My name is Abdulrahman Kassem, I'm 26 years old and I welcome you to my portfolio. I'm from Berlin, Germany and I'm a graphic designer and software engineer.
I have acquired my bachelors of science in "International Media and
Computing" at the HTW-Berlin in May 2023. Prior to that, I had the opportunity to gather knowledge in graphic design through a schooling here in Berlin too. I was learning the basics of graphic design at the vocational training center
called "Lette-Verein" in Berlin, Schöneberg for three years.
This schooling gave me the possibility to further enhance my creative skills during my free time and to combine these skills with different applications like for instance
Unity or other media and entertainment related programs. Therefore I specialize in the fields of games technology and interactive systems, augmented and virtual reality, art, illustration and graphic design.
With my portfolio, I
would like to present, highlight and share my on going projects, knowledge and accomplishments during my time as an aspiring software engineer, graphic designer and hobby game developer to you.
During my time at the vocational training center Lette-Verein, I had the opportunity to learn the basics of graphic design. That means having a wide range of knowledge available to learn freely and to focus on the direction, I personally
want to engage.
Aside from traditional print media like screen printing or analog photography, I chose the rather digital route like image editing, simulations, camera works and video editing. Nevertheless, I'm also able to
create corporate designs and illustrations too.
After graduating as a graphic designer, I realized that I was lacking programing skills when establishing myself into the working world. Because of that I chose to engage a degree in "International Media and Computing" here at HTW-Berlin.
Besides learning the basics of programing and many theoretical aspects of this course of study, I'm feeling glad about having the choice of emphasis and working mostly practically. For this study, I chose to go the route
"Game Technology & Interactive Systems".
During my studies, I had the opportunity to fulfill my mandatory internship here at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin. I helped develop an application in the field of augmented reality.
Besides learning more about the everyday
work environment in my area of study, the internship also helped me out realizing my passion for mixed-reality media.
After my studies and bachelors graduation, I wanted to figure out which direction I wanted to begin and started to look for work in the area of computer science. After many job applications and careful consideration I got accepted as a
software engineer in BAYOONET (specifically BAYOOTEC)
I'm currently working there specifically as a frontend developer, applying designs and functionality to web applications and maintaining them to gain more experience in that field
As seen from my projects that I work or already worked on, I gladly tend to search for inspiration and ideas playing through many kinds of video games that are out there to broaden my creative horizon.
This passion has been present
ever since my childhood and helped me shape and understand different general principles and skills also taught in school.
As someone, who is creatively active when working with different media, I find it very exciting to explore more and learn about new media, I didn't have the chance to work with at all.
Alongside this activity, I developed an interest
in illustration and artwork design too, hence the decision on going to the training center Lette-Verein after all.
During my time at the vocational training center "Lette-Verein" I had the privilege to learn about a lot of fundamental subjects related to graphic design. From the beginning until the end, we were pushed with different kinds of knowledge
that we had to get used to in order for us to learn how to combine them together to create, what is considered, good design.
From different techniques like screen printing, analog photography, beginnings of image editing and so on, I had many different projects with real clients, that required all the knowledge learned from the courses together plus fulfilling
the wishes of the client to the best ability as possible.
One of my proudest and most satisfying moments was designing the cover artwork for the magazines for the popular scientific publisher "De Gruyter". The clients challenged my class to design the next covers for the magazines freely, but
a sort of consistency and concept need to be visible.
While competing with others, I had the idea to turn the subjects names into visual waves by recording the names with my own voice. I tried to capture the acoustics of
a word to make it into a picture with this mixed method. The colors were chosen by my fellow competitors picking three colors randomly with a generator that I programed and letting them choose their favorite out of the three. With
this method I had a rather weird color combination but the intention was to let the whole class have an influence to my work and create a hommage to De Gruyter from the Lette Verein.
Even though the clients didn't take my concept and made it reality, at the end I was still honored by the clients for having one of the best concept idea of all the contestants in my class.
With this demonstration, I wanted to show the process of visualizing the audio files into fluid-like waves. For this I recorded my voice saying the subjects out loud and displaying the so called "sonagram" with the audio program "Audacity".
After putting a relief filter over it, I continued by mixing the original voice over the sonagram picture and tried to morph them together to have liquid-like waves at the end. All the image editing steps were made with Adobe Photoshop
and Illustrator.
During my graphic design studies, I also collected fundamental knowledge about editorial design techniques. From designing layouts to fully develop complete magazines and corporate designs, I managed to collect valuable skills in areas
like typography, content organization, content presentation and much more.
Besides learning the basics of layout design, I primarily created traditionally designed pages and editorials before branching out into more experimental territories to find the right style that suits my personal designs.
By following the conventional standards of academical teachings, I finally had the chance to design and manipulate layouts, posters and flyers accordingly to my own preference.
All these various works were made with Adobe InDesign. Learning this program through the vocational training center and in my free time helped me with a lot with content organization and presentation in many other areas.
At the vocational training center Lette-Verein we had the opportunity to learn about conceptualizing installations through a variety of programs and media.
In this example, I created a concept for a possible room installation, that features a specific theme. The theme I chose was the popular comic book series "The Walking Dead" where I wanted to highlight the different, yet fictional
characters to appear and showing the plot with the help of fitting effects and compositions.
