The 100/100 Hundred Best Arabic Posters exhibition is currently on display at the Ground Floor of M7 in Msheireb Downtown Doha, offering visitors a rare opportunity to explore 100 exceptional pieces of the region’s graphic design culture. This exhibit serves as a platform dedicated to celebrating Arabic Graphic Design, showcasing the evolution of script, imagery, and style by leading Arab graphic designers. The vision of this initiative is to document the contemporary visual culture of the Arab world, inspiring and educating emerging talents, academics, and professionals, while enhancing the global visibility and perception of Arabic graphic design.
The Hundred Best Arabic Posters competition, held every two years, invites an independent jury to select the top 100 posters. Four rounds of this competition have been completed over the past decade, resulting in 400 winning posters chosen from over 7,400 submissions across 23 countries. This year marks the inaugural presentation of the exhibit in Qatar, featuring a diverse selection of themes including movie posters, exhibitions, events, poetry, alphabets, and calligraphy. The jurors for this year’s selection include Nora Aly, Lina Ghaibeh, Nassim Azarzar, Ghalia Elsrakbi, and Ali Almasri, with the exhibition co-directed by Jochen Braun, Ryan Vincente Lee Grees, and Regina Rammelt.
The exhibition is part of the biennial Design Doha event, which began in February and will continue until August at various locations throughout Doha. The headline exhibition, “Arab Design Now,” curated by Rana Beiruti, highlights the rich cultural diversity and history of innovation across the Arab world, celebrating shared values of community, co-creation, and storytelling in contemporary design. Authors Bahia Shehab and Haytham Nawar, in their PROSE Award-winning book “A History of Arab Graphic Design,” explain that Arab graphic design emerged in response to significant economic, social, and political changes in the early 20th century. While graphic design became a formally recognized genre of visual art in the region in the 21st century, the field has yet to see extensive academic exploration.
The “100/100 Hundred Best Arabic Posters” exhibition is open to the public and will run until August 5th, offering a unique insight into the rich visual art culture of the Arab world. Visitors can explore a diverse selection of posters that represent the talent and creativity of leading Arab graphic designers, while also gaining a deeper appreciation for the evolution of script, imagery, and style in Arabic graphic design. This exhibit serves as a platform to inspire, connect, and educate emerging talents, academics, and professionals in the field, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the global visibility and perception of Arabic graphic design.
