KB19 - Second Karachi Biennale visual identity designed and developed by yours truly. This project has been a true labour of love and became a design marathon of sorts towards the end. Producing 68 banners in one week, dispatching them to the venues, and overseeing the signage installation especially at Bagh Ibne Qasim. Having worked round the clock including Sundays, and pulling many all nighters, it felt like I was giving my thesis all over again.

To briefly summarise design concept and ideation phase, I had the opportunity to work with British-Iranian artist Mohsen Keiany’s majestic metal bird sculptures. Using it as a metaphor for ecological degradation, I juxtaposed the sculptures against the canvas of Karachi. For this purpose, I teamed up with photographer Zainab Nasir and together we journeyed across the length and breadth of Karachi, photographing the best vantage points of the city. Over the period of next two months, I developed a series of striking imagery on KB19 theme of Ecology, overlaying it with lopsided horizontal bars to indicate the dangerous tilt of delicate ecological balance. I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with a diverse and talented team across the board during this entire journey.

The KB19 venue signages included venue history, thematic and artists names, incorporating multilingualism (Urdu and English) wherever possible to make the designs more inclusive. This has also been the first step towards incorporating sustainability in exhibition design using locally sourced organic bamboo structures and non-tearable paper instead of usual flex. For this we partnered with Design Options, an architect firm specialising in sustainable design. It was an experiment and a humongous challenge in terms of how weather effected the signages in outdoor spaces under the glare of blistering Autumn sun. Hopefully, we have set into motion an example of how sustainability can be made a part of exhibition signage.

Photomanipulation Process
Juxtaposing Mohsen Keiany's bird sculptures at key spots in Karachi.

Behind the Scenes
Pic 1. Sorting, unrolling and rolling the banners straight from the printers to be dispatched to the venues
Pic 2. One of the many solitary late sittings at work in the race against time to finish the banners
Pic 3. Installing banners at Bagh Ibne Qasim a night before the opening ceremony