2011 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The articles are the artist's own thoughts and inspirations from daily life ranging from the culture of innovation, toys and the age dilemma, man's relation with the ever-blinking screen and the notion of speed. The challenge faced in this project is putting the articles together in a coherent manner while maintaining its personal and witty style of writing. The book is a personal insider's account of the issues around us that humanity faces on a daily basis.

The Brief

Saudi Aramco's quarterly Arabic cultural magazine Al Qafila featured short articles written by renowned artist-designer Kameel Hawa for eight consecutive years. Beirut Graphics had decided to put those short articles together in one book.

How the final design was conceived

The look and feel of the book was reached through its format, size and binding method that maintained the "personal" aspect of the publication. The sketches were roughly matched to each subject the article put forward. One colour printing was also used to convey a sense of low-cost affordability to the publication. To reduce the sense of monotony that might occur, the longer articles that had an "essay" feel to its writing were put together in the middle of the book with a different paper colour to denote a chad.ge of "pace" in the reader's mind.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

From the book signings, it is evident that the publication is enjoying a high profile in press coverage and in book sales at the stores it is featured in. It is one the first publications to re-publish collected articles and essays from a free-subscribtion quarterly.