Aly Khalifa, owner of Gamil Design, has been awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for 2012. “Eisenhower Fellowships engages emerging leaders from around the world to enhance their professional capabilities, broaden their contacts, deepen their perspectives, and unite them in a diverse, global community – a network where dialogue, understanding, and collaboration lead to a more [...]

Gamil was hired to be part of the team to create the new Kings & Neptunes sites. We worked with Raleigh designer Maura Dillon, to create an easy to navigate and update content management site using Wordpress. King’s site features a powerful calendar application that lists the upcoming shows chronologically and enables Kings to have the ability to sell tickets through etix on the site. Neptunes’ website, sister business of Kings, is a one page website using a similar theme template that is also updated through a Wordpress system. The Neptunes’ site dynamically pulls in different streams of content into the homepage to allow the reader to see all the information they need without having to click through subpages.

Gamil was asked to coordinate & produce the entertainment for the VIP opening Gala at the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Raleigh. We titled the “show” CAM-A-DADA, and brought a curious and strange aspect to the black-tie affair. The production included an emoticon protest, theramin, flashmob/dance troupe, acrobatics, as well as LED and Bubble performances. Producing the show allowed us to work with some of our favorite local people including: Acroentertainment and talent coordination by Katie Bouterse and Kaci Torres, Ringmasters, Emoticon Protest Grand Marshalls, and stunning inspiration: Thunder and Junebug, Theramin and live looping provided by Billy Sugarfix, LED hoop performance by Mindy, LED Sword and Poi by Phoenix and GUMMYLUV, and Bubble Art by Caroleeena.

Producing CAM-A-DADA allowed us to work with favorite local people – and for our favorite project in town! Send any pics to our Flickr photo stream here. Facebook photos here. Acroentertainment and talent coordination by Katie Bouterse and Kaci Torres Ringmasters, Emoticon Protest Grand Marshalls, and stunning inspiration: Thunder and Junebug Theramin and live looping [...]

Gamil worked with the Raleigh Convention Center, to produce MAXIMUS CIRCUS as part of the 2010 Raleigh Wide Open festivities. Gamil not only conceptualized the event, but also designed the set, consume theming, branded (website, print collateral), and ran all the logistics of the shows.

Beth Khalifa quoted saying “RICA can do a number of things: increase awareness of local talent and expertise, increase public understanding of contemporary art, showcase Raleigh as an artistic force on a national scale, increase both the pool of artistic talent and the pool of enthusiasts, and continue to nurture the arts as an element of why Raleigh is a great place to live.”

Opens First Friday December 7, 2007, and then will also be open Monday through Saturday through December 21, the Brand Fandango store at Designbox has a host of great holiday gifts designed by over 15 local artisans. Opening night, Friday, December 7, was festive and very successful. We’ve done Brand Fandango for 6 years, and [...]

Pacific Design, out of Austin, Texas, and Gamila have partnered to create the “Indie Artists Collection” for iPod cases and PSP gaming cases. The Indie Artists Collection is launched under the Pacific Design brand and features 2 local Raleigh artists: David Eichenberger and Paul Friedrich. The First Friday show was a celebration of these cases being [...]

In an effort to better connect with the design community, we’ve launched our very own blog. It’s here that we plan to log “elements of inspiration and moments of distraction from our small design firm.” We plan to have multiple authors from our group of Gamil Design and Gamila Company discuss design in their day-to-day research and [...]

SparkCon 07 (September 14–17, 2007) was much much bigger than the first. As core organizers of the brand and message, Beth and Aly also found time to help facilitate tables of registrants to focus on how to make the Triangle area more conducive to creativity across many different strata -from copyrights and open source technology [...]

Beth Khalifa was Creative Director for the branding of the SparkCon 07 creative conference. She and fellow Gamiler, Britt Hayes, designed all of the collateral, including everything from the website to maps of the city, programs, name badges, posters, and managing lots and lots of information across the efforts of 63 organizers and 12 different “Spark” [...]

The City Plaza design charette, in which Aly and Beth Khalifa, and Ty Beddingfield facilitated (among other facilitators, including Designbox members, Spark Con members, The Urban Design Center, and Kimley-Horn) took the ideas produced during the charrette and refined them into a series of illustrations for a presentation to City Council. The proposed City Plaza [...]

The new office is bigger and better than before. We are in a swell part of downtown Raleigh so come visit us on a First Friday! Check the gallery schedule on the designbox website!

Designbox and SparkCon members, including Aly and Beth Khalifa, and Ty Beddingfield, at the request of the Urban Design Center, facilitated a charrette to spark ideas about the City Plaza space in downtown Raleigh.

We’re not sure what it’s gonna be, but we’re excited about the possibilities as we work with well-known creative professionals to chart a path for creative talent for the Triangle.

Beth Khalifa is Creative Director for the branding of the inaugural year of Spark Con. Beth, Britt, and sometimes Kelly and Aly all got into the act of designing a system of “Spark People” representing all of the different creative components of this multi-faceted Conference. Beth and Britt also designed and maintained all of the [...]

Richard Stradling reports on the progress of the Convention Center’s heap of excavated dirt becoming a city park in Raleigh – all via a design charrette organized and facilitated by Designbox. A lot of the material has already arrived and has been sculpted at the Dix site.

Aly and Beth developed an energetic 3 hour creative session to elicit ideas about what Raleigh has to offer. They then facilitated the workshop, along with nine additional members of Designbox. Hosted by the Raleigh Convention Center, the charrette was attended by a diverse group of about 80 city leaders. Each Designbox member led an 8-person [...]

This Designbox exhibit of a local neighborhood parade has garnered attention in the News & Observer’s What’s Up.The show was also featured in the Raleigh Hatchet with the actual event described as “one of the coolest, and most original events Raleigh has to offer.”

Upon hearing that the Dix property was to receive 150,000 tons of dirt from the new convention center project in downtown Raleigh, Aly Khalifa, Professor Will Hooker and Councilman Thomas Crowder decided to hold a design charrette to find a creative way to turn this dumping into a unique city feature. Khalifa will lead the creative session [...]