A History of Arab Graphic Design traces the people and events that were integral to the shaping of a field of graphic design in the Arab world. Examining the work of
over eighty key designers from
Morocco to Iraq, and covering the period from pre-1900 to the end of the twentieth century,
Bahia Shehab and
Haytham Nawar chart the development of design in the region, beginning with Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy, and their impact on Arab visual culture, through to the digital revolution and the arrival of the Internet. They look at how cinema, economic prosperity, and political and cultural events gave birth to and shaped the founders of Arab graphic design.
The Daily Heller: An Overdue Arab Design History Book (Part 1)
(American University in Cairo Press) by Bahia Shehab and Haytham Nawar is an essential new textbook for students and graphic designers from East and West. Over the past two decades, Arabic type and typography has been well-chronicled through books, exhibitions and conferences. Yet a broader historical narrative has not been available until now.
You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution marks the 10-year anniversary of the uprising. Nawar has worked at the Ionian Centre for Art and Culture in Kefalonia, Greece, has taught at the School of Design in Hong Kong, and is currently associate professor of design and the chair of the department of the arts at the American University in Cairo. Nawar was also a Fulbright Visiting Artist at the School of Visual Arts, and visiting scholar conducting post-doctorate research at the ArtSci Center of UCLA.