By Tarek Atrissi

Earlier this year we designed a custom Arabic font for the new BBC Arabic TV channel. A similar yet different project came our way afterwards at Tarek Atrissi Design: Designing a unique Farsi font for the new BBC Farsi TV channel, which will officially start broadcasting later this year.

Above: Preview of the Persian font designed for BBC Farsi, and a preview of its on-screen usage.

Despite dealing with a similar script; and with the same client, the recent Farsi type design project took a very different path from the previous Arabic type project. Certainly, we learned from the process of the Arabic font: Learned more on the process of work with BBC; on the testing and technical issues accompanying the project; and on the context in which the font will be used and the goals it wanted to achieve. We also learned from the simple experience of watching BBC Arabic today, and seeing the outcome of our work “in use” in the daily news reporting. All this of course affected our approach to this similar project, and made us work on it with a supportive experience. Most important, the brief given to us by the Persian Editorial team was very different from the brief of BBC Arabic, if not opposite. The unique font that was required to be developed for BBC Farsi needed to be “subtle”, not visually imposing or with a strong character and being hence “transparent” to the reader and not calling undue attention to it. It needed then to follow the traditional and commonly used Farsi Typefaces in Iran, for it not be a visible and strong change of type style for the average viewer. The typeface still needed to look modern however, despite being inspired from the traditional. It needed to be designed to address a better legibility, particularly on screen resolution, and to work smoothly with the on-screen layout and information design of the new channel, particularly with relatively short ascenders and descenders.

Above: Sketches and images from the process of the Farsi type design project

The result is a new low contrast typeface with a contemporary look and feel and with open counters; optimized for best usage on TV screen; A typeface supporting Arabic and Persian languages, and ideal for usage for good legibility and a subtle modern character. The font is not exclusive for BBC and hence will be take a life on its own, beyond its life on the Farsi News Screen. Details on licensing this typeface will follow shortly.

The post A New Typeface for the BBC Farsi new TV Channel appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

By Tarek AtrissiThe Atrissi-Sans Typeface is quickly taking a life on its own, and I am pleased to see it in use in so many large scale projects across the Arab world. Despite its recent and short release time, Atrissi-Sans font became our best selling Arabic font at Tarek Atrissi Design. The three weights font family was initially designed on a commission and was further developed at later stages and released earlier this year.Al Wataniya airways chose the Atrissi-Sans font for usage as its main communication Arabic typeface, used on al printed, interactive and screen promotional and marketing communication material by the airline. The New Kuwait based airline is the latest new comer to a growing competitive Middle Eastern airline market. Its simple and straight forward identity required the use of geometric yet friendly modern Arabic typeface, which will work well with the Latin font Corbid, and Atrissi-Sans fitted all these requirements.The new branding of the Egyptian Nile Channels (Drama channel, Sports channel, Life channel, Cinema channel) used as well the Atrissi-Sans font for all its on air and off air typographic communication. We have been involved in the design of Arabic fonts for television extensively for the last few years, and with the usage of Arissi-sans on all the channels of the major Egyptian Television network, this typeface is becoming highly visible and making our “on air” typographic presence in Arabia even wider and more exciting, and covering a significant part of northern Africa.The actual logos of all channels used our Al-Ghad Arabic typeface for all the main channels’ signatures.Both Al Ghad typeface and the Atrissi-Sans arabic font can be ordered by contacting us directly at Tarek Atrissi Design.

The post Atrissi-Sans Typeface takes off appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

By Tarek Atrissi

I was glad to take part of the graphic design week in Saudi Arabia, organized by Dar El Hekma college in Jeddah, and witness the first event of its kind in the kingdom. On one hand, discovering the local charm of another Arab city was very exciting on all levels: Looking at the beautiful old areas of Jeddah; documenting the graphics and typography on the streets; and viewing closely wonderful examples of the traditional Hijazi architecture and style. On the other hand, the conference itself, entitled “Tawasol”, was a stimulating event that triggered a considerable local interest. Speakers included high profile international designers, design critics and communication experts such as Jonathan Barnbrook, Tea Triggs, Anja Lutz and Adbusters media foundation.
I personally enjoyed very much the lecture of Lebanese architect and artist Nadim Karam and his concepts and projects often narrating the “dreams of cities”: Projects such as the Archaic Procession urban art installation in Beirut Central District in 1997, a series of gigantic sculptures which I recall positively as a very curious addition to the city during my study years at the American University of Beirut. The talk of UAE national Mohammed Harib was highly appreciated by the audience: He is the creative mind behind the Middle East’s pioneering animated 3D series, Freej, a project celebrating the culture and tradition in the UAE through animated characters that literally became national heroes across the Emirates.

