Sabine El Moughabat, known as Sabine Design, is a passionate illustrator from Lebanon who grew up immersed in a rich cultural environment shaped by family stories, traditional imagery, and everyday visual heritage. From an early age, she was soaking in the textures of Lebanese life: colors, patterns, and memories that would later become the heartbeat of her work.
Falling in Love With Illustration
For Sabine, illustration wasn’t just a choice; it was the perfect excuse to turn feelings into visuals. Instead of just remembering moments, she could recreate them, reshape them, and share them with others.
She leaned fully into Lebanese nostalgia as her creative identity. But the journey wasn’t always smooth. Between staying consistent and battling self-doubt, she learned how to push through the messy middle where ideas either fade or turn into something meaningful.
How Her Art Comes to Life
Sabine’s creative process feels like storytelling in layers. It usually starts with a memory or an idea, then she sketches it out, refines it digitally, and finally brings it to life with bold, vibrant colors. She also draws from wider Middle Eastern visual culture and artists who can tell powerful stories with simple, striking imagery.
Lebanon at the Core of It All
Her inspiration board is basically a time machine: old Lebanese photos, retro advertisements, childhood flashbacks, and everyday moments. No matter where she goes, Lebanon stays at the center of Sabine’s work. Her identity shows up in everything, from the colors she chooses to the emotions she builds into each illustration. It’s not just influence; it’s the foundation.
My Lebanese roots are at the core of everything I create. Colors, themes, and emotions all come from that identity.
Cultural Details Hidden in Plain Sight
Look closely at her work, and you’ll find little love notes to Lebanese culture: corner shops, traditional food, iconic street scenes, and typography that feels straight out of the past. These details are what make her illustrations feel alive and familiar. Her Artistic Style is Warm, nostalgic, and detailed, with a modern twist that keeps everything feeling fresh instead of frozen in time.
From Qatar, Lebanon Feels Even Closer
Moving to Qatar gave Sabine something unexpected: distance. Being away from Lebanon made her appreciate it even more, almost like she was rediscovering it through her own memories and art.
Living in Qatar gave me distance, which made me appreciate and reflect on Lebanese culture even more.
What’s Next for Sabine
Sabine isn’t slowing down anytime soon. She’s excited to dive into deeper, more layered storytelling, think illustration series, evolving narratives, and maybe even animated nostalgic moments that move with every memory.
Sabine’s work is deeply rooted in her cultural memory, transforming Lebanese heritage into something intimate, emotional, and alive rather than static. In a time when Lebanese culture feels especially present in global conversations and collective memory, her illustrations offer a quiet but powerful presence, softly cutting through uncertainty with warmth, nostalgia, and recognition.
Through her art, she doesn’t just preserve fragments of the past; she reimagines them, reminding us that Lebanon’s stories, colors, and spirit continue to endure, even in moments of change and distance.
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