This is the 3rd Team in the TypoMatch 02 project. Latin type designer Mr. Erik van Blokland, Architect Mrs. Joumana al Jabri and myself as the Arabic type designer.

The Khatt Foundation launched the project in February 2009 at Mediamatic in Amsterdam. The launching was a set of workshops, lectures and site seeing in Amsterdam. I gave a lecture about the history and development of the Arabic type alongside other lectures given by the other participants.

Below are sketches of Erik and I giving our lectures, drawn by Mr. Max Kisman.

Team work and brainstorming for the design approach that we will undertake. I will post further info about our design approach once we are in an advanced stage.

Since I was in the Netherlands for the launching and the workshop of the TMM2 project, I took the opportunity of visiting the Type & Media MD course at The Royal Academy of Arts [KABK] in The Hague and gave a small lecture for the students there. It was nice to come back after 2 years to the academy where I did my Masters of Design and give a lecture as a professional practicing type design.

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In March, and during the art fairs (Art Dubai Festival, Bastakiya Art Fair, Sharjah Biennial) in Dubai and Sharjah, The Khatt Foundation was exhibiting the TypoMatch 02 project in one of the villas in Bastakiya. The Villa in the photo is the Khatt Villa.

The Villa was used to exhibit the concepts and design works of all the teams in the Typomatch02 project, and at the same time it served as a working space during the day and give presentations and lectures to visitors in the evening.

The image below shows the design posters of our team.

A beautiful red tape info and signage system was applied in the villa. Mr. Rene Knip and some students from AUD did the design of the villa in collaboration with Mrs. Huda Abi Fares of course.

In Dubai our time was divided between teamwork and site seeing in Dubai and Sharjah. We also gave presentations about the project in our villa in the Bastakiya Art fair, and in Art Dubai festival at the Bidoun Lounge.

Check out the Bastakiya Art Fair article on De51gn website.
You can also watch the little promo film Jan and Ans made for the Typographic Matchmaking project 2.0.

Erik was not able to be with Joumana and me in the Dubai week, but he was in our sketches and thoughts. ;)

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On a side note, not related to the TMM 02 project, but part of the Bastakiya Art fair; Mrs. Nadine Kanso (Bil Arabi) made a photo installation called “wil’ané Beirut” in one of the other villas in Bastakiya. Her concept was to photograph the Arabic graffiti in Beirut and pair them with photos taken from Beirut’s bars and nightclubs. I was happy to see my “how is the arab; man howa al arabi” graffiti that I did in Beirut last November in one of the photo-collages she did.

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Below this the brief info about the project from The Khatt Foundation:
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Text written by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares.
Image created by Edo Smitshuijzen.
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The Khatt Foundation is launching the Typographic Matchmaking sequel — Typographic Matchmaking in the City V2.0 project — which focuses on typography’s use in placemaking within an urban context.

The design teams consist of carefully “matched” Dutch and Arab designers, who are to create expressive type designs and their applications (exploring different material or virtual applications). Translating cultural ideas into concrete design products: digital fonts and 3D prototypes that could be exhibited outdoors or indoors at the specific sites in order to enhance a sense of place. The idea is not only to match the Latin and Arabic scripts harmoniously therefore stimulating cultural dialogue through design, but also to take the idea a step further and start a dialogue between two iconic cities from these two cultures. Cities that may have a shared history and traits but that are also sufficiently different. The two parallel cities are: Dubai and Amsterdam. More specifically the Creek in Dubai and the area around the river IJ in Amsterdam.

The participating designers:

TEAM 1
Max Kisman (Netherlands),
Naji El Mir (Lebanon/France),
Hisham Youssef (Egypt/UAE)

TEAM 2
Rene Knip (Netherlands),
Jeroen van Erp (Netherlands),
Reza Abedini (Iran/Netherlands)

TEAM 3
Erik van Blokland (Netherlands),
Pascal Zoghbi (Lebanon),
Joumana Al Jabri (Saudi Arabia/Syria/UAE)

TEAM 4
Artur Schmal,
Wael Morcos (Lebanon),
Richard Wagner (Germany/UAE)

TEAM 5
Melle Hammer (Netherlands),
Yara Khoury (Lebanon),
Stealth: Ana Dzokic (Serbia) & Marc Neelen (Netherlands)

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more details will be updated as the project progresses, so stay tuned.
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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.

Aylat Rashid is a new cartoon series that will be showing in Ramadan. It is the second 3D cartoon after Freej and it could be even better! I was asked by ToonWorks (the producing animation company of the program) to created the logotype. Below is a brief look on the design process from sketching to final 3D visual.

The two final options for the logotype that will be used in the 3D cartoon program.

Preliminary Sketches for the logotype:

1. 3D Type Sketches:

2. 2D Type Sketches:

3. Type with Background Sketches:

4. Type with Border Sketches:

5. Type with Character Area Sketch:

The Two Chosen Logotypes for Finalization:

1. Heavy Type with Circular Background:

2. Light and Heavy Type with Squarish Background:

The two options side by side:

The Logotype In-Use in the TV 3D Cartoon Program alongside the characters:

Arabic Letter “Yeh” of Seria Arabic type drawn with coffee, ink and dantelle pattern.

Students in the Advanced Typography course at the Lebanese American University [LAU] were asked to experiment with textures/patterns and try to apply them on existing bi-script Arabic/Latin fonts in-order to create their own experimental fonts. The students were handed the outlines of Seria Arabic and Fedra Arabic.

After I gave a lecture about type anatomy and the type design process, each student was asked to apply the following 4 phases:

Phase 1: Research and mood board
Choose one of the three bi-script fonts.
Research and analyse the outlines of the letters by tracing them. Each letter should be traced within a 10×10 cm size.
Study their application in design, and understand their strength and weakness.
Create a mood board based on a certain topic. Create a collages on an A1 board in which you will express visually everything that relates and conveys your theme. Experiment with different media and styles (pictures, drawings, illustrations, print, rubbing…)

Phase 2: Letters Mutation, Creation of hybrid ornamental/structured type
After tracing the letters and selecting the graphic elements from your mood board, start experimenting with the possibility of merging the outlines of the letters with the graphical elements.

Phase 3: Creating Arabic and Latin words from the experimentations done.
Choose an Arabic and English word based on the topic you chose. Start writing the words using your created experimental type.

Phase 4: Finalizing the whole Latin and Arabic
After experimenting with the words and finalizing the design approach to the letters, all the remaining letters in the Arabic and the Latin set should be created. All the letters should be harmonious and proportional in look and weight.
It is very important that all letters are equal in reference to their presence on the page.
No letter should over power the rest. Place all letters on their baseline on a grid with x-height, ascender line, descender line and try to level them so that they fit proportionally on the grid in a uniform manner.

Bellow for some of the fonts created in the workshop.
Each student wrote his/her own text about the fonts presented.

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1. Inki Type; Ziad Rawas:
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Inki Type Poster, Ziad Rawas, LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.

Inki is a handmade font made out of natural ink strokes, blown manually by month through a blowing straw. This font was made entirely by a simple blowing straw and a bottle of black ink without any use of brushes or black markers. Each letter is unique with its strokes and thickness. Inki font was originated by Seria Arabic.

Inki Type created from Seria Arabic type, Ziad Rawas, LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.
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2. Dantelle Type; Sarah el Nahhal:
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Dantelle Type created from Seria Arabic type, Sarah El-Nahhal,LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.

The dentelle font is considered as an elegant font since the original dentelle fabric is known as a very expensive and an elegant material. The floral elements that this font has gives it a more refined appearance, in addition to the different thicknesses that it has. The Dentelle font is basically made out of the concept of laces or «dentelle».The characters of this font are found in boths languages Arabic and English that were constructed out of the original Seria font designed by Martin Majoor, and the Seria Arabic font designed by Pascal Zoghbi.

Design Process from Seria Arabic to Dantelle type.

Dantelle Type created from Seria Arabic type, Sarah El-Nahhal,LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.
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3. Folded Type; Reem Kassem:
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Design process from Fedra Arabic to Folded Type.
Folded Type created from Fedra Arabic, Reem KassemLAU Beirut, Fall 2009.

The newly designed serif typeface “Folded” is not a face for all purposes. Carrying an arabic adaptation to it in addition to the outline version of it, it has been tailored for display usage. “Folded” is based on the all-known sans-serif Fedra regular lowercase and arabic typeace. This results in a metal based typeface, with minimal details yet both flexible and distinctive. Through the process of its creation, Folded has reached the final stage of an outline of the folded metal stripes. The outline maintains the folds that are clear in the metallic 3D phase.

Folded metallic sheets creating the 3D letters.

Folded Type created from Fedra Arabic, Reem Kassem, LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.
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4. Kahwa Type; Nour Aghar:
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Kahwa Type created from Seria Arabic type, Noor Aghar,LAU Beirut, Fall 2009.

The Kahwa font is based on the stains of the Turkish coffee combining the dregs, the coffee itself and all. The Kahwa font is characterized with its stainy and non clean counters and edges. The Latin Kahwa font is characterized with long descenders and ascenders. As for the Arabic Kahwa font it is based on the Nasekh type.
The Kahwa font is a informal type and in particular a strictly display font.
The coffee inspired font gives you the perfect mood to grab a cup of coffee and directly gives the message that is needed. The informality of the font preserves its messy details such as the dregs and the liquid feel. The type of beans used for this font is the Turkish coffee blend in which we use and abuse in all of our Lebanese regions.
The Kahwa font is developed from the original Seria Latin font designed by Martin Majoor in 1996 and the Seria Arabic font designed by Pascal Zoghbi in 2007.

Detailed image from the hands one coffee stains phase.

