August was a great experience for five young Arabic graphic designers (fresh graduates) from the Arab world and I. The 24th of August was the “Khatt Kufi Kaffiya” symposium on Arabic Visual Culture, the official launching of the Khatt Foundation website and the launching and book signing of the Typographic Matchmaking book. Alongside these events, Mediamatic initiated an exhibition to team up Arabic typographers with Dutch design and culture. The exhibition was to create an Arabic version of the famous HEMA Dutch stores.

Design of the White Scarf by Kj using Sada Bold. The text on it is the lyrics or the song “YA Maré’ 3al Taya7een” for Fairuz.

Wael, Kj, Maria, Ray, Abi (the 5 young Arabic graphic designers) and I were invited by Mediamatic to come to Amsterdam for 6 weeks before the opening of the EL HEMA exhibition to work on the making of this exhibition. The aim of the exhibition was the put the 5 new Arabic typefaces of the TTM project (Fedra Arabic, Sada, Fresco Arabic, BigVesta Arabic and TheMix Arabic) to applications (items and products) that are going to be sold in the EL HEMA exhibition; and to create a culture awareness and exchange between the Arabic and Dutch cultures. Some of the products produced were Chocolate letters, Chocolate bars, Chocolate sprinkles, Wine bottles, Coffee bags, T-shirts, Socks, Underwear, Scarves, Djalabas, Condoms and other stuff.

The shelves of red wine bottles designed by Abi using Sada.

I was the design director and manager of the Arabic design team. It was a great experience to manage a big project like this and gain experience from the collaboration of the Arabic team with the Mediamatic team. Beside our team we had a fashion designer “Maika”, photographer “Marieke”, interior designer, exhibition organizer “Vari” and journalist “Joann” (and for sure not to forget the Directors of Mediamatic “Willem” and “Jans” and all the volunteers how helped). All of us collaborated to make the EL HEMA exhibition come true.

The Chocolate bars designed by KJ using TheMix Arabic and Sada.

Design of the Chocolate letters pack designed by Wael using Fedra Arabic.

Design of the coffee pack designed by kj using BigVista Arabic.

Design of Condoms pack by Abi using TheMix Arabic.

Design of the Djalaba pack by Raya using TheMix Arabic.

Design of a women’s underwear designed by Wael using Sada.

What was also interesting that besides doing the design work, we also modeled for the photo shoots and the fashion show. That was fun.

During the development of the El HEMA exhibition, the press took a great interest in the project and almost everyday we had journalists from Newspapers, television stations and radio stations come to mediamatic and interview us and have a look on what we are doing. Below is a list of some of the articles and interviews written about the EL HEMA on the following links:

Newspapers:
De Pres
Trouw
NRC Handelsblad
Amsterdam Weekly

Photo of the article in DePers newspaper.

Photo of several Newspapers with articles about El HEMA.

Televison:
Channel 3
Channel At5
Zoomin tv

Wael speaking about the white scarf with Fairuz song “Ya Mari’ 3al tawahin” on it designed by Kj using Sada Bold.

Kj speaking about the Chocolate bars that he has designed using Fedra Arabic and Sada.

The opening of the El HEMA exhibition was a great success. Most of the products were sold out by Sunday (which is only two days from the opening). The Dutch people and tourists of Amsterdam just loved the Arabic adaptation of the HEMA products to Arabic and were interested with the new Arabic typefaces displayed in the environmental design of the exhibition and the Design of the products by themselves. A queue line was building up all day long on the entry of the exhibition. That was great. ☺

Opening day. Huge success.

Me wearing the white scarf with Sada on it. :)

The El Hema t-shirts.

As for the Arabic fonts that i was involved with:
1. I designed SADA as a companion type of Seria which is designed by Martin Majoor.
2. I finalized the design of TheMix Arabic Bold after Lucas de Groot and developed the TheMixArab Regular.

For more info and links about the EL HEMA exhibition, please have a look on the following links:
EL HEMA on ThePlace website
El Hema grand opening a success
El HEMA first days: huge success
El Hema late nite
El Hema – Exhibition / Store
Arabising El Hemame

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All the pictures in this post were taken by Wael & KJ.

I was contacted by Don R. Kari after he saw the Lebanese Graffiti post on my blog. Don Kari is a german graffiti artist. He and his german graffiti colleagues initiated a project in Cuba and now they want to do the project in Beirut. You can have a look on the graffiti project in Cuba at the following link: CubaBrazil

The main idea is to deal with Arabic and Latin script in public space. Don asked me for contacts of Arabic Calligraphers and Arabic graffiti artist. I have already put him in contact with my arabic calligraphy friends, but for sure he needs more contacts.
If any Arabic calligrapher or Graffiti artist (or if someone knows a good Arabic calligrapher or Graffiti artists) is interested in this project, then please write a comment on this post or contact me directly via email.

Imarat is an Arabic newspaper type family consisting of “Imarat Headlines” & “Imarat Text”. “Imarat Headlines” is a display type for use in the headlines and titling of a newspaper, while “Imarat Text” is for the copy text of the newspaper. “Imarat Headlines” will be exclusive for 3 years for “Emarat Al Youm” newspaper in Dubai starting from 2008. The newspaper needed a new, young and crispy headlines type that will appeal to their young readers. You can see the font in use on the online e-paper version of “Emarat Al Youm” newspaper.

