Notes fromthe studio

When we sketch a logo, we draw the Arabic and the Latin side by side from the first hour. If one is finished before the other starts, the second one will always look like a translation.

Match the feeling, not the shapes. A geometric Latin logo does not need a geometric Arabic one; it needs an Arabic one that is just as calm, just as confident and just as easy to read at the size of a coffee cup.

Then test both at the smallest size they will ever be printed. That is where the truth comes out.

The page has four lines: who it is for, what should change, what must not change, and how we will know it worked. Everything else is a meeting.

Clients sign the page before we open a design file. It saves weeks, and it turns the final presentation into a conversation about the idea instead of a vote on colours.

We asked the shop for its twenty most loyal customers and invited them to ride at sunrise. Ten came. Those ten became the campaign.

Light at that hour does half the work. We graded everything in one pass so the series felt like a single morning, even though we shot it over five weeks.

A small team means every designer meets the client, hears the brief first-hand and presents their own work. Nobody is a pair of hands.

We say no to about half of what comes in. That is the real reason the other half turns out well.