about the studio
we are not in the business
of decoration.
we are in the practice of identity.
Studio Ya Khadijah is a creative studio based in Baghdad, Iraq, established in 2017. We work at the intersection of culture, research, and design — building visual identities that hold their depth in both Arabic and English.
Khadijah Abdul Nabi - Creative Director
Our work explores what it means to belong, to question, and to regenerate the visual languages of Arab and Islamic culture for the future. Design is our native language. We don't have to translate our process — we live it.
Creative Director
Khadijah
Abdul Nabi —
a layered depth,
by design.
Khadijah Abdul Nabi leads the studio with a philosophy rooted in design as cultural authorship. Born in the Bronx, New York, to resilient immigrant parents from Tunis, Tunisia, and Baghdad, Iraq — her work is shaped by a lifelong navigation of hyphenated identity, language, and belonging.
Her academic background in Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, combined with her training in Graphic Design at Shillington College in London, gives her a rare fluency — the ability to work at the intersection of culture, research, and visual craft in a way that is both intellectually rigorous and aesthetically considered.
Since establishing the studio in 2017, she has built a body of work across cultural institutions, arts organisations, and independent artists in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, the wider SWANA region, and the diaspora — interrogating, reframing, and celebrating Arab identity across mediums and spaces.
Speaking & Presence
Contributing to global conversations on culture, identity, and contemporary Arab aesthetics.
2023
Amman Design Week
Speaker — On Adapting Design Education in Iraq.
2023
Berlin Design Week
Speaker — How Culture and Identity are shifting in the SWANA region.
2023
AIGA New York
Speaker — “Lost In Translation” Studio Ya Khadijah’s process and methodology in approaching multicultural and multilingual identity projects.