I gave a lecture and a workshop at the conference. The lecture was a critical look on emerging graphic design practice in the Arab world today. The workshop followed the same one day course module I gave in Kuwait a week earlier, consisting of a typographic lettering exercise that invited senior and junior graphic design students to “design” an Arabic word of their choice. Sketching the graphic and typographic endless possibilities of a specific word lead to very interesting results, some of which are previewed below. They ranged between calligraphic solutions, geometric ones, and freehand lettering style.

Selected work from the workshop. Top, right to left: Zainab Al Mashat, Nouf Ahmed Dahran , Marya Bakhsh, Alaa El Khereiji, Amnah Naghi, Amna Kamel.

All in all, I was most impressed I think by seeing the emerging graphic design scene in Saudi Arabia and the motivated young generation of local Saudi female designers highly interested in design and typography. It was not surprising then to pick up a local graphic design magazine, “Design”, initiated by one of the graduates of the graphic design department of Dar El Hekma college.

The post Saudi Graphic Design Week appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

Posted by Tarek Atrissi

For the second year, I will be a guest critic at the School of Visual Art’s workshop in Design History, Theory and practice in Venice and Rome. An exciting two weeks intensive workshop with some of SVA’s top faculty and some guest Italian faculty members. A great opportunity to experience a design course from SVA in a European context. More info on the workshop can be seen on the following link http://design.sva.edu/masters_workshop_italy/

The post SVA’s Masters Design workshop in Venice and Rome appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

By Tarek Atrissi

Designers are a particular type of tourists. They travel to get inspired, to experience a foreign design culture that often inspires them in their creative practice and routine. Having lived, worked and studied in different countries, and constantly traveling to be part of design events around the world, I am very well aware of the positive effect that travel has on widening your design practice. It was after all the main reason for my design studio’s focus on cross cultural design. This is why I decided this year to start my first “Nomad office” experiment: Moving the office for one month to a new city, where we continue working and serving our clients as usual, yet benefiting from a new location to explore a new design culture. A one month change of location that allowed us to experience an environment in a slightly deeper way than typically shorter travel visits. Our choice this year was Barcelona, the Catalan capital that magically blends both metropolitan and small-town atmosphere. I share here my top design picks that intrigued and inspired my creative side.

Anonymous Sculpture on Platja de San Sebastian

Barcelona is the city of monumental art. Every city corner seems to have its own beautiful street sculpture: The surrealist “head” sculpture of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein; Rober Llimós’s “Frame” sculpture; Antoni Llena’s curious “David & Goliath” sculpture; Miro’s Dona i Ocell and many many others. My personal favorite monumental street sculpture was by far the one at the Platja de San Sebastian, which to my surprise is an “anonymous” piece of art: It is not clear what the title of the sculpture is, and who is the designer behind it. My investigation with the locals didn’t lead me to any further info. In any case, this beautiful three dimensional design embodies the spirit of the 1992 Olympics games, ever present across the entire city.

Identity system at MareMagnum

You know that a visual identity is complete when even the signage icons are so unique and speak the same consistent visual language as the rest of the design elements. The visual identity at the MareMagnum shopping is such an example of consistent design. The iconic illustrations are recognizable, playful, functional and in line with the logo design and the rest of the identity system.

Els Quatre Gats

This famous Barcelona café might well be a tourist trap. It is in every tourist guide and one of the massively promoted highlights of the city. Yet I was encouraged to visit it because I wanted to see its printed menu, which seems to be designed by Pablo Picasso in one of his first commercial commissions. Picasso’s graphic design skills weren’t unfortunately what I expected. At least not in this menu, where his nice illustration is just stuck on its cover. A practical reminder of the specific differences between the world of fine art and the world of informational and typographic graphic design. The interior of Els Quatre Gats is however what I found most rich. And this relation between the mood of the café and its printed menu is what I wished could be more present: How would the graphic and typographic design of the menu reflect this rich iconic Modernista interior? It seems like a wonderful assignment to give for design students; or a nice challenge for anyone who wants to surpass Picasso in one way or another.

CosmoCaixa Museum

There are so many museums to see in Barcelona and to my surprise my favorite was not a visual arts museum, but the science museum CosmoCaixa. This most visited museum in Europe reflects the best practice of exhibition design: Navigation through the space is well planned and structured. Playful and engaging interactive design station cleverly presents all sorts of fascinating science areas. Information design and graphics are nicely implemented. A must visit for anyone interested in space design and creative experience design.

Billboard campaign

An advertising campaign with a strong graphic approach, good typography choice and simple iconic illustration is something advertising agencies in the Arab World could learn from. I enjoyed seeing this colorful campaign across the streets of the city. The campaign basically warned against penalties imposed on aggressive or inappropriate street actions. In Barcelona, everything fits but no everything is allowed.

Type Republic

As a type and typographic designer, I was obviously interested in researching the local type design scene. My favorite type design source from Barcelona remains Type Republic, founded by designer Andreu Balius. This independent type foundry provide type with a local flavor and even with a wider Mediterranean flavor.

