The Design Doha Biennial is the largest platform for design in the Arab region, bringing together exhibitions, public projects and collaborations across the city of Doha. Its ambition is to create a meeting point where designers, curators, collectors and audiences can engage with the rapidly evolving design culture of the region.

Chaired by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Directed by Fahad Al Obaidly, with the artistic direction of Glenn Adamson, the 2026 edition expands dramatically, activating multiple sites and presenting dozens of exhibitions and public programmes that share a strong sense of regional identity. The biennial highlights the particular character of Arab design, where contemporary experimentation often intersects with heritage and craft traditions; positioning Doha as a mediator and connector within the region.

A rich platform that highlights the diversity of design practices across the Arab world, its remit strengthens the creative ecosystem by building networks, creating opportunities and amplifying the voices of designers working across disciplines.

Both a cultural and structural event, DDB’s second edition embeds design more deeply within the built environment and cultural life of the region.

Responding to this ambition, Samar Maakaroun and her team at Pentagram designed  the identity for Design Doha Biennial 2026, leaning into the idea of connection at every level. Rather than a fixed logo, the brand functions as a flexible typographic system designed to express relationships between people, languages and disciplines.

At its core is a bilingual structure that gives equal presence to Arabic and English. The two scripts are treated with parity, united in a shared typographic composition rather than separate elements. This balance reflects the cultural reality of the region and reinforces the Biennial’s role as a bridge between different cultures. 

Key to the design are the extended strokes of the letterforms. These lines extend and expand acting as connectors between elements of the identity. Visually, they behave like lines mapping a network or constellation, linking individual points into a larger system.

The result is a dynamic brand, variable and ever changing, echoing the Biennial’s role as a platform where ideas circulate and relationships form. The colour palette balances materiality with energy: travertine-inspired beige and deep maroon evoke the region’s architectural and geological context, while a vivid orange introduces brightness and optimism. The saturated Design Doha blue continues from the previous identity, ensuring continuity as the Biennial evolves.

Within the broader Biennial programme, Arab Design Now stands as the headline exhibition and one of the central moments of the event. Curated independently, it highlights some of the strongest voices in contemporary Arab design. 

To reflect its prominence, the exhibition uses a distinct expression of the Biennial identity. The visual language retains the same structural logic as the main brand, maintaining the bilingual typographic system and connective behaviour of the letterforms, while the treatment of the letterforms is pushed toward a bolder and more assertive register.

The typography becomes heavier, discoverable and more graphic, amplifying its presence while remaining clearly part of the same family. This approach allows the exhibition to stand out within the wider programme while preserving coherence with the overarching identity.

The result is a brand architecture where the core system adapts to different contexts while maintaining its fundamental idea: design as a network of voices connected across the region.

The Design Doha Biennial will open on 5 November 2026.