👀 So, what's this all about? 👀

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Asalaamu alaikum everyone, what’s up! 👋🏽

Welcome to the first The Panda Files newsletter, a new project of mine where I share my thoughts on design and business and all things creative. This is my first attempt at doing something like this so I’m aware it won’t be perfect but like most things in our life, it’ll be a work in progress and I hope it’ll get better with time. 🤲🏽

Before we get into it, I want to give a BIG MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who signed up and I can’t wait for us to connect. The Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa salam) said “Whoever does not thank the people has not thanked Allah” [Sunan Abi Dawood, classed authentic by Shaykh al-Albani]

So on that note, THANK YOU and I truly appreciate YOU. 🤲🏽

Now let’s begin with a little intro. 🎤🐼

I’m Samee (most of you will probably know me as @SameePanda on Instagram). A lifelong creative human and a Muslim who’s been dabbling in the space of art, design and business since I was a young dude in college.

… Actually let’s rewind even further ⏪. My love for creativity began even before I started school and it only grew with time - I was winning multiple art competitions and illustrating Pokemon from the Kanto and Johto Regions whilst in Primary School, to designing and making my own clothing, doing graffiti and Arabic calligraphy and much, much more. However my current focus for the last few years has been on brand identity design. I’ve been around. You can say (as I like to call myself) that I’m a Creative Hustler, because that’s literally what I do.

Now I want to share my journey and lessons with you.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked in this space for many years now which means I’ve had countless experiences (good, bad and everything in between) which I’m sure you’ll find useful whether you’re an aspiring creative, someone who’s already involved in this space or you’re just an observer and are thinking to join the club but you need someone to show you how to navigate.

I got you. 👊🏽

And of course, since I’m a Muslim you’ll often see me write about what I’ve learnt being a Muslim creative specifically. The do’s, the don’ts, and how we can exist as creators of our craft whilst upholding our religious values to the best of our ability. Because, let’s be honest, creativity isn’t usually seen as something compatible with Islam. But that’s a topic for another day. ⏳

(or maybe you’re a simple person you and you wanna see design memes? Don’t worry I got plenty of those too.)

So what can you expect from this newsletter?

Here are some of the topics I plan to write about in the future:

🔥 The importance of branding for your business or project

🔥 Work + life balance in the life of a designer

🔥 Dealing with difficult clients

🔥 My personal design case studies

🔥 Inspirational content to help boost your designs

🔥 Dealing with feedback, critics and copycats

🔥 Money, money, money! (AKA the most taboo topic in the world of design)

🔥 Mindset and positive thinking

🔥 Productivity tips

🔥 AND MUCH MORE

That’s all for now. From next Friday’s issue I’ll be addressing specific topics so I hope you’ll stick around. Be sure to follow me on Instagram @SameePanda and if you’ve got anything you want to see me talk about then feel free to shoot me a message.

Right, I’m off to a premiere event for a client I worked with, I’ll share how it went as part of a future case study.

Stay warm 🔥

Sending you peace and love! Asalaamu alaikum ✌🏽

Samee 🐼