To round off our Photoshop Around the World series, we head to the Middle East and Africa - where the design skills are as hot as the weather! The artworks here represent a huge variety of styles and creative approaches. Enjoy the last leg of our trip around the world!
100 Artworks from the Top 20 Designers in The Middle East and Africa
Sep 29th in Effects by Danny Outlaw
1. Anthony Dart
Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa
"Ontwerp is a multi-disciplinary Design & Animation studio based in Johannesburg South Africa, founded by Designer / Director Anthony Dart. Ontwerp's philosophy places design at the forefront. Design is the emphasis. We perceive design as problem solving, we are obsessive with craft and detail, We believe in the formidable communication of imagesand type and their inherent narrative ability. Our interests extend toArt Direction, Motion Graphics, 2D & 3D Animation, Sound Design, Graphic Design for Print and Screen."
2. One Horse Town
Representing: Cape Town, South Africa
The creative illustration work and great color schemes are what really caught my eye when checking out One Horse Towns portfolio of work. It is no doubt that this retro look and feel is one that brings them a lot of business. But, they are not limited to only that style. If you check out some of their illustration work, you will find a wide variety of work.
3. Brandt Botes
Representing: Cape Town, South Africa
Brandt Botes really is an artist without a style. While many of the samples below might lead you to think that he is limited to just a basic illustrator type style, you would be wrong. His portfolio is filled with a wide variety of styles and types of works. Everything from rough sketch style illustration to simply complex patterns can be seen in his portfolio.
4. Bison
Representing: Cape Town, South Africa
"Bison is the work of Linsey Levendall and Daniel Orme who form a creative studio based in Cape Town, South Africa. They service big to small businesses, musicians, the arts and culture sector and ad agencies with a range of skills including illustration, graphic design, branding and art direction.
Bison holds the belief that experimentation is the key to discovery and thus find ways around the tried and tested approach producing a fresh and unexpected result.
5. Ryan Atkinson
Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa
"Im a young south african designer who loves good design. I love typography, print design, photography, motion graphics and illustration. My icons include, Non-Format, Build (Micheal C. Place), Massimo Vignelli, Jospeh Muller-Brockman, Wim Crouwel, David Carson (Interestingly different I know, but I have my reasons). I am interested in furthering myself and my skills as often as possible, so give me a shout if you think a piece of work is not cool, and you have some ideas why :)"
6. Islam Zayed
Representing: Cairo, Egypt
While Islam Zayed has some really nice typography work in his portfolio, I was more impressed with some of his graphic design work and photo manipulation stuff. There are also of course, his works that combine the two for a truly outstanding finished piece, some of which is very Desktopgrahy-esque.
7. Mohamad Moftah
Representing: Cairo, Egypt
"Mohamad Moftah is an Egyptian born painter, graphic designer and illustrator based in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University in the summer of 2008 with honors. Since then he has been working in advertising and design.
Mohamad has focused primarily on painting and design, working with diverse local and international clients like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, producing logos, corporate identities, brochures, TV ads, print ads and most other forms of print."
8. International Nomads
Representing: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
"We like to describe ourselves as a Collective, an internationally present collective of professionals & creatives from around the globe, and this team of fine individuals is called International Nomads.
International Nomads specializes in Marketing & Digital Advertising. We provide a full suite of integrated marketing and advertising services, broken into 3 main areas of work; Consultation, Creative, and Production services"
9. JayDz
Representing: Dammam, Saudi Arabia
"My name's Jay, a Graphic Designer from the Mid-East.. My Passion is My Art.. and My Inspiration's My Fiance.. I design, I screw up, then I do good.. its how I do it lol ... my Senses are my tutorial tools... I observe and learn new techniques by analyzing others' graphics! o to all great Designers and Illustrators out there.... Keep posting your great work! =D Addin' me/ Applaudin' or Criticizin' my Work... Sharin' 'em thoughts with me.. iS What Builds Me =)"
10. Younes Badi
Representing: Rabat, Morocco
"I am Younes Badi. I am a young graphic designer from Rabat in Morroco. Here is my graphic design portfolio from school. I am actually studying graphic design at a local design university. I hope you enjoy looking at some of my artwork and designs.”
