Arabic Design Archive (ADA):
ADA is an independent non-profit institution dedicated to the study, preservation, and circulation of Arab visual culture. Expanding from its foundations in graphic design history, ADA works across education, publishing, research, and public programming to create critical access to the visual materials, practices, and histories that have shaped the Arab world. Through collecting, digitizing, publishing, and contextualizing visual material, ADA supports new forms of knowledge production around Arab visual culture. Its work responds to the absence, fragmentation, and inaccessibility of institutional archives, while actively creating platforms for study, dialogue, and engagement with the visual histories of the region.
Our Story
The Arabic Design Archive and Design Repository are founded by the Egyptian Designer, practitioner historian, and researcher Moe Elhossieny. ADA was conceived in an attempt to address the limited historical resources around Arab design and accessible archives concerned with its history. Elhossieny embarked on this project in early 2020, focusing on collecting Arabic book cover designs. Since then, the archive team has grown to include Arab designers and researchers from around the region, brought together through a shared sense of responsibility to make this archive possible. The archive team is located between Cairo, Beirut, Jerusalem, Casablanca, and Vancouver.
Since 2021, the team's efforts and focus have expanded and slowly grown to encompass all graphic design-related material.
Philosophical Conception of Knowledge:
Our project adapts a rhizomatic conception of knowledge production, which describes theory and methodology that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation as opposed to a hierarchical conception of knowledge production. A stance to push for a decentralized knowledge production process.
Methodological Framework:
Our methodology is derived from our philosophical conception, and utilizes what is known in histography as ''A history from below.'' This methodology invites the community to engage with and be part of the project. This method pointed our team to more materials that weren't highlighted. So far, the contributions by the community have been invaluable.
Our Team:
- Moe Elhossieny - Lead researcher, founder - Cairo
- Fatma Fahmy - Metadata specialist - Cairo
- Rima Ghanem - Metadata specialist - Vancouver
- Omaima Dajani - Assistant researcher - Jerusalem
- Yaman To'meh - Assistant researcher - Beirut
- Sophia Alami - Assistant researcher - Casablanca
- Karim Fouad - Assistant researcher - Cairo
- Zeina Ahmed - Digitization specialist - Cairo
Interns:
- Yasmine Mowafy - Digitization specialist - Beirut
- Nourhan Elbanna - Assistant researcher - Cairo
Volunteers:
- Lina Nour - Digitization Assistant - London
Advisors:
- Dr. Hana Sleiman - Archival Consultant - UK
- Majd Al-Shihabi - Archival Consultant - Canada
Notes on information, presentation, and rights Information
In most instances, the information provided for each item is extracted from the object itself. When information is missing, it will be indicated on each item.
Presentation
Some items may be digitally restored (retouched) to provide the best possible visual outcome for viewers. However, if the material is requested in its original state, the archive makes those available through the “Request items” button within each item. By using this feature, scans of the material in its original state can be shared for research and non-commercial use only.
Rights
We are a non-profit organization, and our material is only available for viewing and use for non-commercial purposes. We don’t own the rights to any material and are not responsible for any misuse.
Terms of Use
If you decide to use the material on our website, please make sure you request the items through the "Request items" form from the item's page so we can send you the high-resolution images and the citation.
Image Requests ADA is an independent non-profit that operates with limited funding and the support of our community. To help sustain this work, we ask for a modest fee when fulfilling image requests. This fee covers the costs involved in preparing and sharing materials — digitization, file preparation, and the staff time required to maintain the archive — and goes directly toward ADA's day-to-day operations. It is a contribution to the running of the archive rather than a charge for the material itself, to which we do not hold the rights. All materials remain available for research and non-commercial use only.
Notes on Transliteration
Translation is a complex endeavor, and transliteration often falls short in emulating the intricacies of the Arabic language. However, in rendering originally Arabic metadata into the widely interoperable Latin alphabet, we have adopted transliteration to avoid complications of accurate translation.
One of our main objectives is contextualizing ADA’s resources into a broader network of information, adopting the most commonly used transliteration scheme, the ALA-LC Arabic Romanization scheme. Our bibliographic titles cross-reference with popular linked data platforms such as the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) and the Library of Congress Linked Data Service. While we have conformed to most of the ALA-LC Romanization rules, we have made the unique revisions below:
→ On harakat, tashkeel, Arabic diacritics:
- Only phonetically significant diacritics are represented when transliterating (i.e., Mobtada’ marfouʻ is not reflected).
→ On names:
- Originally Latin names are not romanized according to the rules as stipulated in Rule 22 of the LC documentation—popular spellings of names are adapted instead.
- Names of institutions: If the English equivalent of an organization's name is not found, then the LC-ALA Arabic Romanization rules are applied.
- Individuals of note: Popular spellings of celebrities, political figures, popular authors, and artists’ names are used.
→ On representing shaddah:
- Rule 11(c) of the Romanization scheme is not applied; we do not repeat letters to reflect the presence of a shaddah.
We are grateful for the support we have received from the institutions below.
Support