Imarat Headlines
Imarat Headlines is a young, strong and bold Arabic typeface based on the Neo-Naskh style (Naskh Mastari). It is a crispy type with a medium contrast (neither high nor low in contrast; in-between) and condensed letters to make long headline sentences fit on the tabloid. The stroke weight is balanced in the letters and not like other headline typefaces where the baseline is so thick and the letters are week and appear like small upper and lower strokes. Imarat Headlines has a strong baseline and the letters sit strongly on it without making the baseline thicker then the letters by themselves. What also gives Imarat Headlines the sturdy look is the very large Loop and tooth heights and short ascender and descender heights.

Imarat text
Imarat text is still in development and is intended for use in newspaper copy text. It is a condensed flowing Naskh style typeface with short ascenders and descenders in order to be set with a small inter-linear space.

The 12th issue of Idpure Swiss magazine of graphic design and visual creation was dedicated on young type designers work in the glob. I was the young Arabic type design interviewed for the 12th issue of the magazine alongside Nikola Djurek, Kai Bernau, Anton Koovit, Christian Schwartz, Frederik Berlaen, Xavier Dupré.

Snap shot of two spread from my section in the magazine.

COURSES:

When and Where did u grow up and study?
Which types of studies did you follow (artistic, technical, etc)?
I grew up in a small village called “Cornet Chehwan” in Mount-Lebanon, Lebanon. I completed my primary and secondary school studies at the Saint Joseph School in Cornet Chehwan then received my Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from the Notre Dame University [NDU], Lebanon in 2002, and my Master of Design in Type Design (Type and Media postgraduate course) from The Royal Academy of Arts [kabk], in The Netherlands in 2006.

At what point did you realize that it was the typographical design that interested you?
I got interested in the Arabic letters while I was working on my graduation project during my BA program. Back then, I started to read and research about revolutionary Arabic Type projects like the work of Mr. Nasri Khatar (Unified type) and Mr. Saïd Akl (Lebanese Type). I was also fortunate to have MR. Saïd Akl, renowned Arabic Lebanese poet and philosopher, as a teacher in the Arabic Literature class.

When did you begin your professional career?
I started my professional Graphic Design career in 2002 and my professional Arabic Type Design career in 2006.

Were you independent or was this within the framework of a studio, or an agency?
Prior to my postgraduate studies, I worked in Beirut for several years as a graphic designer in print and web design agencies. I have been working independently as a type and graphic designer since August 2006 and I am currently a part-time instructor teaching graphic design and typography courses at AUB (American University of Beirut) and NDU (Notre Dame University) in Lebanon.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY:

How would you define your current activity?
Arabic type designer and typographer
Arabic typography instructor.

What is a typical working day for you?
Well it is: 1.Arabic Type Design work, 2.Writing articles about Arabic type and design related topics for my website and Blog, 3.Preparing for lectures and class sections and 4.Teaching typography courses.

On what kinds of projects do you usually work?
I work on Arabic Type design and typography projects. For the type work, it is either creating new Arabic typefaces for my own Arabic type library or creating Arabic corporate fonts for clients such as newspapers, publishing houses, etc. As for typography projects these or they can range from creating corporate identities to designing books. Mainly I work on all typography projects.

How do they come to you?
1. From my website and blog.
2. From colleagues of mine who have recommended me.
3. From my instructors at NDU and KABK who have recommended me.
4. From friends.

How do you manage these various types of projects?
It is all about time management. I do most projects by myself, but when I have several big projects that I need to finish at the same time then I ask some of my colleagues to help.

Do you work with other trade areas (programmers, graphic designers, etc)?
Naturally, I work with graphic and type designers when I am collaborating in a design project. I also work with programmers and font-mastering professionals when I need to add hinting to my fonts, write scripts to help me in the development process of my fonts (like python scripts for Robofab), or advanced OpenType features.

RELATION WITH TYPE DESIGN:

How would you analyze the current state of the Arabic typographical creation (influential tendencies, people, evolution…)?
There are three main directions in the Arabic type design word nowadays. Arabic type designers and typographers who are working on simplifying the Arabic script and making it detached represent the first direction. The second direction is backed up by conservative traditional Arabic type designers who state that the Arabic does not need to be simplified any more since the technology is now well developed to accommodate all the needs/problems of an Arabic calligraphic typeface. The third direction is represented by several contemporary Arabic type designers who’s work deal with creating modern Arabic typefaces which are legible and friendly to the everyday applications or to the need of their clients. All of the three directions are important for the development of the Arabic type design field and to expand the possibilities of different kinds of Arabic typefaces found in the market.

Professional graphic designers and students are always asking for new Arabic fonts. Before the launch of Adobe InDesign ME versions and the development of the OpenType Arabic fonts, most of the Arabic typographer used Quark AXt and were limited to AXt Arabic fonts. Until now the AXt fonts are the most used even-though the users of Quark AXt is diminishing. The reason for that is there are not so may new OpenType Arabic fonts for them to use instead of the AXt fonts. Over the last few years, the awareness about Arabic type and the need for new fonts was translated in the rise of Arabic Type Foundries and young Contemporary independent Arabic Type Designers. From the past three years there was Nadine Chahine, Titus Nemith and myself Pascal Zoghbi who have graduated with Masters in Type Design and are specialized in Arabic type. All three of us now are working and developing new Arabic fonts that are starting to appear in the Market.

Which are the directions that interest you the most?
Creating modern new Arabic fonts that meet the needs of the young Arabic graphic designer, corporate Arabic fonts, newspapers modern titling and text types, etc.