The Printing press of Saint Antonius in “Quzhayya” is the first printing press in the Middle East. It is located in a monastery in the Valley of the Saints in the mountains of the north Kaza of Lebanon. According to historians, a movable type printing press was imported from England to the Saint Antonius Monastery in 1585. The first publication was the book of “Mazameer” dated from 1610, and now present in the University of the Holy Ghost in Kaslik, Jouniyé, Lebanon.



Saint Antonius press did not print with Arabic letters but with Syriac letters. Back then Lebanon was still under the Turkish occupation, and at the time, the Arabic script was considered sacred, only to be written by hand not to be reproduced in the printing press.


Christian monks tricked the Turkish government and printed Arabic Christian religious books (like The Book Of The Mass, The Book Of The Apostils and several others) using the Syriac letters. The word “karshouné” was given to this kind of printing when the Syriac letters were used to write Arabic text. Nowadays we still use the word ”karshouné” only to signify that a person is talking nonsense or that he is not being clear in his/her pronunciation.




The press was renewed in the beginnings of the 19th century and a special place called “al ma3rama” was reserved for it in the monastery. In the year 1854 the work of the press was stopped due to the situation back then, to be renewed again in 1871 and then to stop completely in the beginning of the Second World War.


Nowadays the printing press in Saint Antonius monastery is not as well preserved as the printing press of “Al Zakher” in “Khinshara”. There are only the English printing press displayed, some books around it, a few Syriac metal letters typeset in a matrix, and some printing tools that were used in the press.


Keep note that Saint Antonius Press in Quzhayya is the first printing press in the Middle East (using Syriac letters), while the printing press of “Al Zakher” in “Khinshara” was one of the first Arabic printing presses in the Middle East after the Arabic printing presses in Turkey and Syria that preceded it a few years earlier.

29LT Makina is a revival of an Arabic, Persian and Latin typewriter. “Makina” in Arabic means ‘machine’, which is inspired from the translation of a typewriter from English to Arabic. The type-family contains 3 weights (Light, Regular & Bold) with each containing ligatures, stylistic sets and contextual alternates.

Technical drawing of the Optima typewriter found in its original catalogue.

The story of Makina started a few years back when I went on a hunt for a traditional Arabic typewriter while working on a project with a designer colleague of mine. The hunt started in Beirut and ended in Damascus. In Beirut, I started with the Sunday Market, then the antique shops in Beirut’s souqs, Byblos, Tripoli, and ended with the Basta region. In Damascus, I started in Souq al Hamadiya and then visited shops where employees still type documents on typewriters, slightly outside the city-centre of Damascus. I typeset several samples and took plenty of photos in each location and documented the names of the machines along with the date and place.

Original type-specimen that is found inside the typewriter box.

After several investigations and inquiries, I ended up finding the source of typewriters in Lebanon; Najjar Continental. I found their small shop in Hamra street with some typewriters displayed. Some were 60 year-old machines while others dated a few decades back. After several visits to their shop and a brief introduction to their history, I discovered that they were the main developers and distributors in Lebanon and the Middle East from the 1950s till the 80s, before the computer technology took over the market. They took me to their storage area and it was like a treasure cave full of old typewriters. Mostly Optima and Continental Brands with languages ranging from Arabic, Persian, English and French.

A sample of the typesetting trial papers i did during my visits to Najjar Continental in Hamra.

I kept on visiting Najjar Continental and typesetting samples from different machines until I selected the best sample to create the fonts from. My index fingers went sore and were stained black for some days, while the sound of the keys being typed made a rhythm that broke the silence of the store.

Besides finding the best machine for each language to typeset on, I had to come up with a technique to create the light and bold weight alongside the standard regular weight. This was due to the fact that the machines only came with a regular weight with an option of changing the colour of the ink. The bold weight was created by manually holding the cylinder (the piece that holds the paper) in place which stopped the paper from moving, allowing me to type the same glyph one on top of the other, in turn fattening the letter and clotting the counters.

A lot more experimenting had to be done when creating the light weight. My first trial was starting out by trying to press lighter on the buttons, hoping for a lighter hit of the glyph on the paper, resulting in a thinner letter. That failed. The second trial was having two papers on top of each other, hoping to soften the hit of the metal glyph on the paper. That also failed. My third attempt was after I discovered the emboss feature of the typewriter. This option allows typing without ink. This meant that typing regular mode followed by typing on emboss mode ends up with less ink on the paper. The residue of the first hit of the glyph during regular typing showed up when typing in emboss mode; therefore resulting in lighter letters. It is the humble Eureka moment, and the sample typeset papers kept going.

Scans of the letter m glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter M glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter g glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter G glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter e glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter E glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter a glyph with different trials.

Scans of the letter A glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter SAD glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter QAF glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter LAM-ALEF glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter JEEM glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter GHAIN glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter FA’ glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter DAD glyph with different trials.

Scans of the Arabic letter Ain glyph with different trials.

Transferring the rough ink embedded glyphs into digital outline curves was the third phase. The typeset papers had to be scanned with highest resolution available to have it as faithful to the original typewriter effect as possible. Several image manipulations were needed before having the best black and white proportions for each of the three weights. All glyphs had to be organised and sorted with all its trials before digitalising them into rough outlines. The best result from each glyph was selected and imported into the font developing software.

Typewriters are known to be monospaced (all glyphs have the same width), but this is not the case with Arabic. The later has three different widths defined depending on the need of each letter: tight, normal, wide. This is echoed in Makina where the Latin glyphs were kept monospaced while the Arabic retained its three glyph different widths. Arabic glyphs like the Alif, Ra’, Dal, Meem, etc were assigned the tight width; while glyphs like Ha’, Ain, Ya’, etc had the normal width; and isolated forms of the glyphs Ba’, Ta’, Seen, Sad, etc were set in the wide width.

The design of Makina is faithful to the design and letter variations in the traditional arabic typewriter. Due to the limited number of keys on the typewriter keyboard, the Arabic script needed to be simplified and letter variations were reduced to minimal except for complex letters like the Ain and the Ha’. Letters like Alef, Dal, Thal, Ra’, Zain, Waw, etc. that usually have isolated and final letterforms in standard font; they only have isolated shape in the typewriter. Letters like Ba’, Ta’,Hah, Seen, Sad, Fa’, Qaf, Kaf, Lam, Meem, Noon,Ya’, etc. that usually have four letterform variations in initial, medial, final and isolated forms; they only have two letterform variation that are initial and isolated. The isolated form is used for both final and isolated, while the initial form is used for both initial and medial. Only the letters Ain, Ghain retain there four letterform variations while the Ha’ retains three of the four.

Three glyph alternates are created for each letterform in the Arabic and the Latin script in order to mimic as close as possible the randomness of the typewriter print of letters on paper. Advanced Open Type ( Stylistic Sets & Contextual Alternates) features were added to the font to allow a random cycle of glyphs’ alternates while typesetting Makina. More then 900 glyphs are present in each weight of the type family of Light, Regular and Bold.

Sample of some Arabic and Latin glyphs with their three alternates that will randomly cycle in the font will typesetting.

Alongside the Lam-Aelf ligatures, the elevated tooth which proceeds the letters Ra’, Zain and Noon was present in the typewriter keyboard. Hence the ligatures Ba’-Ra’, Ba’-Zain, Ba’-Noon, and all corresponding teeth variations were created in Makina.

Finally, all missing glyphs that are need in the font like Arabic accents, Urdu letters, extended Farsi and Urdu figures, extended Western European glyphs, punctuation, symbols, etc. were designed and created to cover all the character set for Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Latin.

The Arabic version of Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel word-mark is created in collaboration with Duncan/Channon and Hard Rock’s internal design team.

The Arabic logotype had to echo the characteristics and proportions of the English logotype. The Kufi script was chosen as the reference for the development of the Arabic letters in the Logo. The slant in the Latin was kept in the Arabic version of the mark but in the opposite direction from right to left.

Standard, and outlined versions of the Arabic logotype are designed. The colors orange and dark-red were used for the Hard Rock Café logo, while the blue-violet and yellow were used for the Hard Rock Hotel logo.

Bukra typeface from 29LT type collection is adopted as the corporate type for the Arabic brand. The description and name of the cities will be typeset using Bukra Type family.

The Arabic word mark is going to be implemented in the coming months/year in the Arabic nations. Current Cafes in the Middle East are in : Bahrain, Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh, Kuwait, Beirut, Dubai. The first Hard Rock Hotel in the region will be Abu Dhabi and other cities will follow.

Primary sketches for the Arabic brand.

Creation of the Arabic logotype based on the same proportions of the Latin and the flipped slant.

The English and Arabic word-marks side by side.

29LT Massira is a simplified spontaneous handwriting set of fonts based on the casual writings of the Lebanese people and the Ruqaa Arabic calligraphic style. The type-family does not have weights but different styles based on different writing tools. The four styles are: PEN, TIPPEX, LIPSTICK and SPRAY.

Graduation Poster at Type & Media, KABK, 2005.

The Massira type project started as my graduation project at the MA program in “Type & Media” at “The Royal Academy of Arts” in The Netherlands. The type-family was inspired from the graffiti writings of the demonstrators in Martyrs Square in Beirut after the assassination of the PM and the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon throughout 2005 – 2006. Analyzing the handwritings on the petition and noting the different kinds of writing tools used (pen, chalk, lipstick, spray, etc.…) used led to the creation of Massira type project.

Martyr Square demonstrations in 2005, Beirut, Lebanon.

Martyr Square Statue

In 2006 I only created the Pen and Spray styles since these were the most used tools for the graffiti writings. Completing the type-family was always among my work tasks but got postponed due to commitments to other corporate projects. The project was on hold until 2011, The Arab spring that started in Tunisia and spread all over the Arab world encouraged me to look again at the Massira type project and finalize it. Graffiti is always part of revolutions and demonstrators will use any writing tool to shout out their thoughts and demands.