Granja M Viader

Barcelona’s oldest milk bar, this charming cafe feels authentic and is actually delicious. The walls inside Granja M Viader are fully decorated by century-old advertisement. It gives the place a vernacular dimension, rightly reflecting its long history which started back in 1870. Besides enjoying the famous “Cacaolat” drink, the framed historical prints on the wall are a guarantee to keep any designer visually engaged. It is simply like being in a cafe with a special “history of graphic design” theme: Plenty of typographic details to look at; Logos from the 1930s; as well as expressive charming illustrations.

Urban Graphics

The Farmacia Nadal sign is just one of many beautiful examples of charming street typography, graphics and urban art. This specific example might be a very visible one, since it is located on the famous La Rambla street. Yet every corner of every street presents so much hidden street graphics to look at: Shop signs, Pictograms, graffiti, wayfinding icons, door numbers and all kind of real street art. Two books superbly document this. ”Barcelona Grafica”, by America Sanchez, features around 2000 well photographed and documented selected examples of urban graphic art. “Graphicity Barcelona” by Louis Bou, offers as well a visually stunning collection of street graphics.

Santa Caterina Market

It is not surprising to see great architecture in Barcelona. This is after all the city of Gaudi. But what makes the Santa Caterina Market a unique public space is the fact that it combines glorious architecture with a refined taste for colors. The market’s roof wave-like structure is covered a magic carpet of endless colorful ceramic tiles, creating a unique blend of graphical 2D design with 3D architectural design. It simply reflects the actual rich colors inside the market. This is a must see, particularly if you manage to see it from a window or balcony in the surrounding buildings.

There are definitely so many more inspirations from Barcelona. But what I listed above is what topped my notes in my sketch book. For now, next year’s “Nomad office” destination is the main brainstorming topic!

The post Barcelona Design top picks appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

by Tarek Atrissi

Since our start as a design studio, we have been heavily involved in designing original Arabic typefaces, and through our 10 years of design practice at Tarek Atrissi Design, we have left a visible mark on the typographic landscape. Our fonts are to be seen used across the Arab world, in print, on air, on newspaper headlines and as part of elaborate corporate identity systems. The last two years haven’t been an exception: we have designed several corporate and custom Arabic (and bilingual) fonts for different clients, many of which we haven’t posted yet on our blog or website.

One font I am particularly proud of and excited about is the font I am sharing in this blog post. The custom display font for the Arab Museum of Modern Art, “Mathaf”, a new museum opening today in Doha – Qatar through its inaugural exhibition “Sajjil”. The Arabic and Latin font is the result of months of intensive work, and is one of the main components in the visual identity and branding adopted for the museum.

Unlike many of the typical briefs we usually get for designing custom fonts, this typeface design commission for such a high profile organization was really out of the box. It challenged us to put into it the creativity and experimentation that we usually put into self initiated type design projects. The bilingual typeface we were asked to design was more of an artist experimentation: It had to look far from a digital typeface, but rather a hand scribble; a personal signature; a quick spontaneous-looking hand writing that looks more like a scribble taken from an artist’s sketchbook. This request was a particular design challenge. Especially for an Arabic font as anyone would imagine: Creating the illusion of a hand written scribble in a script that has connected letters was a tough task. Which might explain why as a matter of fact there aren’t this sort of digital Arabic fonts available out there.

The design process was very exciting and defined by experimentation. In the first phases of the project we explored all sort of manual lettering work. The focus was on finding the right formula to create a spontaneous writing style, while keeping in mind the challenge of matching the Arabic and Latin parts of the font to communicate the same spirit. There is basically nothing we did not try: Creating metallic brushes from Coca-Cola cans and writing with it; Graffiti writing on large newspaper sheets; Asking extended family to write quickly in charcoal pens; and looking in our archive for collected old Arabic newspapers which still used manual hand calligraphy for typesetting all headlines. Several design rounds made us finally use the outcome of a specific handwriting that filled in our stack of sketches. This material was scanned, digitized, and then developed and refined further to create the basis of the design. Twenty two rounds of presentations were needed to polish the final design. The final character set, particularly in Arabic, included a wide set of ligatures that allowed a more natural flow of the script. The final design echoed in one way or another some of the initial inspirations we used while developing this typeface: street hand made lettering that could be found in different sizes, forms and textures- and that I have for long documented as part of my visual research. Previews of the final font, as well as some selected samples of from the process, are shown as part of the images showcased here.

Above: Preview images of the process development of the design

Without being labeled as an Arabic font with calligraphic features or a font with contemporary typographic features, the Mathaf-script typeface is above all a font reflecting a personal expression. An expression that is maybe typical to any piece present in a Museum of Modern Art.

