Ahwar for
Nadah El Shazly
& Nawa Recordings

In 2017 Nadah El Shazly was working on her first album, Ahwar, released with Nawa Recordings. She knew she wanted the artwork to feature a very intricate and vibrant painting by Marwan El Gamal in his usual hyper-detailed, organic and surreal style. And I was brought in to visualize how we could adapt the painting onto the various formats of the release and create typography and graphic elements to bring the whole thing together. 

Together with El Shazly, Khyam Allami (Nawa Recordings) and Sarah El Miniawy (Simsara Music) we decided to layer the painting, with El Gamal isolating and repainting the different elements, as if peeling back into his original work and adding even more detail. And with this we were able to tell the story of El Shazly’s process in creating the album and to highlight different parts of this experience for her.

In our conversations, El Shazly told me she felt she had been absorbing and collecting bits and pieces of inspiration for years, letting them sit in her head, and that she had been on a journey with no distinct beginning or end, taking things in which eventually culminated in this expression of that period for her. The shaky white line connecting the elements of the project represents this journey, tying the pieces of typography and painting together like a ribbon.

The custom Arabic typography was created in response to the music, referencing the electronic and at times harsh and metallic sounds used on the album as well as the very melodic and flowy nature of El Shazly’s voice. The type is sharp and angular in places, but soft and rounded in others to express this contrast which I found striking when I first listened to the tracks. In both the album as well as the painting I see themes around nature vs. technology as well as warmth and familiarity vs. tension and discord.

We were able to press on transparent vinyls for the special limited edition release, which really elevated the object and added to the vinyl listener’s experience. The artwork was then adapted to cassette tape, promo CD and digital booklet, and eventually we also created tour posters for 2018.