“Massira” is defined in Arabic as: to walk with, to walk in a group, from the action of walking. In Lebanese slang, Massira happens when a group of people walks together for a purpose or a cause, for example as a political demonstration.

Type Design Process

The design process of “Massira Type” started with the analysis of different handwritings and drawings, documenting the various alternative shapes each letter had and how each letter varies between a person and another. The analysis proceeded from the images I took of the petition in 2005, and it evolved into asking friends and colleagues to write the same text taken from the UN Humans Rights article.

Image from the hand written petition at Martyrs Square in 2005. The different tools used on the petition are visible here.

Image from the hand written petition at Martyrs Square in 2005.

Image from the hand written petition at Martyrs Square in 2005. The different tools used on the petition are visible here.

Image from the hand written petition at Martyrs Square in 2005.

Image from the hand written petition at Martyrs Square in 2005.

After the analysis was done, the variations of each letter in the Arabic language were drawn and ranked according to the letter’s presence in various handwritings. The letterforms with the highest ranks got chosen and drawn in the Massira fonts.

Analysing and drawing all the different variations possible for each glyph.

Before starting with the design of the fonts based on the various tools (Pen, TippEx, Lipstick and Spray), a skeleton shape was needed to be drawn for each letter and for all its variants in initial, medial, final and isolated positions. Once the skeleton design was done, it was used as a reference for the creation of the fonts.

Below is the design process for the creation of the Massira Spray font.
The process is the same for all the other fonts; the only change was the size of the printed skeleton; the size of the paper used to draw the letters changed according to the width of the tool. Hence, the skeleton for the Spray font was the biggest, while the Pen and the TippEx were the smallest.

1. Drawing the skeleton shape of every letter required basic glyph and ligature.

Skeleton line printed on A3 paper for preparation for the spraying.

2. Printing each skeleton on A3 white paper. In the beginning I sprayed some letters on A4 but the letters were clotting too much when sprayed. A3 was chosen to make the letters more realistic and not clotted. Moreover, the bigger the letter the more will the hand flow appear in the stroke.

The spray tool.

Spraying the glyphs for the Spray font.

Some of the sprayed glyphs placed on the ground to dry.

3. Photographing all the sprayed letters.

Photographing all the sprayed glyphs and ligatures.

4. Transforming all the photos into bitmap black and white formats and working with the right threshold to have the required spray feeling.

5. Transforming all the bitmaps into outlines using the Live-trace option in Adobe Illustrator CS and Adobe StreamLine. (For the Spray, TippEx and Lipstick fonts, Live-Trace had to be used since the outlines are very rough and they cannot be traced manually. The Pen font on the other hand was traced manually with utmost care for the outline form and its contrast.)

Steps in the design process. from top to bottom, left to right. from photographing to digitising.

6. Working on the outlines in Adobe Illustrator CS2 in order to make the spray feel more even and equal in each glyph.

7. Importing the entire outlines to Fontlab and creating the font.

8. Working on the connection between the glyphs. If it is an isolated glyph, then there is no problem, but in a connecting glyph you have to fix the connections properly and make them flow with all the other connecting glyphs.

Baseline connection modifications for each glyph to allow smooth link between the glyphs.

9. Modifying the outlines or the weight in order to achieve the proper text colour for each tool.

10. Testing and refining until the desired final feel was achieved.

Technical Info
The Massira fonts cover the Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages. Around 115 ligatures are added to the main character set in order to allow certain fluidity in the fonts and to mimic the spontaneity of the Arabic handwriting as much as possible.

29Lt Retail Arabic Fonts Collection

Massira fonts can be purchased from the online store of 29 Arabic Letters.

Promotional poster of 29LT Massira Fonts

Nasri Khattar / Unified Arabic Type

Last August in Beirut, I had the opportunity to meet with Camille Khattar Hedrick, the daughter of Nasri Khattar, the creator of a library of fonts based on Unified Arabic.

Pascal Zoghbi: Hello Camille, it’s very nice to meet with you.
Camille Khattar Hedrick: It’s a pleasure to be here today.

PZ: So, what brings you to Lebanon?
CKH: This is my second of many visits. I am organizing my father’s documents so as to make his designs available to the public.

Here is Khattar’s earliest typeface, the first one patented, with space savings from almost non-existent ascenders and descenders.

PZ: How did your father come to create Unified Arabic? Did he ever tell you, or did he ever document his creative process?
CKH: Just recently, I came across one of his writings called “How ‘Unified’ Arabic Came About.” In the early 1930s, after receiving his first degree in business from the American University of Beirut, and before traveling to the U.S. to attend the Yale School of Architecture, he taught a class in Arabic typing. This was the first time he had seen an Arabic typewriter and found it to be a “complicated” machine with an intricate keyboard. Each letter had several variant shapes, which meant that the keyboard had more than one key for each letter.

Nasri Khattar

In his writings, my father used an analogy in English to illustrate his point. He wrote, “If you were, for example, to type on [the Arabic typewriter] a word like ‘banana,’ you would have to use three different keys to type the a’s and two different keys to type the n’s, with some shifting in between.”
During the typing class, one of the first words he typed was “ahlan-wa-sahlan,” meaning “welcome.” Doing so, he made a mistake, since he used the same key to type the two variant h’s appearing in this word. The mistake, however, led him to make a discovery: He realized that that the word was still perfectly legible in spite of the typing mistake. This was his breakthrough: The various shapes of each letter could be “unified” and standardized into one unique design and still be legible.

Khattar had this poster made in the 70s to show both his detached and connected styles: He had just taken out a patent for his connected and unified typefaces. The patent states that the letter forms remain the same regardless of where they fall in the word – thus they are “unified” – and are also designed to connect.

PZ: That’s truly amazing. Having come to this realization, what were his next steps?
CKH: He immediately became determined to simplify the Arabic typewriter as well as Arabic type. He drew hundreds – if not thousands – of sketches of each letter formation. He didn’t stop until he reached the desired effect of legibility for each letterform.

Description of the UA Neo Naskh Patent in 1950 in the USA.

UA Neo Naskh Patent in 1950 in the USA.

PZ: How long did it take him to have the unified alphabet ready to commercialize?
CKH: You’ll note that he filed his first patent on October 3, 1947, and that the patent was issued on April 4, 1950.
However, I have found correspondence between him and the patent attorney of the typewriter company, Remington Rand, dated April 15, 1935. He was already on his way although he was only 24 years old!

Letter dated April 15, 1935, from the patent department of Remington Rand, Inc., a prominent typewriter manufacturer, addressed to Nasri Khattar in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., where he was enrolled in the Yale School of Architecture.

PZ: Your father is known in books on the history of typography as the first person to suggest the idea of detached Arabic script and the unified glyph shape for each letter. But, from the drawings and documentation I’m seeing now in front of me, it is amazing to notice that Khattar’s thinking later evolved toward designing more traditional Arabic type. Tell me about that.

UA Kufic Patent in 1978 in France.

Description of the glyphs that are present in the UA Kufic Patent. A,B,C,D and E refer to the set of glyphs present in the patent.

CKH: Yes, he worked for over 35 years on a variety of different font styles. In the 1970s, with the advent of the word processor, he knew he had to prepare for the computer age, and that the typewriter would soon be obsolete. About that time, I was working for a computer company called Digital Equipment Corporation, and, at my dad’s request, I made an appointment with their Arabic department. Before my eyes, a Lebanese programmer demonstrated how the computer was able to automatically create the glyphs. The age of the typewriter was over. It was a very sad day for me, and I wasn’t looking forward to telling my dad about it.
I’ll never forget the look of amazement he gave me when I explained it to him. He said nothing, but I could tell that his mind was already racing with new ideas. He hadn’t given up.
So he designed other fonts much closer in appearance to the traditional characters while at the same time greatly simplified. He felt that these later designs were closer to what readers were used to seeing yet without detecting anything different about them. In 1978, he took out a patent for his UA Kufic font. Here is an example:

In this example, you can see that each shape is unified: The initial “meem” is identical to the medial “meem”, while at the same time; my father does make allowances for the “alif-laam” and the “alif-meem-laam”.

In these drawings of a traditional font dated January, 1970, you can see how Khattar was continuously thinking about eliminating “wasted space,” – both vertical and horizontal – while making room for diacritic dots while to increase legibility.

In these drawings of a traditional font dated January, 1970, you can see how Khattar was continuously thinking about eliminating “wasted space,” – both vertical and horizontal – while making room for diacritic dots while to increase legibility.

In these drawings of a traditional font dated January, 1970, you can see how Khattar was continuously thinking about eliminating “wasted space,” – both vertical and horizontal – while making room for diacritic dots while to increase legibility.

PZ: Your father was a pragmatic person who was trying to find solutions for the Arabic script amid limited typesetting technologies. What is even more interesting is noticing that he did not stop at the idea of detached Unified Arabic type, as I previously believed, but rather embarked on designing more standard fonts based on the traditional Arabic connecting script when he noticed that technology was changing from the typewriter to the computer. He grasped the limitations that were present as typewriter technology became obsolete and a newer advanced technology was emerging to allow for more detailed and standard Arabic fonts.

Nasri Khattar drawing at his desk. Behind him we can see big prints of the UA Neo-Naskhi

Nowadays, some designers are still inspired or influenced by Khattar’s Unified Arabic type, and they are creating detached display fonts or designing Arabic logos with detached letters. On the contrary, the sad story is that some still consider that the future of Arabic script is to be detached, when the pioneer of detached Arabic type himself knew – as far back as the 70s – that the technology was evolving and catching up with the needs and requirements of Arabic script.
Detached Arabic fonts will always be considered as a revolutionary approach for designing, typesetting, and reading of the Arabic script. We will be seeing this approached used again and again in the coming years, mostly from young graphic designers with radical attitudes. The Unified Arabic type concept will always be unique even though it will never be adopted as a new, universal approach for writing and reading Arabic.

