Sharek
Arabic Language & Culture Centre (Start-up)
NAMING
STRATEGY
VISUAL IDENTITY
WEBSITE DESIGN
SOCIAL
COMMUNICATION
Yousef Omar is a well respected professor of Arabic language and culture with a long career of teaching Arabic studies at the world famous SOAS University in London.
He was becoming more and more frustrated with the out-dated methods of teaching Arabic until one day in late 2016 when he reached breaking point. He broke away from the recognised Arabic teaching world and decided to cut his own path.
Yousef wanted to create a new way of learning Arabic language and culture. A different approach where people learned by ‘sharing in a group’ rather than being ‘taught in isolation’. A unique style of education centre where students are encouraged to learn together in a group about everything associated with Arabic languages, dialects, cultures, foods, drinks, smells, tastes, sounds etc.
Our first task was to create an iconic name. The big idea of Yousef’s new venture was to give students a new way of ‘sharing’ Arabic language and culture. Sharing was the key word of the brand workshop and we discovered that the verb ‘to share’ translates in Arabic to ‘sharek’.
This new way of learning relies on interaction and open dialogue between everyone. We created a new brand identity that took inspiration from the art of dialogue and brought it to life with the use of speech marks icons. The stylised icons are used to construct the logo and then abstracted in different ways to create the visual language for the brand.
The new brand identity is made up of speech mark icons, Helvetica Neue Arabic font, natural colours inspired by Arabic mosaic tiles, hand-sketched illustrations and candid photos of people sharing in groups. A very fresh, light and approachable brand that contrasts with most of the more serious Arabic schools in London.
This project was created for Sharek by Stu and the team at BTL.