Abdallah Alsholi

Saida, Lebanon-based designer of Transmission Font (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Abdul

Lebanese designer who created Beantown (2004, an athletic lettering font), Staubach (2004, an athletic lettering face based on the lettering of the Dallas Cowboys), Wagner Modern (2011), Kroftsmann (2004, on octagonal face), Kavelry (2004, based on the Kemper Insurance logo), 4th and inches (2008, rounded octagonal; based on the proprietary font used by Russell Athletic, makers of sports apparel as used by Georgia Tech BKB, Washington State, Alabama State, Tennessee State, Mississippi Valley State, and many others in college football), and PopWarner (2004, a Bank Gothic lookalike), Wagner Zip Change (grotesque), Richardson Fancy Block. Creator of some free soccer team lettering alphabets in 2010: Louisville, Puff Script, Red Raiders, Richardson Fancy Block, Wagner Zip-Change (based on grotesque signage letters), ACMilan2009, ASRoma, ChampionsLeague, England2007, MLSUniform, RealMadrid2009. About his GeauxXPDF face (2010), he writes: I had extracted a nearly complete set on this one a few years back, except for J and Z which I created on my own. As best I can tell, it only exists as an upper case font without most punctuation, so I created that too to make it more useable. I don't know how much LSU [Louisiana State University] paid for this design, but to me it always looked like something that Larabie or Iconian would have given away. He also extracted HDRadioAlphabet from a rounded Arial face he found on HD radio. His UScoreRGK (2012) is a blocky angular font used on-screen by Fox Sports. LCD Display (2012) is a 28-segment LED font. UA Terrafont (2012) was based upon the vector art in this PDF file.

In 2013, he published the athletic lettering family High School USA.

See also here. Dafont link. Fontspace link. Another URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ahmed Maged

Lebanese calligrapher. Designer of Hisham (Linotype, 1993), a strong sans face for Latin and Arabic.

Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Arabic typography

Arabic type site. Displayed font families include AT (by Tarek Atrissi), Al-Futtaim (by Mamoun Sakkal), and work by Nadine Chahine. Corporate calligraphy by Samir Sayegh. He holds a MFA in design from the School of Visual Arts in New York, a MA in interactive multimedia from the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands, and a BA in graphic design in his homeland, Lebanon. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Arlette Boutros

Lebanese type designer. She created or co-created the Arabic typefaces Boutros Ads Pro, Boutros Advertising, and Boutros Thuluth Light. She also was one of the four co-designers (with Mourad Boutros, Richard Dawson and Dave Farey) of Tanseek Pro (2008, Monotype), a typeface family for Latin and Arabic.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Azza Alammedine

Lebanese graduate of the MATD program at the University of Reading in 2012. Azza's graduation typeface is Sila (2012, for Latin and Arabic). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Boutros Arabic Typefaces
[Mourad Boutros]

Boutros calligraphic Arabic fonts (sold by Glyph Systems of Andover, MD) are fonts designed by "Boutros International" a group of experts headed by Lebanese designers Mourad and Arlette Boutros. The blurb: These beautiful TrueType Fonts are designed to work in Microsoft's Arabic Windows versions 3.1 / 95 / 98 / NT as well as on the Mac OS with an Arabic Language Kit.

Their fonts include Boutros Decorative Kufic, Boutros Display, Boutros Koufic, Boutros MB Naskh, Boutros Modern, Boutros New Koufic Modern, Boutros Simplified Naskh, Boutros Asifa, Boutros Farah, Boutros Farasha, Boutros Fares, Boutros Najm, Boutros Thuluth (2012, based on Arabic bamboo calligraphy), Boutros Advertisers Naskh, Boutros Advertising, Boutros BBC Arabic, Boutros GE Tasmeem, Boutros Latin (Serif, Sans Serif), Boutros Maghribi, Boutros Minaret. See also here.

Mourad Boutros is an experienced Arabic creative director, calligrapher and typographer. From his bio: Since 1978, he has been Arabic typographical consultant to many international companies including Letraset. Mourad has designed more than 50 Arabic typefaces, some of which are available on IBM printers as core fonts. Typeface commissions have included corporate typefaces for Mercedes-Benz and for Al Anba, the leading Kuwaiti Arabic newspaper.

At Ascender, Mourad published Boutros Maghribi (2009, codesigned with Rana Abou Rjeily), based on the Arabic calligraphy bamboo classical Maghribi style.

In 2008, Boutros codesigned Tanseek Modern and Tanseek Traditional with Richard Dawson and Dave Farey.