11. Younes ze
Representing: Algiers, Algeria
Younes Ze is one of the younger artists on this list. According to the artist profile, they are only about 21. Whats cool about their profile, is that they have done a nice job at taking rather popular trends and turning them into a more unique style. This combination of mixing popular trends with a unique style is how new trends are born.
12. Clement de Bruin
Representing: Cape Town, South Africa
As I was checking out Clement de Bruins blog, I noticed that his most recent post was of a blank figure he painted. Anyone who has the skills to do those well gets props in my book. Toys aside, it is Clement de Bruins illustrative work that really stands out. From what i can see, it has really progressed over the years and Im sure it will only get better.
13. Disturbance
Representing: Durban, South Africa
"Disturbance is a graphic design studio based in Durban, South Africa and one of the continent's leading design practices. disturbance's work has been recognised both locally (Loeries awards) and internationally(D&AD, ADC, One Show, Comm Arts, Society of Illustrators).
Over the last decade disturbance has variously won awards for their clients, published a 'zine, released a music CD, designed and operated a restaurant, a gallery and a design store and launched (and collapsed) the much hyped design brand, "Home Industries"."
14. Karen Mc Dade
Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa
"I specialise in designing online and print media from conception to completion. I have a passion for photo-manipulation and will often stay up late at night experimenting with new techniques. I'm especially partial to the surreal and fantasy-esque style and my art has a general tenancy in this direction. I conduct the majority of my work via the internet as many of my clients reside internationally. I have designed for companies from the United Kingdom, to South Africa to the USA. Clients include the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, and Pegasus Spiele, among others."
15. MissYucki
Representing: Johannesburg, South Africa
"MissYucki is an art and design project conceived by Kat Cameron and Alba Poretti. Inspired by the frenzy of down town Johannesburg, we have created a character named Missyucki and employing a range of mediums we create scenes and themes from her mythology as well as curiosities and novelties inspired by her way of life."
16. Sam Moshaver
Representing: Tehran, Iran
There are no shortage of, for lack of a better term, gothic type artists out there. But few really have the creativity to take their work to a state of originality. Sam is not one of those few. He is one of the ones who can create dark images to stir emotions without being over saturated with dark cliches and stereotypes. On top f that, he can also use these design skills to create work that is a little more public friendly for ads, websites, etc.
17. Ahmed Othman
Representing: Egypt
"I'm Ahmed Othman from EGYPT, I was born in 1987 in Mansoura city. I got interested in drawing when I was young so I decided to learn about Art and that's when I joined the faculty of Art education and this is helped me greatly to improve my talent in graphic design."
18. Amr Tahtawi
Representing: Cairo, Egypt
"at designs is a small design studio with a big attitude in web, Print, Graphics, Logotype, and illustration. Relax, watch & enjoy selected work from Amr Tahtawi designz."
19. Ahson Rafiq
Representing: Sanaa, Yemen
"My name is Ahson Rafiq, I'm the creator of Gurilla Skateboards and I do freelance web design right here at designatomy. I've done over 5 years of Graphic and Wordpress Blog Designing and now it's time for me to make a portfolio so here's the site and my work is showcased here officially."
20. Mikias Hailu
Representing: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
"Currently I'm a freelance worker with graphic design in Ethiopia. I have a good background with drawing and paintings that I have been practicing since child hood,and now I'm working with Web Design, Graphic Design, Digital Art, Illustration, etc"
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Nikola September 29th
amazing works!
( )as September 29th
Increible! Me encanta, buena colección. Te sigo desde hace mucho y eres un artista creando y recopilando lo mejor.
( )designfollow September 29th
very nice artworks
( )wang guan zhong September 29th
oh wanderful!!
( )MoonBoy September 29th
Really Professionalism seen in each work. bravo
( )Ravi Vora September 29th
Loving #1, #6, and #17. Not sure if I agree with #8, #9, #10, or #14 being on the “top designers” list.
