Qissah Souk
A photographic book and identity system for the parts of Dubai’s old souks that don’t make the postcard.
Concept, art direction, photography, editorial design, identity and copy. Shot in Deira and Bur Dubai.
- Category
- Editorial & identity · Self-initiated
- Designer
- Emaan Ahmad
- Scope
- 28-page book, Poster series, Collateral, Launch campaign
- Pieces shown
- 43
The souk is photographed constantly and understood rarely
Most souk imagery is the same picture: spice cones, a wide alley, a tourist mid-frame. Qissah, meaning story, records what that picture leaves out: the barjeel that cools a room, the mashrabiya you look through unseen, the brass studs on a door.
Walk first, shoot second
Every shoot day started without the camera out. Time spent in the alleys, talking to vendors, tracing routes and noticing when light reaches the ground decided what was worth photographing.
28 pages, sequenced like a walk
The book moves through the souks as you would walk them, with grid, type and photography handled together.
All fourteen spreads, in reading order
Heritage and timeline first, then architecture, then one souk at a time: gold, spice, textile. Each souk opens on a pattern drawn from its own material and closes on the people who keep it trading.
An identity that travels off the page
Posters, social posts, printed collateral and a site carry the book’s typography out to the launch.
Thanks for scrolling.
Editorial & identity · Self-initiated by Emaan Ahmad