To me personally, regardless of the final outcome of the design, the simple fact that we were commissioned for this project is a double rewarding honor: On one hand, it is a confirmation that the type of Arabic fonts we have often focused on developing are highly in demand: Fonts designed by graphic designers for graphic designers; fonts that have strong characters and that are ideal for usage in corporate design and branding context, and that are designed to communicate a very specific mood or message. On the other hand, by being asked to take part of visualizing the written voice of “Mathaf”, we are in one way or another given the honor of being part of Arab modern art, typographically speaking at least.

Above: Samples of the font usage within the branding and identity system of Mathaf. Showing the countdown posters for the opening event; application of the font on pins and printed matters; and screenshots from promotional video using the font for on-screen titles.

The post Type Design for the Arab Museum of Modern Art appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

by Tarek Atrissi

One of the main challenges facing a practicing designer is staying creatively inspired and constantly seeking ways to refresh your skills.  Every year, I present myself with various options on how to break my “work routine”, in order to reinvent my design approach and to get new sources of creativity. Last year, I explored the “nomad office” experience. Earlier this year, I took a bolder step with an “educational break;” I put my professional work aside and enrolled in a full time postgraduate typeface design course, the type@cooper program in New York, offered by the Cooper Union University in conjunction with TDC, the Type Directors Club.

I joined the program with a very specific agenda in mind. Continuing education is an absolute must for every designer, and I felt that enrolling in such an intensive program would be refreshing personally and professionally after eight years of continuous professional work in my Netherlands based studio, Tarek Atrissi Design.

I also wanted to expand my horizon in the world of type design, building on my expertise in Arabic type design and getting more in depth knowledge into the key typeface design principles: technique, technology, aesthetics, expression, history, and theory. My goal was to challenge my established working habits, polish some new technical skills, enrich my typographic culture and explore new possibilities in approaching the type of bilingual typeface design commissions I frequently get.
Most importantly, I wanted to build on my academic foundation in support of my parallel teaching career. I have been giving courses and workshops across the Arab world in lettering and Arabic typography, and felt this course would be an enriching source for new classroom material.

The program, with its 162 in-class hours, exceeded promised expectations. Veteran type designer Sumner Stone, former type director at Adobe Systems, was the lead instructor. He focused on the study of letterform – historical to modern – both by practice (drawing and writing) and theory, by offering an excellent lectures series.
The practical focus of the course was a wonderful reminder of the great and necessary benefits of manual sketching in type design.

Uppercase-focused exercises included drawing the skeleton of the letters VERBSGOHUMAN from the Inguvine tablet V, the bronze tablet dating from the second century BC. This gave us a chance to examine the “essential forms” of letters –  in this case from a very specific historic reference. A reminder of the first things the letter-craftsman can do to define the simplest necessary forms that preserve the characteristic structure, distinctiveness, and proportions of each individual letter; before building further on these skeleton forms to render them with a final formal or informal character.

Lowercase-focused studies included writing minuscule letters with the edged pen based on model letterforms written in 1425 by Poggio Bracciolini and experimenting with the order, direction, thickness and angle of the broad edged nib. The most beneficial part of all the manual work was the realization that a hand sketch could be the perfect basis for approaching problematic glyph design while designing a typeface, even when working fully on a digital type-sculpting platform. Taking the habit to draw the letters repetitively before designing it helped tremendously in understanding the structure of the letter and its construction- and in understanding the components that are common to sets of specific letters. These writing exercises were very helpful as well in exploring practical links between Arabic Calligraphy, Arabic Typography, as well as the Latin writing structure. The discussions raised in classes about the challenges of creating a design relationship between the Latin upper case alphabet and its lowercase counterpart echoed to a big extent the challenges existing in any attempt to match the Arabic script to the Latin one within a bilingual design context.

The most exciting part of the type@Cooper experience was with no doubt the access provided to some of the best typographic collections New York City has to offer: The Morgan Library & Museum; The Butler Library at Colombia University; The Grolier Club; and the wonderful collection at the Herb Lubalin typography study center at the Cooper Union. All these collections were incredibly rich with historic type specimens, from both the United States and Europe (plenty of Dutch typographic references that I enjoyed tracing their origins). However, the most valuable find was the wealth of Arabic typographic material available among these collections. Particularly interesting was seeing the original Manuale Tipografico and Bodoni’s original Arabic Type Design, one of 24 different scripts he has worked on in his career.

The access to these historic material raised significant discussions on reviving typefaces, and how one specific source of historical inspiration could be interpreted very differently by different people. In his inspiring lecture on reviving typefaces, Matthew Carter compared type to music: music can’t be reproduced in the exact same way; there are qualities associated with every performance, and each performance of a symphony is a critique of it. Personal interpretation is hence inevitable in any type revival process. The elaborate case study presented by Sumner Stone on the making of ITC Bodoni was an equally enriching in-depth look at the process of reviving Bodoni’s original type.

