Commercial Project

Client
Sabeen Mahmud Archive (SMA)

Concept
The Sabeen Mahmud Archive is one part of a larger project celebrating Sabeen and taking her passions and work forward with the proposed ‘Sabeen Mahmud Foundation’ (SMF) envisioned by her mother, Mahenaz Mahmud, and Sabeen’s friends and admirers. This digital Archive will serve as a memorial and a space to preserve a record of Sabeen’s life, and will include everything from her notebooks, to her photographs, to the articles she wrote, to her beloved cricket bats and stories from those who knew and loved Sabeen.

Today, Sabeen is celebrated as a human rights activist, a fearless campaigner for the rights of minorities and a vocal critic of systems of power. When this is the only lens that generations of Pakistanis will view her through, what is being left out? For anyone who wants to know more about Sabeen, her work, passions, interests, her own brand of masti—the joie de vivre that permeated everything she did—the Archive will help us remember her as more than “the activist”.

Identity Design
The Sabeen Mahmud Identity, through its form and design reflects a space that embodies and represents Sabeen. It represents symbolically her values, ideas, her various attributes and qualities.

Sabeen’s love for her city, Karachi, and community spaces within the city, have been depicted architecturally through the typeface/font. Her interest in design, arcade games, such as, Tetris and Pacman have also been used as an inspiration while creating this original typeface.

Her openness to experiences, situations and dialogue have been carefully represented through the open spaces, different forms for every letter and the reflected E’s in the identity, that inspires conversation. The colour green represents mental health awareness. The colours reflect the balance between nature and the natural world. A colour of high vibration and energy, at the same time known for the calmness they offer.

Deliverables
Identity Design