( )zarkoosh September 29th
exactly.. you are right
( )MAD01 September 30th
number 15 is suspect as well
( )Ravi Vora September 30th
#15 at least has it’s own style. I looked back and don’t think #18 should be on the list though.
massafakka September 29th
wtf!! unbelievable works! im deep impressed.. wow… thx @ all
( )Modisana September 29th
Great work.. nice to see some of our Locals representing… Great work
( )eleganzic September 29th
Amazing…
( )thanks for sharing these artworks with us
Giallo September 29th
Woooow!!!!!
( )spidermonkey September 29th
Love Ahmed Othman’s work. Some really nice work here overall however.
( )Dozign September 29th
only the people in SA really stood out on this list, the rest are all pre-made vectors and live traces and stock brushes from deviant art, i cant believe you excluded designers from DXB..such a poor list
( )Callum Chapman September 29th
Excellent work!
( )Mounir from maroc September 29th
really so wonderful… work
( )and professional
theKDU September 29th
only the SA crew really deserves the list… how could you include works with live traces, stock brushes and vectors as top notch work…..
( )Jasmin Halkić September 29th
Amazing.
( )Captain Nugun September 29th
Ahmed Othman’s work looks very professional, well done.
( )Isis - SEARCHING WEBDESIGN JOBS IN BRASILIA/BRAZIL September 30th
Totally agree. One of the best (if nt the best) here.
( )binocle September 29th
Some very very nice works here, thanks.
but…
It is a strange illustration of “global village” concept: no matter where the designers come from, the designs are the same…
You title “top 20 designers from middle east and africa”, but most of the works here could easily have been made by a japanese, swiss, or cuban designer without anibody notice it…
You can’t see much of “cultural identity/backgrounds” in most of the works these days.
Everybody see the same things. read the same blogs, inspire themselves from the same sources etc…
I don’t say it is bad or good though, just a thought about the uniformity/globalization of graphic design
( )Abdurrahman Gemei September 29th
I agree. If designers seek inspiration from their own cultures and backgrounds, rather than magazines or the internet, there will be a lot of variance in digital art. But yeah, the designs were great!
( )Margaret September 29th
that’s a really good point. hard to say if it’s a good thing or bad as the long term effects have yet to be seen. think about all the creative inspiration you can get from a specific regional design style (think traditional Japanese paintings from an artist like Hokusai for example) It’s a little sad that most nations nowadays feel the need to have their creativity mostly fueled by European and north American design standards. I love to see different cultural influences in art and design. And you do see some here.
( )MAD01 September 30th
you got a point but there ARE some differences, like the indonesian style is very recognizable and many polish guys also have a distinct style (like mosk, hejz, nolbert and so on)
( )and here in russia it’s mostly gloomy minimal doodles lol
jambo September 29th
#12 #30 # #81 !!!!!!
( )Jacques//An1ken September 29th
Awesome post, never ever heard of some of those guys in Africa. Some really have great work. Nice post Danny.
I am from Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.
Jacques van Heerden
18 Years old
Digital Freelance Artist.
An1ken
Portfolio – http://www.an1ken.net
( )Blog – http://creativeoverflow.net
dA – http://an1ken.deviantart.com
Shurandy Thode September 29th
Awesome collection.
( )LIGHTNING September 29th
Amazing Works
( )Web 2.0 September 29th
Perfect collection, very inspiring
( )Yari September 29th
Phenomenal work! Wow!
( )Chris September 29th
Great to see some work from other parts of the world!
( )José Pablo Robles September 29th
OMG! Amazing works…!
( )RocStar September 29th
These quotes are truly ignorant, “…the rest are all pre-made vectors and live traces and stock brushes from deviant art” & “…how could you include works with live traces, stock brushes and vectors as top notch work…”. All the things mentioned are tools. Why use stock photos or Illustrator or Photoshop for that matter? All digital art is bullshit to these guys or gals, I guess? Why even post a comment on a digital arts site.
( )Hai Dang September 29th
Wish i could !
( )peter September 29th
some amazing works, but I gotta say I’m getting tired of the “grunge” look.
