Cairo · In production for two events, March and May 2027

Noor & Omar

Two event sites, one visual language, in Arabic and English — built for our own wedding, which is why this house exists.

A gold lace mandala turning slowly on deep burgundy, with the couple’s names at its centre. — A lace mandala drawn from eight motifs, none of them stock — the ornament families expect on an Egyptian invitation, redrawn so it could turn.

The idea

Her name is the Arabic word for light. His is the word for a lifetime. Put together — نور العُمر — they read as both their names and as a whole phrase, and the entire invitation was drawn out of that one accident: the ornament, the palette, the copy, even the song. A concept that only works for one couple is the opposite of a template, and finding one is where every commission here starts.

An illustrated lagoon with palms and fountains, a white ceremony platform, and three small figures. — Their actual lagoon, drawn by hand, with the couple and the ma’zoun standing in it. There is no template that answers this frame.

Before it was a mandala

The ring around their names is assembled from eight small drawn motifs — a sprig, a petal arc, a frond, a floret — repeated around a centre and rotated, so it reads as lace rather than as a border. Nothing in it is stock. The outer ring turns once every two and a half minutes, slowly enough that most guests never consciously notice it moving.

A dashed road curving across a deep red field, with lit date milestones and a small motorbike travelling it. — Three dates on one drawn road — the Fatiha, the katb, the wedding — with the bike riding it as the guest scrolls.

Shipped, and carrying guests now

Two event sites — the katb el-ketab and the wedding, each on its own address
Bilingual throughout, Arabic and English
A guest list kept by household
A share card built for WhatsApp
An illustrated venue scene for the katb
A drawn journey linking all three dates

Still in production

The printed suite
The pieces on the night
Photography, after May 2027

One tap, and it is a different invitation

The type changes, the numerals change, the page turns around, and the words inside the artwork change with it — including the labels drawn into the road. This is the part no studio outside the region builds, because their renderers cannot shape Arabic at all.

The invitation switching from English to Arabic, the layout flipping right to left. — One tap and the whole invitation changes language — the type, the numerals, the direction of the page, and the words inside the artwork.

Two illustrated hands with a ring arcing between them and hearts rising, captioned in Arabic. — The ring crosses from the right hand to the left, the way it happens at a katb — a beat an Egyptian family recognises before anyone explains it.

The house

Design, illustration and build — Omar Dawoud. Photography — to be credited after May 2027.

Open one yourself

The demo is this invitation, playable, with the guest list taken out.

Open the demo