Coinciding with the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix is Alwan 338, a month-long arts festival introducing Bahrain’s up and coming generation of conceptual artists. Exploring the possibilities generated by placing art in the public space, the event is centered around three key locations: Local gallery Al Riwaq, Bohemia – a vacant building in the heart of Adliya, [...]

Our first visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia introduced us to sudden rain and floods, lebanese sheep brains for lunch, 7p per litre petrol, two huge towers overlooking a city that never sleeps and unforgettable taxi rides. Caroline of course had to make a few wardrobe alterations to make the trip, but we clearly [...]

Creating artwork on a LARGE scale.

Today sees the international launch of ‘A Month in Marrakesh’, a recipe book and travelogue published by Hardie Grant, with food by Andy Harris; editor of Jamie Magazine, who embraces the wealth of flavours that Morocco has to offer, all of which are brought to life by beautiful photography and illustrations from renowned photographer David [...]

As a financial product offering needs to have a seal of approval or Fatwa from a Shari’a scholar, interesting anomalies can occur. In a recent BBC News article (read the full story here) whether a product gets approved or not depends on the individual scholar’s view on the matter. If a scholar refused a product, the bankers would practice ‘Fatwa Shopping’ by going to another, “If he doesn’t give it to us, we phone up another scholar, offer him a sum of money for his services and ask him for a Fatwa. We do this until we get Shari’a compliance. Then we are free to distribute the product as Islamic.”

During a lunchtime walk along Westbourne Grove last week I noticed an identity on the side of a taxi that reminded me of something similar we produced at Interstate. The Egyptair logo in question (launched as part of a 2008 rebrand) had a lot in common with a marque we developed for Dubai-based DXB Sports in 2007.

Nigel and myself attended the Arabic Typography workshop at the TDC (Type Directors Club) in New York last weekend. The event was hosted by Nadine Chahine, Linotype’s branding manager and Arabic Type expert.

In my opinion the words ‘global brand’ are overused in modern day football and are often taken out of context of what the ‘beautiful game’ stands for. However, as a designer with a growing interest in Arabic typography it was refreshing to see Real Madrid’s recent issue of language specific player shirts.