If you’d like to read more about the development of Arabic script technology and type design ideas beginning in the 30s and up to the present time, click here.

Camille Khattar Hedrick, daughter of Nasri Khattar, showing her father’s work to Pascal Zoghbi in a café in Mansourieh, August 2012.

CKH: Perhaps we could meet again to continue this discussion?
PZ: Yes, next time we meet, let’s analyze other UA drawings to decide on digitization. Let me know when you’ll be in town again.

Ha’ Glyph in both UA Neo N & B

UA Neo B, originally known as UA Beiruti Modern, and UA Neo N, originally known as UA Neo-Nashki, belong to the first set of type revivals of Unified Arabic first introduced by Nasri Khattar in the 1950s. They belong to the Unified Arabic™ type system that contains a library of eight typefaces, including both print (detached) and cursive (connected) styles. After over 60 years, Mr. Khattar’s daughter, Camille, has entrusted 29Letters with the revival of her father’s fonts to keep them in line with his vision and design approach.

29LT UA Neo fonts will be published in August 2013 with the release of the new website 29LT-Fonts dedicated to the showcase and promotion of 29LT custom and retail fonts.

Since UA fonts originally launched the innovative idea of detached Arabic type, at 29LT we decided to use the word Neo for all UA revival fonts, and to reduce the secondary name to its initial only. It is our way of making the UA fonts work properly as a set, especially when considering that most of the glyphs are based on the same skeleton with only outline changes or modifications.

UA Neo B Character Set

UA Neo N Character Set

The revival is justly based on the drawings of Mr. Khattar’s UA fonts, His concept was initially based on the idea of one single glyph shape per letter, but after thorough analyses of the drawings and patents, we noticed that some letters had two glyphs instead of only one, like the letters (Ha’) and (Ya’).

Ha’ Glyph in both UA Neo B & N

Ya’ Glyph in both UA Neo B & N

Furthermore, and after some legibility tests of the original set of glyphs, some letters showed that they were confused or misread as other letters especially in their final or isolated positions. Hence, we were led to draw additional glyph shapes for the letters (Ain) and (Lam) which will appear in the final and isolated positions, in the same way that Mr. Khattar decided to draw the (Ha’) and (Ya’) letters. We drew the new glyphs in the same spirit and characteristics as Mr. Khattar would have done himself. The (Ain) needed a final and isolated glyph form since the intial and medial forms were misread as (Hamza), while the (Lam) was confused with the (Alef).

Ain Glyph in both UA Neo B & N

Another minor change from the original design was the loop glyphs of the letters (Fa’) and (Qaf) since they looked like the flipped Latin glyph “e,” and they were not in line with the shape of the (Waw) and other round letters. We made these changes in both the UA Neo B and N set of fonts.

Fa’ & Qaf Glyphs in both UA Neo B & N

UA Neo B and N are based on the same skeleton forms, though UA Neo B is mono-linear and geometric, while UA Neo N is calligraphic and cursive in feel. The original designs only existed in Regular weights; we added two additional Light and Bold weights to each of the two sets. Mr. Khattar drew the fonts with a character set initially limited to the typewriter and later for primitive computers: Hence the glyph set only covered a basic Arabic set with limited punctuation and symbols. Therefore, we needed to add the full set of punctuation and symbols, as well as the additional Farsi and Urdu letters to allow support for these scripts.

UA Neo B weights Light, Regular & Bold

UA Neo N weights Light, Regular & Bold

Note from the 29LT type designer, Pascal Zoghbi
Even though the letters were drawn 60 years ago, the contemporary structure of the glyphs is unique, and I now think how revolutionary Mr. Khattar was to imagine such a solution for the Arabic script back in the 1950s, even though his concept was not publicly used or accepted at that time. I am honored to be the type designer reviving Mr. Khattar’s fonts and making them available to the public via a 29LT retail font set. The revival and publication of UA fonts should be considered as documentation of part of the history of Arabic typography and its evolution starting in the 1930s, and not as a statement that the Arabic script should be at present detached or that we should abandon esthetical cursive Arabic.

The detached Arabic concept was originally created to solve the problems of 1950s’ technology, limited in the typesetting and printing of Arabic, which today is no longer the case. At 29LT, we are publishing UA detached fonts for the reason of documentation as well as to experiment or explore the concept from a modern-day viewpoint and approach to the Arabic script. We encourage the use and exploration of the potential of UA fonts.

UA Neo B

UA Neo N

About Nasri Khattar (1911-1998)
A dual American-Lebanese national, Mr. Khattar was an architect, type designer, inventor, painter, sculptor, and poet, After finishing his architectural apprenticeship as a disciple with the great American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mr. Khattar worked as an Arabic consultant to IBM in the 1950s, and architect, Arabic calligrapher, and Arabist to Arab-American Oil Company (Aramco) in New York City, 1950-1957. He received a Ford Foundation grant for the years 1958-1961 to promote his “Unified Arabic, UA” system. Unified Arabic is Mr. Khattar’s Arabic type system that simplifies the printing and teaching of Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and other languages utilizing the Arabic alphabet.
As he continued to work on Unified Arabic, Mr. Khattar designed new Arabic typefaces, some of which were “Unified,” but also designed to automatically connect. In 1986, Reverend Dennis Hilgendorg and Dr. Ben Wood, Director of Educational Research at Columbia University, nominated Mr. Khattar for the Nobel Peace Prize for his life’s visionary achievements and their vast implications for the fields of linguistics, literacy, printing, information technology, and telecommunications.

Nasri Khattar

To read more about the Typographic Journey of Nasri Khattar, refer to this previous post.

Azer in Arabic means friendly, ready to assist and lend a hand. This multilingual typeface combines simple lines with careful detailing to create a serious but approachable look. The Arabic is a Naskh/Kufi hybrid and retains a balance between calligraphic angular cuts and unadorned construction. The Latin is a humanist sans-serif with crisp cuts based on the broad nib pen calligraphic structure and contemporary outlines. The fonts include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Latin variants. Azer is available in five weights, ranging from a delicate thin ideal for refined headlines to a thick black perfect for chunky titles and in-text emphasis.

Where Arabic typefaces have a strong horizontal structure because of baseline letter connections, Latin typefaces have a vertical rhythm because of an upright stem structure present in most glyphs. To resolve this discrepancy, Azer Latin was drawn with conic shaped stems, inspired by the Arabic Alef glyph. The thirty-degree angle of the broad nib pen increases the horizontal stress of the Latin letters, which brings the overall color of the Latin text closer to the Arabic Text.

The Arabic and the Latin mirror each other’s appearances much like fraternal twins with compatible attitudes. Azer Latin is earnest and sincere; Azer Arabic is direct and austere.

The Naskh calligraphic style of the Arabic variant is complemented by a calligraphic broad nip pen technique in the Latin, creating strong pen strokes: crisp broken cuts with open and fluid letter structure.

Azer is approachable without being sloppy, serious without being conformist. The typeface combines charm, simplicity and consideration.

This mix of influences defines the “flavor” of the Latin, making it an interesting original typeface that is not only a perfect match for its Arabic counterpart, but also a friendly standalone typeface with a lot of personality. It can also be considered an original Latin typeface with a good Arabic companion.

In 2008, Azer was designed part of a branding project Wael Morcos and I, Pascal Zoghbi, were collaborating on. When the Global Financial crisis took its toll on the UAE, the project was postponed indefinitely and the first outlines of the font remained unfinished.

There remained a strong need, however, to address the shortcomings of contemporary Arabic typography, which tends to be either too classical or too resistant to the aesthetic values of Arabic Calligraphy.

We resumed the design in preparation for the launch of the 29LT type foundry. As the Arabic design took shape, we contacted Ian Party from SwissTypefaces to design the Latin companion. Ian loved the outlines and cuts and was enthusiastic to draw the Latin inspired from the Arabic structures. As such, Azer is one of the few multilingual typefaces originated in Arabic.

The design progressed over a two-year period during which the three of us collaborated to bring the fonts to fruition. Azer will be one of the typefaces published as part of the official launch of the 29LT type foundry in August 2013.

Azer comes in five weights (thin, light, regular, bold, black) and includes over 200 Arabic Ligatures that lend distinctive calligraphic character to contemporary type. When turned on, the ligatures change the look of the design and add energy to the line, making the words richer and more expressive.

The two scripts share many characteristics including overall proportions, contrast, open counters and endings, terminal and finial structure, as well as diamond-shaped diacritic dots.

Noor Type is a simplified, hybrid Kufi/Naskh type family in three weights, light, regular, and bold. Its contemporary outlines reflect the new branding strategy for the Noor Bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) developed by Wolff Olins, the brand consultancy, in Dubai.

Sketches of various direction for the type in the primary phase of the project.

Formerly known as the Noor Islamic Bank, in the past the Noor bank had a traditional brand identity with an old, serif-style type for Latin characters and traditional Kufic type for Arabic characters. Wolff Olins wanted to uplift their branding and give the bank a contemporary visual identity. They replaced the old style serif font by the modern sans serif “Aktiv Grotesk” type, and asked me to create and develop the Arabic counterpart.

The 3 Weights (Light, Regular 7 Bold) of Noor Corporate Type.

Noor Bank Branch in Dubai, UAE.

I designed the Arabic with large tooth, loop, and eye height to echo the large x-height of the Latin, with short ascenders and cut descenders for the Jeem, Ha’, Kha’, Ain, Ghain, and Meem. To allow such proportions to exist and keep the Arabic looking proper and not Latinized, I drew the letters based on a hybrid structure between the Kufic and Naskh scripts instead of just adopting one style of proportions.

Noor Bank Metro Station in Dubai.