( )Redant September 29th
I agree that most of them are top designers. But I think it’s kinda lame to call this the Top 20 Designers of that area as I’m sure there are even better ones out there…
Why not call it 20 top designers in The Middle East and Africa?
( )Amatatomba September 29th
Wasn’t as blown away as some of the other regions, but still some amazing work.
( )Muhammad September 29th
Great works indeed! Though, I’m not sure if these are the “top 20″, I live in the middle east and I certainly am sure the ones from the ME aren’t the top ones, however I’m really please to see my folks featured on tutsplus, MOAR please!
( )Muhammad September 29th
pleased*
( )Madalin September 29th
Great pieces of work…!
( )Melody September 29th
The sperm and egg one is so genius haha
( )Aevion September 29th
It should be called top 20 designers from the Middle East and South Africa… hardly representative of all of Africa, but good collection nevertheless.
( )Teri September 29th
Exactly!!!
( )3otared September 29th
inthat case why not make it to 8 designers from the middle east, & another one for the whole of africa
Teri September 29th
Very disappointed that the “Africa” represented here is mostly the whitest part of Africa–South Africa–or the Arab part of Africa–Morocco and Egypt. West Africa was not even represented. Nice work but def not representative of Africa as a whole. Africa has 47 countries…FYI.
( )dr.lightS September 29th
very Great designs =)
( )Keep the good work up
Redstage Magento September 29th
All of this is incredible. Thank you for sharing this!
( )javo September 29th
Excelente!!! muchisimas gracias por tanta inspiración..
( )Boise Screen Printing (www.fastshion.com) September 29th
These look amazing!
( )3otared September 29th
BAD TITLE !!!!!!!
( )1. south africa isn’t part in the middle east
2. no way that the whole middle east that was surveyed, where is lebanon for syria for example?
georgette September 30th
wow theese are very insparational
( )leksa September 30th
Nice survey !
Please take a look the designers from east asia, south east maybe (my country also lol.. )
maybe you can determine who the best in thats area …
( )Modisana September 30th
you know earlier when i commented i didnt wanna sound like a prick and talk about how this list isnt really that great.. dont get me wrong theres still other nice work on it.. i just feel like other stuff dont really deserve to be here… especially since it says “TOP DESIGNERS”
Congrats to the other brilliant work here…
( )MAD01 September 30th
those last two disturbance pieces are so tasty
( )beedo September 30th
Thanks for The post
but how can you say the best 20 designers ?
there is a lot with the same skills and creativity
( )sankoodali September 30th
Great!
( )Chris Martin September 30th
Truly inspirational work!
( )pier September 30th
wow Thank you for sharing this! Great pieces
( )Mike September 30th
Some very nice work but what the hell in #14 doing in there – my goodness!
( )Traf September 30th
“16. Sam Moshaver
Representing: Tehran, Iran
There are no shortage of, for lack of a better term, gothic type artists out there. But few really have the creativity to take their work to a state of originality. Sam is not one of those few.”
What?
( )David September 30th
Truly Inspirational! i love all of em! *oogling*
( )Brendon Grobler September 30th
I think it’s a little ignorant to slate graphic design from a particular area if it isn’t seen to be representative of that area from your perspective.
If an artist is from Africa or the Middle East, does that mean that Africans should be creating artworks that only look like Ndebele huts or Middle Eastern artists should be creating works that only look like decorative mosques with script fonts?
It’s a crazy and narrow minded argument.
Picasso was influenced by African art and culture, so is it ok if African artists use cubism as inspiration? Or is that still too European?
Art, graphic or otherwise should never have the burden of representing anything but the artist’s will and expression.
( )Chirag Rana September 30th
Love the abstracts from Anthony Dart. Brave guy…fantastic approach. Loved his “neue 2009″ work the most.
keep it up.
( )WatcherLV September 30th
Awesome works!
( )iArts September 30th
Where are all the designers from Israel?….Come on
( )Hebron October 4th
Their work gets too much exposure on TV …
( )Maayan October 5th
I’m with you….
( )Kluke October 7th
Agree, where are Israeli designers????
