"Khamsa" poster was produced during a 2-day online workshop entitled “Makhtout”,
-Manuscripts in Arabic-, which was held remotely by warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi with Sherine Salla and Ryan Vicent Lee Grees.
The project aimed to study and explore Arabic-Islamic manuscripts and miniatures as a tool for bridging heritage with everyday life and to study how these significant pieces of material culture relate to contemporary graphic design.
I chose “Khamsa” as the subject for my poster, which is the Arabic word for “five” as well as “the five fingers of the hand”. In the Middle East, the khamsa has been recognized and used often as a sign of protection against the evil eye.
The design is based on the analysis of a couple of Islamic manuscripts found on different online archives. The inspiration shows in multi-layering, mirror layouts, framing, floral illustrations, repetition, illustrations as part of the layout, customized lettering for the titles and subtitles, and the use of geometric shapes to distinguish the sections of the layout.
