Anubis The Judge Illustration by Najeeb Barbour is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Competition Category.
IronGraphic· 2020
Anubis The Judge Illustration
Client: Leopard Arts
A' Design Award Winner in Graphic Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #90661The Design
About Anubis The Judge Illustration
'Anubis The Judge'; through an analysis of the design, it is obvious the designer focused on the primary features of Anubis as an iconic symbol of an ancient and prominent era. He added a title 'The Judge' possibly to portray more of the power or strength the character in his design holds. Clearly, the designer added depth and detailed attention to the geometrical symbols he used across the design. He included a shocker wrapped around the character’s neck, which was also heavy on texture.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Anubis The Judge Illustration is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Anubis The Judge Illustration is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Anubis The Judge Illustration is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
Falling in love with the mysterious mythology behind the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation
charged me to read more about it, and try to understand the symbols and designs
that represents the underworld.
To go deeper in each character they draw, to understand each ones power and level.
I was fascinated the most by Anubis "God Of Death" and what this character represents.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
My main focus was to represent the power and boldness, seriousness, appearance and glorious look of this character.
A Character that had no bargains when it comes to death and the underworld.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I would love to physically sculpture it and use lots of elements & materials to make it stand out more as a physical character.
Grand Interview
Your innovative fusion of ancient Egyptian symbolism and contemporary geometric elements in Anubis The Judge Illustration is striking - could you elaborate on how you developed this unique visual language while maintaining cultural authenticity?
My great attachment to understanding geometry and its wonderful effect on the visual and tangible mass of the elements, made me associate it with most of the artworks I do, because it creates an amazing balance. Therefore, I created special harmonious symbols that follow a harmonious flow between each other using quarters of a circle on one hand, and the full circle on the other hand, taking into consideration the reflection of this on the viewer's eye as if he is watching the same style of Pharaonic drawings but from a distinctive modern perspective.
The intricate choker design and hierarchical symbols in Anubis The Judge Illustration suggest deep mythological research - how did your weeks of studying Egyptian hieroglyphics and beliefs specifically influence these detailed elements?
What distinguishes hieroglyphic drawings the most are their symbols and the amazing diversity in their composition, as each symbol represents a special form and meaning. Regardless of the meaning of the symbols and the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, these drawings captivated me and took me on a deep journey, through which I weaved a world of my own, and through its reflections created a different model in composition, close in meaning and distinctive in status. As if I see that era from a different parallel world, through which I translate any language in my own way.
The transformation from traditional hand sketching to digital refinement in Anubis The Judge Illustration presents an interesting technical journey - could you walk us through your process of preserving the drawing's organic feel while achieving digital precision?
I am still a fan of the old school "as I am always told" pen and paper are the basis of every artwork I do.They are the real translator and the building block for ideas, through which I express everything that goes on in my mind, no matter how complicated the details are.It is as if I train my fingers every time to master drawing, and when the line I drew will start and when it will end and with which line it will intersect.It is the most enjoyable process through which I determine the best way to move to digital implementation.I then start with the digital process, and "in the case of Anubis specifically" I decided to rely on integrated circuits and their intersections in drawing the elements, although this is a complex and tiring detail, but I wanted this particular work to have a special character.Not to mention following the rule of thirds in measurement to add a noticeable visual and physical balance to the work for all the elements.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- This design is titled 'Anubis, The Judge'. The design encompasses a set of well thought geometrical elements to complement the the subject of this design considering the divine charisma and unmatched power of this Egyptian god. The degree of seriousness behind the character is reflected in the dense design elements represented in the chocker visible around the neck area. The presence of the scale, is to symbolize the final judgement towards the after-life and the 'beetle' is added to highlight and facilitate the infamous intercession process reintroduced into the design to reflect back on the power of acceptance.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- W68 cm x H95 cm, 300 dpi, RGB Colors
- Tags
- Anubis, Illustration, Geometry, Egyptian, History, Hieroglyphic,
- Production Technology
- The initial sketch was done free hand aimed to create a homogenous flow of all the thoughts gathered pertaining the subject of my piece.
Revisiting the visual concecept was essential in order to create a high degree of consistency to establishing perfection within every corner
of the drawing, considering the density of Anubis’s structure. I have also adopted traditional methods of depicting shapes and carefully
applied it within the relevant scope of my drawing.
Following the sketch development stage, came the digital aspects of applying the technical skills utilized through illustrator and Photoshop. - Design Challenge
- My challenge was to understand the mythical and methods of the ancient calligraphies and arts,
and how they tried to communicate.
the only obstacle i faced, was the quality and details of the informations i received. - Research
- i went through multiple methods for my research, such as art books of ancient civilizations, calligraphy art, internet, and video documentaries.
i also got lots of valuable information about the Ancient Egyptian Art from my Egyptian friends and colleagues.
Which allows me to dive into the idea even deeper, to come up with an original style . - Inspiration
- I was inspired by Egyptian History, motivated by the mysterious mythology behind their civilisation, especially the Anubis Character that had no bargains when it comes to death and the Underworld, the design had to reflect the seriousness and boldness of Anubis...my research took weeks going through all of their drawings and hieroglyphics, symbols and beliefs until the idea was ready to execute.
- Project Duration
- The project started in Aug 2017 and finished in Jul 2018
- Operation Flow
- This design could be a standalone printed as an artwork, Or it could be transformed into a 3d form and used as a character still or animated, it can be physically sculptured and used as an art-decor element using metallic materials hand made or factory production, the object is a very flexible design and can be operated in many ways.
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