Sarah Belay

Sarah Belay

New York–based designer working in branding, editorial, and art direction. A graduate of Parsons School of Design with a background in global health from USC, I approach design through systems thinking and close observation, emphasizing clarity and precision. Previously with Arc and Bow and The New School.

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Recent Projects

Cultural Overlays: Visual Tensions in African Life

Book Design
Capstone Project
2026

This project explores how Western cultural exports, from Coca-Cola branding to American streetwear, are absorbed and recontextualized within Sub-Saharan African countries. Through found photography and collage, it documents the visual reality of globalization and the unequal flow of global cultural power.

It is less about critique and more about observation, noticing what happens when objects, symbols, and aesthetics designed for one world land in another and start to take on new meaning. Western brands carry connotations of aspiration, modernity, and economic power, and when they settle into the texture of everyday Sub-Saharan life, visual tensions become visible.

Ghenet

Branding, Art Direction
Role: Sole designer
2024

An imagined rebrand of the Brooklyn-based Ethiopian restaurant Ghenet. The project explores how traditional Ethiopian culture, from textiles and ceremonial attire to the expressive qualities of Ge’ez letterforms, can inform a modern visual identity.

ARCH Magazine

Editorial Design
Role: Sole Designer
2026

An editorial centered on exploring architecture through the spaces that shape daily life: Where We Dwell, Where We Gather, and Where We Move. Each issue examines how the built environment holds and shapes these spaces, and interrogates the role architecture plays in making them possible.

Letters from the Ether

Book Design
2024

An experimental typographic exploration that uses letterforms as both message and medium to investigate the ethereal nature of dreams. By treating text as a visual element, the design mirrors the fragmented, layered, and often disorienting experience of dreaming. Words emerge, distort, and fade like half-remembered impressions, slipping between clarity and obscurity.

Responsive Wilting

Interaction Desgign
Role: Sole designer
2024

An interactive web project that uses CSS media queries to create a time-lapse of a flower's lifecycle. As users resize their browser viewport, they witness the transition of a flower from its initial bloom through various stages of wilting.