Centred around specific heritage buildings and dwellings found within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the visually-rich 2014 Aramco diary combined old etching-style patterns with photography and captivating illustration. The foldouts showed places such as Najran, Ushaiger and Dhi’Ayn and had the added feature of transparent tab-dividers for easy use.

With very few photographs of the sites to work with, Inspiral Design skilfully used painterly techniques to enrich the low-resolution photographs available. Printed using silver metallic ink overlaid with colour, From Earth & Stone – Architectural Treasures of the Kingdom also featured elegant typography with ornamented capitals and a bookmark that used Al-Sadu fabric, an ancient form of Bedouin tribal weaving. The diary was presented in a gold gift box design that echoed a traditional Saudi door.

The diary was extensively researched, carefully designed and impeccably produced with the utmost attention to detail – features that made it a unique design object.