Since the word-mark doesn’t have an icon, the typeface is the solitary graphical element to distinguish the bank. We decided to make an edgy cut in the Arabic letters that contains loops like “Waw, Qaf, Ha’, Ta’, etc. and give the font an open fill and contemporary characteristic. Thus the font is both edgy and organic, containing straight pen stokes that are in balance with curved outlines. The tension between the straight and curved lines gives the font unique properties with contemporary appearance.

The open counter characteristic in some glyphs within Noor Type.

Beside the logotype, Noor type is used in all the bank’s branding and advertising. You can also see the font at the “Noor Bank Metro Station” in Dubai along with all the bank’s branches in the Arab region.

Noor Bank Metro Station in Dubai.

Noor Type is use in Dubai Metro.

Noor Type is use in Dubai Metro.

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

Swatch Corporate Typeface (Swatch CT) is a contemporary multilingual typeface covering all Western and Middle Eastern languages used in countries where Swatch™ is present. Swatch CT will be used from all Swatch branches, dealers, resellers and manufactures.

In 2010, NORM (Dimitri Bruni, Manuel Krebs & Ludovic Varone) was commissioned to create the Latin corporate typeface for the Swiss wristwatch manufacturer Swatch. Norm, which is based in Zurich (Switzerland), designs and publishes books and typefaces, including self-commissioned research in the field of type and graphic design.

In 2013, NORM asked Pascal Zoghbi from 29Letters to collaborate on developing the extended Arabic character set for Swatch CT to allow for a consistent and unique corporate identity for Swatch in the Middle East.

THE SWATCH EYE Magazine Arabic edition. Designed by Aurele Sack at Swatch™..

Pascal Zoghbi designed the Arabic glyphs to complement the visual identity of the Latin glyphs in Swatch CT while retaining the properties of the Arabic script. Since the Latin glyphs were based on the sans serif style, Pascal created a simplified Naskh, low-contrast Arabic style. The Arabic letters were designed as counterparts to the Latin letters with equal proportion, weight, and contrast.

THE SWATCH EYE Magazine Arabic edition. Designed by Aurele Sack at Swatch™..

Pascal was keen on designing the Arabic to distinguish it from the other simplified Naskh fonts. The Arabic glyphs are more organic then their Latin counterpart; nonetheless, the Swatch feel is present in both scripts and mimics the stylish and unique look of Swatch wristwatches.

THE SWATCH EYE Magazine Arabic edition. Designed by Aurele Sack at Swatch™..

The collaboration of Pascal Zoghbi, Lebanese type designer, with NORM to create the corporate type for Swatch is symbolic because The Swatch Group was founded by Nicolas Hayek, Lebanese entrepreneur, who launched the brand in 1983 with remarkable success in Switzerland, culminating the end of the quartz crisis of the 1980s.

THE SWATCH EYE Magazine Arabic edition. Designed by Aurele Sack at Swatch™..

THE SWATCH EYE Magazine Arabic edition. Designed by Aurele Sack at Swatch™..

It is important to note that Swatch CT is the typeface used for all Swatch publications and advertisements, which is totally different from Swatch’s logotype’s structure and design.

Graffiti: Changing Language, Changing Worlds اللغة تتحول، العالم يتغير
Designers: Pascal Zoghbi and DUAL
Mural Painting: DUAL
Wall Size: 10 feet x 156 feet

The Below text is written by Keelin Burrows who is the Curator of the project at THE PRINTING MUSEUM, Houston, USA.

Changing Language, Changing Worlds is the collaborative work by Beirut-based, Lebanese graphic artist, Pascal Zoghbi and local graffiti artist, DUAL.  They designed and executed the typographical mural for the museum’s western exterior wall, creating a dialogue amongst artists of different ethnicities and nationalities, as well as different artistic backgrounds.  This pilot project for the museum was intended to engage existing and new audiences, including the surrounding neighborhood and the Arab-American community in Houston.  This project, while serving to bridge communities, also serves to bridge the divide between languages, written and spoken.
 

The mural is centered along Zoghbi’s hand drawn and digitally rendered calligraphic script, executed in black latex paint. The Arabic script is written and read from right to left. Intertwined with the Arabic lettering is the English translation, which reveals in vibrant, interchanging colors the project’s title “Changing Language, Changing Worlds”. The shapes of the Arabic letters are altered depending on their position in the word as can be seen in the different renderings of the Arabic word for “changing”.

DUAL’s letters, in magenta and cyan, are inspired from American sign painting traditions. He creates letterforms that are distinct and legible, but stylized. His work incorporates visual irony in his use of CMYK and halftoning effects, which reference the technical characteristics of printing. He explains that the first word “Changing” is based on a serif typeface, while the second and fourth words “Languages” and “Worlds” are inspired from the font-type Helvetica with a beveled inflection. The third word, also “Changing”, has a southwestern influence apropos to Houston. Similar to the disappearance of calligraphic shop signs in the Arab world, DUAL, like his Arab contemporaries, is keeping alive the tradition of sign painting through his reinterpreted letterforms and graffiti.

In contrast, Zoghbi’s writing is based on the calligraphic tradition deeply rooted in Arabic culture.  Inspired from the archaic Kufic script, an ancient writing often used in copying the Qur’an from the 8th through the 10th centuries, his lettering resurrects a style that has been marginalized by the predominance of printed culture.  With the introduction of western printing technologies in the 16th century, the secular and more common cursive styles were adapted as typefaces for spreading religious and political information throughout Arab countries.  Through the development and advancement of digital technologies, the means of type design has become more flexible and affordable bringing type design closer to the hands of Arab designers, as opposed to western manufacturers who primarily made type based on Latinized versions of fonts.  The Kufic style is now being revived and reclaimed by contemporary Arabic graphic designers, such as Zoghbi, and reinterpreted into new fonts for a changing Arabic world. 

 
Ultimately, the printed word, whether made manifest by hand or machine, is a major mechanism of communication.  Letters are not only written elements of an alphabet that combine to form words, they are symbols of larger cultural narratives.  The style and means by which a message is conveyed represents broader histories and meanings—often the social, political, and economic forces at play in societies.  Subsequently, this mural engages, as well as challenges the museum’s mission, which is “to promote, preserve, and share the knowledge of printed communication and art as the greatest contributors to the development of the civilized world and the continuing advancement of freedom and literacy.”

This mural commission is in conjunction with the exhibition Contemporary Arabic Graffiti and Lettering: Photographs of a Visual Revolution, on view at The Printing Museum through September 13, 2014.  Inspired from the 2011 publication Arabic Graffiti written by Don Stone Karl and Pascal Zoghbi, the exhibition of 30 photographs examines how contemporary Arabic graffiti artists, mostly from Middle Eastern descent, are reviving and reinterpreting Arabic letter forms into a new graphic style, creating lettering and typography that is becoming a part of an increasingly globalized design field and practice.
 

The Changing Language, Changing Worlds mural project is underwritten by Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA), which is supported by public, local, state, and federal agencies, as well as private contributors. Addi­tional support is provided by the Arab-American Cultural and Community Center (ACC) of Houston, and the American Institute of Graphic Artists, (AIGA) Houston. Major support for The Printing Museum operations and programming is provided by the Houston Endowment, Inc., The Wortham Foundation, Inc., The Brown Founda­tion, Inc., and Mid-America Arts Alliance. The Printing Museum is funded by grants from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. Additional support is generously provided by the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, the Kinder Morgan Foundation, the Albert and Ethel Hersztein Foundation, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, CenterPoint Energy, Clampitt Paper, InfoVine Inc., Copy.Com, Spindletop Design, and Whole Foods Market.
 

*Unfortunately, due to a broken foot, Pascal Zoghbi was unable to travel to the U.S. for the execution of the mural.  He hopes to visit Houston at the end of August or early September to deliver his lecture “Arabic Type Now:  Contemporary Letters Inspired from Archaic Manuscripts”.  Dates and time are to be determined.  Please visit The Printing Museum’s website http://www.printingmuseum.org for more details.
 

29LT Zeyn is an elegant, contemporary Arabic and Latin typeface. Each weight contains 900-plus glyphs covering the Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Western European languages. The Arabic set contains an extensive set of ligatures in addition to short and long stylistic sets to give the font an added elegant appeal and feel.

Zeyn «زين» is an Arabic word meaning beautiful, graceful, and elegant.

Arabic character set designed by Pascal Zoghbi from 29LT. Latin Character set designer by Ian Party from SwissTypefaces.

The Zeyn type family of four weights (Light, Regular, Medium and Bold) are derived from the corporate typefaces created in 2010 for Shawati’ Magazine, the cultural magazine about the United Arab Emirates.

The Arabic is inspired from both Naskh and Thuluth calligraphic styles, while the Latin is drawn based on the Modern Serif Roman style. The letterforms are drawn with extreme refinement and high contrast between the thick and thin pen strokes that unveil modernity in a stylish approach. The Arabic and Latin were created simultaneously and without any sacrifice from one script on behalf of the other. The elements that bring both scripts together are the design approach, the proportions, the weight, and the contrast.

We designed each letter in a special way, making sure that they all had the extreme thick and extreme thin pen strokes. The extreme contrast was coupled with strong cuts and edges to give the font a strong and crispy feel. We drew the Arabic letters with a free approach. We cut the letterforms’ descenders in an elegant, thin open stroke instead of curving back into the main figure of the letter. We created the loop structures in the letters in an original manner with extra extended strokes with thin endings, as opposed to the traditional fully circular or triangular approach.

29LT Posters designed by Reza Abedini. Each poster is designed with one of 29LT fonts.

29LT multilingual fonts (Arabic/Latin) were offered to the renowned Iranian graphic designer Mr. Reza Abedini to experiment with and create typographic posters for each of the typefaces.

I became friends with Reza in 2008 and later-on colleagues at AUB (American University of Beirut). Since then, we always thought of what kind of collaboration we can collaborate on, but constantly busy schedules postponed our intentions and willingness.

