Samar Maakaroun’s identity for Together for Palestine applies the visual language of petitions

Together for Palestine (T4P) is the charity initiative raising funds for humanitarian relief on the ground in Palestine. Created by executive producers Brian Eno, Khalid Abdalla, Khaled Ziada, and Tracey Seaward, the charity launched after musician Brian Eno put a statement on his Instagram calling for artists, musicians, and audiences to engage with Palestine – without being fearful of censorship – through an initial benefit concert at London's OVO Arena Wembley. The original line-up of six artists has now grown to 60, featuring Damon Albarn, Saint Levant, Louis Theroux, Sampha, Portishead, and many more.

Pentagram London partner Samar Maakaroun has designed the identity for the fundraiser. “The absurdity of the context, the cognitive dissonance in our lives today, and the conditions that led to the need for the existence of this charity,” Samar says, “for a campaign to be written, justified, shaped, and sold, made the design task very difficult.” As Israel’s deadly campaign against the Palestinian people continues, accelerates and intensifies, the need for vocal and financial support is greater than ever.

Samar’s work went live with Eno’s initial Save the Date post, which was designed with the overarching understanding of the “inadequacy of words and images”, Samar says. She continues: “This was not a time for design showmanship, it was a time for space and reflection, designing from within the discomfort. We’ve named the issue, but we’re not attempting to solve it because we can’t.” While accepting the futility of design itself, Samar and her team recognised the need to break through the silence; to create an urgency for the resistance against genocide. In honouring this purpose, Samar rejected design flourishes in favour of restraint – “It doesn’t rely on tag lines, visual tricks, or the polish of a high budget production.”

Samar and her team used two core elements to translate this urgency; the visual concept of ‘Home to Hope’, and the visual language of petitions. The identity is curated around symbolism of the home, the land, and the right to return, mainly through the construction of a key logo. The imagery of the key goes back to the 1948 Nakba where Palestinians faced expulsion from the land by Zionist military forces, taking their keys with them as a symbol of their future return. The letter ‘T’, number ‘4’, and letter‘P’ come together to make this image, and in motion, the P is lifted like a balloon in flight. This quietly echoes Banksy’s Girl with Balloon and its inscribed line ‘There is always hope’.

The identity combines two typefaces; Nickel Gothic Variable designed by David Jonathan Ross, and a bespoke typeface created by Samar. The latter typeface was designed in 2024 at Pentagram, as pro-bono work for Counterpoints Arts. It’s titled Ceasefire,“under the premise that the name will change when there is a ceasefire in place, and the typeface with all character sets will be completed when this happens. The typeface remains unfinished and the name unchanged”, Samar says. The typeface is a stark reminder of the projects core intention; this identity is only a space to fill with action.

The line-up poster is another thread maintaining this urgency. Referencing the visual language of petitions, the page is full of signatures which accumulate across the canvas, reinforcing it as a space for action, and a reminder that the benefit concert is a platform for collective voices.

Together for Palestine will be holding further events, alongside merchandise. 100% of proceeds goes towards the aid effort on the ground.