Here you can download these 2004 fonts by Boutros: GEBox-Bold, GECapMedium-Medium, GEContrastBold-Bold, GECurvesMedium-Medium, GEDinarOne-LightItalic, GEDinarOne-Medium, GEDinarOne-MediumItalic, GEDinarTwo-Light, GEDinarTwo-LightItalic, GEDinarTwo-Medium, GEDinarTwo-MediumItalic, GEEast-ExtraBold, GEEast-ExtraboldItalic, GEElegant-Italic, GEElegantMedium-Medium, GEFlow-Bold, GEFlow-BoldItalic, GEFlow-Italic, GEFlow, GEHili-Book, GEHili-Light, GEJarida-HeavyItalic, GEJaridaHeavy-Heavy, GEMBFarahBold-Bold, GEMBFarashaLight-Light, GEMBFaresMedium-Medium, GEMBMBBold-CondensedBold, GEMBNajmBold-Bold, GEModernBold-Bold, GEModernLight-Light, GEModernMedium-Medium, GENarrowLight-Light, GESSTVBold-Bold, GESSTextBold-Bold, GESSTextItalic-LightItalic, GESSTextLight-Light, GESSTextMedium-Medium, GESSTextUltraLight-UltraLight, GESSThree-Italic, GESSThree-Light, GESSTwoBold-Bold, GESSTwoLight-Light, GESSTwoMedium-Medium, GESSUniqueBold-Bold, GESSUniqueLight-Light, GESmooth-LightItalic, GESmoothLight-Light, GETasmeem-Medium, GEThameen-Book, GEThameen-BookItalic, GEThameen-DemiBold, GEThameen-DemiBoldItalic, GEThameen-Light, GEThameen-LightItalic, GETye, GEUnique-ExpandedBold, GEWideExtraBold-ExtraBold. Here one can find Boutros-Ads-Pro-Bold, Boutros-Ads-Pro-Bold-Condensed, Boutros-Ads-Pro-Light, Boutros-Ads-Pro-Medium, and Boutros-Ads-Pro-Medium-Italic.

FontShiop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Carine Teyrouz

During her design studies in Beirut, Carine Teyrouz created the architctural typeface Lashing Knots (2010, Friday Fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

David Fleming Nalle
[Scriptorium (Ragnarok Press, Fontcraft)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Elie Abou Jamra

Born in Dubai, Elie has worked and studied in UAE, Lebanon and Germany. He holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut. He has also done his summer internship at Linotype, where he worked under Nadine Chahine, an award-winning Lebanese type designer. Behance link. Creator of an Arabic graduation typeface. He also created an Arabic typeface to match the Latin version for Solidere (a Lebanese company involved in the reconstruction of Beirut's Central District). The Latin version based on Slab Unit designed earlier by Bill Hill Design. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Eric Massoud

During her design studies in Beirut, Eric Massoud created the Treefrog-style typeface Crack (2010, Friday Fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fridayfonts
[Pascal Glissmann]

Free font site, est. 2009. The fonts being displayed and introduced were developed by students in seminars and workshops offered by Pascal Glissmann at the Academy of Visual Arts Hong Kong and the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Fonts there from 2009

• Yee Ting Cherry Chan: BambooConstruction.
• Cherry and Liu Sze Wai: Cherrybomb.
• Chan Ying: ChineseRadicals.
• Yuki Leung Tsz Ning: ConstructionWithShadow.
• Stephanie Ka Ying Lai: Crozline.
• Cynthia Chan: Cubism.
• Susie Law Wai Shan: ImbalanceSur.
• by unknown: Impression
• Siu Chi Ming and Eason: LightInk.
• Siu Wing Lam: MTR.
• Wong Hoi Ying: MobileCode.
• Li Yan Yee: Neurons.
• Liu Wing Yi: OldHongKong.
• Wan Yee Kam: Potata.
• Ruth Ng: RuthInk.
• Aegina Kwan Ting Ho: SealScriptRoman.
• Toby Cheung: Skin Seal.
• Lung Yan Yu: Transbars.
• Wian Wai Yan Lau: Unfold.
• Sandee Tang: GeoGraphics.
• Liu Shuj Yee: Blowing.
• Mabel Pui man Choy: Burning.
• Tsand Lai Yin: Buttons.
• Carsten Goertz: Eurothai.
• Chan Kam Kwan (Fanny): Flame.
• Wong Kai Zen (Gemmy): hexyClover.
• Annabellali: Ink.
• Matina Long Ling Cheung: Matina.
• Yuki Yi Pui Lee: MushroomFont.
• Pascal Glissmann, Martina Hoefflin: Parasite.
• Ting Hiu Nam: Staples.
• Tinny Liu: Treeskin.
• Ka Yee (Polly) Fung: Triangular.
• Ng Siu Yin (Hilary): Triclips.
• Ahyan: Vibrate.
• Ka Man (Cindy) Tse: Circulia.
• Ka Yan (Elaine) Ng: Bubblegum.
• Lo Betty Wing Man: HongKongPattern.
• Thomas Hawranke: Dickbine.
• Ip Ka Wai (Maxwell): Impression.
• Cheung Yung: Pain.
• Yuen Man Li: Ink (grunge).