The technical focus of the course was a chance to advance my font production skills to a new level, with the excellent bulletproof font production trainings provided by some of the key staff at Hoefler & Frere-Jones (Sara Soskolne and Andy Clymer).
This included exploring efficient ways to use the expert’s tricks in Fontlab for creating the most supportive working environment; Looking at the best approaches to properly setting the inter-character spacing of fonts; Great ways to master bezier curves and drawing the smoothest and most agreeable curves for optimized rendering in print and on screen. Most importantly, writing and testing complex Open Type features and looking at typical difficulties in generating and testing fonts, as well as dealing with font naming tables.

Set within such an excellent typographic environment, the resources and support provided for designing type were exceptional. My time in New York was spent mostly drawing letters, and working on the development of a new bilingual font that I will be soon adding to the list of fonts I have designed over the last decade, and have it available on our Arabic Font Shop. A typeface that I got the chance to have it critiqued by some of the world most recognized type designers, including Matthew Carter, Jonathan Hoefler, Ken Barber, among others. More so, it is a typeface project I have been able to allocate a lot of time to; a refreshing privilege since most of the typefaces I create are custom fonts that are needed for branding projects that usually impose challenging and stressful deadlines.
The untitled font is still “work in progress.” It will probably be finalized towards the end of this year. Included below are some basic sneak previews of the design process and how the typeface’s overall character is taking shape. The main concept behind it was challenging conventional solutions adopted when designing a Latin typeface complementing and echoing an Arabic script in spirit; while maintaining the authenticity of each script without being limited by the over-concern of visually matching the appearances of the Latin and Arabic scripts.

The experience at Type@Cooper was an amazing opportunity to work with leading industry practitioners and meet a talented group of type-obsessed design professionals from all around the globe. This was definitely an adventure I was very proud to fit in my incredibly busy working life, allowing me to take part of a pioneering new level of type design education in the US.

Beyond all that, it allowed me the chance once again to promote Arabic Design and Typography by giving a lecture about Arabic Type design at the Cooper Union, for a wide audience interested in non-Latin type, where I showcased the general challenges accompanying Arabic typography design and practices today, with an analysis of the social and cultural dynamics of the modern Arab world and its resulting influence on the Arabic digital letterform design.

The post Never Enough Typography Education: My Type@Cooper Experience appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

Arabic Type design and development remains one of our key areas of focus at Tarek Atrissi Design. This year hasn’t been an exception, and we have worked on a couple of high profile type design projects which we will be showcasing soon (probably by end of the year). Meanwhile, we showcase below a selection of custom and self initiated fonts that we previously designed – between 2008 and 2010- and that we haven’t had the chance yet to preview them on our blog or website.

Alif Alif Font:

Alif Alif typeface was conceived for a new TV and Radio channel in Saudi Arabia. The Arabic and Latin custom designed fonts come in a family of 5 weights: Light, regular, italics, Bold and Extra Bold.
Shown above are samples from the type specimen, and below are samples of the font usage as part of the advertising campaign for the radio channel.

Khoutout Font:

Based on an initial design we have made for a custom Arabic font as part of a TV channel identity system, Khoutout font was significantly adjusted and developed further as a design over the last 3 years to create a visually distinct and recognizable Arabic typeface suitable for use as a display font in corporate identity programs. Khoutout, meaning “lines” in Arabic, is composed out of two parallel lines with a negative white space in between.

It is available for purchase and licensing in our Arabic Font Shop at www.arabictypography.com.

Ahmad Magazine

Starting as a commission to design a custom Arabic typeface for the titles of the Lebanese children’s magazine “Ahmad”, the font is now used as well by Dar Al Hadaek publishing house for book cover titles and as a text font in some selected children’s books. The font, designed in three weights, has a friendly look and feel yet is classic in its overall design and is therefore easy to read for Arabic children. It has been vigorously tested and adjusted over the period of two years based on analyzing published samples of the magazine.

Nokia Arabic:

A custom designed Arabic font for Nokia Middle East and Iran, mostly for use in web, print and outdoor marketing as well as various advertising material. The Arabic font, designed in three weights, was the result of a lengthy design process – defining the needs for Arabic typographic communication at the time while visually balancing the used typographic guidelines of Nokia. Shown below are samples of the font in use, in large outdoor advertising in the streets of Amman, Jordan.

Sagia:

This is a custom Arabic fonts family for Sagia – Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority – consisting of 6 weights. The Arabic typeface was designed as an adaptation for an existing Latin serif font which shares with it a similar weight and features, yet retain its own characteristics as an Arabic script. Below is a type specimen of the font in its varying weights.

Al Hawadi font:

Al Hawadi Arabic typeface consists of two weights, regular and bold. It was a custom design for the King Abdulaziz Economic City in Saudi Arabia, designed to work along with a Latin sans serif font. Previews of the font and the basic character set are shown in the image below.

