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Kinda Ghannoum

  • Article by Helen Tong

Co-founder of the Syrian Design Archive, Syrian Polish designer Kinda Ghannoum, made a career switch from architecture into graphic design. She is primarily influenced by Arabic art, architecture and calligraphy and has created award-winning work that has her earned many accolades in her career so far. In 2018 she was also named as one of the winners of 100 Best Arabic Posters.

Currently based in Belgium, Kinda has just completed a master’s degree in visual art and design and has already worked with the Obama Foundation, many other NGOs companies, and start-ups around the world. She’s also participated in and organised many events, including TEDx in Damascus, Syria.

Whilst studying architecture and design Kinda found that research into Syrian and Arabic graphic design was difficult because the information related to this topic was very limited. With a group of university friends, she decided to start the Syrian Design Archive as a non-profit documentary project, which archives examples of Arabic typography and graphic design. As Kinda tells DbyW: “…being Syrian/Polish in Belgium I’ve had to deal with a lot of stereotypes about my identity. This situation made me think about how I can show part of our Syrian identity that has never been talked about before. That was the main reason to start the Syrian Design Archive.”

We talked to Kinda to learn more about her career so far, why she made the switch from architecture to design, and her motivation in co-creating the Syrian Design Archive. 

How did you first become interested in design as a career?

I am a Syrian Polish graphic designer. Born to a Polish mother and a Syrian father in Poland, my family moved to Syria when I was 3 years old. I grew up in a very artistic family; my father and uncle both taught at the Damascus University School of Art where I was consistently exposed to Arabic art, architecture, and calligraphy. I don’t remember a moment when I was not surrounded by art and design—this fed my own desire to create.

Can you tell us about your career as an architect and designer so far and why you made the switch?

I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Damascus University and soon after began an architecture internship. While there I participated in Startup Weekend Youth of Damascus as a graphic designer. My team and I won first prize at this annual festival and the experience sparked my passion for graphic design! I began to study on my own and decided to shift my career to graphic design and branding, with Arabic type, patterns, and geometrical ornaments becoming a massive source of my inspiration. Currently, I’m based in Belgium and I’ve just finished my Masters in Visual Art, Design, and Image in an applied context focusing on Arabic identity and branding in Sint Lucas, Antwerpen. My journey has led me to create award-winning work for various international books, NGOs in Syria, the Obama Foundation, companies, and start-ups around the world.

Where do you find inspiration?

It’s difficult for me to say because in every project I was inspired by different things. Music, history, architecture, patterns, people, stories, art, cities, trips, books, my background, and how I grew up in a mixed culture family. I could go on endlessly.

Can you tell us about some of your favourite design projects that you’ve worked on?

She For Dialogue: This project was a collaboration with a friend of mine Joud Tanta, for the International Dialogue Center (KAICIID) an inter-governmental organisation based in Austria, whose mandate is to promote dialogue globally to prevent and resolve conflict and to enhance understanding and cooperation.

“I was happy to work on a project that highlights women’s roles in resolving conflict and to have the chance to work with Arabic branding, which is something that I am trying to focus on lately.”

Syrian Design Archive: highlighting a side of Syria that has never been spoken about and having the chance to learn and share hidden masterpieces from Syria was a pleasure. This project is ongoing and at the moment we are only on social media. Our next plan is to move our digital archive from social media platforms to an official website, and maybe to turn it into a book, where anyone who is interested in design and history can read about Syrian design.

The Obama Foundation Leaders: Europe program, I was chosen to create a theme for this event to represent the Europe program. The six-month program  seeks to inspire, empower, and connect emerging leaders from across Europe. #ObamaLeaders. For this project, it was very important to find something that all the countries represented in the program had in common. It proved difficult. At first, we considered flags as an obvious and distinctive marker that  all countries have, but we wanted something that was even more specific. We found it in the coats of arms of  European countries. We knew that was the winning concept. Full article about The Creative Brief.

Can you tell us about the project process for the She For Dialogue project and the approach you took?

This project was a collaboration with a friend of mine, the graphic designer Joud Tanta. Like every project – in this project the KAICIID team was our client – we started by asking them client-specific questions to understand their needs and what they are expecting from this project. Then we moved to the research part, using mood boards and sketches to end up with 2-3 different concepts. Then came the digitising phase when we prepared the presentation for the client and narrowed down to one winning concept.

The idea behind the logo is simple. Since the program is targeting Arab women, we chose to create the symbol out of the pronoun “She” in Arabic which is pronounced “Hiya”. We used the first letter as the main symbol, so that it’s seen as the letter “Ha’a” in Arabic, which has this interesting shape that is written with a continuous line at the beginning of the word. In combination underneath it is the two dots from the letter “Y” or “Ya’a ” in Arabic so it makes sense for Arabic speakers.

“I can say my approach begins with research, asking questions, mood boards, paper, sketching, digitising, and a lot of experimental work.”

Why did you decide to co-found the Syrian Design Archive and can you tell us about the project?

The idea started out of a personal challenge, I was searching and studying Arabic graphics in the Arab world, which made me curious to know more about design in Syria and  Information  on this topic proved  extremely limited, so I took it upon myself to change that. As I realised that the project was bigger than me and I could not do the work alone, I formed a team that brought together individuals with similar interests. Sally, Hala and I, all three of us are architecture graduates  with an interest in design and art.

We took it upon ourselves to start the Syrian Design Archive — a non-profit documentary project to help to archive graphic design elements and visuals including Arabic typography and its evolution into a digital archive preserving its applications in many forms of Syrian design (prints, media, street, and stamps) aiming to create an open archive as a resource for researchers and students, preserving the Syrian design heritage in our time of rapid technological change.

Syrian Design Archive was a rapid success due to its ability to grow by popular participation. It allows people to relive the past through shapes and elements that shaped and influenced their lives and makes them known to young generations.

Syrian Print Archive mainly archives books, magazine covers, tickets, posters, and anything which is designed by Syrian designers. The importance of the project comes from gaps in the documentation of Graphic Design in Syria, particularly during the war when loads of data and materials were lost.

We have the names of great artists in fine arts, but students who want information about Syrian designers will not find it. The only information available concerns the journey of the artist Abdelkader Arnaout and Professor Mouneer Alshaarani, which we obtained through books published in the Netherlands and a book published by the American University in Egypt. In general, any initiatives for documentation come from external sources or the personal initiative of the artists themselves. There are archival initiatives in Syria, but they are incomplete and are not available to everyone.

“Our mission is to create a place where people can find comprehensive information on the history of Syrian graphic design.”

Have you faced particular challenges as a woman in the design industry?

I have never had any problems of  that kind. I am lucky that I grew up in a family where women had the freedom to do whatever they want, to work and follow their passions. I know it’s not easy to have this in our country.

But being Syrian/Polish in Belgium I had to deal with a lot of stereotypes about my identity. The situation made me think about how I can show part of our Syrian identity that has never been  talked about before and that was the main reason to start the Syrian design archive.

Can you recommend any other Arabic and/or Syrian graphic designers we should follow?

There are many, but if I had to pick just a few it would be:

Syrian:

Arabic:

Iranian:

Follow:

Syrian Design Archive Team:

Visit:

A few articles featured the SDA:

Article by Helen Tong and Mary Hemingway

By Mary Hemingway Design | Built by Richard Henney
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