What is your relation with the area of graphic design and graphic designers? How does it influence your work?
I am an active Arabic graphic designer besides being an Arabic type Designer. My work ranges from creating new Arabic fonts, to designing layouts for books, to creating corporate identities, to designing and organizing events like exhibitions and other graphic design projects. My Arabic type design is directly influenced by the need of the modern Arabic graphic designers. There is a immense need for new Arabic fonts from graphic designers that will enable them to design modern layouts using modern Arabic typefaces, and there isn’t a big variety of proper Arabic fonts in the market. So that is why you always hear from Arabic graphic designers that they need new Arabic fonts or that there is not enough Arabic type options that they can choose from and work with. Since I am a young Arabic type designer, I am always trying to create new Arabic fonts that fill the needs of the modern Arabic graphic designer.

What is your relation with the abstract form?
The Arabic letters can be seen as abstract forms (especially to non-Arab individuals). When I’m drawing Arabic glyphs and trying to balance the black and white areas in each glyph by itself or between other glyphs, I am working with abstract forms.

Are you interested by Art and Theory?
Does it influence your design?
For Arabic type design, it is about Arabic calligraphic art and Arabic calligraphic drawing theories and techniques. The first step of starting an Arabic type design project is to choose what Arabic calligraphic style (Naskh, Kufi, Thuluth…) the design is going to refer to. So even though I am designing a modern font, I am always referring back to the artistic and theoretical information about the Arabic calligraphic style that my design is based upon.

The market of corporate typeface is fully expanding.
What do you think about the impact on type design?
The market of Arabic corporate typefaces is expanding rapidly in the Arab world in several categories: 1.All of the international companies who are opening branches in the Middle East that need Arabic companion fonts for their Latin Corporate fonts. 2.Local Arab companies who are newly opening and need a corporate typeface and identity or present local companies up-dating their identity. 3.New Arabic newspapers or present Arabic newspapers that are re-designing and upgrading their layout are asking for new corporate Headlines and text typefaces. Recently I created a headline Arabic typeface for an Arabic newspaper (the project is still confidential, so I will not be able to say the name of the newspaper until it’s launching in December 2008). The newspaper is present now in the market but they are now up-dating the layout and design of the magazine and they are looking for modern Arabic typefaces that will appeal to their young readers. As for Lebanon, through the past three years there were several new newspapers opening and new Arabic typefaces were developed for them form local and international type design agencies.

Regarding the impact, I think it is very positive and important for the development of the Arabic typefaces and the up-rise of new Arabic type foundries. Unlike the Latin typefaces, the Arabic type libraries are not that developed or as large as the Latin counterpart; the creation of modern corporate Arabic fonts that will be available in the market (after the exclusivity of the fonts is over) is extremely important to expand the variety of properly designed Arabic fonts in the market. With more awareness about the importance of typefaces in the Arab world, more typefaces will be produced and a larger variation of modern Arabic typefaces will be present for Arabic typographers and graphic designer to use in their designs.

For you which are the determining elements of your formal choices during the creation process of a corporate typeface.
The intended use of the typeface and the look it needs to portray are the two primarily elements for me to start sketching the letters. So if I am designing a corporate typeface that is going to be for a bank whose clients are big companies it will be completely different than designing a corporate typeface for an Arabic cultural magazine whose readers are between 16 and 28 years old.

Do you have around you particular people (colleagues…) to whom you submit your work for feedback or does everything occur with the client?
Usually all the feedback is done directly with the clients, but most often before sending my typefaces to the client I like to ask some of my colleagues about their own opinion. I am still in close contact with my former classmates at Type & Media and with our instructors from the academy like Erik van Blokland and Peter Bilack. I sometimes ask the opinion of Huda abiFares as an Arabic typographer colleague and finally my graphic design colleagues in Lebanon like my former boss at “Alarm Design” Mr. Bassam Kahwagé and my close graphic design friends like Youhana Houjaili.

How do you currently see the market of the typography?
The market of Arabic typography is bit poor at the present moment but the need for new design culture and new Arabic typefaces is expanding more and more and the awareness of the importance of Arabic typefaces will surely enrich the Arabic typography market in the coming years.

Which role has, according to you, hacking and copying fonts?
Are you interested in the legal aspects of selling fonts?
Hacking and copying Arabic fonts is a big problem in the Arab world. Besides hacking of fonts between Arabic type foundries, Arabic typographers and graphic designers do not see the need of buying fonts but consider it as data that needs to be available for them without the need to pay for it. It is part of our culture and social thinking. Even my graphic design students (who supposedly are the new generation and should comprehend the concept of purchasing Arabic fonts) still do not buy fonts but copy fonts from themselves or buy hacked fonts on a CD with hundreds of fonts on it for just around 3 USD. The other problem is whenever you buy a new computer in Lebanon, the company who is selling the computer installs hundreds of fonts for the future user as a service. So they think that they are doing a good service by installing fonts for their clients for free (and surely the fonts they have are copied or hacked and they did not pay for them initially). As an Arabic type designer, I am always worried about the future of my fonts, always worried that if I opened my fonts for sale in the Arab market then very few are going to be sold and then copies of them will be made and sold illegally. At the present moment I am only selling my fonts to corporate companies. One of my fonts SADA (beta version) was published with the Typographic Matchmaking book. I hope it will not be copied enormously but most probably it will be. So that is why it is beta version and only the regular and bold weights are available on the cd with the book. So if a design company or ad agency wants to have the proper final version of the font and with all the weights, then they need to buy it from me.

