"Al Hamadiyat" A Royal Masterpiece

From it’s deepest value of sharing art with the world, Annada wants to envelop everything in art. Therefore, when we heard that the poet Mohammed Hadi AlHalwachi was looking to present his latest poetry book in a special way, we suggested to him our unique approach of transforming it into an art piece. Al “Hamadiyat” by Mohammed Hadi AlHalwachi is a collection of poems that first started in 1999, the year His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the ruler of Bahrain, and continued until the historical moment that we all value when we won The Gulf Football Cup.

The collection of poems is a historical document that tells the story and events that occurred during his majesty’s ruling period over the past 20 years. All the important visits, connections to other kings and leaders and grand achievements are covered in the book.

The poems are written in proper Arabic, each poem is like a short story. The language is so beautiful that you can't help but enjoy it!

 

When we started this project it was an exciting challenge for us. Because we wanted to create a book that is a piece of art and is suited to praise His Majesty’s history. Our intention was to make it an art piece which meant that we had to think of every form of art that would be suitable for it. Poetry, also known as the art of literature, painting, calligraphy, and even sculpture are all forms of art that were considered. With that the foundation, we started putting down the plan of how these elements would come together.

At Annada, we decided bring together a team of artists, each in his field to work on this project. Artist Abbas AlMosawi was to create the original collection of paintings specially for the book. The book’s logo was commissioned to Mohsen Ghareeb from Ghareeb Art Studio. We selected 20 poems and then several special verses from each to be calligraphed by Mohamed AlBahrana. Each of of which was presented in gold inside the book alongside the beautiful paintings of artist Abbas AlMosawi.

We worked so hard at Annada to review every single detail making sure that every phrase is presented correctly, that the artwork is placed in an appropriate order and that the book is both visually and literary perfect. It took countless hours, days, and weeks to ensure that it is all perfectly designed. Once we felt confidant with the full design we started the process of production. We dived into the details of the cover, the colors, the small touches that gave it more luxury. Our wonderful and talented team in Annada was so keen to get it all right and perfect!

 

Our next challenge was figuring out a way to present the book to His Majesty. We wanted to create a book stand structure where the “WORD” was the hero. Since it was a book of poetry and art we wanted these two elements to take the center stage at the presentation level. It took us time to find the most elegant and relevant idea for that stand. We created a back panel with a painting by the artist Abbas AlMosawi, and a verse that His Majesty loved, portrayed it in gold letters and a base for the book to sit on.

On December 13, 2020, during Bahrain National celebrations, the King received, at the Al-Safriya Palace, poet Mohammed Hadi AlHalwachi, who presented him with the book of poems. His Majesty has expressed his thanks and appreciation for the efforts exerted in compiling this valuable collection of poems. The visit news was out on every news outlet.

All in all, creating this book was a wonderful experience and an exciting project to be part of. We enjoyed the journey and the process as much as the delivery. We are very grateful and happy with the final outcome and how all our dreams and hard work came to fruition with beautiful, elegant results.

We love these kinds of projects and creative challenges and opportunities to share art with the world and create more and more elegant, beautiful pieces of art.