The dalga wordmark pays homage to Istanbul, the source of our enduring inspiration and the unique city we continue to fall in love with. For many, it takes only a single visit, sometimes just a few hours, to feel the magnitude and cultural depth the city radiates. For us, each return is an awakening, a new chapter in a love story and adventure with no end. Just when you believe you have uncovered its secrets, the city reveals something unexpected.
It may come through a refreshing conversation with a market shopkeeper, the endless views from the ferry (vapur) commute, or a bite of food tasted for the first time. Each encounter leaves you with no choice but to pause, nod, and smile. We encourage any fellow traveler to experience Istanbul firsthand, knowing that when they return and share their stories, we will learn something new ourselves. It is that kind of place.
Despite its countless turns and layers, there is one feature that defines Istanbul more clearly than any other. Dalga’s wordmark draws from one of the city’s most legible and widely shared visual languages: its skyline.
Across centuries and cultures, Istanbul has been shaped by the repeating rhythm of domes and minarets rising above the Bosphorus. From the city’s many vantage points, these forms resolve into a silhouette of mosques that functions almost like a mark in itself, immediately recognizable and inseparable from the city’s identity. Vertical minarets punctuate broad, grounded domes, creating a balance between ascent and stability that appears across neighborhoods and eras.
This visual cadence informed the dalga wordmark. It is a restrained form that carries history through proportion and balance. Rather than reference a single mosque or era, the mark reflects the collective architectural systems that have endured and defined Istanbul for centuries. In this way, it mirrors the city itself: layered, intentional, and shaped by function.
Minarets and Domes: Form, Function, and Meaning
Domes
Domes became central to mosque architecture for both structural and symbolic reasons. From an engineering perspective, a dome allows for wide, uninterrupted interior space. When entering the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, one immediately notices the absence of large columns despite the scale of the structure. By distributing weight evenly downward, the dome reduces the need for central supports, allowing space to remain open and unified.
Over time, architects refined this form, reducing both the visual and physical weight of domes through advances in engineering. Central domes were elevated and supported by cascading sub-domes that transferred load outward and downward more efficiently. This innovation allowed walls to open with windows, filling interiors with light and creating expansive halls where worshippers could gather as one. The openness of the space also carries an acoustic advantage, amplifying the voice of prayer into a single, shared sound.
Symbolically, the dome represents the heavens. Its curvature draws the eye upward while maintaining a sense of enclosure and calm. Unlike flat or angular ceilings, a dome has no clear beginning or end, creating a feeling of completeness and order. From the exterior, the central dome, flanked by descending layers of sub-domes, forms the stepped, flowing silhouettes that define Istanbul’s skyline. Domes are a direct expression of structure and balance.
Minarets
Minarets serve a primarily functional purpose, though they share some of the spiritual resonance seen in dome architecture. They are the towers from which the call to prayer (ezan) is traditionally delivered. Structurally, their height was never about dominance, but about audibility and visibility in dense urban environments. They act as distinctive visual markers, identifying a building as a mosque and a place of worship within the city.
Their vertical nature contrasts with the wide, horizontal spread of domes, creating a visual tension that defines mosque silhouettes. Over time, architects refined minarets into slender, tapering forms, emphasizing elegance over mass and using fewer materials to achieve height and lightness.
Symbolically, minarets represent a bridge to the divine. Their upward reach suggests a channel between the earthly and the sacred. As such, they are a defining feature of Istanbul’s skyline, scattered across every layer of the metropolis. Minarets are a direct expression of function and orientation.
A Functional Metaphor
The dome-and-minaret system persists because it solves multiple needs simultaneously: structural efficiency, communal gathering, orientation, and identity. These forms are intentional. Architecturally, domes ground and gather, while minarets rise and signal. One contains, the other communicates, creating an essential functional balance.
We drew inspiration from this balance when creating the dalga wordmark. It is grounded yet directional, minimal yet expressive. Like Istanbul’s skyline, it relies on proportion, repetition, and restraint rather than excess. It is not meant to overpower, but to endure.
It stands as a clear expression of dalga’s north star: to create with intention, function, and congruent beauty.