How do you establish the link between Arab and Roman typography?
Which are the principal similarities and differences? Up to which point is a particular character transposable from one alphabet to another?
The Typographic Matchmaking project organized by the Khatt foundation is a good example of how to establish a link between Arabic and Roman Typefaces. You can read more about this project on the Khatt Foundation website or in the Typographic Matchmaking book. I worked on Sada, the Arabic counterpart of Seria that is designed by Martin Majoor, and TheMix Arabic. The main concept is not to copy and paste glyph shapes from the Roman and convert them into Arabic glyphs, but to redraw all the Arabic glyphs from scratch while trying to keep the same feel and look of the Arabic type as close as possible to the Roman counterpart. The type designer must understand the characteristics of both Arabic and Roman scripts and respects them during the design process.

Besides keeping the same stroke width and contrast, and maintaining the same balance for the Loop heights, tooth heights (Loop and tooth heights are equivalent to the x-height for the Roman type), ascender and descender heights; seven main characteristics were used to create Sada and make it coherent with Seria: (I will just list the titles of the seven points and for more info you can link to my website or buy the Typographic Matchmaking book and read more about this.) 1. Borrowed characteristics and the slant angle from Seria Italic, 2.Sharp curves and endings, 3.Naskh and Kufi based structure for the Arabic letters, 4.Open counters, 5.Proportional glyphs, 6.Harmony in the color of the text and 7.No straight baseline. So you can notice that it is not about taking the lowercase “e” and flipping it to become the Arabic letter “waw”, but to study the characteristics of the Roman type and then try to transfer it to the Arabic type without Latinizing it.

The Arabic script and Roman script are completely different scripts that they are not comparable. No character can be transposable directly from the Roman to the Arabic. A proper Arabic typeface will be drawn all from scratch. Well the lowercase “l” can be transformed into and “alef isolated” with few modifications, and the lower case “m” rotated and transformed into a “seen”, but this can only happen in a sans serif Roman typeface and the Arabic counterpart is based on simplified Kufi structures.

Can you briefly give us some historical elements of the Arab typography?
Well I think I will not be able to write enough about the historical elements of Arabic Typography in this interview, but you can visit my website (www.29letters.com) and blog (www.29letters.wordpress.com) and read the articles I wrote about Arabic typography and the links to articles written by other Arabic specialists. You can also visit the newly launched Khatt Foundation website (www.khtt.net).

In what is the design of a font set for a newspaper different from a character of corporate (style, technical constraints, process)?
Imarat Headlines is a good example to compare it to my other Arabic typefaces and see the difference in the design and the proportions. The main points are: 1.Condensed letters and narrow spacing, 2. A sturdy straight baseline, 3.A bold strong letters and 4.A modern look with a classical feel to it. Newspapers are read by most of the people and you cannot make a big change between the old typefaces used and the new one because the readers will not accept it or at least the owners of the newspaper prefer a smooth long-term change instead of an overnight big change with the risk of losing readers. In brief, a modern newspaper type should be condensed in order to acquire a big amount of text in a specific area as well as to be highly legible for fast reading.

Moving on to the technical constrains, most of the Arabic newspapers still use Quark Arabic and did not make the shift to Adobe Indesign ME. Quark Arabic does not support yet Arabic opentype fonts and only works with AXt fonts that are initially produced by Layout type foundry. While finalizing Imarat for the Arabic newspaper, I had to transfer my opentype font to AXt format to enable it work with Quark Arabic. I underwent a big research about AXt fonts and learnt the technical aspects of how to generate proper AXt fonts before I was able to send the font to the client. Hopefully Arabic opentype fonts will be supported by the new versions of Quark Arabic.

Movable Metal Letters are just amazing. [Especially for type lovers like me ;)]

I have recently bought Arabic and Latin movable metal type. They were for an old Arabic printing press in the Shouf area in Mount Lebanon. The owner of the movable letters wanted to sale them as trash, and I was lucky to find out about them and save the valuable metal letters from being melted done or simply trashed.

9 Arabic fonts and 6 Latin fonts was what I got. Along with one Composing Stick.
What is amazing is that the Arabic mattress is twice as big as the Latin one.

For the Arabic, I got one Arabic Naskh typeface in 8pt, 12pt, 24pt Regular and Bold.
For the Latin I have Helvetica Italic in 48 pts, one Serif type named Romine and one Sans Serif type named Europe. Each of Romine and Europe are in 12 pt and 18pt.

I made a wooden closet for the Latin mattresses based on the traditional closet shape for the drawers…
 As for the Arabic mattresses, I am still thinking what is the best way to store or display them. I am thinking of a metallic shelves system to put the Arabic huge mattresses in since the wood will not be strong enough the hold them.

I am now in the process of cleaning them from dust, so this is taking me hell of a time. Whenever I have some time off or need to take a brake from work, I clean some letters.

My next step is to find and buy the traditional printing press, but this will take more time for me to put aside the price amount of it…


Then maybe open a small press for educational use where students can come and typeset type. And for sure I can use I to make some prints with it…

I would also like to know the names of the Arabic fonts and know their origins. When and where they were casted? Where were they before they got to the Shouf press?…

Through out November and December in Beirut, I had giving : 1. a lecture entitled “29letters” about my Arabic type project and type design process at AUB, 2. a presentation about EL HEMA project alongside the Arabic team (Wael, Kj, Maria & Raya) at NDU Zouk and NDU North, and 3. took part of the event, lecture and exhibition of the “Khatt Fonts: Matchmaking Amsterdam – Beirut” with Huda Abifares and the Arabic team.

