Shortlisted for the British Book Design and Production Awards 2011, this calendar brings together a rich selection of visual resources, maps, history and refined Arabic typography that reflects Inspiral Design’s expert roster of commissioned collaborators. The studio met the challenge of a tight deadline and demonstrated that attention to detail is of paramount importance.

The calendar served to educate Aramco’s employees, from diverse backgrounds, about the Middle East through something that was beautiful, informative and functional. Inspiral Design did the head-to-toe production – concept development, research, art direction, design and printing. Each unique layout posed the challenge of needing to hold several images; hand-drawn bespoke maps rendered by a specialist cartographer were used to ground the selection of paintings, photography and text. The calendar is printed on a textured paper that mimicked parchment, which is further enhanced by ornamented capitals and typography that lends from lettering found on old maps.