<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Arabic Design Archive Launches The Archival Alliances Movement

we are thrilled to announce the launch of the Archival Alliances (AA) movement. The AA started as a co-curated exhibition with <a href="https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/islamicstudieslibrary/exhibit-archival-alliance-discovering-arabic-book-covers/">McGill Islamic Studies Library</a> with the same name and soon after we have decided to expand it to become a movement. Now, AA is a global alliance initiated by the Arabic Design Archive with the aim to repatriate the scattered and dispersed history of Arab art and design. Through alliances with all archives in the East and West, collectors, museums, and heirs, we will aim to engage in negotiations with these institutions and secure a (re)host of the digital copies of Graphic Design works that initially came from the SWANA region during the 20th century and were moved to different parts of the world during colonial and modern times.

The initiative was launched in 2023 and since then, we were able to negotiate a re(host) of the collections of important institutions such as

We are currently in the process of negotiating with more institutions to expand our network of alliances. If you belong to an institution that has an Arabic graphic design related collection and would like to join the Archival Alliances movement&nbsp;

✎&nbsp;<a href="mailto:moe@arabicdesignarchive.com">moe@arabicdesignarchive.com</a>

The Archival Alliances Movement

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While the global pandemic placed constraints on the movement of people, it provided an opportunity to intensify the flow of ideas. These constraints allowed for new ways of collaborations to develop. Collaborations that are not limited by geography or physical proximity. The&nbsp;Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers&nbsp;is one such example that creative expressions can be born out of shared challenges that forge new connections.

The Arabic Design Archive (ADA) and McGill University’s Islamic Studies Library (ISL) engaged in a year long collaboration producing this exhibition. The ISL offered a portion of its rich Arabic books collection to enhance and promote the work of the ADA. Over the past few years, the ADA has been working on the digitization and preservation of Arab graphic history drawn from the mid-1930s to mid-1990s. One of the objectives is to create a digital archive for both inspirational and scholarly purposes. The ADA has benefited from various crowdsourcing opportunities, such as the contributions from the Islamic Studies Library’s immense holdings of Arabic books.

The&nbsp;Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers&nbsp;exhibition seeks to highlight and broaden the concept of the histories of graphic design beyond Western contributions to present the wealth of design work produced in the Arab World. Including both a physical display and a touch table experience, the exhibit will take visitors through the history of Arabic books covers design between 1970 and 2000. Displayed from September 15th&nbsp;to November 15th, 2022, this exhibition is co-curated by the Islamic Studies Library and the Arabic Design Archive.

Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Cover Design Exhibition - ADA X McGill

Our ADA manifesto has been featured in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/yasmine.nbl/">Yasmine Nabil's</a> thesis project. Graphisme du monde arabe : la quête d’une identité (Graphic design in the Arab world: the quest of an identity) — Genève.&nbsp;

Graphisme du monde arabe : la quête d’une identité (Graphic design in the Arab world: the quest of an identity) is a research conducted as part of Yasmine Nabile's bachelor’s degree project. It focuses on the issue of identity, tradition and modernity, as well as cultural heritage in the MENA region and what a possible “Arab” style or aesthetic – although the region is very diverse – would look like? 

This research and the desire to get rid of Western narratives led to the creation of the first issue of A—Z, Graphic design &amp; typography in Arabic speaking countries which is the result of my diploma project. The aim of this publication is to offer a different understanding of graphic design from the Arabic speaking region that is so little represented and often misunderstood or caricatured.

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