Studio Safar

All my love and gratitude to the sexual health centers in Lebanon doing incredible work, but total anonymity is an incredibly important thing to consider. @omgyno_

SWERVE: Exquisite Corpse Vol. I A limited-edition box set of 150, conceived by @antica_terra and @dennistonhill in collaboration with Julie Mehretu, @j_ss_c_r_nk_n , @pmp2021 , and Lawrence Chua, bringing together wine, art, and publication as a single, integrated work. Each box set includes three wine bottles by Antica Terra, original artwork by Julie, Jessica, and Paul, alongside SWERVE: Exquisite Corpse, Vol. I, a publication conceived as part of the edition. The cuvées were developed by Julie, Jessica, and Paul in collaboration with Antica Terra winemaker Maggie Harrison, and in dialogue with their original artworks, which later became the bottle labels. A fourth bottle, produced alongside but not included in the box set, unites the three cuvées and bears the combined drawings as an exquisite corpse. Beginning from the inside out, featured here are the four bottles. “…this real joy of encountering something unexpected in that process that I think we—as a group of friends, collaborators, queer family—continue to surprise each other and also take each other’s thinking to new, unexpected places. And then the other thing that just came up in talking to Maya and Mia [of Studio Safar] is how the whole process of assembling this from the tasting and mixing of the wine to thinking through the concept and producing the actual edition also has been about an exquisite corpse, or exquisite corpsing. I like that we’re thinking of that term as a verb. And maybe that’s what we’re giving back to the Surrealists is this idea that it doesn’t necessarily resolve in an object, in a dead object, but that it is a process. A living process. I think this edition is an encapsulation of that, in that there is something living in these boxes—the wine, the ideas, the images…” —Lawrence Chua Designed by Studio Safar Photos by @zoeymarciniak for @bob.mov

Catalogue design for @thisisfragmenta ’s first edition, a design and sustainability initiative reimagining crafted pieces and industrial fragments as cultural artifacts. Conceived by @nournajemdesigns and @guilaineelias , and curated by @gregorygatserelia , the inaugural edition (in partnership with Najem Group) brought together 53 designers to transform discarded stone into collectible works. Format: 21 × 29.7 cm (A4) Extent: 176 pages Medium: Print and digital publication Photographers: @maryagazzaoui , @csaade , @tarekmoukaddem , @adrienne.hurtut

Publication design for @nadimchoufi and @sculpturecenter , In the Face of the Dragon (2025). Documentation views from the exhibition at SculptureCenter, New York. Copies of In the Face of the Dragon are stacked on shelves throughout SculptureCenter’s dark basement, inviting visitors to navigate the space and read by the light they carry. Installation view: In Practice: Nadim Choufi, SculptureCenter, New York, 2025 Photos: Charles Benton Nadim Choufi’s work explores how ideals of progress manifest and seduce, and the price of such visions on the lives subjected to their realization. Through sculpture, film, and text, Choufi draws on visual and literary practices that oppose or complicate narratives of national and global progress. For Choufi’s project at SculptureCenter, he has produced a new publication, In the Face of the Dragon, in which he composed a cento poem from lines borrowed from Arab poets who transform themselves, their lovers, and their people into animals and natural elements, speaking through these tongues of love and resistance.

Two issues ago, @journalsafar underwent a major shift in format. We reduced the physical size of the publication and invited @40mustaqel to rethink the cover template, beginning with Issue 8. The cover was reimagined as an object instead of a surface: the full list of contributors runs along the spine in very small type, while select elements from previous covers were retained to maintain continuity. Another significant update to the magazine’s template is the treatment of Arabic article titles. All titles are hand-lettered by Khalil Majed, scanned, and placed as-is. Some contain irregularities and minor mistakes, but we rarely intervene in the work of a calligrapher whose practice spans five to six decades, the hand carries its own authority.

