Majlis for Future Generations

The UAE is young. Founded during a brief moment of instability in the summer of 1971, it has had to rely on ingenuity and determination to survive in a region that is environmentally and ideologically hostile toward its progressive aspirations. Historically, entire government agencies would be assembled so quickly and urgently that design simply wasn’t a consideration.

However, the county’s leadership has recently changed focus from issues of survival to issues of cultural identity and sustainability. This has spawned rare opportunities for design houses like Slash, with whom I was contracting, to define a national aesthetic from the ground up.

The client approached Slash to provide a new brand for the country’s crown jewel outreach program – the Mohamed bin Zayed Majlis for Future Generations.

“[The Majlis] is a celebration of collective power to shape the future of the UAE. By connecting leaders with youth around a program of transformative learning experiences, [it] encourages innovative thinking and the professional development of the UAE’s next generation of leaders.” The UAE is young. Founded during a brief moment of instability in the summer of 1971, it has had to rely on ingenuity and determination to survive in a region that is environmentally and ideologically hostile toward its progressive aspirations. Historically, entire government agencies would be assembled so quickly and urgently that design simply wasn’t a consideration.

However, the county’s leadership has recently changed focus from issues of survival to issues of cultural identity and sustainability. This has spawned rare opportunities for design houses like Slash, with whom I was contracting, to define a national aesthetic from the ground up.

The client approached Slash to provide a new brand for the country’s crown jewel outreach program – the Mohamed bin Zayed Majlis for Future Generations.

“[The Majlis] is a celebration of collective power to shape the future of the UAE. By connecting leaders with youth around a program of transformative learning experiences, [it] encourages innovative thinking and the professional development of the UAE’s next generation of leaders.”

Honing in on the idea collective cooperation, the lead designer took inspiration from the idea of starling murmurations – the massive, undulating bird flocks that emerge from simple rules of engagement between organisms. This organic motif of flocking would be set against a reserved, dignified logotype. These contrasting forms strike a balance between the always morphing progress of culture and the unyielding measure of tradition.

I was asked to develop a set of graphics for the flocking motif that could be used as supporting graphics across seminars and websites. The typography was provided by Slash's lead designer.

It didn't take long to stumble upon the boid's algorithm.

After hours of pouring through academic papers on bird murmurations and wrapping my head around Three.js instancing, I had a working simulation. It was only a matter of tweaking the parameters to behave like starlings instead of drowning fire ants.

The new brand has been announced, and is currently awaiting implementation across the organization’s channels.