Baghdad: Eye's Delight
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, 2022
Team:
12 specialists
8 departments
22 lending institutions
Role:
Visual Strategy
Environmental Graphics
Typography Direction
Team Coordination
Duration:
16 months
Background and problem
For decades, war and destruction had pushed Baghdad's cultural legacy out of focus for international audiences. Museums had not addressed this gap — Baghdad: Eye's Delight was the first exhibition on the city ever mounted by a major international museum.
The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha needed an exhibition that restored Baghdad's full historical identity: as a center of power, scholarship, commerce, and resilience — not just a city defined by conflict.
Baghdad: Eye's Delight takes visitors on a journey across centuries, through five distinct historical chapters — from the founding of the Abbasid Caliphate to the cosmopolitan city of the 20th century. The display brought together 160 objects on loan from 22 world-renowned institutions including the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Vatican, and the Benaki Museum.
What is the exhibition about?
Two scripts, one spatial system
Arabic and English were designed as structural equals — not translations of each other. Reading direction, label hierarchy, and typographic rhythm were resolved into a single coherent system across 160 objects and five gallery sections.
The exhibition needed to show continuity, not collapse
The exhibition needed to position Baghdad as a living, evolving civilization — not a city frozen at the moment of its destruction. The design had to carry visitors across 1,300 years without losing the thread.
The river drove the narrative
Visitor flow was designed to move from the ancient City of Peace through five historical chapters — each spatial shift marking a deeper layer of Baghdad's identity.
I directed the full visual identity for the exhibition in collaboration with OPERA Amsterdam and the MIA curatorial team. The scope covered environmental graphics, typography systems, and the spatial narrative.
All unified by a single design anchor: the Tigris River.
By treating the exhibition floor as a riverbed, the design pulled visitors naturally from the ancient City of Peace through to the modern era. Each of the five sections had its own visual character while remaining tied to the central aquatic thread.
The five movements:
City of Peace:
The founding of Baghdad. Geometry and scholarly aesthetics representing the height of the Abbasid Caliphate.
City of Knowledge:
Baghdad as a global center for science and philosophy. Manuscripts and ancient textures integrated into a modern grid.
City of the People:
The 20th century and the resilience of the modern population. The story ends with the human element.
City of Palaces
Architectural grandeur. High-contrast visuals and immersive graphics conveying the power of the ruling class.
City of Markets and Commerce:
Layered typography and rich color reflecting the energy of trade and the historic Silk Road.
Objects
160
Artefacts, manuscripts, photographs, video footage
Lending Institutions
22
Louvre · The Met · Vatican · Benaki Museum
Chapters
5
Peace · Palaces · Knowledge · Commerce · People
Context
Flagship exhibition — Qatar-MENASA 2022 Year of Culture
First exhibition on Baghdad ever mounted by a major international museum
Opening
Opened by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha · 26 October 2022
