About the piece
- Artist : Design by Naeem Sheikh
- Medium : Black ink on paper; final product scanned and digitized for use in electronic layout
- Dimensions : On paper, approx. 20 cm x 20 cm
- Date of completion : Mar. 2003
Design idea
First request ever. On right side of the vertical divide, the groom's name ("Asif" which means "")
is on the outside and the bride's name ("Sumaiyya" which means "") is on the inside.
On the left side of the divide, the relationship is flipped. Was primarily done for
the esthetics, and to break up too much symmetry, but it can be said that there was a hint
of the idea of marriage there. I attended the wedding (the design was used on invitation cards
and program cards) and the master of ceremonies discerned this pattern and made a conjecture
to all the people that the design maker had the idea in mind, and it beautifully captured
the spirit of marriage. In fact, he referred to the verse of the Holy Quran which
describes husbands and wives as garments for each other (in sense of protective qualities) --
the same verse that my wife mentioned when I had finished the design.
The dots of "faa" in "Asif" and of "yaa" and "taa marboota" in "Sumaiyya" have been
omitted to keep the design neat and uncluttered. Arabic used to be written without
dots once upon a time.
Naeem's homepage