SafArt merges travel illustration and cultural documentation, transforming site observation into heritage preservation. The project title combines the Arabic safar (“to travel”) with “art,” signaling a journey through drawing. The student’s first publication focused on Alexandria, Egypt, documenting vernacular architecture, doorways, and urban textures through hand-drawn sketches and short textual narratives.
Each page juxtaposes illustration with reflective writing, an act of seeing and recording that slows the pace of visual consumption. By favoring ink sketches over digital renderings, SafArt reclaims drawing as a documentary practice. The aesthetic minimalism, black ink on white paper, emphasizes observation over embellishment, giving attention to unnoticed details of urban life.
The project demonstrates that cultural documentation can occur through analog processes. It teaches students that preservation need not depend on advanced technology but can arise from sustained attention and personal engagement. As a pedagogical model, SafArt cultivates visual literacy and mindfulness, showing that design documentation is as much about perception as it is about production.