With summer kicking into full gear, our Take Back the Tech workshops are back.

On Saturday, June 19, 2010 and Saturday, June 26, 2010, we’re holding a 2-part Graphics 101 workshop with graphic designer Maya El-Helou.

Each session will take place between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM at our office in Mar Mikhael (call 01-447192 for directions).

Given the undeniable power of images and graphics to express ourselves as well as support and/or illustrate our messages, El-Helou will be guiding participants through the use of vector-based design program Adobe Illustrator.

Pre-Requisites: No design skills are required. But participants should have Illustrator installed on their computers. If you don’t have the program on your computer, please come to the workshop at least 10 minutes earlier, so that we can install it for you.

The workshop is free of charge. Places are limited to 15. To register, please email farah@nasawiya.org with a little bit about you. Priority goes to young women and young activists of both or neither gender.

Maya Zankoul's own illustration of our workshop

“Our emotions change very quickly. We should be able to draw them out quickly too,” said web developer/comics artist Maya Zankoul at the beginning of the workshop she held at our office on Saturday, 27 March 2010.

She explained how illustration is a way of communication, of representation, and how the right brain is intuitive and random, allowing us to see that a stick is not just a stick.

And then, she invited us to draw something that bothered us. Some of us used pencils and papers; others used Paint and Illustrator, which Maya uses for her autobiographical blog, Maya’s Amalgam.

So we all let it rip. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What do you think of these illustrations?

If your illustration is not here, please do forward it to us and we’ll add it to the gallery.

As part of its Gender and IT program, Nasawiya is holding on Saturday, March 27, 2010 a workshop entitled “Express Yourself in Illustration”.

Led by graphic/web designer and illustrator Maya Zankoul, the workshop will take place between 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM at our office in Mar Mikhael (call 01-447192 for directions).

Zankoul, who’s behind the famed illustrated blog on her life in Lebanon Maya’s Amalgam, will be sharing tips on how to tell stories with simple and fast illustrations.

Doodlers, novice illustrators and curious feminists are welcome.

Pre-Requisites: No drawing skills are required. But participants should have Illustrator or Paint installed on their computers.

The workshop is free of charge. Places are limited to 15. To register, please email farah@nasawiya.org with a little bit about you. Priority goes to young women and young activists of both or neither gender.