In 2010, new fonts were added. Here is a partial list:

• Eric Massoud (Beirut): Crack.
• Carine Teyrouz (Beirut): Lashing Knots.
• Yara Khraibani (Beirut): Birk.
• Nour Kays (Beirut): Seven Circles.
• Hayat Zock (Beirut): Streetwire.
• Dana Charabati (Beirut): Thread.

In 2013, Glissmann moved to Parsons in New York City, where he continued the tradition of posting the student work. However, there are no more downloads, and links are not clickable. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hisham Assaad

Graphic designer in Dbayeh, Lebanon. In 2012, he created an Arabic typeface called Al Zakher: A typeface designed based on the typeset used in the 16th century in the first Arabic printing press in the Orient which is located at St. John monastery at Khenchara, Lebanon. The printing press was invented by Al Shammas Abdallah Al Zakher, thus the name.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hrant H. Papazian
[The MicroFoundry]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Izzat Kreidieh

Graphic designer from Beirut with a BFA [Bachelor of Fine Arts] in graphic design from the American University of Beirut (AUB), Department of Architecture and Design. He made an Arabic typeface in 2012 called Kbareh, which was created together with his colleague Tina Balaa. [Google] [More]  ⦿

JH Fonts
[Joe Mahfouz Hatem]

Joe Hatem (JH Fonts, Beirut, Lebanon) created these Arabic typefaces in 2013: JH Firas, JH Farid, JH Dalya, JH Paola, JH Khalil (squarish), JH Hala, JH Diwany (a calligraphic font that took three years to complete), JH Fares.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joe Mahfouz Hatem
[JH Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Joseph Maalouf

Graphic design student from Beirut, Lebanon. He created the bellydancer silhouette alphabet Alphabet vs Venus (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joumana Medlej

Lebanese student who was at McGill University in Montreal. Developer of a free Mac font, Mesha, based on the Phoenician script from the Mesha stela. She also has some interesting exercises on Arabic typography from the American University in Beirut (AUB). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jubran Elias

Graphic designer and illustrator in Beirut. Creator of the sci-fi face Morac (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kameel Hawa

Lebanese designer of the Arabic typeface Midan (2005), which won an award at TDC2 2007. Linotype: Midan is a modern Arabic typeface based on simplified Naskh with a slightly modulated stroke treatment. It is suited for text settings, especially in brochures and magazines.. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Khajag Apelian

Freelance graphic designer from Lebanon. Born in Sharjah, UAE, an Armenian with a Lebanese nationality. Graduate of the Type and Media program at KABK, 2009. There, he designed Arek, an Armenian typeface specifically designed to replace the typefaces currently used in school books. It is a fresh interpretation of the ancient Armenian script used in the old manuscripts. My ambitious plan for this project is to include a serif and a sans serif version, containing upright and cursive forms, with multiple weights, display versions and initials. However, currently the project includes only the serif upright, regular and black weights, in addition to the cursive and the initials. This face was awarded First Prize in the Granshan 2010 competition for Armenian text types. Arek was finally published by Rosetta Type Foundry in 2012.

After graduation, he started freelancing as a graphic and type designer in Amsterdam. Partner at The Place.

Other typefaces include The Chattam (2009, a Clarendon revival), Boujour (2008, an ultra fat deco face), Moudwi (2007, an experimental Arabic detached typeface inspired by the Unified typeface created by Nasri Khattar).

His typefaces: Arek, Hagatir, Boujour (2008, piano key typeface), Mulsaq (2008, Arabic), Moudwi, Nuqat (2010: a dot matrix typeface by René Knip, Khajag Apelian, Jeroen van Erp, and Reza Abedini).

Typecache link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kristyan Sarkis

Sarkis has a BA in Graphic Design from Notre Dame University, Lebanon, and a Master's from the Design in Type and Media program at the The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, The Netherlands. He has worked in the fields of graphic design and branding/advertising, and has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University (in Qatar). Currently he is an independent graphic and type designer based in The Hague, The Netherlands. Flickr page.

In a KHTT interview, he writes: My first real experience with type was when I was working with Mohtaraf Beirut Graphics (2007), one of the leading design houses in Lebanon. Mohtaraf has a strong affinity to Arabic type and has produced several beautiful Arabic typefaces. Back then, I was given a task to start drawing a typeface. I was hesitant at first, but got very quickly into it. The design director Yara Khoury noticed that I 'have a knack for this', and encouraged me to go on with it. I was delighted to have the opportunity to understand a lot more about type under Yara's direction, and with some eye-opening sketches from Ali Assi, to research the calligraphic styles and explore the beauty of the Arabic script. I had very limited technical knowledge in font development at the time, therefore after I did the original digital drawings on Adobe Illustrator, Greta Khoury, my colleague at the time, who was and remains one of my biggest sources of inspiration, took over the project, did her magic tricks with it, and produced it into a working font in Fontlab Studio. I owe my start in type design to Yara Khoury and Greta Khoury and to an endless fascination with the Arabic script and the ethereal art of Arabic calligraphy. This drove me to work on self-initiated typefaces which eventually culminated in pursuing a higher education in Type Design at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. There, it all went to a whole new level, with countless additional inspirations: from the great teachers that we had, to all the lecturers and the amazing amount of information that was given to us.

