X-Archive : Symbols That Shaped a Nation.

Tunisia's 19th-century coats of arms weren't just decorative emblems they were a full visual system of power, justice, and identity. Blending Beylical authority with Ottoman influence, each element carried meaning: the lion and sword for strength, the scales for justice, and the ship for a country built on the Mediterranean. This kind of graphic heritage shows how symbols can speak louder than text, and why studying these marks remains essential for creatives looking to understand visual language and build deeper storytelling.

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December 18, 2025

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Beylik of Tunis 19th century
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1900
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1858
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(1956-1963)
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(1989 - Present)
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(1963–1989)

Every coat of arms is a visual sentence — a coded language built long before modern design manuals. Tunisia’s emblem, like many across Africa, wasn’t drawn for aesthetics alone; it was drawn to speak. It carried law, geography, and belief in a single frame — proof that design can hold more than decoration; it can hold identity. For creatives, these marks are not relics but lessons. Study them, deconstruct them, question their geometry and their silence. Let them teach you how to give meaning to form, how to make a symbol breathe history, and how to build stories that last longer than trends. The challenge isn’t to copy them — it’s to understand their logic, translate their intention, and keep that discipline alive in your own visual language.

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Actual Source was founded in 2015 by Davis Ngarupe (Cook Islands / USA) and JP Haynie (USA). The studio’s work focuses on strategy, creative direction, and design for visual identities, publications, websites, packaging, apparel, and physical spaces.

Recent commissions include a visual identity and showroom for French running brand SATISFY, design direction for Atmos Magazine, a book for The Outdoor Recreation Archive, and our ongoing publication and product work with A24.

In addition to studio practice, Actual Source operates as an editor, publisher, bookstore, and brand that collaborates with contemporary artists, designers, and writers to publish limited edition books, apparel, and objects. Recent collaborations include POPEYE Magazine, Stefan Marx, Uniqlo, Goldwin, BEAMS, thisisneverthat, and Nike.

Selected Actual Source publications are held in the library collection of the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University.

COMMISSIONS:
davisandjp@actualsource.work

FOLLOW US:
Studio Instagram: @actualsource.work
Store Instagram: @actual_Source

SERVICES
Strategy and Positioning
Visual Identity
Art Direction
Book Design
Signage and Environmental
Corporate Interiors
Packaging
Website Design
General Ideas for Stuff

STUDIO LOCATION
50 East 500 North #103
Provo, UT 84606

CURRENT PEOPLE
Davis Ngarupe
JP Haynie
Katrina Peterson
Matt Benfell (Chicago)
Nichelle Jensen
Andrew Aguilera
Nick Massarelli (New York)
Whitney Morris
Davis Dial
Kate Okiishi

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There are no current openings. Unfortunately, we cannot consider unsolicited applications; replies are not guaranteed. Thank you for understanding.

SELECTED CLIENTS
4AD
A24
Adidas
Atmos Magazine
BEAMS
Brooklyn Nets
Figma
GOAT
Ghostly International
Google Design
Goldwin
Herman Miller
IBM
It’s Nice That
Jordan Brand
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Nike
Otis College Of Art And Design
ON Running
Polydor Records
POPEYE Magazine
UNIQLO
University of Michigan
Rapha
SATISFY
Salt & Stone
Shopify
Thames & Hudson
Utah Museum Of Contemporary Art
Valentino

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Antenne Books
Flowers Full Service
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Melody Ehsani
Actual Source Store
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