Ziyaad Haniff
Discovering your voice for storytelling during high school doesn’t come without its tells.
Your voice must be loud enough to be heard over the clamour.Your voice must be presumptuous enough to rile up the colosseum that is the cafeteria. Your voice must carry enough wit to engage and entertain anyone who finally decides to lend you an ear.
Fittingly, ‘My First Comm. Tech Assignment’ is as overstated and superficial as my communication skills in high school.
Despite being a creature of habit — with sentences mirroring my train of thought, adorned with em dashes as I stumble upon the next thought — my storytelling skills have grown with age. Now, I try to hone in on brevity, cohesion, and empathy.
Whereas I sought out that class to design album artwork, more recently, I was approached to creative direct a trilogy of song releases. And upon hearing the artists’ stories, we reinterpreted it in a way where the visuals could evoke a response individually, or as a whole.
‘The Cure’ is the antithesis of ‘My First Comm. Tech Assignment’. And despite it only being the second installment, in the vein of “brevity, cohesion, and empathy”, I think it says more, with less.
The Cure
Photography/Digital Art
My First Comm. Tech Assignment
Digital Art
About Ziyaad Haniff
Ziyaad Haniff is a Creative Director, Digital Storyteller, and Arts Facilitator based in Toronto. As a multidisciplinary artist, his diverse experiences often inform and amplify one another: he graduated as a Theatre and New Media major from the University of Toronto and Centennial College; spent years contributing to music publications, including HotNewHipHop and Ones To Watch; accidentally became a sought-out photographer; used his random collection of talents to creative consult for startups; and eventually brought his narrative and visual skills together to direct in the film industry. In short, Ziyaad helps creative people do creative things. Supported by his collective and pseudo-creative-agency Storied, the multidisciplinary artist has spent the last decade orchestrating visuals for emerging artists through to established enterprises. Collaborators looking to work alongside him would join fan favourites including Warner Music Group, Just For Laughs, Sony Music, and Hasan Minhaj, amongst others.