Highlighting contemporary illustrators and designers from Iran, Pakistan, and India!
We love celebrating Holland’s rich cultural diversity and experiencing the joy of being in community with neighbors near and far through International Festival of Holland! It’s been a particularly challenging year for many of our neighbors and students with ties to the international community. We’ve seen prejudice and fear lead to verbal abuse, discrimination, detainment, and deportation, and we grieve with families, faith communities, and classrooms that have experienced unimaginable loss.
This year, we highlighted the work of some of our favorite illustrators from Iran, Pakistan, and India, because their work brings us joy, hope, and comfort. Illustrators are artists who tell stories through their work – they are culture bearers and bridge builders; they are keen observers of reality who dare to imagine the world beyond, within, and ahead of us.
Sara Emami is an artist and designer who was born in Iran and raised in the Netherlands. Growing up as a refugee in the city of Delft, she was struck by the beauty of the city, and the color blue, in particular, which holds a prominent place in her heart and her work.
She was encouraged by her mother, who was an art student, and fell in love with books around their apartment, with images like Joan Miró’s Blue II painting.
For Sara, blue is a color of comfort and joy, and also of melancholy – it is the color of Delft blue, and Vermeer’s landscape painting View of Delft, and it also connects her to Iran, where Persian blue was based on the color of lapis lazuli. It’s found in Persian pottery, miniature paintings, and mosques.
Sara studied design at Delft Technical University, and lives and works in Amsterdam. In response to the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in 2022, and the subsequent protests for women’s rights in Iran, Sara created a series of illustrations highlighting the Woman Life Freedom movement.
Follow her work at https://www.instagram.com/saraemamii/
Hazem Asif is an illustrator and designer based in Lahore, Pakistan. He first fell in love with visual storytelling through the enchanting Harry Potter covers by Mary GrandPré. That early spark led him to pursue a creative path, earning a BFA in Graphic Design (2016) and an MFA in Design (2018) from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.
Hazem’s professional journey in creative illustration and design spans film, television, publishing, academia, and media. He has illustrated over 15 children’s books for international publishers and loves to bring diverse stories to life through vibrant illustrations for young readers around the world. His colorful and engaging illustrations of Liv Albert’s retelling of the Odyssey invite a new generation of young readers to lose themselves in the adventure of a lifetime.
His scientific illustrations grace the covers of the Lancet medical journal, as well as the Particle, a magazine of the Syed Babar Ali School of Science Engineering. Follow his work at www.worldofhazem.com or on Instagram @worldofhazem.
Vimal Chandran
Vimal Chandran is a multidisciplinary artist from India whose work often references his childhood in Kerala. Working mainly in illustration, photography, and film, he reimagines native folk tales, pop culture, poetry, and childhood memories, blending nostalgic and futuristic imagery into dream-like landscapes.
Vimal’s work often begins with pencil sketches and moves into digital drawing, then animation. He loved drawing as a child and has remarked that the subject of his work hasn’t changed much over the years. His work centers on relationships – to family, to community, to the natural world, and to culture. His Folk SciFi series blends science fiction with Indian myths, folklore, and cultural narratives.
In his video series, Born in Kerala, and in the short film Ray, Vimal touches on universal themes of childhood curiosity, wonder, and innocence. He invites us into intimate, familial spaces and helps us imagine what the world would be like if we embraced beauty, simplicity, and the stranger in our midst.
Learn more at https://vimalchandran.com/ or on Instagram @vimalchandran