29LT Posters were made available for the first time at Nuqat Design conference 2014 via The Yard bookstore.

29LT Azer Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Azer Type-Family

Azer’s asymmetrically modern characters connect to infuse a reassuring presence to your text‭.‬
حروف‭ ‬آزر‭ ‬الحديثة‭ ‬المتباينة‭ ‬تنضمّ‭ ‬فتضفي‭ ‬لمسةً‭ ‬مريحةً‭ ‬على‭ ‬نصّكم‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم
Help‭, ‬support  ‬والعون ،‭ ‬والمساعدة،‭ ‬المساندة

Category الفئة
Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ
Naskh النّسخ

Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ 
Sans Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سان‭ ‬سريف

29LT Bukra Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Bukra Type-Family

Bukra’s geometric structure sheds the frills to deliver your clear corporate message‭.‬
هيكلة‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬بكرا‭ ‬الهندسيّة‭ ‬تتخلّص‭ ‬من‭ ‬أيّ‭ ‬تكلّف‭ ‬لتزويدكم‭ ‬بالتّالي‭ ‬برسالة‭ ‬تجاريّة‭ ‬واضحة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم
Tomorrow ‬غدًا‭

Category الفئة
Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ
Kufic الخطّ‭ ‬الكوفيّ

Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ 
Sans Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سان‭ ‬سريف
‭
 

29LT Kaff Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Kaff Type-Family will be available in early 2015.

29LT Makina Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Makina Type-Family

Makina stands out of its display frame by recreating the charm of typewriting‭.‬
‭ ‬إنّ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬ماكينة‭ ‬يبرز‭ ‬من‭ ‬إطار‭ ‬عرضه‭ ‬عبر‭ ‬استرجاع‭ ‬سحر‭ ‬الطّباعة‭ ‬على‭ ‬الآلة‭ ‬الكاتبة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم
Machine ماكينة

Category الفئة
Text type خطّ‭ ‬محتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ
Simplified Naskh النّسخ‭ ‬المبسّط

Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ 
Mono-linear‭ & ‬mono-width type خطّ‭ ‬ذو‭ ‬سماكة‭ ‬وعرض‭ ‬متساوييْن

29LT Massira Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Massira Type-Family
Massira is the typeface that refuses confinement and projects the destabilizing urgency of change‭.‬
مسيرة‭ ‬يُعتبر‭ ‬خطّاّ‭ ‬يرفض‭ ‬الأسر‭ ‬ويعكس‭ ‬ضرورة‭ ‬التّغيير‭ ‬الملحّة‭ ‬والقاطعة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم
Demonstration‭, ‬march مظاهرة،‭ ‬ومسيرة

Category الفئة
Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ
Ruq’a خطّ‭ ‬الرّقعة

29LT Zarid Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Zarid Type-Family will be available in early 2015.

29LT Zeyn Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Zeyn Type-family

With its fleeting edges and graceful drift‭, ‬Zeyn permeates the authentic tradition of the cursive‭.‬
‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬زين‭ ‬يعزّز‭ ‬تقليد‭ ‬الأحرف‭ ‬المتّصلة‭ ‬الأصيل،‭ ‬وذلك‭ ‬فضلاً‭ ‬لحافاته‭ ‬الخاطفة‭ ‬وانحرافه‭ ‬الجميل‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم
Beautiful‭, ‬elegant‭, ‬graceful ‬وفاتن ،‭ ‬وراقٍ،‭ ‬جميل

Category الفئة
Display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ
Hybrid Naskh/Thuluth خطّ‭ ‬هجين‭ ‬النّسخ‭/‬الثّلث

Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ 
Modern Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سريف‭ ‬حديث

HOROUF DESIGN COMPETITION Hosted by NUQAT and 29Letters

مسابقة حروف لتصميم الخطوط تقدّمها نقاط و٢٩ حرف

First annual edition, November 12, 2014

المسابقة السنوية الأولى,  12 نوفمبر 2014

 Summary of proceedings ملخّص عن الإجراءات :

Facilitator: Pascal Zoghbi (see last section for bio)

الميسّر: باسكال زغبي (راجع القسم الأخير للسيرة الذاتية)

Location: Al Amricani Cultural Center

المكان: مركز الأمريكاني الثقافي

Summary الملخّص :

The Horouf Competition was launched as a social design initiative with the aim of developing Arabic type design and advancing the practice of professionals in the field. In addition to the creation of exciting new fonts for use across mediums, by setting the challenge of designing a font with both Latin and Arabic scripts, the Horouf competition hopes to play a key role in facilitating and encouraging bilingual publications and promoting understanding and creative expression across languages.

تم إطلاق مسابقة حروف كمبادرة تصميم إجتماعية بهدف تطوير تصميم الخطوط العربية وتعزيز ممارسة تلك المهنة في هذا المجال. بالإضافة الى ابتكار خطوط جديدة واستخدامها في مختلف الوسائل، من خلال تحدّي المشتركين لتصميم خط باللغتين اللاتينية والعربية، تسعى مسابقة حروف الى أن تلعب دورا” أساسيا” في تسهيل وتشجيع إصدار المنشورات الثنائية اللغة بالإضافة الى ترويج التفاهم والتعبير الإبداعي في مختلف اللغات.

The jury members noted that some of the type design entries put forward by professionally trained designers were more consistent and technically sound in their understanding of typographic elements, but seemed reserved in terms of the iconoclasm and innovation in their overall approach. The less experienced designers put forward some of the fresher approaches, but were less consistent in the execution of their visions which made it difficult to envision a full application of the overall type design.

أشار أعضاء لجنة التحكيم أنّ تصاميم الخطوط التي قدّمها المصمّمون المحترفون بدت أفضل من الناحية التقنية ولكنّها افتقرت الى الابتكار. أمّا التصاميم التي قدّمها المصمّمون الأقل خبرة فكانت أكثر ابتكارا” ولكنّها افتقرت الى الطابع التقني ممّا خلق صعوبات في تخيّل الخط بمختلف أشكاله.

Whilst the jurors are all excited to take part in the very first annual Horouf design competition for typography design, they agree that this year’s entries left much to be desired in terms of innovation and technical execution. This is reflected by their reluctance to award any first prizes. With their winning selections they expressed the hope to reward and encourage the spirit of creativity in the field of Latin and Arabic typeface design and more rigorous work in the field at large.

مع الرغم من حماس أعضاء لجنة الحكم للمشاركة في أوّل مسابقة حروف لتصميم الخطوط السنوية، إنّهم يوافقون على أنّ التصاميم المقدّمة تحتاج الى الكثير من الابتكار والتنفيذ التقني بعد. ولقد بدا ذلك من خلال ترددهم في تحديد فائزين بالمراتب الأولى. من خلال اختيارهم للفائزين، لقد عبّروا عن هدفهم في مكافأة وتشجيع حسّ الإبداع في مجال تصميم الخطوط العربية واللاتينية وفي مجال التصميم ككل.

On the whole, the Horouf Competition as initiated by Nuqat and 29 Arabic Letters models the intention to create more engaging and beautiful dual-language media and to stimulate the Arabic type design community.

باختصار، تم إطلاق مسابقة حروف من قبل نقاط و٢٩حرف من أجل خلق وسائل إعلام جديدة تتميّز بالتفاعل وثنائية اللغة ومن أجل تحفيذ المجتمع على التصاميم العربية.

Goals of Horouf Competition as a social design initiative:

أهداف مسابقة حروف كونها مبادرة تصميم إجتماعية :

• Give the recognition for professional non-latin type designers.
• Encourage talented designers to pursue their type design skills and passion.
• Enable amateur designers to finalize their fonts and publish them professionally.
• Increase the number of professional Arabic/Latin fonts in the MENA region.
• Spread awareness about the type design profession and the importance of typefaces in the visual communication field.

•  تقدير المصممين المتخصصين في تصميم الخطوط الغير اللاتينية

• تشجيع المصممين الموهوبين على تطوير شغفهم ومهاراتهم في التصميم

• ًإعطاء الفرصة لمصممين غير محترفين كي يتمموا خطوطهم وينشروها رسميا

• زيادة عدد الخطوط العربية/اللاتينية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط

• نشر الوعي عن مهنة تصميم الخطوط وأهميتها في مجال التواصل البصري

Judging criteria معايير التحكيم :

As agreed upon by the jury, a winning font will achieve the following criteria:

بحسب ما تم الاتفاق عليه من قبل لجنة الحكم، يجب على الخط الرابح أن :

• Clearly legible and pleasing to the eye in both Latin and Arabic iterations
• Demonstrate a creative, fresh and relatively new take on typography (especially in Arabic)
• Technically sound, proportional and consistent in its typographic elements including: kern, use of serifs, spacing, stems, tails, etc.
• Latin and Arabic font iterations are visually complementary and cohesive in their design
• Encourage and inspire further experimentation in the field of type and graphic design

• يكون سهلا” للقراءة ومريحا” للنظر في اللغتين اللاتينية والعربية

• (يتميّز بخصائص مبتكرة في مجال تصميم الخطوط (خاصّة باللغة العربية

• تكون بنيته منطقية ومتناسقة في ما يتعلّق بمختلف العناصر المطبعية

• يظهرالأحرف اللاتينية والعربية وكأنّها تكمل بعضها بصرياً في طريقة تصميمها

• تشجيعوإلهام المزيد من الاختبارات في مجال تصميم الخطوط وتصميم الغرافيك

Winning designs التصاميم الفائزة :

Change by Sultan Mohammad (2nd place Type Design)

Baldufa by Ferran Milan (3rd place Type Design)

(The following text and images are from the participant)     

Baldufa is a charming typeface with strong personality, which looks very comfortable in text. There is a search to obtain complicated curves and detailed features, which give the typeface a touch of beauty and elegance. However, this is also a self-conscious design that claims appreciation for quirkiness and human imperfection through the rounded serifs and irregular vertical stems.

