Local Designer Wins Best Book Design of the Year

When I was studying design in college, one of the yearly annual competitions we’d look forward to was the “50 Books | 50 Covers” competition by AIGA (The American Institute of Graphic Arts). This competition started in 1923 and became an annual staple in the design community so we were always pretty excited to see what covers and books they selected. A couple of days ago, AIGA announced the latest winners for their 50/50 awards, and this year a Kuwaiti designer was one of the winners.

Fahad Al Hunaif won Best Book Design of the Year for his exhibition catalog, “Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility” designed for the Guggenheim Museum. Fahad describes the 256-page book as capturing the concept of duality to align with the exhibition. The stark, black exterior contrasts an interior filled with generous white space and subtle material changes, highlighting the tension between invisibility and hypervisibility.

I’ve been a huge fan of Fahad’s work since back in 2013 when he was still in New York studying at Parsons School of Design. He got his first 15 seconds of fame after @caradelevingne was photographed wearing his profane Cartier parody cap, “Cuntier”. Cara was backstage at a Jeremy Scott Runway Show when the ultra-famous fashion photographer @terryrichardson snapped some pictures of her wearing the cap. The photo went viral and eventually landed Fahad in a bit of trouble after Cartier slapped him with a cease and desist letter. I posted about him back then and you can check that old post out here.

Today, Fahad is a partner at TB.D, a multidisciplinary design studio that has worked on branding projects like Boost, ODE, and RA. You can check them out at tbd.studio or visit AIGA Design to see more winners.