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Khatt Fonts: Matchmaking Beirut – Amsterdam (Art Lounge)

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29letters Lecture (AUB)

The two typefaces: 1. Arabic “Al Rouiya Headlines” and 2. Latin “Alif Arabesque Pixel” are my latest projects that i am working on at the moment. I will write more about the new typefaces when they are published.

Happy New Year and may 2008 be a fruitful and successful year to all.

A Drop Initial Caps typeface for Alef Magazine. Alef Caps is a pixel font inspired from the arabesque “Msharabiyé” eight-star shape. It will be first in use in the 6th issue of the magazine. The magazine asked for a Roman Drop Intial Caps type inspired from Arabic culture. I worked on this type in collaboration with Huba AbiFares.

Alef Caps is a pixel font inspired from the arabesque “Msharabiyé” eight-star shape. It is a Mono-spaced (all the letters have the same width) with seven pixels in width and eight pixels in height. Three fonts are present in the type-family. 1.Alef Caps A, the pixel letters are reserved out on an eight-star shape serving as a background for the letters, 2. Alef Caps B, the letters are created from the eight-star pixel matrix and 3. Alef Caps C, same as “Alef Caps B” but the negative space is filled with the inner circle of the eight-star pixel. All three fonts are based on the same concept, but each gives a slightly different feel when typeset. The font is intended for use as a Drop Initial Caps and not for Titling, though some words with specific letter combination look nice when typeset with Alef Caps.

You can download the font for free from my website. Enjoy ;)

Alef Caps A:

Alef Caps B:

Alef Caps C:

The Pixel Type concept was proposed to the client alongside two other concepts. The first concept was a Latin type inspired from Floral Kufi with ornaments around the letters, and the second concept was a Latin type inspired from the Square Kufi patterns and Arabesques.

Here is some outlined and sketched letters that i worked on for the presentation:

Latin type inspired from Floral Kufi

Latin type inspired from the Square Kufi

Al Rouiya is a corporate Arabic titling typeface for “Al Rouiah” newspaper in Kuwait. The font is exclusive for 5 years for “Al Rouiah” newspaper in Kuwait starting from February 2008. The newspaper needed a new, young and crispy type that will appeal to young readers.

Al Rouiya is an elegant and sturdy Arabic typeface based on the Naskh style with a medium contrast, condensed letterforms, strong baseline, large Loop/Tooth heights and short Ascender/Descender heights. Traditional pen stoke are preserved but drawn in a modern feel. This characteristic can be clearly seen in the “heh”, “waw”, “lam” and other glyphs. The letterforms are balanced with the heavy baseline unlike old styled headlines fonts where the baseline is too thick and the letterforms are so weak and light.

A pdf of the main page of the newspaper with the type in use.

A small workshop in the “Type Design” course at NDU involving the creation of hybrid Latin words using basic letter components from Arabic letter-forms. English and French words created from Arabic letters.

“bonjour” word created by Michel Issa

Hang-up of some of the words created during the workshop.
The words from Left to right: “amanda” by Amanda El Kaddissi, “Karen” by Karen Toutounji, “Zeina” by Zeina Baaklini, “Sabaho” by Celine Doumit, ” Maria” by Mariam Der Mosessian, “Pamela Ego” by pamela Ego, “Joanna” by Joanna Assouad, “Rana” by Rana El Maddad, “Jad Eid” by Jad Eid.

sketch book of Stephanie Eid. The words from top to bottom are: Pascal, Leban and Elie.

“Zeina” created by Zeina Aoun.

Sketches of Jad Eid

“Joanna” created by Joanna

“Pascal” created by Stephanie on her sketchbook

Dissecting letter-forms into basic components and finding glyphs that share similar based components in their construction:

Sketches of Celine Doumit

Square Kufi patterns are often used in mosques for Qur’anic verses or Islamic sayings. It is very rare to see square kufi patterns created out of Christian bible verses or Christian sayings…

Last Sunday I was in the protestant church and I noticed this amazing big wooden cross created from square kufi pattern.

A Lebanese Christian Arabic calligrapher named “Istfén” created the square kufi pattern in 1995.

I did not have my camera with me. So I took some pics with my mobile cam. I will try to take some better pictures and post them instead of these.

Ma7rousa ya 3arousa entry in the Mulsaq Project.
Cargo trucks in Lebanon and the Middle East are usually painted with Arabic calligraphy using vernacular Arabic words. The Arabic word “mahrousa” is literarily painted on every cargo truck in Lebanon mostly on the back of the trunk or above the back wheels. Alongside this word, there is always an eye figure drawn next to it or a baby shoes hanging from beneath it. The word and figures are meant to bring good luck to the truck and prevent it from the envy and jealous eyes. The words “mahrousa ya ‘arousa” is typeset using “Alef Caps” type, which is one of my fonts originally designed for Alef Magazine, chosen for the “mcharabiya” arabesque star-shaped pixel pattern, emphasizing the Middle Eatsern flavor of the design. The baby shoe can be stuck hanging from the mirror or directly from the arabesque letters.

On the 4th, 5th and 6th of November I took part of an Arabic graffiti workshop which was given by the German graffiti artist Mr. Don Karl. It was great to finally meet up with Lebanese graffiti artist and get to know the people behind the graffiti and tags in Beirut.

