blog: The Ganzeer Arts Collective - Erratic Fantastic

The minds behind this rather long overdue advancement in the Arab design belong to Ganzeer, who describe themselves as a ‘new experimental design unit’. Based out of Cairo, the Ganzeer team and their mishmash of talents combine together to produce and present their new creative expression to the world. Speaking to Mohammed Fahmy - the creative/visual expert and founder of Ganzeer, and Mohammed El-Motasem - creator of all film/motion based projects, we were able to get an insight into the inner workings of these crazy cats from Cairo.

Fahmy is the instigator for Ganzeer, who decided to start something new after spending his time working for an internet company. Tired by being chained to his desk, he longed to branch out into his own space, an inventive, new space where art could be created and new ventures could be born.

Upon asking them what kind of message they initially wanted to communicate through Ganzeer, their list was no small matter, reflecting the many scopes and genres they had no qualms in developing. Fahmy (code name ‘Mofa’) states the aims of the collective as, “Healthier lifestyles, positive attitudes, activism, making the world better, and love”. El-Motasem (code name ‘Tasem) fared no better in finding a single message that Ganzeer emitted, “Rebelliousness, activism, pro-activity and awareness - especially political awarenes”.



With all these purposes and aims to achieve, it is no surprise that Ganzeer have such a vast and varied portfolio. A look at their website gives you an idea of the exhaustive amount of projects they have lent their creativity to. What’s more impressive is the flexibility and the wide range of projects they can adapt to, there appears to be no bounds to their talent - the section on their project list marked ‘Misc.’ alone will intimidate you. Their projects range from producing corporate branding to producing murals to be used as interiors in public stores and restaurants.



Speaking to Fahmy about the need for Ganzeer in the regional market, he described his reasonings into three different motivations. “I’ve always had a belief that you can create awesome art that truly communicates and brings out the positive in audiences via the usual commercial venues. That was one angle, the other was a desire in creating a true synergy between the arts; architecture, graphic design, photography, music etc - everything at its core is very much related, and when these different mediums interconnect and merge on different projects, the outcome can be astoundingly awesome. The third drive was a desire to bring out the local cultures to the scene. These cultures are part of our make, and play a strong part in shaping our characters and lifestyles and mindsets”.

ganzeer.com