Mubdian · Design collection · 2018 – now

Designs with a story

In 2018, my wife and I started Mubdian, Arabic for “two creative people.” I create all of the designs myself. Each one starts from a place, a people or a phrase that means something to us. Here are five of my favorites and the stories behind them.

100%: of the designs created by me
200%: revenue growth in year one
60: countries reached

01 · Inspired by the Hassan II Mosque

Moroccan Geometry

One of the very first designs I made for Mubdian. The palette comes straight from the King Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca: deep cobalt, sea teal and warm sandstone.

The motif is a twelve-pointed star rosette set inside a hexagon, built the way Moroccan zellige tilework is: interlocking stars and polygons, each piece edged in dark grout. A worn, printed texture gives it the feel of tile that has been walked past for centuries.

Palette: cobalt, teal and sandstone
Structure: a twelve-pointed star in a hexagon
Inspired by: the King Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

See it on Mubdian →

A woman in a red beret wearing the Nomad sweatshirt in the snow

02 · Inspired by the Amazigh people

Nomad

Nomad is inspired by the Amazigh, the Indigenous people of North Africa. The design draws on two things they are known for: traditional Berber textile prints and the Amazigh language.

Bands of woven diamond and chevron patterns in maroon, red and orange frame a saffron stripe, where the word NOMAD is set in letterforms inspired by Tifinagh, the Amazigh script. It became one of our top-selling designs.

One of the best parts of Nomad: to this day, people send us photos of themselves wearing it around the world, from corners as far as Peru, Morocco, New Zealand and Greece. It is a design made for people on the move, and it keeps traveling.

Palette: maroon, red, orange and saffron
Structure: woven Berber pattern bands around one word
Inspired by: Amazigh textiles and the Tifinagh script

See it on Mubdian →

A customer wearing the J'adore Lahore tee

03 · Paris meets Lahore

J'adore Lahore

This one fuses my wife's identity and mine: she is from France and I am from Pakistan. The spark was Allama Iqbal, the poet known as the Spiritual Father of Pakistan. When we learned he traveled to France and even wrote about the Great Mosque of Paris, where my wife and I first met, we knew we had to bring two of the world's most poetic languages together.

A photograph of Mughal arches sits at the center, framed by Iqbal's poem “Other worlds exist beyond the stars” in Urdu and French. “J'ADORE LAHORE” is set in an elegant serif across the bottom, a French phrase and a Pakistani city in one line.

Languages: Urdu and French
Structure: Mughal arches framed by poetry
Inspired by: Allama Iqbal and our own story

See it on Mubdian →

A woman wearing the Be in This World Like a Traveler tee

Be in This World Like a Traveler calligraphy, close-up

The Be in This World Like a Traveler tee

04 · A saying inside a symbol

Be in This World Like a Traveler

The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) once took Abdullah bin Umar by the shoulder and told him: “Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.” In Arabic: كن في الدنيا كأنك غريب أو عابر سبيل.

I set the full saying in flowing Arabic calligraphy and fit it into the classic rub el hizb, the eight-pointed star made of two overlapping squares that appears all around the Muslim world. It is one of our most iconic designs, now also a sticker.

Script: Arabic calligraphy
Structure: the saying shaped to the rub el hizb
Inspired by: a hadith narrated by Abdullah bin Umar

See it on Mubdian →

A customized pillow reading Emerald St, San Diego, on a gray sofa

The sea blue pillow reading El-Hussein St

The sand pillow reading El-Gaish Rd, Alexandria

05 · Inspired by Arab street signs

Arabic Street Pillow

Anyone who has traveled through the Arab world knows the iconic blue street signs: a white frame, the house number in both Arabic and Western numerals, and the street name in Arabic over its English transliteration. I turned that sign into a pillow, so you can bring a favorite place home.

Every pillow is made to order. Customers send any street address, from where they live now or from back home, and I set it in the sign's layout, with the city added in English and Arabic if they like. It comes in sea blue, sand and coal, and it has become a go-to housewarming gift.

Palette: sea blue, sand or coal
Structure: a street sign, personalized for each customer
Inspired by: street signs across the Arab world

See it on Mubdian →

See the full collection.

Visit Mubdian Get in touch