Don Karl is known as the STONE. He is one of the pioneers of European Graffiti. Two years ago he did a workshop in Cuba and Brazil, and this workshop in Beirut is only the preparation for a bigger graffiti event that will take place in Beirut soon.

This rooster character is like Don Karl’s signature.

The wall that was bombed with beautiful Arabic graffiti is on the road from “Mat7af” to “Karantina” facing “Peugeot” show room.

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I learned a lot from the workshop about the graffiti process. Before going to workshop, I thought all the graffiti was done by spray and directly on the wall… but it turned out there is a whole design process behind good graffiti as any other design project. Below are pics of the steps of graffiti and shows the progress of my first Arabic graffiti in Beirut.

1st: Sketching the graffiti on paper after finding an idea. Mine asks the question: How is the Arab?

2nd: Drawing the design on the wall using chalk.

3rd: Filling up the design with epoxy colored paint using the roll or brush.

Here you can see the design all colored but there is still no outlines to it.

4th: Adding the outlines and highlights using the spray.

I am getting some help from Don with the outlines since in needed a professional graffiti hand.

5th: Adding the last touches with spray and signing the graffiti

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Below are pics of the other graffiti that were done in the workshop:

“3amal Na7rikha” by the Arabic Rap band Katiba5. Jazar, Molotov & 3amro.

“Katiba5″ by Jazar from Kabita5.

Fish and spray character graffiti by Fish. Fish is part of the graffiti group REK

“Al Shari3″ by Kiméwé.

“6 kaf” by Siska also from REK.

“lim3além” by Ze M3alem also from REK.
you can also see the work of Ze M3alem on his facebook. Also the website Lebanese Street Art is coming soon.

Lebanese character with Tarboush.

Heart with wings by Rand Marzi.

“Mash3out”

and a cute littler girl how simply joined in.

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It seems that over the last two years the culture of graffiti is growing fast in Lebanon. You can become part of “Parekour + Graffitti” group on facebook to be in contact with most of the graffiti artists in Lebanon. Not all the Lebanese Graffiti groups were present in the workshop. Other groups like “Ashekman” who are also a Lebanese rap band, and other more like “P+G Group”…

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For all the Lebanese Graffiti artists that are not mentioned in this article please add your names and links to your websites or facebook. Thanks.

The opening of Beirut Art Center is in February 2009. I have participated in the design pitch for the corporate identity for the art center. A different design approach was chosen by the comity of the center, but below is a sneak preview of what I presented to the center.

This is the corporate identity of Beirut Art Center that was proposed by 29letters.

Below is the rational behind my proposal:
The search for simplified Lebanese/Arabic visuals or objects that can be generated into modern graphical elements was the basic drive the concept; what could be found in the Arabic script by itself, and what could be found in the Arabic pattern art. The challenge was giving the center a modern Arabic feel to it without making it traditional or Islamic?

The visual identity is bilingual (Arabic/English); the Arabic type will give the unique Arabic/Lebanese identity of the center, while the English acts as a secondary language.
After a thorough research and alternative sketches, the use modern Arabic “square kufi patterns” and the “Art space” concept seemed like an appropriate solution of the design of the graphical identity of the center. The concept is simple, strong, elegant and flexible. The proposed design takes into consideration the simplicity for future application of the identity and its consistency through out different mediums.
When treated with a contemporary design approach, square Kufi Arabic patterns lend a unique and modern feel that can be compared to Swiss graphic design style with an Arabic flavor to it. The Arabic name of the center is drawn in modern square kufi, while the English name is simply typeset inside a black space that is aligned with the Arabic. The black space is inspired from the shape of the center building area, and represents the art/design space in general. The slight tilt on the left of the space gives a unique feel to it, and can also represent the tilt in contemporary arts (as in an artistic twist). The space can be black, white or any other color. The design identity is so flexible to adapt to any art event at the center. The Arabic kufi pattern can be used alone in some cases as a small signature, and the space symbol can be resized or elongated to act as a design element used in all the application for the center like the signage, posters, tickets… It also makes the development of all the needed application for the center very fast and easy to create, which will in term reduce design and development costs.

Images of traditional square kufi patterns and the architectural drawing of the center were the starting point of inspiration for the creation of the Logotype.

List of alternatives for the Logotype.

Business Card and Letterhead design. Simple and straight forward. Strong and elegant. One color printing. The die-cut in the Business card is based on the tilt in the logotype.

Envelope and folded letterhead.

Corporate Brochure for the center. Folder wrapper that also acts as a promotional poster for the center and a cover when wrapped around the brochure.

Poster design using the black space element of the logotype as a graphical element in the poster. This shows the flexibility and strength of the corporate concept.

Examples of additional applications to show the direct adaptation of the corporate image. The entrance ticket of the center has a tilted perforated die-cut like the logotype.

Website design of homepage and some internal pages. As in the previous design applications, the black space creates the basic design element for the layout of the website.

Signage applications. The black space becomes the shape of the signage plates with info on them. The Arabic kufi part of the logotype is used alone as signature on the plates or on the walls. The signs can be created from metallic plates, directly painted on the walls using stencils, or cut as vinyl and stuck on the wall.

“Al-Shamas Abdullah Zakher” founded the first Arabic printing press in Lebanon in 1734. The press is located in “Deir Mar Youhana” in “Khinshara”. The printing press operated from 1734 till1899. It was the first Arabic script printing press in Lebanon, but it was the second printing press in general since in 1610 the first Syriac Script printing press was established in “Deir Mar Antonious” in “Quzhayya” near the valley of the saints in the North of Lebanon. The printing press of “Deir Mar Antonious” was the first printing press in the Middle East.