( )Maicon Sobczak September 30th
Simple amazin.
( )behrouz September 30th
not all the works deserve the title top 20 designers in the Middle east. Some amazing works here as well.
the works of International Nomads have copied graphical elements directly from posters of Reza Abedini http://rezaabedini.com/
( )Isis - SEARCHING WEBDESIGN JOBS IN BRASILIA/BRAZIL September 30th
Great woks! I’m in love with Ahmed Othman’s works, very creative and well-done! And he’s so young, I can’t wait to see more from him!
=D
( )i-day September 30th
nice artwork..
( )taha October 1st
I,s all nice
( )Aymen October 1st
amazing
( )Todd October 1st
Brothers on fire down there
Nice
( )iProstuff October 1st
Nice !
( )Stephen October 1st
Actually sad to see that people cant even classify countries or areas of countries correctly, South Africa should be a better topic title not AFRICA..
Hate the ignorance of some people…
Nice list and nice to see some south african artists and also the talented artists from the middle east.
( )chris October 1st
if you know of better designers or countries that you feel are misrepresented why not leave a link for all of us where we can view their portfolios and have a look for ourselves .. I for one would love to see the work of graphic designers from West Africa ..
( )Ross October 1st
Great designs…but highly questionable title…
I’m writing this comment at home in Jerusalem. Difficult to believe the name “the top 20 designers in the middle east…”
Amazing stuff from South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Incredible art…
Difficult to give this any credibility without selections from the digital hubs of Tel Aviv and Dubai.
( )Symon October 1st
Truly awesome and inspiring. Thank you.
( )baratas October 1st
Great artwork! Congratulations!
( )Hech4(h)Apple October 2nd
Well i blame them for not having a proper portfolio, but there is a group of very talented artists called “just a band” who would have made this cut in kenya. a sample of there works can be found here
( )zidane October 2nd
Beautifal works thank you
( )Julz October 2nd
Simple Amazing
( )Eduardo Mitelman October 2nd
Some of these projects are truly inspirational.
very impressed from Anthony dart from SA. We can see there inspiration and influences from Dutch design (studio dumbar…).
Some of the other examples are very dull and not really should be featured on a post called “20 top designers…”.
You are missing Israeli, turkish, lenabese designers. There are some great acts there.
http://www.stratigo.com
( )follow us on Twitter @stratigodesign
Alex October 3rd
Turkish would be more like… european… dont’ they?
( )Tempest_Rain October 2nd
I loved most of them, but I will agree that some work wasn’t what I would call the best work. It was still all good work though. And work that I’m jealous of.
But, being that I’m picky about typos (my editor is Hitler reincarnated), I did notice a typo on Clement’s work. The last poster with the surfboard, sponsored is spelled incorrectly at the bottom. I’d get crucified for something like that… thus strengthening my above statement.
( )Tempest_Rain October 2nd
Also, I’d would love to see top designers from Japan. Some crazy stuff comes out of there in other media, I can’t imagine what their top designers come up with.
( )Tempest_Rain October 2nd
And after reading that post and seeing my error, I realize I have no room to comment on other people’s grammar…
( )this_dj October 15th
don’t worry, I read somewhere that dyslexia and creativity are linked
lazami October 2nd
Beautifal and inspiring!
( )Rawad October 3rd
Argh nothing from Lebanon?
( )Mahendra October 4th
wow… creative thinking……good work….!! keep it up…….
( )Love October 5th
I will really enjoy it with your collection. Thanks for giving this type of excellent collection
( )Anton Agestam October 6th
Wow! I really like how Anthony Dart integrates swiss style typography in his modern works!
A very nice collection of art!
( )Philippine Outsourcing October 6th
Interesting and Inspiring works! Thanks for sharing this. Just bookmarked this page so I can visit it again. =)
( )RawOne October 6th
wikkid cool
( )Mzatari October 7th
is that ok if i used one or more to print it on a tshirts???
