Studio study 01 / Direction
Light carries the idea.
A form built to be lit from within, and a camera asked to record what the light does on the way out.
From idea to final image
Iraq to the world
Creative without limits
Studio study 02 / Story
Shadow remembers.
What the oldest moving picture in this region holds when the lamp becomes data and the screen becomes a page.
Studio study 03 / Form
Material makes it real.
Making a thing that does not exist read as something you could pick up, before any story is attached to it.
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Iraq to the world
Select a project to explore
Ideas to reality
Studio study 01 / Direction
Light carries the idea.
Self-initiated studio exploration. Concept, form design, lighting design, CGI, grade and finish — produced end to end inside the studio.
The idea
A test of the studio’s first principle: that the light is the subject and the object only stands inside it. No product, no brief, no client — just a form built to be lit from within, and a camera asked to record what the light does on the way out.
Khayal’s contribution
Concept, form design, lighting design, CGI, grade and finish. Produced end to end using the same generative and 3D pipeline that runs client work — directed frame by frame, not prompted once and accepted.
- The light source sits inside the object, never in front of it — so every edge is described by what it lets through, not by what falls on it.
- Graded toward ivory and clay. Nothing bleached, nothing neon; the warm half of the palette does the work.
- Where detail disappears into shadow, it disappears cleanly. Contrast is the narrative, not a flaw in the exposure.
Studio study 02 / Story
Shadow remembers.
Self-initiated studio exploration. Direction, generative art direction, compositing, typographic overlay and finish.
The idea
Khayal al-zill — the shadow play — is the oldest moving picture in this region: one lamp, one stretched screen, a few cut shapes. This study asks what that form holds when the lamp becomes data and the screen becomes a page.
Khayal’s contribution
Direction, generative art direction, compositing, typographic overlay and finish. The annotations are set in the brand’s own type system, so the image reads as a document rather than a picture of one.
- Deep Ink grounds the whole frame. The subject is the only lit thing in it, which is the entire trick of the shadow play.
- Structure is drawn, never rendered soft — the identity allows flat fields and hard edges, so the image keeps them.
- The overlay is information, not ornament: it is set at caption weight and tracked to the same rule as the rest of the identity.
Studio study 03 / Form
Material makes it real.
Self-initiated studio exploration. Form development, material and shader design, lighting, CGI and grade.
The idea
Most product work fails at the surface. This study sets out to make a thing that does not exist read as something you could pick up — the weight, the thickness, the way an edge catches — before any story is attached to it.
Khayal’s contribution
Form development, material and shader design, lighting, CGI and grade. The same approach that produces a client’s product render before the product physically exists.
- Terracotta carries the warm accent and Sand the ground — the warm half of the palette, in the proportion the book sets.
- One light, one surface, one reflection. A fourth element was cut every time it was tried.
- Scale is established by the plinth and the reflection, not by a caption. If it needs explaining, there is too much in it.
Our services
Brand &
Creative Direction
Distinctive brands, compelling ideas and the creative direction that moves people.
Positioning, audience, messaging, naming and tone of voice.
Iraq to the world
Choose a service to see it
Ideas to reality
Khayal means imagination.
إبداع بلا حدود
It is also the name of the oldest moving picture in this region. Khayal al-zill — the shadow play. One lamp. One stretched screen. A few cut shapes on sticks, and a room full of people who forgot they were looking at leather and light.
That is still the job. Take something simple. Point light at it. Make people feel something. The tools have changed. The trick hasn’t.
Khayal is run by a small, hands-on team — over a decade inside advertising and media agencies in Erbil, buying media, managing production, running client accounts and handling the money behind them.
Long enough to know exactly where the time and the budget disappear on a normal job, and which parts of that process were never necessary. Khayal exists to remove those parts: smaller team, better tools, same standard of work.
If you need creative work in Iraq you have two options: a large agency, with a three-month timeline and a junior on your account — or a freelancer, fast and cheap until the messages stop being answered. So we built a third.
Agency thinking. Freelancer speed. One person accountable from the first conversation to the final delivery. Every language is written, not translated: Arabic and English carry equal weight, Kurdish on request.
- 01ConversationThe business, the audience, the challenge and the outcome you need.
- 02DirectionThe message, the creative approach and the channels, agreed before production.
- 03ProductionThe work is made, with planned points to see it and change it.
- 04DeliveryThe agreed files, formats and editable sources. You own all of it.
- 05NumbersFor campaigns: what happened and what to decide next, in plain language.
A culture
of imagination.
Khayal comes from the belief that ideas can change how people see the world. We combine creative direction, production expertise and next-generation technology to create work that moves people — in Iraq and beyond.
Same imagination.
A brighter tomorrow.
Tell us what you’re trying to sell.
Send a line about your business and what you need. You’ll get a reply within one working day, and a straight answer about whether we’re the right studio for it.
Iraq to the world
Same imagination. A brighter tomorrow.
Erbil · working everywhere
