Studio Safar

Twelve months of grids, typesetting, low-res images (and the revelation that newspapers don’t need 300dpi which could’ve saved us a few dramatic spirals), widows and orphans, justification battles, pull-quotes, and late-night production rounds for

Nine issues in, with the 10th-anniversary issue landing and launching tonight in New York, in an entirely new format.

It’s been a year of building and experimenting with the incredible team at

Everything is Political is a members-only periodical published by , investigating the cultural, social, and environmental forces that shape our world today. We’ve had the pleasure of designing it from identity to publication.

Here’s to Issue 10, and to many more.

photographed by rose photographed by
photographed by .studio
photographed by albanese.unsr.opt and photographed by
photographed by

In June 2024, partnered with to launch an open call for contributors to the latest issue of Design Drafts, featured in Journal Safar #9. From 111 applications, five contributors were selected for publication. The submissions were so strong that we also included five additional pieces in Journal Safar #9. The jury included Ahmad Gharbieh, , , , , , and .

Design Drafts is a growing writing and publishing network dedicated to exploring what it means to write about design today. Through collaborations with magazines and publishing platforms worldwide, the series seeks to spark new forms of design writing and discourse, engaging in a collective search for the languages we use to write design. Past editions include Design Drafts #1 with (London, 2022) and Design Drafts #2 with (New York, 2023).

Editing and designing Design Drafts #3 has been a brilliant ride, thank you to and for being an incredible team to work with. Like Journal Safar, the issue is fully bilingual, with all titles hand-lettered by calligrapher Khalil Majed. Managing editor: , production manager: .akiki

Contributors to Design Drafts #3 include .azh and

Contributors to Journal Safar #9 include .dae and .

Opening September 18

Identity and exhibition design assets for , a design and sustainability initiative that reimagines crafted pieces and industrial fragments as cultural artifacts. Conceived by and and curated by , the inaugural edition (in partnership with Najem Group) brings together 53 designers to transform discarded stone fragments into collectible works.

We loved the process they shared with the participating designers:
1. Select from Najem Group’s archive of marble offcuts, samples, and fragments collected over decades.
2. Design pieces with at least 70% marble, keeping transformations minimal so the stone leads.
3. Work hands-on with Najem Group’s engineers and artisans to shape each piece.
4. Finalize production at the factory before launching at the public event debuting Fragmenta.

Portraits of the designers by
Photos of the process and factory by

Japanese-American filmmaker () Eimi Imanishi’s debut feature, Nomad Shadow, follows Mariam, a young Sahrawi woman deported from Spain and desperate to return to Europe after being sent back to Western Sahara (which was partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania 50 years ago). Premiered at TIFF 2025.

In a bid to approach the calligraphy critically, the Arabic title (ظل بدوي) avoids scripts tied to state aesthetics and instead uses a hybrid, deconstructed form that loosely borrows from classical traditions. The construction marks (circular units, dots, and spatial guides usually erased in refinement) remain visible as part of the visual field, avoiding fixed readings and nationalist inscriptions.