I have visited the press with my students from LAU [Lebanese American University] and took some pictures of the tools, Arabic letters and books found there. Below is a brief description of the printing process that was used back then, and the books that were printed there.

Book Samples:
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More then 16 books were printed in this press starting with the book of “Mizan al Zaman” (The Balance of Time) which you can see photos of it below.

It was lovely to feel and look at old printed books. The letters are de-bossed inside the paper and you can feel the texture left by the imprint of the ink. Just beautiful.

The Arabic type was drawn and cut by “Al-Shamas Abdullah Zakher” himself. It is a unique type that is only present in this Arabic press. The type has humanistic rough edges and was drawn by “Al Zakher” himself. There is no information if “Al Zakher” was a professional Arabic calligrapher or not, but for sure he did take some Arabic calligraphy classes during his youth. This shows in the type he created. It somehow follows the rules of the “Tuluth” Arabic style, but it is not there yet. This is to conclude that “Al Zakher” was a great craftsman working with Arabic letters. “Al Zakher” comes from the city of “Aleppo” in Syria and he is from the renowned jewelry making family “Al Sayégh”. He has inherited the detailed crafting hand from his family, and then used this craftsmanship to start the first Arabic printing press in Lebanon instead of making jewelry.

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Metal Cuts
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Before explaining the technical process of developing the Arabic letters, here are some examples of carved lead, metal and woodcuts used for the titles or decorations of the books.

The titles were carved as one piece since the words were written more calligraphically and the letters were intertwined together. The titles were also used often in the books and not only once, so it was faster and wiser to carve the titles and not typeset them each time using separate letters.

Close up on a hand carved lead word. The strokes of the chisel are clearly visible. Amazing.

Woodcut pattern.

Squarish metal ornament.

Metal frame ornament.

Line pattern stamp.

Icon pattern stamp.

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Letter Punches / Punchcutting:
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In traditional typography, punchcutting is the craft of cutting letter punches from which matrices were made in hard type metal for type founding in the letterpress era. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly skilled craft requiring much patience and practice.

The punchcutter begins by transferring the outline of a letter design to one end of a metal bar. The outer shape of the punch could be cut directly, but the internal curves of a small punch were particularly difficult as it was necessary to cut deep enough and straight into the metal.

In Arabic, the punches are called the fathers “Al Obahat”.
The punch creates the be-bossed letter in the brass matrices.

A set of Metallic Arabic letters punches. Unfortunately, you can notice that they are bit rusting due to the humidity. But you can be sure that the punches are made of metal and not lead. The matrices are brass. Sine metal is stronger then brass; the metal punch can de-boss the letter shape in the brass matrices.

Arabic figures punches with wooden handle.

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Matrices:
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An example of a set of de-bossed letters that were created from the punchcutting process described previously.

In Arabic, the de-bossed brass letters are called The Mothers “Al Omahat”. From each matrice several lead letters will be created.

The matrice will be placed unto the letter frame mold to create the lead letters.

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Letter Frame Molds:
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This is the Letter Frame Mold that was created by “Al Zakher” to cast the lead Arabic letters.

Notice the upper opening of the mold where the hot lead will be poured in.

Notice how the curved metal string on the bottom part of the mold holds the letter matrice in place.
Lead will be poured into the mold and the Arabic letter cast will be formed which are known as Sorts.

The mold opened and seen from the inside.

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Letter Composing Stick
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A composing stick is an instrument used to assemble pieces of metal type into words and lines which are later bound into a forme, set in a galley and printed.

An example of a wooden composing stick that were created by “Al Zakher”.

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Composing Galley
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A Composing Gally is used to arrange all the sentences to make the layout of the page that will be ready for printing.

An example of a wooden galley created by “Al Zakher”.
Notice that most of the tools were created from wood and not metal.
This is the prove that the tools were created by “Al Zakher” himself in his workshop in the monastery and not imported from europe.

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Ink:
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The ink was also created locally by “Al Zakher”.
Below are examples of ink spreaders that were used to spread the ink evenly on the letters before printing the page.

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Press:
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The first press that “Al Zakher” created.
It is a simple press made of wood and metal.

The below is the second press that “Al Zakher” created.

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That was a brief article about the process of traditional metal type printing with images from the first Arabic printing press in Lebanon; “Al Zakher Press”.

p.s. The printing press can be visited daily in the monastery.

Baseet is a hybrid Neo-Naskh / Modern Kufi geometric typeface. It is a mixture of straight vertical, horizontal and diagonal pen stokes incorporated in-between curved corners and edges.

The font work perfectly with mono-spaced Roman fonts that share the same characteristics like Simple, T-Star MonoRound, Module etc…

The font was initially created for the ContempArabia event in the Gulf Region. I worked on the font in collaboration with Ben Wittner from <strong>eps51.

Logotype of the ContempArabia event. I worked on the Arabic type in the logo in collaboration with Ben Wittner from eps51. The design of the icon, website and publication are the work of eps51

The type is now only used for the ContempArabia website and publications. The Baseettype family from light to black is in the making at the moment.

Baseet Regular

Baseet Bold

We hope it will be published soon.

The first Arabic typeface in the FontFont library, Pascal Zoghbi’s design was originally called Sada, the Arabic word for “echo”. Accordingly, this face is the echo of FF Seria by Martin Majoor. FF Seria Arabic is a young crispy type based on the Nasekh style. The Regular and Bold are text typefaces, the Light is both display and text type, while the Black is purely a display typeface. Besides FF Seria, this Arabic face works well together with all modern serif fonts that share similar proportions and characteristics. FF Seria Arabic also functions independently as a modern Arabic type.