The post More Arabic Type Design Projects appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

We have designed a new typeface for the Saudi Telecom Group, STC. The bilingual font, Arabic and Latin, is a key component of the branding of STC and was designed in 4 weights (Light, Regular, Bold and Italics). The font is highly visible in Saudi Arabia, as part of the advertising campaigns for STC in print and on the web.

Shown above is a preview from the type specimen, and below are examples from the font in use by STC to promote its services and products.

The post Typeface Design for STC, Saudi Telecom Group appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

by Tarek Atrissi

After several month of hard work, the new branding for al-Jazeera’s Children Channel (JCC) saw the light, under the new name: Jeem Television – تلفزيون جيم. I have been privileged to be involved in this project right from the brainstorming phase for finding the channel’s new name- all the way to fully designing the logo of the new brand as well as the custom bilingual Latin and Arabic typefaces for print and on air usage. A logo design and a type family that I am very proud to add to our portfolio at Tarek Atrissi Design.

“Jeem” is an arabic letter that is the first letter of “Al Jazeera” word, the pan Arab news satellite channel behind the children channel. Working with simply one arabic letter was very challenging for creating the logo, yet it was an interesting challenge as it involved crafting a unique lettering for the “Jeem” (ج) arabic letter. Weeks of sketching explored various lettering approaches to present the isolated form of Jeem in a graphic rendering that makes it “owned” as a brand logo mark.

The final adopted logo design was based on a hand sketch I developed during the sketching phase. The typographic logo had a calligraphic quality and a particularly rounded diacritic dot that became an important part of the brand elements.

The logo took quickly a life as part of the larger visual identity- and was to be seen in various applications directly after the launch: on screen, in giant installations for kids, on interactive screens and of course broadcasting on air. The most exciting part about designing a logo for a TV channel is probably seeing the logo in motion as part of the various animations and indents that are constantly produced for the channel.

In addition to the logo, I have designed a custom exclusive typeface for the TV channel to be used as the brand typographic voice. The new font inspiration started on the basis of the skeletons of a previous unfinished arabic typeface project I worked on in the past; which was further developed as a start for creating the signature / wordmark underneath the logo icon. This arabic lettering, adjusted to be more rounded and complementary to the circular elements in the jeem letter, was the basis to create a matching Latin logo signature. This defined the starting point of the style for the bilingual typeface designed and developed further: characterized by short ascenders and descenders and considered for arabic screen legibility.

Designing for the children industry is actually often very challenging and requires a delicate study for this specific complex target group. This project has been a wonderful opportunity to gain experience further in this industry, particularly because of the larger project group that provided valuable expertise on designing for children: JCC team with their substantial experience to produce content; as well as kids industries and their specialized research and marketing strength. We added to our credentials at Tarek Atrissi Design a new design project in the Middle East / GCC area targeted at the needs of modern Arab children, through a television channel that aims to be loved by children and trusted by parents.

Further images from the logo and type used as part of the new visual identity can be seen in the images included below.

The post Logo and typography design for Jeem TV; the new branding for Al Jazeera Children Channel appeared first on The Blog of Tarek Atrissi: Arabic Type, Typography, Design and Visual Culture.

The Arabic-Handwritten font is, as its name suggests, a typeface that imitates a casual Arabic handwriting. The font was crafted to look like authentic hand scribble, when used in small sizes but also when printed on very large billboards.

Arabic-Handwritten font was designed after the design and success of the Mathaf Script font, the custom typeface that we exclusively designed for the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. The big demand for a typeface similar in concept made us at Tarek Atrissi Design look into designing a new scribble typeface: A typeface that builds on the learning experience we gained in designing the popular Mathaf type. While Arabic-Handwritten is based on the same idea of capturing the hand scribble, it was crafted based on a unique and different handwriting and a Sharpie-like stroke that gave it a completely different flavor than the Mathaf font. Upon the release of the Arabic-Handwritten typeface in 2013, it was immediately licensed by various organizations to be used as part of the branding and advertising material. The Qatar 2022 FIFA world cup committee was of these organizations, using the Arabic-Handwritten typeface in their marketing collaterals. The font is ideal for any design work requiring a handwritten-like typography.

Order your license and download the Arabic-Handwritten typeface on the www.arabictypography.com website.

The post Arabic-Handwritten Typeface appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

Jeem Television is the leading Arab children’s television channel, operating under Al-Jazeera Media Network, the largest news network in the Arab world based in Qatar.

Previously known as JCC (Aljazeera children network), the TV channel fully rebranded in 2013 to appear with a new look that reflects its new goals and strategy (read about the branding project in our branding page). Tarek Atrissi Design was commissioned to design a custom bilingual Arabic and Latin typeface to be used exclusively by the channel.

The font family consisted of three weights and became the typographic voice of the channel. It was designed so that it specifically appeals to the young target group of the channel. At the same time, clear legibility on screen was a key consideration for the design; as well as having the Arabic font simple and easy to read by children below the age of 14.

