ROLE
Brand Identity
Art Direction
Graphic Design
Video Editing
YEAR
2026
Mai Zarkawi is a jewelry designer from Majd Al-Krum in northern Palestine, whose work draws from daily life, Palestinian culture, and timeless traditions. The identity was developed to translate that storytelling into a contemporary visual system rooted in authorship, memory, and craft.
A three-part teaser series designed to build anticipation ahead of the launch, introducing the world of Mai Zarkawi through fragments of form, memory, and culturally rooted visual cues.
A brand reveal video bringing Mai Zarkawi’s identity into motion through rhythm, symbolism, and visual storytelling.
Original music: YA ARAB – Dabka.
Cultural Narrative
& Identity Direction
The identity was built around the idea of storytelling through form, creating a brand language that reflects Mai Zarkawi’s authorship and Palestinian roots without becoming overly decorative or nostalgic. Palestinian embroidery was chosen as a key reference not only for its cultural significance, but because its interwoven and layered structure mirrors the essence of Mai’s work, where memory, cultural authenticity, craftsmanship, and storytelling are woven together into every piece. This gave the identity a visual language that feels both grounded in heritage and precise enough to be translated into a contemporary system. Based on that direction, the logo was developed as an Arabic wordmark built around the name “Mai,” drawing from the repeated forms, angular compositions, and balanced proportions found in traditional embroidery. Rather than relying on a separate icon, the typography itself becomes the brand’s main expressive element.
This direction extends naturally from Mai’s jewelry practice, where personal and cultural narratives are translated into wearable pieces shaped by daily life, Palestinian culture, and timeless traditions. The result is an identity that feels contemporary, distinctive, and culturally grounded — one that turns authorship, heritage, and storytelling into a cohesive visual system.
Typographic & Color Direction
Typography and color work together to shape the identity’s tone balancing elegance, clarity, and warmth while giving the brand a distinct presence across Arabic and English touchpoints.
Graphic Language
The identity expands through a graphic language built from patterns, motifs, embroidery-halftone imagery, illustrated product forms, and embroidery geometry. Each element plays a different role — from adding texture and structure to shaping compositions, extending photography, and translating the jewelry into graphic silhouettes — while keeping the system rooted in Palestinian embroidery and the geometry of the wordmark. The result is a visual language that feels distinctive, flexible, and consistent across packaging, editorial layouts, and social media.