My photograph is included in ‘Sign Up’ a @hotpotatonews group exhibition in Bristol at @kit.form 📍Bristol, Stokes Croft Open night: Thursday 15th Jan 17:00 - 21:00 After that it is Open: 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 January 12:00–18:00 Thank you @eviehallphotography and @naoiseokeeffe for letting me be a part of this amazing event. Poster design by: @mayamoumne at @studiosafar — #EmilyJuneSmith #ADHDArtist #AutisticArtist #Exhibition

Twelve months of grids, typesetting, low-res images (and the revelation that newspapers don’t need 300dpi which could’ve saved us a few dramatic spirals), widows and orphans, justification battles, pull-quotes, and late-night production rounds for @everything_political Nine issues in, with the 10th-anniversary issue landing and launching tonight in New York, in an entirely new format. It’s been a year of building and experimenting with the incredible team at @everything_political Everything is Political is a members-only periodical published by @theslowfactory , investigating the cultural, social, and environmental forces that shape our world today. We’ve had the pleasure of designing it from identity to publication. Here’s to Issue 10, and to many more. @rimamobarak photographed by @myriamboulos @quannah.rose photographed by @vp_fotos @1claud9 photographed by @dayday.studio @nangoldinstudio photographed by @mohamad_abdouni @francesca.albanese.unsr.opt and @fababs photographed by @bachir_tayachi @miakhalifa photographed by @elizabethdelapiedra

Logo design for Halapop, the vibrant new prebiotic soda making its debut. Tagline set in 29LT Azer By @29letters

In June 2024, @nieuweinstituut partnered with @journalsafar to launch an open call for contributors to the latest issue of Design Drafts, featured in Journal Safar #9. From 111 applications, five contributors were selected for publication. The submissions were so strong that we also included five additional pieces in Journal Safar #9. The jury included Ahmad Gharbieh, @samanehmoafi , @aricchen , @delanyboutkan , @ranajtawil , @maggiedoueihi , and @mayamoumne . Design Drafts is a growing writing and publishing network dedicated to exploring what it means to write about design today. Through collaborations with magazines and publishing platforms worldwide, the series seeks to spark new forms of design writing and discourse, engaging in a collective search for the languages we use to write design. Past editions include Design Drafts #1 with @disegnojournal (London, 2022) and Design Drafts #2 with @pinupmagazine (New York, 2023). Editing and designing Design Drafts #3 has been a brilliant ride, thank you to @delanyboutkan @tijnvandewijdeven and @najibaatwork for being an incredible team to work with. Like Journal Safar, the issue is fully bilingual, with all titles hand-lettered by calligrapher Khalil Majed. Managing editor: @nadimchoufi , production manager: @mia.akiki Contributors to Design Drafts #3 include @shruti.azh @talaabdelhadi @ecila_wan @afrieyeminded and @myriamatt Contributors to Journal Safar #9 include @yaa.dae @rashadakkak @theofficeofalinalupu @bettinalauraen @eliaserkan @audreytsengfisch and @verycolorfulbeads .

A collaboration that makes perfect sense. New publication in progress with @everything_political

Publication design for @nadimchoufi and @sculpturecenter , In the Face of the Dragon, 2025 Nadim Choufi’s work explores how ideals of progress manifest and seduce, and the price of such visions on the lives subjected to their realization. Through sculpture, film, and text, Choufi draws on visual and literary practices that oppose or complicate narratives of national and global progress. For Choufi’s project at SculptureCenter, he has produced a new publication, In the Face of the Dragon, in which he composed a cento poem from lines borrowed from Arab poets who transform themselves, their lovers, and their people into animals and natural elements, speaking through these tongues of love and resistance. Opening Reception @sculpturecenter Thu, Oct 2, 2025, 5–8pm Performance lecture by @nadimchoufi and @elsa.saade New York

Opening September 18 Identity and exhibition design assets for @thisisfragmenta , a design and sustainability initiative that reimagines crafted pieces and industrial fragments as cultural artifacts. Conceived by @nournajemdesigns and @guilaineelias and curated by @gregorygatserelia , the inaugural edition (in partnership with Najem Group) brings together 53 designers to transform discarded stone fragments into collectible works. We loved the process they shared with the participating designers: 1. Select from Najem Group’s archive of marble offcuts, samples, and fragments collected over decades. 2. Design pieces with at least 70% marble, keeping transformations minimal so the stone leads. 3. Work hands-on with Najem Group’s engineers and artisans to shape each piece. 4. Finalize production at the factory before launching at the public event debuting Fragmenta. Portraits of the designers by @tarekmoukaddem Photos of the process and factory by @maryagazzaoui