The intro text was taken from the FontShop newsletter.

SeriaArabic is an improved version of Sada.
Below is a list of the changes:
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1. SeriaArabic is a bi-script Arabic/Latin type-family and not only Arabic fonts as in Sada.

2. SeriaArabic is an OpenType Arabic type-family compared to TrueType fonts in Sada.

3. SeriaArabic type-family contains Light and a Black weight besides the Regular and the Bold of Sada.

4. Some Arabic glyphs in SeriaArabic are improved and changed from Sada.

5. Advanced Spacing/Kerning and Hinting are added to SeriaArabic which are not present in Sada.

6. SeriaArabic works on all applications that support Arabic script on Macintosh and Windows unlike Sada that only works in Adobe CS ME applications.
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Seria Arabic Light, Regular, Bold and Black.

Comparison of some of the glyphs that were improved.

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For more info about the fonts, click here.
For downloading PDF samples of the fonts, click here.
For purchasing the fonts,click here.

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p.s.
The interactive typesetter at FontFont and FontShop does not yet work properly for non-Western fonts. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. The interface will be updated soon to display the Arabic and all other non-Western fonts properly.

AlWatan typeface is a corporate Arabic headlines typeface for Al Watan newspaper in Saudi Arabia KSA. The font is exclusive for 1 year for the newspaper starting from 2009. The brief was to create a new, young and crispy Arabic type that will appeal to young Arab readers.

Specs of the type:
AlWatan Headlines is an elegant and sturdy Arabic typeface based on the Naskh mastari style with a medium contrast, condensed letterforms, strong baseline, large Loop/Tooth heights and short Ascender/Descender heights. Traditional pen stoke are preserved but drawn in a modern feel. This characteristic of the font can be clearly seen in the “heh”, “waw”, “lam” and other glyphs. The letterforms are balanced with the heavy baseline unlike old styled headlines fonts where the baseline is too thick and the letterforms are so weak and light.

Credits of the involved companies that were behind the creation of the new design and layout of the newspaper:

• The new design/ layout of the newspaper was created by Ryan Bowman from Shakeup Media, UK.

• AlWatan Headlines typeface is used for the headlines and main titles in the newspaper and it is created by Pascal Zoghbi.

• TheSans Arabic typeface is used for the secondary titles in the newspaper and it is created by Lucas Fonts.

• The new masthead was created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Beirut.

I did some Arabic Vernacular T-Shirts design in my spare time.
I would appreciate your comments on them.
You would buy any? There is a style you prefer against another? or…

The number of Arabic letters that creates the Arabic script is 29.
29 letters in Arabic will be “29 حرف”
It can be an educational t-shirt about the Arabic script.
It is also the name of my website and future company.
Graffiti style was implemented.

The word ENOUGH is written in Arabic in Graffiti style. Enough in Arabic is “بكفي”.
It is a social and political statement for the Arab politics and leaders.
Done in black & white to give a serious and gloomy feel.

The slang Lebanese sentence “شو في ما في؟” is used as “What’s Up?” in English.
It is used in the everyday life of the Lebanese people.
Graffiti style with happy fresh colors.

I Love … , I Love Taboulé, I Love Mankoushé, I Love my neighbor…
I love in Arabic is “إنا بحب”.
The I Love NY visual is done in Arabic.
It can be only I Love. And the owner can write what he wants under it.
Or some Arabic loveable items and food can be written below it.

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Comments and Suggestions are most welcomed

“Beirut! 3alal Yameen” (Beirut! Stop on the right) is a self-initiated poster on representing Beirut in few items and words. The poster will be exhibited in the Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Bejing.

It is hard to see the details and the over feel of the poster with low resolution and on screen. The poster is 84 cm wide and 42 cm high. Below are some close-ups that will give you a closer look:

Items composing the main visual are:
One of the statues of the Martyr Square; rooftops of Beirut with the antennas, satellite-dishes and the water containers; cigarette; garbage bins; beer bottle; spray can; ak47 and an old ruined wheel.

On the left side there is an image of a Lebanese army checkpoint.

I wrote a small text under the checkpoint image in the Lebanese slang language. It is a brief description about how I see Beirut. The text is as follows:

بيروت على اليمين.
بيروت شرب وعربدة بعد ليلة قصف ورصاص.
بيروت سلاح علی الطرقات وشباب عم بيرسموا علی الحطان أفكارن وأوجاعن.
بيروت تسكير طرقات وتوليع دواليب.
ببيروت بتوقف علی اليمين عند حاجز جيش.
بيروت رقص وسكر، أكل وإكل وشرب، ومسارح ومعارض.
بيروت بلامخ،
بيروت نضافة مطرح، وزبالة مطرح تاني.
بيروت حجر وبطون وبس كم شجرة هون أم هون.
بيروت دخان وأهلا مشحرة دخان.
ما بتعرف حقوق الإنسان، ولا حدا سائل ليش.
وبقولوا أنو بيروت سة الدنيا.
ما بعرف كيف.
أل شو أل، بيروت قطعة سما.
إي بكفي بأى.

And in case you did not notice the Arabic letter “Beh” that all the visual is built on, here it is alone. Of course, “Beh” for Beirut.

The fonts used in the poster are “Nadeem” for the display words, and Massira Spray for the text.