مدحت الشافعي
Creative & Design Director
Twenty years, two alphabets, one steady hand. Brands, identities and digital experiences built across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, most recently for Olayan.
Great design goes beyond aesthetics. It communicates ideas, solves problems, and builds connections that last.
التصميم الجيّد يتجاوز الجمال: يُوصِل، يَحُلّ، ويَصِل
الفصل الأول · Chapter one
المصمّم
A multidisciplinary Creative & Design Director with over twenty years of experience creating brands, visual identities and digital experiences across Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, combining creativity, strategy and business thinking to turn ideas into purposeful design with measurable impact.
Strategic thinking, married to obsessive detail. A collaborative leader who thrives in fast-paced environments, builds strong relationships across diverse teams, and carries projects from first concept to final execution with clarity and confidence.
Design that communicates, solves and connects, helping organisations express their vision, strengthen their identity, and inspire confidence through thoughtful, professional work.
يبدأ كل مشروع بحرفٍ واحد، والباقي إصغاء.
الفصل الثاني · Chapter two
المسيرة
In Arabic, a career is a مسيرة, a walked road. His began with words, wandered into letterforms, and never stopped learning.
B.A. in Arts, English Department, Tanta University, Egypt. A degree in language becomes a lifelong obsession with what letters can carry.
Professional diplomas in Programming and Web Design at YAT. He learns to speak to computers before designing for them.
Ten English-language courses with the British Council, sharpening the voice that would later bridge two alphabets.
Creative Solutions for Thinking Differently at SAE Institute. Italic calligraphy under The Master, Calligraphy Art.
MIT’s Approach to Design Thinking, where intuition earned its methodology.
UX/UI Diploma. Twenty years in, and the curiosity is intact.
Leading brand, creative and digital design across the region, from boardroom strategy to the last kerned letter.
one word · journey · carries this entire story
الفصل الثالث · Olayan annual appreciation awards
التُّحفة
He named the trophy Masira, “the journey.” He could as well have been describing his own.
Concept · الفكرة
Honour years of dedication with something worth keeping: the employee’s journey, illustrated as a single Arabic word whose silhouette becomes a mountain road. Highs and lows, peaks and valleys, the depth of the experience.
Material · الخامة
Manufactured from compressed palm fronds. Saudi heritage made tangible and sustainable: the wave along the crown is the calligraphy’s own skyline, and the gold “10” marks a decade held in the hand.
Outcome · الأثر
Designed, produced and launched across three cities, Masira became the visual centrepiece of Olayan’s Annual Iftar & Appreciation Awards, from the stage backdrop to the object in every honouree’s hands.
Original concepts created and executed by Medhat Alshafee, with further projects completed under his creative direction during his time at Olayan.
الفصل الرابع · Chapter four
الحِرفة
Positioning before pixels: names, narratives, and the case for both.
One vision, carried from moodboard to opening night.
Systems that survive the third designer and the tenth year.
Interfaces that read like conversation, not furniture.
Two alphabets, drawn by the same hand.
Light, patience, and the decisive frame.
Words that sell without shouting.
Old-master instincts, new instruments.
لنكتب الفصل التالي
A brief, a brand, a blank page. Bring any of the three.
مدحت الشافعي Medhat Alshafee وتستمر المسيرة…