Nardine Shenouda is the co-founder and Creative Director of Ntsal, a Cairo-rooted independent design practice. Her work is driven by a belief that design becomes more meaningful when it is shaped by its place: its language, visual memory, audiences, and context.

At Ntsal, Nardine leads a practice that approaches identity as a process of localization rather than translation. The studio works across Arabic and Latin scripts, treating each as a distinct visual language with its own rhythm, structure, and expressive potential. This bi-scriptual approach allows Ntsal to create identities that communicate across contexts while always considering socio-cultural backgrounds, avoiding the sameness often produced by globalized design.

Ntsal combines research, archival material, typography, illustration, and emerging technologies to build layered visual worlds for cultural, commercial, and public-facing projects. Rooted in Cairo’s density and improvisation, the studio values craft, experimentation, and what it calls “synchronized chaos”: a way of working that welcomes complexity while finding clarity within it.

With more than 15 years of experience across branding, editorial, and festival design, Nardine has led projects for clients across Egypt, Europe, and the wider GCC region. Her work has received international awards & recognition, and she remains active in the design community as a speaker, juror, and mentor.