El HEMA
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exhibition design, Amsterdam, 2007
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El HEMA is an exhibition of surprising, touching and sometimes provoking designs, all using five new Arabic typefaces. The exhibition is part of a series of activities concerning Dutch-Arabic cultural exchange by Mediamatic and the Khatt Foundation i.e. the Typographic Matchmaking book.

The department store Hema is the most public manifestation of Dutch culture. You have countries who find their identity in churches, gardens or bathing houses, the Dutch tend to identify with the Hema; the living monument of practical colorful clearness with value for your money.

For the exhibition a large number of EL HEMA products were made by 5 designers from Lebanon, Wael Morcos, Maria Hakim, Raya Tueini and I, Kuwait, Abrar al Musalam, in collaboration with nearly 20 designers from The Netherlands and other countries. The project was Art directed by Pascal Zoghbi and Willem Velthoven.

Coffee, Arabic chocolate letters, a Dutch speciality, T-shirts with Arabic pickup lines, Lebanese and North African wine and a special El Hema condom set were amongst the newly designed products.

Photography by Marieke Bijster