The typeface family is also a multi script project, containing Latin and Arabic scripts. The Latin consists of Regular, Bold and Italic styles, including Small Caps and many other typographic features. Whereas Arabic Naskh includes Regular and Bold weights. The whole family has been designed to work harmoniously together to help to produce catalogues and small publications of cultural content. We believe that Baldufa is a tiny but nice contribution to build bridges between cultures and this make us very happy.

The letterforms in the Latin are inspired by the slight distortions and idiosyncrasies that came with old printing methods. It has distinct, features such as rounded serifs, irregular vertical streams, ink traps and extremely thin junctions. In the Italic, serifs have been removed to enhance movement and expressivity. These experiments in form have not come at the cost of legibility: The typeface remains suitable for both small and display text.

To certain extent, the design of the Arabic gathers the same interest for experimentation than its Latin companion. Baldufa Arabic respects the basic features of Arabic script such as thick stokes in the baseline, multiple vertical axis, genuine stem modulation and good linking between words.  However, it steps away from traditional Calligraphic Style. It has rounded top terminals and the traditional contrast between curves and straight stokes has been softened. Letter shapes sometimes slightly differs from tradition in order to obtain more expressivity. Overall, Arabic has been designed to acquire the same elegant and quirky aspect of the Latin.

Zamalka by Ahmad Al Hindi (3rd place Graphic Design)

(The following text and images are from the participant)

Zamalka is initially a bilingual (Arabic – Latin) typeface, most probably will extend to (Farsi). The Arabic font is Kufi based and combines elegance, originality, strength, and modernity in its construction. The Latin font is a condensed sans-serif with crisp, straight cuts. The font has three weights (Light, Regular, and Bold), and it takes its name from a lovely place in Syria that is very dear to me.

One of the features of traditional Arabic letters is that some letters have an almond-like or leaf-like shape. To capture that, I have tilted some of the edges of the letterforms and closed shapes. These little angled lines that are incorporated throughout most of the letters are probably one of the things that give the Zamalka font a new touch or look. Having said that, the font still maintains straight, elegant, modern, and clean cuts at an overall level.

With little inspiration derived from a few Latin fonts, Zamalka Latin was actually built based on the Arabic letterforms, but used less of the slanted lines common to Arabic due to the nature of the Latin type used. Still, the match between the two  worlds works quite well in terms of density, flow, attitude, and overall personality.

I believe that when the font is ready and published, graphic and brand designers will thoroughly enjoy using this type, as it is very suitable for bilingual typographic design and for corporate brand visual communication.

فونت زملكا مبدأياً هو فونت (عربي-لاتيني)، وسيتم على الأرجح توسيعه ليشمل (فارسي)، الفونت العربي مبني على أساس «كوفي»، ويجمع في تركيبته بين القوة والأصالة، مع الأناقة والحداثة، بينما الفونت اللاتيني هو فونت مطاول، ذو حواف نضرة مستقيمة أنيقة.

هناك ثلاث أوزان للفونت (رفيع، عادي، عريض)، واسمه مستوحى من بلدة في سوريا عزيزة على قلبي.

إحدى معالم الأحرف العربية التقليدية هو الشكل المغزلي أو اللوزي الذي يميز بعض الأحرف، لهذا حاولت إمالة بعض حواف الأحرف والأشكال المغلقة، وربما تكون هذه الحواف المائلة الموجودة في أغلب الأحرف هي سبب تميز خط زملكا بهذه النكهة الجديدة. وبناءً على ما سبق نستطيع القول أن الفونت في مظهره العام يحافظ على الاستقامة والأناقة والحداثة والحواف المهذبة.

أما فيما يخص اللاتيني، فقد تم إنشاؤه بناءً على الأحرف العربية بالمجمل، مع الاقتباس البسيط من بضع فونتات لاتينية حديثة، ولكن تطلب الأمر تخفيف من الحواف المائلة عن العربي، وذلك ليخدم طبيعة الأحرف اللاتينية، ولكن النتيجة كانت انسجام وتناغم جيد جداً بين العربي واللاتيني على عدة أصعدة كالكثافة البصرية، وانسياب الأحرف وحركتها، وشخصيتها البصرية بشكل عام.

أعتقد أنه عندما يتم إنهاء الفونت ونشره سيرغب الكثير من مصممي الغرافيك والـ «branding» في استخدامه، ولاسيما أنه مناسب جداً للتشكيلات الحروفية باللغتين، وللكثير من التصاميم الاحترافية غيرها.

Strengths and weaknesses of winning designs قوّة وضعف التصاميم الفائزة :

Change by Sultan Mohammad (2^nd place Type Design)

Strength قوّته :

• Proposes an original new Arabic font
• Demonstrates innovative point of view
• Possibility for wide range of popular applications
•  خط عربي جديد وخلّاق
•  يظهر نظرة مبتكرة
• إمكانية كبيرة لتطبيقه في مجالات شعبية

 Weakness ضعفه :

• Arabic and English versions could be more complementary
• English version needs more technical work: jury suggests the tails on
• Latin letters be shorter OR cursive.
• ًكان  من المستحسن جعل الحرفين العربي واللاتيني أكثر تكاملا
• تستوجب النسخة الانكليزية المزيد من التدقيق التقني: تقترح لجنة التحكيم أن تكون الذيول على الأحرف
• اللاتينية أقصر أو مخطوطة

Baldufa by Ferran Milan (3^rd place Type Design)

Strength قوّته :

• Strong and clear concept with highly legible and friendly font
• Demonstrates creative point of view
• فكرة قوية وواضحة مع خط مقروء ومريح للنظر
• يظهر نظرة مبتكرة

 Weakness ضعفه :

• Accents on Latin letter are disproportionately large
• Arabic version is too close in style with pre-existing fonts
• الحركات على الحروف اللاتينية كبيرة بشكل غير متناسب
• ًالنسخة العربية متشابهة كثيراً مع خطوط موجودة مسبقا

Zamalka by Ahmad Al Hindi (3^rd place Graphic Design)

Strength قوّته :

• Latin and Arabic scripts are generally complementary
• Demonstrates creative point of view
• الحروف العربية واللاتينية متكاملة
• يظهر نظرة مبتكرة

 Weakness ضعفه :

• Latin version has problems with some letter heights, widths and slants, especially the w’s
• Arabic version is missing the serifs that the Latin font has
• مشاكل في النسخة اللاتينية بخصائص بعض الأحرف من ارتفاع وعرض وميول
• غياب الخطوط الرقيقة من النسخة العربية بينما هي موجودة في النسخة اللاتنية

Particular remarks ملاحظات عامّة :

• The diversity of candidates was noted, with the jury appreciating the participation of designers from a number of different levels of expertise applied, including university students and design firms.

  لوحظ تنوّع المشتركين كما قدّرت لجنة التحكيم مشاركة المصممين من مختلف مستويات الخبرات التطبيقية بما فيها تلاميذ الجامعات وموظّفين الشركات.

• The pool of graphic design entries lacked boldness on the whole, and suggestions were made that some of the entries should be considered as type designs and NOT as graphic ones.

  افتقرت التصاميم ككل الى الجرأة كما أنّه بعض الأعمال المقدّمة تتناسب أكثر مع فئة تصميم الخطوط وليس تصميم الغرافيك.

Outstanding debates مناقشات قائمة :

• Does collaboration make final products too neutral? Are individual signatures lost in when large teams are behind font designs, due to compromise and negotiation of differing design visions and aesthetics?

  هل يجعل التعاون من المنتج النهائي معتدلا”؟ هل تُفقَد لمسة كل فرد عندما يتشارك عدد من المصممين على عمل ما بسبب التنازلات والتفاوض في ما يخص اختلاف وجهات النظر؟

Further hopes for next year’s competition تمنّيات للمسابقة في السنة المقبلة :

• Participation from more professional and qualified type designers, design firms and teams

  مشاركة أكبر من قبل مصممين متخصصين وشركات تصميم وأفرقاء

• Replacing the existing categories (type vs. graphic design) with alternative categories: Arabic type design vs. bilingual, unified Arabic/Latin type design

  تبديل الفئات الحالية (تصميم خطوط وتصميم غرافيك) بأخرى: تصميم خطوط عربية وتصميم خطوط ثنائية اللغة أي عربية/لاتيية

• PresentationoftheHorouf exhibition to accommodate a larger pool of entries with a larger exhibition with accompanying catalog

  عرض أعمال حروف لاستقطاب مشاركة أوسع مع معرض أكبر مرفق بكتالوغ

Jury Bios عن أعضاء لجنة الحكم :

Huda AbiFarès هدى أبي فارس

Khatt Foundation (LB/NL) منظّمة خط (لبنان/هولندا)

Creative Director مديرة إبداع

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the founding creative director of the Khatt Foundation (www.khtt.net). Author of Arabic Typography (2001), Typographic Matchmaking (2007), Typographic Matchmaking in the City (2011), and Arabic Type Design for Beginners (2013). She holds an MFA in graphic design from Yale University School of Art and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She taught typography and design in the US, Europe and the Middle East since 1994. She specializes in typographic design and research. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Leiden University.

إنّ هدى سميتشويزن أبي فارس هي مؤسِسة منظّمة خط (www.khtt.net) ومديرها الإبداعي. ألّفت كل من (Arabic Typography (2001 و Typographic Matchmaking (2007 و (Typographic Matchmaking in the City (2011 و (Arabic Type Design for Beginners (2013 . حازت على شهادة الماجستير في التصميم الجرافيكي من جامعة ييل للفنون وشهادة البكالوريوس من كلية رود آيلاند للتصميم. علّمت تصميم الخطوط في الولايات الماحدة وأوروبا والشرق الأوسط منذ عام 1994. إنّها متخصصة في تصميم الخطوط والأبحاث. إنّها تعمل في الوقت الحاضر على شهادة الدكتوراه في جامعة ليدن.