Both the Latin and Arabic font shared common design characteristics and were design to work well together and be part of one family. The Arabic and Latin scripts shared a similar typographic rhythm, texture and color.

The post Jeem Television Bilingual Typeface Design appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

The arabic@cooper typeface is an Arabic font designed by Tarek Atrissi Design; it is a one weight display font that has been initially designed to be used in the large titles of exhibitions within museums or galleries. It is available for purchase and licensing through the www.arabictypography.com website.

Arabic@cooper explores the relationship between traditional Arabic calligraphy and the modularity of contemporary digital type design. It is the result of a design process that lasted few years and that started originally as part of a lettering project. It was developed further as part of type@cooper educational typeface design program in the cooper union New York. More weights for the font are under development, as well as a Latin counterpart.

Since its release, arabic@cooper has been used by some high profile institutions. As it was originally intended, it was used in several exhibitions as part of large titles and as part of exhibition panels. It was adopted as well in the logo design of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee organizing the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The fonts’ calligraphic details in addition to its geometric simplicity proved to be an excellent choice for usage in logo design and corporate identities.

Order your license of the arabic@cooper typeface on the www.arabictypography.com website

The post Arabic@cooper Arabic Typeface appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

AlGhad font family is one of the best selling fonts designed by Tarek Atrissi Design. The Arabic typeface consists of 4 weights (light, regular, bold and black) and is available for purchase and licensing through the www.arabictypography.com website.

AlGhad font was initially designed in 2004 for al-Ghad newspaper in Amman, Jordan, one the strongest newspapers today in Jordan. The font started as a lettering / logo design project for the Arabic masthead of the newspaper. The logo’s typographic strength became a key complement of the brand’s recognition, and the newspaper commissioned Tarek Atrissi Design to develop further the typeface for use in the headlines of the newspaper.

The font’s popularity lies as well in the versatility of its usage possibility. Its legibility in titles made it appears far beyond newspaper headlines: it was used for headlines on televisions by many Arab TV stations. It was mostly used however in signage and wayfinding systems, particularly because the Arabic font worked very well in combination with classic sans serif Latin typefaces.

Order your license of the Atrissi-alGhad typeface on thewww.arabictypography.com website

The post Al-Ghad Arabic Typeface appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

Atrissi-sans typeface is one of our best selling fonts at Tarek Atrissi Design. Initially designed as a custom font for a corporate identity project, it was eventually released as a typeface publicly available for purchase.

Atrissi-sans is a monolinear Arabic font available in three weights: regular, medium & bold. It is specifically designed so that it works well when used in a bilingual context with some popular sans serif Latin typefaces. It works well with headline titles but has been used as well as a text font because of its legibility at small sizes, due to its minimal geometric letter shapes and it’s very open counters. It is idea for corporate usage as well as for usage on TV screen.

Since its release, many companies have adopted Atrissi-sans typeface as a corporate font across the Middle East. Its most visible usage was as the main font for the branding of Wataniya Airways, the low cost Kuwaiti based airline. The airline used the font in all its branding and marketing communication, as well as in advertising material and on the screens of the inflight entertainment system. The Arabic font for the identity was used as a match to the Latin font Corpid used in airline branding.

Other notable usage of the Atrissi-Sans font is its usage by Al-Nile Egyptian TV channel as part of its on screen identity rebranding in 2007.

The Atrissi-sans font family can be purchased at the Arabic Typography Store of arabictypography.com. To view pricing and licensing options, click here.

The post Atrissi-Sans Arabic font appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

The Atrissi-farsi font is a typeface design by Tarek Atrissi Design and supporting both the Arabic and Persian script. It is available for purchase on the Arabic Typography font shop.

Atrissi-farsi was initially designed as a custom font for BBC Farsi, the Persian service of BBC. Adopted by the TV channel in 2008, the font is still in use today on the Persian news network and broadcasting to target 100 million Persian speaks in Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The font design and development was the result of a long working process together with the BBC Persian television team to create a typeface that appeals to the target group and that addresses key legibility requirements on screen set by the channel upon its launch. The unique font that was required to be developed for BBC Farsi needed to be “subtle”, not visually imposing or with a strong character: the Atrissi-Farsi font was hence “transparent” to the reader and not calling undue attention to it. It follows the traditional and commonly used Farsi Typefaces in Iran, without imposing a strong strong change of type style for the average reader.

Atrissi-farsi typeface is a low contrast typeface with a contemporary look and feel and with open counters; optimized for best usage on TV screen; A typeface supporting Arabic and Persian languages, and ideal for usage for good legibility and a subtle modern character.

The high legibility and neutral character of the typeface became a reason why different brands and publishers adapted this font. Children’s publications used often this font: an example of this is the ToutaTouta children magazine published in Lebanon and targeting children between age 4 and 7, which used the Atrissi-Farsi font for its masthead design.

