Khalid Mezaina is an illustrator, Designer and maker of interesting and alternative zines.

‘Fade Away & Illustrate’ contains brilliant artists, compiled very neatly into a bundle of whoa. It’s always interesting to see how artists interpret different subjects or themes. Khalid’s illustrations evoke a warm sense of nostalgia for places that are usually unappreciated in Dubai. Both ‘Big City Trails’ and ‘Never Forget’ are a beautiful way to explore what this city has to offer, outside the context of huge malls.

Excerpts from Fade Away & Illustrate 

“I started making zines after teaching a series of DIY zine making workshops around Dubai. I noticed quite a lot of talent when offering these workshops, so I thought it would be a great idea to start an illustration themed zine which showcases my work along with other great, talented illustrators based in the UAE. Which is how ‘Fade Away & Illustrate’ began.”

Excerpts from Big City Trails 

“‘big city trails’ is a project i hold dear to my heart. it started off as a conversation with a couple of backers wanting to create a children’s activity book about the city of Dubai. I was stoked with the idea of working on another activity book after ‘never forget‘, and this time working on pushing children (and adults) to use their observational skills while exploring the city, looking beyond what they’re familiar with and finding new areas to explore.

‘big city trails’ is about any big city, which is why i purposely don’t refer to dubai in the publication. any child in any big city can relate to the book. the publication is filled with fun activities including colouring, observational and freehand drawing styles, finding alphabets and faces around the city, pattern making, finding shapes and listening to sounds around the city. what’s also great about ‘big city trails’ is that its in english and arabic.

Unfortunately the book was never officially published due to backers pulling out. But I did independently publish a short print run of ‘big city trails’. So if anyone’s interested in getting their hands on a few copies, email me and i’ll sort you out. ‘big city trails’ is 22 x 28 cm, 28 pages (excluding cover), priced at aed 50.”

Excerpts from Never Forget

Excerpts from We Met on the Dance Floor

“I recently completed a mini comic with my friend and talented illustrator Azim Al Ghussein titled ‘We Met on the Dance Floor’ which is a personal story about my love for African music and the African social clubs in the city.” 

Find more about Khalid’s work here and get inspired: http://khalidmezaina.blogspot.ae

Instagram: kmezaina

Sarah Ahmed is a 24 year old, Network & Security in information technology graduate. She is the founder, & curator of the Middle Eastern e-mag, Jaffat El Aqlam. When she’s not stressing out about self-made deadlines, she experiments with glitch art, film photography & watercolors. She listens to what her family calls, ‘alien music’ and takes pictures of plants in her city.