( )Rodney King October 7th
Its no easy task to compile that many designers, collect examples of their work and highlight them for us…so give PSDtuts a break…not an easy task they attempted and I for one greatly appreciate their efforts
a) True, South Africa was a little over-represented but they are part of Africa, so is Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Yemen and Algieria. if every country in Africa were to get represented and every country in the Middle East, there would 70+ entries making it a Top 70+ not a top 20 so some countries didn’t get represented
b) Designers in Dubai tend to be based in Dubai but are not UAE citizens and would refer to themselves as a designer from country X, Y or Z.
c) Geographically, Israel is part of the Middle East. But many Israelis prefer to associate themselves with Europe (they take part in the Eurovision contest for some reason). Israel and the Middle East is always a touchy topic even when it comes to art unfortunately.
d) Turkey is divided with a “Middle East” piece and a “Europe” piece so they can play both sides
e) The Middle East used to be home to some of the greatest art in the world but art is no longer promoted and most schools dont really teach art as art should be taught. Very few schools have proper art programs and very few governments support the arts as they tend to have other areas of focus. Hopefully the work of the few but dedicate art enthusiasts and professionals will help elevate the level
Just my 2 cents, fils, agorots, piasters or whatever
( )Mshunny October 7th
I’m blown away!! especially by the first one and then so on .. Follow me on twitter!! http://twitter.com/hunnydesigns
( )khanartistdotnet October 7th
amazing and inspiring!
( )Eve Onyx October 8th
Ahmed Othman is my choice. Crispy clear and quite abstract works!
( )tshepo October 9th
big ups to the cats who got South Africa on the map….though i wish there was sumone from botswana that would have been nice….nways watch the space cos im cumin thru…
greatest creativity here
( )clippingimages October 10th
WoW, Great art works, In some design nice typography used. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
( )herzevekil October 11th
Thanks, great works…
( )Brendan October 11th
#1 is a bit depressed, no?
( )Brendan October 11th
#16*
( )Iceman October 11th
impressive work
( )hellsing October 12th
I would be happier to see more from the continent between South Africa and Egypt, called Africa.
Mikias Hailu’s first design is funny: luxury allyos…
but I like the rest from him, and Islam Zayed’s works, too.
( )Dave October 12th
Are you kidding? Top 20 Designers in the middle east and africa? I’m disgusted. This is an insult to the general reputation of designers living in Africa and the M/east
A few good works, but mostly looks like student projects and competition entrys.
Very short sighted of this website to label this as work from the “top designers.” Obviously a very limited experience of what Africa and M/East have to offer. Either that or the author is just plain lazy.
( )Ganesh October 13th
Good Worke
( )Ganesh October 13th
Very short sighted of this website to label this as work from the “top designers.” Obviously a very limited experience of what Africa and M/East have to offer. Either that or the author is just plain lazy.
but I like the rest from him, and Islam Zayed’s works, too.
( )Mikias Hailu’s first design is funny: luxury allyos…
WoW, Great art works, In some design nice typography used. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
David October 15th
First off: big respect to PSDtuts for highlighting design from outside of Europe and the Americas.
( )That said, I have a serious issue with the title of this post. Some of the creatives featured truly do deserve a place in a top 20 article (Ahmed Othman, Brandt Botes, Anthony Dart), but there are a few people here who absolutely do not.
I don’t like the fact that this is presented as the work of the best of Africa and the Middle East. It kinda implies that everything else being produced is less good than the weakest stuff shown, which quite frankly is an insult.
Demetriades October 17th
Amazing artworks, every time my brain stop i just visit this page, but i never had the chance to comment until now. Thank you publisher
( )devanshee October 20th
really awesome work …..wow!!!!!!!!
( )asi October 20th
what about some israeli designers?
( )Dan October 23rd
Thought Ahmed Othman’s work was wicked.
( )RgnrK October 30th
Nice stuff
( )Bb October 30th
I didn’t thought that there’s creative people in middle east!! that’s cool.
( )Danica Townsend November 7th
that’s really quit impressive collections, i like Mikias Hailu’s and Sam Moshaver works it’s a nice and different technique.
( )N e m O November 16th
ana bashaga3 eltahtawy moooooooooooooooooo6
( )