100 YEARS IN THE REGION
The Making / الصناعة was created to mark General Motors’ centennial in the Middle East, an event celebrating 100 years of the brand’s presence, evolution and relationship with the region. Bringing together archival history, landmark vehicles and stories from across the decades, the experience looked back at what GM has built while considering what the next century could hold.
The challenge was to create a visual identity capable of carrying that scale of history without becoming overly nostalgic or feeling like a conventional heritage exhibition. The identity needed to connect GM’s industrial past with its contemporary brand, creating a visual language that felt archival and engineered, yet refined, relevant and forward-looking.
THE INSPIRATION
The identity began with GM’s own visual history in the Middle East. Archival photographs of early showrooms, factories, dealerships and advertising revealed a distinctive regional language: bold utilitarian signage, condensed industrial typography and English marque names paired with expressive hand-rendered Arabic lettering.
The character of this Arabic script became a key reference for the identity. Rather than introducing a contemporary Arabic typeface, I drew from the irregular, human quality of these original hand-painted signs, creating a visual contrast with the precision and structure of GM’s industrial heritage. Together, these references became the foundation for an identity that feels rooted in the region’s past without simply recreating it.
THE DEVELOPMENT
The logo development explored how the event’s 100-year story could be expressed within a simple bilingual identity.
I brought the English and Arabic titles together with a recurring timeline motif, using 1926 and 2026 as visual anchors rather than treating the centennial as a secondary message.
The typography became another way of connecting eras. The structured, condensed English lettering references the industrial and technical language of GM’s history, while the more expressive Arabic lettering draws from the hand-rendered signage found throughout the regional archives. The contrast allowed the identity to feel simultaneously historic and contemporary, while remaining deliberately simple enough to work across different scales and applications.
Different lockups were developed to test hierarchy, proportion and the relationship between the timeline, bilingual title and supporting information. Some iterations also explored how the official GM centennial branding provided by the brand could be integrated without overpowering the event’s own identity.
From there, I began translating the logo into a broader graphic system. Inspired by the technical and manufacturer plates found on vehicles, the identity was contained within bordered, riveted plate-like compositions and combined with archival imagery. This moved the system beyond a standalone logo, creating a visual language that could connect GM’s engineering heritage, its regional archive and the centennial narrative throughout the event.
THE LOGOS
The final identity brings the GM marque directly into the event lockup, establishing a clear connection between the centennial experience and the master brand while allowing “The Making / الصناعة” to retain its own character.
The 1926–2026 timeline motif became a consistent element across the system, reinforcing the idea of a century-long journey through the region.
A flexible family of horizontal, vertical and compact lockups was then developed, allowing the relationship between the GM logo, bilingual title and centennial timeline to shift depending on the application, while maintaining a consistent visual hierarchy and recognisable identity throughout the experience.
THE APPLICATION
As the event moved into spatial design and production, the identity evolved to work across a much larger physical environment. While the logo itself was adapted and reworked at later design stages to suit different applications, the core visual language I developed remained present throughout the experience.
The 1926–2026 timeline motif, linear graphic details, monochromatic palette, archival references and contrast between historic and contemporary elements were translated into illuminated wall graphics, vehicle displays, reception areas, lounges and other environmental touchpoints. This allowed the identity to become more than a standalone logo, creating a consistent visual thread that connected the different spaces and moments of the centennial experience.
I also extended the identity into the event badge design, combining the bilingual event lockup and timeline graphic with monochromatic archival GM imagery. Different historic photographs could be used as the background while retaining the same typographic hierarchy and 1926–2026 detail, creating a functional guest credential that also felt like a small piece of the wider centennial identity.