The post Atrissi-Farsi TV channel Persian typeface design appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

STC (Saudi Telecom Company) is the largest telecommunications company in Saudi Arabia. As part of its major rebranding in 2011, STC turned to Tarek Atrissi Design for designing and developing a custom bilingual typeface to become the written voice of the brand.

The result was a n exclusive new typeface developed for the Saudi Telecom, consisting of 4 weights both in Arabic and Latin. Both scripts were designed to match each other and use the same visual characteristics, without risking the legibility and authenticity of each script. Particular focus was placed on insuring that both the Arabic and Latin fonts read at a same visual size. The font reflected in style and looks the image defined by the new branding of the company.

The STC font is one of the most visible fonts across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is very recognizable as an integral part of the company’s branding. It is perceived by the target group as a friendly, modern and very legible bilingual typeface.

The post STC Telecom Custom Typeface Design appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

Headquarted in Qatar, Al Jazeera Media Network in an international news channel with over sixty bureaus around the world that span six different continents. The Arabic TV channel is one of the most watched news channel in the Arab world with an estimated 50 million viewers around the world.

As part of its rebranding, Al-Jazeera media network needed an Arabic typeface that will addresses their various requirements. They needed a family of Arabic fonts available in a wide range of weights. The font need to read well on TV screen, but needed to be used on the network’s new website. In addition the font had to take into consideration the look and feel of the brand and its typographic tradition, and build on renewing the on screen typography without loosing a connection to it.

Al Jazeera Media Network turned to us at Tarek Atrissi Design for a custom typeface design solution. We were chosen as the studio to design and develop the typeface because of our vast previous experience in design Arabic fonts for major TV channels servicing the Middle East, such as BBC, MTV Arabia, ATV, among others.

A typeface family of 4 weights was developed exclusively for Al-Jazeera and was tested rigorously for broadcasting and across the several on screen typographic hierarchy use by the channel. The font was inspired by the calligraphic fonts used in the pat by Al-Jazeera, yet it was designed with a simpler approach that focused on legibility and on minimizing unnecessary calligraphic details.

The font was first used on Aljazeera Misr Live channel, and was then applied to the headlines of the Arabic website in 2014. It became then the official typeface for the news channel- becoming one of the most visible broadcasted Arabic fonts to date.

The post Arabic Typeface Al-Jazeera Television appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

Mathaf, The Arab Museum of Modern Art, is the first institution of its kind in Qatar. The Museum offers an Arab perspective on modern and contemporary art and is one of the leading museums in the region to support creativity and inspire new ideas.

The Museum opened in 2010 and was characterized by an award winning brand identity design. Tarek Atrissi Design played a key role in the branding of the museum by developing the bilingual display typeface designed exclusivity for the museum, a typeface that became one of the key recognizable elements of the visual identity.

The typeface developed was a handwritten script font: a challenge in Arabic given the fact that the script is connected and it is difficult to create a font that looks like a natural hand written font. The concept behind the font style was to give all communication material a “personal” typographic touch, making it look like an artist’s signature of annotations to a specific piece of art. The Latin font echoed the visual characteristic of the Arabic typeface and complemented it well in bilingual communication.

The Mathaf script font became the written voice of the museum, and subsequently became the written voice of contemporary & modern art in the Arab world. Years after the museum launch, it remains a key component of one of the most innovative and recognizable brands in the art world in the Middle East.

The post Arabic & Latin Typeface for Mathaf appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.

The Riyadh Public Transport Authority in Saudi Arabia initiated one of the biggest public transport projects in the Kingdom to date: Metro Riyadh; a rapid transit system under construction in the capital of Saudi, envisioned to be the backbone of the city’s public transport. The project compromises the construction of a six lines metro, in addition to a bus system and other transport services in Riyadh.

Tarek Atrissi Design was commissioned to create a custom bilingual typeface, Arabic and Latin, to be the corporate font for the new public transport system and to be at the essence of the brand designed for this ambitious project, the King Abdulaziz Project for Public Transport. The goal of the project was to create an Arabic typeface that is distinct, recognizable, and relevant to the brand: suggesting a dynamic spirit and that is confident and legible as a display font. In addition, a Latin matching font was needed to allow bilingual communication.

A long design process took place in order to determine the style of the typeface, which required to fit the brand developed in parallel for the project and that had to appeal to the local target group in Saudi Arabia. The typeface consisted of three bilingual weights. Its geometric construction is inspired by the Kufi calligraphic Arabic style, and is characterized by a slight inclination that suggests movement.

The typeface is widely in use in Saudi Arabia in various campaigns and information outlets about the anticipated metro project. The project is estimated to be completed in 2018, promising an even wider visibility of this typeface.

The short video below is an introduction video in Arabic by the Riyadh Public Transport Authority about the first metro project in Saudi Arabia.

The post Metro Riyadh Arabic & Latin Typeface appeared first on Tarek Atrissi Design.