Salgirah International Festival Identity

Client: The Ismaili Muslim community

Tools: Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Photoshop

Goal: Design a unified festival identity for the global Ismaili Muslim community in 21 countries.

Salgirah is a religious festival observed by Ismaili Muslims every December. It marks the birthday of the late His Highness the Aga Khan IV, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, the spiritual leader of 15 million Ismailis worldwide. December 13, 2021, marked his 85th birthday, or Salgirah.

With the Aga Khan IV’s passing in February 2025 his son, Aga Khan V has assumed the role as leader of the Ismaili Muslims. With it, a new identity system must be redesigned.

The brief given to me by the Ismaili global communications team was to embrace the theme of shukr (gratitude in Arabic) while conveying 85 through (Islamic) geometry. This brand identity would be used worldwide by the Ismaili community to promote a sense of unity. The identity system was my first serious venture into Islamic design and the forms of Arabic typography. This area has become a great interest of mine since then.

This was by far the largest project I’ve worked on in terms of scale and one I will remember forever. The team only had two brief Zoom meetings over the six weeks of the project. I was impressed with our ability to collaborate across timezones through a Whatsapp group. Since this is a faith-based organization, all team members involved shared a common belief system about the festival.

One year later I was invited to refresh the identity for the Aga Khan IV’s 86th Salgirah festival. This became a flexible system to be used for the next two years.

Full-color logo. The colors come from the Ismaili community’s flag, seen in the photograph of the late His Highness the Aga Khan (below).

This is a mini-reel of all motion graphics I worked on for #Salgirah85. These animations were used across social media, opening slates for various forms of video content for the festival, and on stage at some live events.

Here, the late His Highness the Aga Khan is pictured in front of the Canadian and Ismaili flags at the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, Canada.

Five Ring Motif. The motif is my take on Islamic geometric design. Initially, you see three rings of 17 diamonds. In the negative space between them, two additional rings are created for a total of five total rings of 17 (17x5 = 85). One diamond representing each year of the late His Highness’ life.

Initially, you see three rings of 17 diamonds. In the negative space between them, two additional rings are created for a total of five total rings of 17 (17x5 = 85). One diamond representing each year of the late His Highness’ life.

The three rings are inspired by the three nuktas (dots) above the first letter in the Arabic word, shukr, meaning gratitude. The rings in negative space are a reminder of the esoteric aspects of the Ismaili faith.

Additional logo variations. The system works in full color on white backgrounds, or in white on red or green backgrounds.

Brand pattern. Designed by deconstructing the motif to an individual diamond and tiling them infinitely. These forms create an interesting 2.5D illusion.

Dubai World Trade Centre. The Ismaili community in Dubai, UAE held their first in-person celebration since the COVID-19 pandemic at the Dubai WTC. Unfortunately I was not able to attend for multiple reasons, but received some photos from the local team. All assets were designed by the local team in Dubai.

The geometry of 86 didn’t resolve so nicely as 85. The following year I got a call after the global team realized they couldn’t simply “add another diamond” for that year’s identity.

Ultimately we realized the geometry of 86+ would be problematic, and chose to pivot and build the identity around 49 (as the Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary spiritual leader in this role). We settled on a new 7 ring motif (4 visible, 3 in negative space).

Secondary lockups for years 86-88. I wanted these elements to live separately from the primary 7 ring motif as these next 4 years were “non-milestone” years.

After delivering all brand assets, social media teams in the Ismaili community launched global, national, and regional digital marketing campaigns. These assets (social media content, videos, website) were created by many talented people around the world in multiple languages. I have included them here to show the context and impact of the brand identity.

Photo backdrop in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Designed by the local team.

Retirement home celebrations in Calgary, Canada. Designed by the local team.

Wow. I didn’t even know they had access to large scale printing in the mountainous region of Hunza, Pakistan. Designed by the local team.

I never expected a logo I designed to be on a cake! (Or sherbet bottle, a milk-based drink made for special occasions). Houston, Texas, USA. Designed by the local team.

Exterior signage.

Branding displayed on stage during musical performances. Designed by the local team.

Signage for Golden Members (elders in the community, 65+), and wristbands to enter the venue. Designed by the local team.

The local team in Seattle told me about their ambitious design plans for the celebration, and that I had to be there to see my design come to life at the venue. Returning to Seattle the weekend before finals in my first term... we had a lovely hometown celebration with cultural dance performances, dinner, and a live band.

Despite my intense workload for the last few days of the semester, I made a last-minute decision to take a 36-hour trip back home in secrecy. It was the first time I could physically see anything I’d designed at this scale. In my hometown no less.