Mouneer Al-Shaarani منير الشعراني

Arabic Calligrapher & Artist (SY) خطاط باللغة العربية وفنان (سوريا)

Born in 1952, Mouneer Al-Shaarani studied calligraphy since he was ten, by the most important Syrian calligrapher, Badawi Al Dirani. He later continued his studies in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus. Having numerous exhibitions east and west, and showcasing his works in several museums around the world, such as the Malaysian Museum for Islamic Arts and the British Museum, Al-Shaarani gave birth to a new era of contemporary Arab Calligraphy and became its master by creating new techniques and developing some kinds of traditional old calligraphies. Al-Shaarani’s artistic calligraphies seek a perfection rarely attained by usual dimensions. Al-Shaarani worked as a calligrapher, book and print letter designer. In addition, he published tutorial booklets for six kinds of Arab calligraphy. As an art critic, Al-Shaarani wrote a number of articles, some of which are about the Arab Islamic art. He also worked as consultant for the International Arab Encyclopedia supplying it with information and materials on Arab writing, calligraphy and famous Arab calligraphers.Al-Shaarani had a solo exhibition in Ayyam Gallery in January 2008 and released a book depicting his works and experience.

ولد منير الشعراني عام 1952 وبدأ بتعلّم تصميم الخطوط في العاشرة من عمره على يد أهمّ خطّاطي سوريا، بدوي الديراني. أكمل دراسته في كلّية الفنون الجميلة في دمشق. تعرض أعماله في معارض في الشرق والغرب وفي متاحف في مختلف أنحاء العالم منها متحف ماليزيا للفنون الإسلامية والمتحف البريطاني. بدأ الشعراني عصرا” جديدا” للخط العربي المعاصر إذ أنّه أتقنه باحتراف وأضاف عليه الخط التقليدي. عمل الشعراني كمصمم خطوط وكتب كما أنه نشر كتيّبات عن أنواع الخطوط العربية الستة. كونه ناقد فني، كتب الشعراني عدد من المقالات منها ما يتضمّن مواضيع عن الفن الاسلامي. عمل أيضا” كمستشار في الموسوعة العربية العالمية مقدّما” معلومات ومواد عن الكتابة العربية والخط العربي والخطاطين العرب. أقام الشعراني معرضا” في كاليري الأيام في يناير 2008 كما أنّه نشر كتابا” يتضمّن أعماله وخبراته.

Patrick Giasson باتريك جياسون

Loose Atom (UK) لوز أتوم (المملكة المتحدة)

Type Designer مصمم خطوط

Born in Montreal, Canada, Patrick trained as a graphic designer before focusing on typographic design. He relocated to London, UK, in 2001 to join the branding agency Wolff Olins as in­house Type Designer. After completing a MA in Typeface Design at the University of Reading in 2004, he joined the UK office of Monotype where he worked as a Senior Type Designer for the following eight years. He set up his own type design studio in 2012.

ولد باتريك في مونتريال في كندا وتعلّم التصميم الغرافيكي قبل التركيز على تصميم الخطوط. انتقل الى لندن، المملكة المتحدة في عام 2001 ليلتحق بشركة التصميم “وولف أولينز” كمصمم خطوط. تخرّج من جامعة القراءة في عام 2004 مع شهادة الماجيستير في تصميم الخطوط ثم التحق بمكتب مونوتايب في المملكة المتحدة حيث عمل كمصمم خطوط لمدة ثماني سنوات. أسس في عام 2012 استديو التصميم الخاص به.

Peter Bil’ak بيتر بيلاك

 Typotheque (CS/NL) تيبوتيك (تشيكوسلوفاكيا/هولندا)

Type designer and professor مصمم خطوط وأستاذ

Peter Biľak has created typefaces in various scripts including Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and Syriac for a variety of clients including Google, Al Itihad, Turner Broadcasting, the Times of London and the Serpentine Gallery. Peter works in the field of editorial, graphic, and type design, teaches at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He started Typotheque in 1999, Indian Type Foundry in 2009, and *Works That Work* magazine in 2012. For his contribution to non­Latin typography, he was named one of the 12 Game Changers by Metropolis magazine in 2012.

صمم بيتر خطوط في مختلف اللغات منها اللاتينية والعربية والسيريلية واليونانية والسريانية لمجموعة كبيرة من العملاء بما فيها غوغل وشركة الاتحاد وتيرنز للبث وتايمز أوف لندن ومعرض أفعواني. يعمل بيتر بيلاك في مجال التحرير وتصميم الغرافيك وتصميم الخطوط، كما أنّه يعطي دروسا” في الأكاديمية الملكية للفنون في لاهاي. أسس تيبوتيك في عام 1999 ومؤسسة الخط الهندية في عام 2009 ومجلة “وورك ذات وورك” في عام 2012. ظهر إسمه من بين من ساهم في تصميم الخطوط غير اللاتينية وذلك في مجلة ميتروبوليس في عام 2012.

Facilitator ميسّر :

Pascal Zoghbi باسكال زغبي

Pascal Zoghbi, Arabic Type Designer and Typographer, is the founder of “29 Arabic Letters”, an Arabic Type Design and Typography firm in Beirut. His design work ranges from creating new Arabic fonts, corporate identities and print publications. Since 2006, after his graduation from the Type & Media course at The Royal Academy of Arts in The Netherlands with a Master of Design, Pascal was involved in an impressive collection of new Arabic type design projects. He has created contemporary Arabic fonts for leading Middle Eastern Newspapers, urban places, art events & magazines, software and several other companies. Pascal took part of the Typographic Matchmaking 01 and 02 projects organized by The Khatt Foundation. He has been teaching typography and type design courses at graphic design schools in American University of Beirut AUB, Lebanon at Lebanese American University LAU and Notre Dame University NDU and since 2006. He frequently gives lectures and workshops about Arabic type and typography and he runs a blog about Arabic type and typography. He recently co-authored and edited the “Arabic Graffiti” book that is published by “From Here To Fame” in Berlin.

باسكال زغبي هو مصمّم خطوط عربية وخطّاط، أسّس شركة 29 Arabic Letters لتصميم الخطوط العربية في بيروت. تتضمّن أعماله تصميم خطوط عربية جديدة وابتكار هويات للشركات والمنشورات المطبوعة. منذ أن حاز على شهادة الماجستير في التصميم في العام 2006 من كلّية الخطوط ووسائل الاعلام في الأكاديمية الملكية للفنون في هولندا وهو يعمل على ابتكار خطوط عربية جديدة رائعة. صمّم خطوط عربية معاصرة لأهمّ الصحف في الشرق الأوسط ولأماكن حضرية ونشاطات فنية ومجلات وبرامج وغيرها من الشركات. شارك باسكال في مشروع «المزاوجة التيبوغرافية للخطّ الطباعي العربي» بجزئيه الأول والثاني الذي نظّمته مؤسسة خطّ. يعطي باسكال صفوفاً في تصميم الخطوط والتخطيط في مدارس التصميم في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت والجامعة اللبنانية الأميركية وجامعة سيدة اللويزة منذ العام 2006. كثيرا” ما يلقي محاضرات ويقوم بورش عمل حول تصميم الخط العربي، كما أنّه خلق صفحة إلكترونية موضوعها الخط العربي. شارك باسكال مؤخرا” في تأليف وتحرير كتاب “Arabic Graffiti” الذي أصدرته دار النشر From Here To Fame (من هنا الى الشهرة) في برلين.

29LT Kaff multilingual typeface in 8 weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold and Black)

29LT Kaff is a contemporary typeface family designed by Pascal Zoghbi of 29Letters (29LT) and Ian Party of Swiss Typefaces, in which the Arabic and Latin letterforms were created simultaneously. Its name is taken from an Arabic word meaning ‘adequate, sufficient, necessary and essential’. Kaff’s family of eight weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Semi Bold and Black) is designed to be the suitable typeface that answers the need of designers and publishers in most of their typographic projects.

29LT Kaff multilingual fonts each includes 1150-plus glyphs that accommodate Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Western and Eastern European languages.

It is the corporate typeface as well as a sleek fashionable typeface. A font set suitable for the everyday use for any kind of project. A realist design approach in a sense of creating a neutral Arabic and Latin typeface. Each weight includes 1150-plus glyphs that accommodate Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Western and Eastern European languages.

29LT Kaff multilingual typeface in 8 weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold and Black)

The Arabic character set, designed by Zoghbi, is inspired from the Naskh calligraphic styles, while the Latin, designed by Party, is based on a neo-grotesque sans serif roman style. It is type family created for maximum legibility and easy usability. The letterforms are drawn with extreme refinement and low contrast between the thick and thin pen strokes.

29LT Kaff multilingual typeface is suitable for the everyday use for any kind of project. A realist design approach in a sense of creating a neutral Arabic and Latin typeface.

A number of elements bring both scripts together: the design approach, proportions, weight and contrast. Zoghbi and Party didn’t want to sacrifice the value or esthetics of one scripts to the other, hence they approached the same design brief of an adequate typeface from the different aspects of Arabic and Latin scripts. They acknowledged the differences between the two scripts and respect them instead of compromising one for the other.

The Arabic set contains an extensive set of ligatures in addition to stylistic sets and alternates to give the font a more calligraphic character.

The Arabic set contains an extensive set of ligatures in addition to stylistic sets and alternates to give the font a more calligraphic character. These are derived from the Naskh features that calligraphers used for filling the space between words when the text is justified, or simply because it is more aesthetically satisfying. These were added to enhance the script’s ‘essentiality’, and essential is, after all, what Kaff means.

The Arabic set contains an extensive set of ligatures in addition to stylistic sets and alternates to give the font a more calligraphic character.