The AMAU Design Crime and a Blessing in Disguise

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Bit of a random one here but just wanted so share an old win and a reflection on the blessings that came with a certain logo I designed.

A few months ago I was driving back to town at Fajr and was listening to a lesson by Ustadh Abdul Rahman Hassan based on a book by Imam ibn al-Qayyim and the logo in the bottom right corner of the video caught my eye.

It was the one I designed for Al-Madrasatu Al-Umariyyah (AMAU) in 2016.

And it surprised me that the original logo I designed for them is still being used on their channel after all these years. 9 years to be exact.

A bit of background... 👉

Back in around late 2015 or early 2016, my friend Imran ibn Mansur reached out to me and told me that Abdul Rahman Hassan had a vision to create an online educational institute called Al-Madrasatu Al-Umariyyah and if I could design the logo for it. The institute would focus on teaching classical Islamic text.

My experience in logo design and branding at the time was still in its VERY early stages but I still attempted to do it. I was told to incorporate the hadith: ‏من خرج في طلب العلم، فهو في سبيل الله حتى يرجع (“Whoever goes forth in search of knowledge is considered being in the Path of Allah until he returns." (rough translation, narrated in Sunan at-Tirmidhi)).

Anyways, with limited knowledge of what I was getting myself into I still attempted to design it anyway.

Call it brave or delusional but I made this cliche logo with geometric shapes, a scroll and feather quill. Not very creative at all. 🥲 

🚨 Now here’s my crime. 🚔

My knowledge and understanding of logo design was so minimal that I’ll confess that I didn’t know how to properly use Adobe Illustrator at the time so I designed the logo between Adobe Photoshop and basic usage of Illustrator. Thinking I knew what I was doing, I saved the logo in PNG and exported it. Yeah. The final logo is a raster image, not a vector. 🚔🚨

I’m sorry guys.

But… we had something of a logo which was approved and quickly went on to grace the background of AMAU’s videos, classes, their workbooks, over a thousand video thumbnails, that classic intro with him reciting Laamiyah ibn Taymiyyah and so much more. Check out some of where the logo made its appearance below:

And it’s crazy that nine years since they launched, that logo is still present on their platforms despite them having rebranded into an academy and having got a new logo 🫣 But somehow my design still lives on. 🥲

Tbh, Looking back at it now and I'm wondering what was I even thinking with this design choice?! 😶

Is my original logo great? No.

Is it my personal favourite design? Not at all.

Does it work properly according to some of the principles of logo design? If I'm completely objective, nope.

It’s a raster image for goodness sake!

I can’t say I’m proud of this logo design from a creative perspective. But one thing I'll forever be grateful for is the fact that it’s coming up to 10 years and it's still running and being used. Somehow. 😅

Not only that, it’s become a symbol which has become a well established mark for the AMAU brand. Major W.

Last year I was in Dubai and I was talking to my friend (who also was involved with Al-Madrasatu al-Umariyyah) about how crazy it was to have been one of the contributors who had a tiny role to play in the origin of the AMAU brand, and it's a blessing that I took this opportunity, especially when you see the work they've been doing over the past 9 years in providing content to not just the English-speaking audience, but also in Urdu, Arabic, Bangla and Somali.

And in a crazy turn of events, just the other day Ustadh Abdul Rahman Hassan reached back to me to design the logo and visual branding for his new institute which might be live at the time of releasing this newsletter. I’ll do a case study on this one next time. Full circle moment!

🔥 Key takeaways 🔥

💪 Work hard and design things that'll last for years to come.

💫 Not every win has to be monetary, sometimes having a positive impact or contribution towards a cause is more valuable.

🤲🏼 Practice gratitude for every win!!!!

"And if you should count the favors of Allāh, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful." [Surah an-Nahl 16:18]

Until next time. ✌️

P.S. I’ve made a Panda Files Instagram Channel, feel free to check it out for all things design, business and creative randomness.

P.P.S. Pls don’t design logos in Photoshop. 😬