joined OCHA’s Visual Information Unit just over one year ago: deal with strange visitors at my window and interesting requests. For the first few months at my new office, I had this peacock and its family, allowed to roam freely on grounds of the UN, … Continue reading OCHA by the numbers inspired by this peacock

World Humanitarian Day without Beyonce or Guetta

Every year on August 19, the world celebrates/commemorates World Humanitarian Day organized by UNOCHA, the UN organization I’ve been with since early this year. It’s a day to honor people who lost their lives in humanitarian service and those, who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions, and draw attention to humanitarian needs around … Continue reading World Humanitarian Day without Beyonce or Guetta

Free work for free ideas… for humanitarian education

There’s something to be said about pro-bono work, especially when it’s for a good cause and the people involved are quite open about ideas. It’s a fair trade isn’t it – getting free work for free ideas? So when I was asked to help out on visualizing information, how could I say no, especially from … Continue reading Free work for free ideas… for humanitarian education

Filtering out “Butt Dials” and saving lives with technology

I find the combination of Qatar and humanitarian action an unlikely partnership. It’s just not something that comes to mind when I think of how the world has come together to better respond to and address large scale disasters like the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, or even the … Continue reading Filtering out “Butt Dials” and saving lives with technology

Not just an update, but a redesign

The hugely popular infographic I designed for UNISDR on the impacts of disasters from 2000-2011 required a bit of an update. And with over 7,000 views already on Flickr, it was pretty straightforward to update it with new stats from CRED for 2012. But just updating the graphic wasn’t enough. There were some trials and … Continue reading Not just an update, but a redesign

Silhouettes reveal more than you know…

Silhouettes are an amazing thing. Not only does it reveal the shape, curves, and intricacies of shape and form, but it’s also amazing how our brains interpret them and can make sense of them. There’s no better example of this than when we talk about symbols and icons. These graphical representations help us understand and … Continue reading Silhouettes reveal more than you know…

Natural Hazard Risks in Asia-Pacific

Developed an A1-size poster for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) to highlight the office’s work, as well as to showcase the hazard and risk mapping the organization was involved in. It was made as an educational piece to support the office’s work on emergency preparedness and hazard risk in … Continue reading Natural Hazard Risks in Asia-Pacific