A whiff of home: Naveed Hussain weaves moments of nostalgia in his look for culture kitchen Khwabgah

Khwagah was a culture kitchen based in Amsterdam, with a South Asian heart. Although it has shut since it first opened, in the time that it existed, the kitchen doled out a delicious South Asian fare, and hosted meet-ups, tabla classes and film screenings. Before it could come to life though, it needed an identity, and it reached out to Designer Naveed Hussain. In the hands of Hussain, Khwabgah’s identity received a charming nostalgic touch, brimming with moments that would be at once familiar to anyone from the subcontinent. “Our visual direction drew inspiration from the nostalgia of a South Asian home kitchen. To bring this to life, we combined Latin and Urdu typography, reflecting the fusion of two cultures – East and West – coming together in a kitchen based in Amsterdam. This concept was thoughtfully crafted to align with the vision and needs of the amazing founders,” Hussain tells us. The wordmark stands out as the hero of the identity, with its overlapping and intertwining characters. Completely hand-drawn, the characters flow beautifully in and around each other, coming together to create an arresting lockup that spells out the name of the kitchen in both English and Urdu. “I collaborated with my dear friend and designer, Yash Prajapati, to seamlessly blend our unique styles into something fresh and meaningful, aligning with the concept. Our references included vintage Urdu typographic posters and a variety of film festival posters, drawing inspiration from their timeless aesthetic and cultural significance,” says Hussain. He then paired the hand-drawn characters with Jockey One, VG 5000 Regular (open-source fonts from Google Fonts and Velvetyne Type), along with Adobe Arabic Font to flesh out the typographic palette.