Michelle Nahmad

Designer & Illustrator

Coming from generations of immigrants from Syria, Panama, Poland, Russia, and Costa Rica, Michelle Nahmad examines culture and explores history in her design, illustration, and narrative work. She combines elements of the handmade and analog with the digital, bringing old world and new world subjects and tools together. She has been an artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, and was recently awarded Best Student Filmmaker in AT&T’s Entertainment Project for her short film, The Shochet. Other awards include illustrations chosen for Latin American Illustración 5 and 6, the SVA Paula Rhodes Memorial Award, and the AIGA St. Louis Design Scholarship, among others. She received her BFA in Communication Design and Art History with a Global Studies Certificate from Washington University in St. Louis before completing the MFA Visual Narrative program. Originally from Miami, FL, she is currently based in Brooklyn.

Michelle’s thesis mentor was Andrea Dezsö

  • nahmad_image2

    The Shochet

    A coming of age story, with blood and chickens. This mixed media animation is based on one of the many stories told by my grandmother about her childhood in Costa Rica, growing up in a small community of Jewish immigrants.

    Project Website

  • nahmad_image3

    Specimen

    A curated collection of poems and writings by Wendell Berry. The images are a combination of self taken and treated photographs and hand cut paper. The book was handmade with a variety of materials, from translucent paper to laminate, and a Japanese side sewn binding.

    Project Website

  • nahmad_image4

    Barriers Broken

    This book set is a combination of text adapted from a family book about the life of Vicky and Henry Nahmad and photographs from the many albums that had been at their home in Panama. These stories and photographs are fragments of a life journey in search of new opportunities and adventures that linger and are even reborn after their owners are gone. Japanese side-sewn book set, made in an edition of 4.

    Project Website

  • nahmad_image5

    Trilingual: A Love Story

    A zine in response to the theme “the iconography of three” and a reflection on my experience with romance languages.

    Project Website