Alan Aboud

Alan Aboud (born 13 May 1966) is an Irish graphic designer and creative director, from Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin from 1974–1984 and the National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Dublin where he completed his foundation year and began his degree in graphic design before transferring to Saint Martin's School of Art in London in 1986. He graduated from there in 1989, with a first class honours degree.

Life and career

He founded the creative agency Aboud Sodano in 1989 with fellow Saint Martin’s student and photographer Sandro Sodano.

The pair have enjoyed a loose creative association for many years combining Alan’s talent for art direction and typography with Sandro’s distinctive image making. Their collaborations still continue but as the business matured, Alan has concentrated on growing and shaping the agency in London while Sandro has consolidated his photography career in London and New York. In 2007, Aboud Sodano became Aboud Creative.

Over the past 20 years, the agency has worked extensively with strong and creatively innovative fashion, beauty, fragrance and lifestyle brands including Paul Smith (Sir Paul Smith), Levi's, H&M, River Island and Neal's Yard Remedies.

Aboud is most recognised for the success of the world-renowned Paul Smith identity using a Multi-stripe textile design originally created for shirting in 1997.

Spotted at his degree show by Paul Smith’s head buyer in 1989, he began working for Smith two days a week on his advertising and graphic design whilst setting up Aboud Sodano - his working relationship with Smith flourished and still continues after 20 years.

His company works across a wide range of creative skills including art direction & design for advertising, graphic design for books, editorial and websites, product design & packaging, commercials direction, motion graphics and exhibitions/environmental design.

More recently, he has acted as creative director on the new visual branding for the beauty and healthcare company, Neal’s Yard Remedies.

Aboud also collaborates with his cousin Simon Aboud, forming the collective Aboud + Aboud in 2009.

Aboud has two children, twins Milo Keating-Aboud and Vic K-a.

Quote

"I really don't think that my vision of the future of graphic design is that relevant or indeed important. Every aspiring designer should stick to his or her beliefs. What I do care about in my work is that it is original, appropriate, and never patronising. My long-term goal is to achieve a healthy and equal balance between design that works strategically but doesn't pollute the environment and design that creatively pushes boundaries, whether they be aesthetic or about choice of medium. I would ideally like to use the skills that I have as a designer to take on board some social responsibility as I am actually aware that it is designers of my generation and the one previous that are responsible for the saturation of the High Street with ubiquitous and meaningless design."

Reference material

1. you can find inspiration in everything* Paul Smith Published by Violette Editions ISBN 978-1-900828-29-1 Contributor's p. 296

2. New Design London: The Edge of Graphic Design Edited by Edward M. Gomez Published by Rockport Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1-56496-562-7 p. 16

3. The Graphics Book Edited by Jane Austin Published by RotoVision SA ISBN 2-88046-550-8 p. 13

4. Graphics - Real-world graphic design projects - from brief to finished solution Published by Rotovision ISBN 2-88046-315-7 p. 12 - p. 19

5. Graphic Design for the 21st Century 100 of the World's Graphic Designer Published by Taschen ISBN 3-8228-1605-1 p. 38 - p. 43

6. Wear Me: Fashion + Graphics Interaction Edited by Liz Farelly ISBN 1-873968-55-8 p. 144 - p. 153

7. Great Graphics on a Budget Written and Designed by Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi Published by Rockport Publishers ISBN 1-56496-948-7 p. 96 - p. 99

8. Fashion & Graphics Written by Tamsin Blanchard Published by Laurence King Publishing ISBN 1-85669-338-4 p. 128 - p. 139

9. Problem Solved Written by Michael Johnson Published by Phaidon Press ISBN 0-7148-4174-9 p. 257

10. Communicate: Independent Graphic Design since the Sixties Edited by Rick Poynor Published by Laurence King Publishing ISBN 1-85669-422-4 p. 88

11. Dialogue Relationships in Graphic Design Written by Shaun Cole Published by V&A Publications ISBN 1-85177-434-3 p. 30 - p. 39