Watermelon Pictures: A bilingual identity helping elevate underrepresented voices
- Services
- Brand Positioning
- Visual Expression
- Verbal Expression
Watermelon Pictures is a film production and distribution company founded by two Chicago-based Palestinian brothers, focused on elevating underrepresented voices in cinema.
In launching the mission-driven company, the founders had to consider how to build a globally resonant, scalable brand that could reach across cultures without diluting its identity.
One Design and Field of Practice partnered to develop a culturally rooted, bilingual identity system that treats Arabic and English as equal carriers of meaning, rather than translating one into the other, while embedding symbolic storytelling directly into the brand’s visual language.
“As a studio, we believe in the essential need for a diverse range of artistic voices and perspectives to be elevated and amplified. Conversation, understanding, and empathy require a platform where different perspectives have a chance to be heard. It was an honor to be trusted to help craft the beginnings of a mission-driven arts organization already brimming with global talent from the world of filmmaking.”
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David Sieren, One Design Executive Director of Design and Strategy
Many bilingual systems default to visual compromise or hierarchy, which can unintentionally marginalize one audience. Our system instead creates cohesion without flattening difference—enabling Watermelon Pictures to engage diverse audiences while remaining unapologetically rooted in Palestinian culture.
Our teams focused on rethinking how bilingual brands function. Instead of a single, static wordmark, we created a flexible system of variable Arabic marks inspired by travel stamps, border crossings, and lived experiences within the Palestinian diaspora. Paired with a complementary English wordmark, the system establishes true linguistic parity—ensuring Arabic is not subordinate, but central to the brand’s voice.
“The brand needed to resonate deeply with a bilingual community across the Arab and Arab-American diasporas. This meant designing a system where Arabic was not treated as an afterthought or a direct translation of the English wordmark, but as an equal carrier of meaning and narrative.”
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Nermin Moufti, Field of Practice Design Director
The result is a system that is both highly expressive and intentionally restrained, allowing the films themselves to remain the focal point.
The bilingual visual identity system is ripe with meaningful symbols and gestures, from travel stamps and watermelon seeds to Arabic messaging and graphic devices that offer a fresh lens on Palestinian stories. To celebrate and support the brand’s launch, we designed a kit of activations including apparel, bags, stickers, pins, and posters aligned with Watermelon Picture’s first cohort of feature-length films.
In the months following Watermelon Pictures’ debut at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, the company has expanded its film slate and strengthened its presence across festival circuits and distribution channels. The brand system has proven effective across a wide range of applications, demonstrating its adaptability in real-world use.
One of the first films distributed by the label, Walled Off, directed by Vin Arfuso and produced by Anwar Hadid, Roger Waters, and Kweku Mandela, explores the Banksy-designed Walled Off Hotel overlooking the West Bank separation wall.
The project and our collaboration with Field of Practice were profiled by PRINT in January 2026.
The work was recognized by Fast Company through its 2026 Innovation by Design awards. Read about the honor here, and check out the complete list of 312 Fast Company honorees here.