In my free time I dedicated my efforts to create my own brand, that I can use for future works. I decided to go with a wordmark, making it possible to use two letters as a mascot. The name of the brand derives from my real name
being misspelled slightly to fit the overall logo aesthetics and recognizability.
The brand also provides simplicity, making it possible to present it in various color themes and compositions. With these overviews I wanted to demonstrate the versitility of usage for this wordmark and its mascot.
Having no prior experience in 3D or simulations, I had the chance to work in the training center first hand with Cinema4D, a very popular but expensive 3D program. Unfortunately all the works that I've done were for educational purposes
only and are not allowed for the public.
Nevertheless, with that knowledge I decided to switch programs and started to work with Blender. As you can see, I found it very easy to learn Blender because of the experience with Cinema4D before.
I always was interested
in creating satsifying simulations like the geometrical ones at the top. In addition to that, I tried out many other functions within Blender to have a feeling for animation, texturing and rendering. This knowledge plus some help through
various tutorials, I was able to develop a certain workflow when working with Blender.
For the future, I would like to further enhance my skills with Blender in general. I also strive to learn about modelling/sculpturing in Blender aswell to create my own characters for future projects.
I also have on my list to learn about
the integration of Blender in various XR-applications as a real-time rendering plugin to have results in no time and to mix these elements together to make installations or simulations for exhibitions or artists with their focus in
XR-media.
To push the different possibilities of my own brand a little further, I decided to translate the two-dimenisional mascot into 3D. This is fitting because that way, its possible to bring the mascot to life.
Translating it into 3D gave me a lot of room for experimentation and to play around. It was possible to depict certain scenarios now with the 3D version of my mascot, giving me the opportunity to use this method and
in future works for possible clients.
Augmented Reality or called AR for short, is one of the most important computerized extensions ever. It can be used in different ways to visualize, enhance experiences or make something impossible, actually possible. With this in mind,
I was pleased to have the chance to learn about it and work on a simple AR-Application myself. This application shows a little game where the player (displayed in orange) has to collect all the coins to win the game. The player must
avoid the enemies, that follow the player slowly and lets you restart the game upon collision.
I worked with the Augmented Reality Engine called Vuforia™. With its integration to Unity, it allowed me to display my game
scene unto an image through certain computer evaluated markers from Vuforia™. The trackable object is called an image target, which is being displayed here on the ground of the game scene.
In this demonstration, I wanted to highlight the different buttons that are being used for controlling the player through the camera. These buttons are called virtual buttons, that are also provided from the Vuforia™ extention. The
virtual buttons are turning active, when the fingers hover over the buttons, like visible at the top of this page.
Here I wanted to demonstrate how the application works in real world and the ability to tilt and rotate the image target to unlock new ideas and perspectives for developing and enhancing your AR-Application further.
The "Kharita" app is both an educational app and a productivity app that provides students at the HTW Berlin with general information about the room plans and room types and their current equipment levels in an immersive and interactive
presentation via smartphone. This project was done as part of my bachelor thesis.
The goal was to develop an app that provides users with a virtual menu when labeled room signs are scanned to display information about the room as well as other study-related services. The idea was to use augmented reality (AR) as a main
feature in the app to make navigation more intuitive, immersive and overall user-friendly.
If you want to test the app for yourself, follow the instructions and click
here.
While I was involved in augmented reality, I formed some interest in virtual reality during my studies, internship and among friends. After my own purchase of VR glasses, it was important for me to learn a complete workflow with the help
of YouTube videos. For this I created a test program about Unity to contain the different interaction possibilities of a VR application.
In this screenshot you can see first virtual reality attempts with a simple teleportation ability. My personal idea for later is to create a walking simulator with VR to absolutely immerse the player with different effects and interactions.
Magic Ball is a 2d-platformer that focuses on getting as fast as you can to the top. Alongside the controls of going left or right, you're not allowed to jump. To proceed through this game, you'll have to throw a sparkly blue and violet
ball against obstacles to reach the top. The trick here is that the ball teleports you to the spot where it stops, so throwing carefully and strategically is the key here.
This game was created as a student group project at the universty HTW-Berlin. This was the first assignment of two for the study course "Game Engines". The assignment was to program a game using Unity and restricting ourselves only with
options related to 2D.
In this demonstration, I wanted to highlight the range and difficulty of our level that we designed. Here we wanted to apply the same feeling as other rage-inducing games like Jump King by Nexile or Getting Over It by Bennett Foddy.
If you want to play the game too, you
can download it through this link.
OCEAN is an isometric, colorful Role Playing Game with scientific value made in Unity for practical project course at The University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin in Germany, thus the game is in german.
After a shipwreck you find yourself on a tiny island surrounded by water. Luckily someone from a nearby, bigger island noticed you floating there in your bright life vest. They would like to bring you to the main island, as there is a
ship which might bring you home. You need to earn your spot on the boat, so go and see what the island inhabitants have in store for you! Your initial goal is getting home, but that might depend on what you call home.
This game was made as a gamification of personality tests, aiming to make the process of these tests fun and context-rich, yet accurate. The point distribution and results are based on the Big Five Personality Markers by
Lewis R. Goldberg:
Openness – how a person is open to new ideas
Conscientiousness – self control, act dutifully
Extraversion – energy creation from external means, being comfortable in public
Agreeableness – general concern for social harmony
Neurocitism – tendency to experience negative emotions
If you wish to play the game too, click the link here.
