East meets West / Abu Dhabi Art

The Abu Dhabi Art fair is deemed the most important contemporary art fair in the Middle East, hosted by the organisation behind the upcoming Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi. We were asked to design two bilingual catalogues for the event, with one presenting the exhibiting galleries, and the other detailing notable events.

Beam developed a design that linked the Arabic and English scripts, creating a contemporary typographic framework that emphasized a meeting of the two cultures – with a visual tabbing system to allow the user to find a specific gallery or artist quickly. To make the family guide appeal to a younger audience, we commissioned bespoke illustrations that referenced art education as well as Middle-Eastern and Western culture.