His typefaces:

• Thuraya (2010) is his thesis project at KABK: Thuraya is a display Arabic typeface that explores a contemporary context for the Diwani script. It won an award at TDC2 2011.
• Still at KABK, he did a revival called Almost Didot (2010).
• Coco (2010) is a rounded serif text face under development.
• About Vespertine Arabic, he writes: Vespertine is a linear font designed specifically for the icelandic artist Björk by M/M Paris. Though seemingly a childish handwriting, the typeface is unusual, tricky and cursive with intricate curves. These characteristics, along with the thickness, x-height, counters and hand movement were meticulously studied and implemented in the Arabic version without undermining its legibility.
• He also created Always Arabic, an Arabic companion of the Latin house font Always used by the feminine hygiene product company by the same name.
• Amale is a modern Arabic display typeface suitable for newspaper headlines, book titles and logotypes.
• Designer of Colvert Arabic (2012, Typographies.fr).
• Greta Arabic (2011) won an award at TDC 2012.

Lara Assouad-Khoury

Lara Assouad Khoury was born in Montreal, and graduated from the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor in Graphic Design degree (BGD) in 1998. She worked as a designer at LeoBurnett (Lebanon, 1998-2000). After one year in Cairo, she moved to Dubai (UAE) and worked as a Senior Designer for Landor Associates (2001-2005) where she was involved in the design of extensive corporate identity projects for large Middle Eastern companies and institutions, such as the visual branding for the country of Jordan. She has graduated with an MA from the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique in Nancy (France), where she studied under renowned type designers such Hans-Jürg Hunziker, André Baldinger, and others. She has researched and is in the process of developing her own extensive Arabic Naskh font. She taught graphic design and Arabic typography courses, at the American University in Dubai. She is an independent type and graphic designer since 2005. She embarked on a project in 2005 with Fred Smeijers to make an Arabic sister, Fresco Arabic, for Smeijers' Fresco family. For this, she takes inspiration from calligraphic samples of the Maghrebi script. Fresco Arabic won an award at TDC2 2008. Her geometric experimental Arabic face Tabati (2010) won an award at TDC2 2011. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lara Captan

Graphic designer in Lebanon. Creator of the angular chancery typeface Cancellarecta (2012) at The Cooper Union. She graduated from Escola de Disseny i Art in Barcelona. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Layout

From Beirut, Lebanon: sellers of ArabicXT, Kalimat, and Zakhrafat. They also sell a CD-ROM (v1.1) with 150 Arabic fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lea Abou Rjeyli

Balloune, Lebanon-based designer of the Arabic typeface Murad (2012) and the gothic Latin typeface Lea Tsu (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mary Rizk

Graphic designer and illustrator in Beirut. Designer of Al Nab (2012), a corporate Arabic typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mourad Boutros
[Boutros Arabic Typefaces]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Nadine Chahine

Nadine Chahine (b. 1978) is a Lebanese graphic designer with a special interest in Arabic type design. She started her research on Arabic typography, theory and practice, at the American University of Beirut and at The University of Reading, UK (MA in Typeface Design), where she designed Koufiya (2003). She did a Ph.D. on legibility in the Arabic script. She spoke at ATypI 2003 in Vancouver on Arabic typography. She taught Arabic typography as a visiting lecturer at the American University in Dubai and is currently working at Linotype, Germany, as the Arabic type expert.

In 2004, she started a coop project with Gerard Unger to develop Big Vesta Arabic, a companion of Unger's Big Vesta. At ATypI 2008 in St. Petersburg, she ran the Linotype type design student workshop.

She designed Frutiger Arabic with Adrian Frutiger and Palatino Arabic (2007) with Hermann Zapf, for which she won the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the TDC in 2008. For Palatino Sans Arabic, she won at TDC2 2011.

In 2009, she published Neue Helvetica Arabic at Linotype.

In 2011, she published Univers Next Arabic (with Adrian Frutiger, Linotype).

She is working on Zapfino Arabic.

Bio. Interview. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin, where her talk tackled psycholinguistics and type design. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Nadine Kobayter
[Penguin Cube]

[More]  ⦿

Nagham Khoury

Beirut-based designer of the experimental typeface Gamble (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pascal Glissmann
[Fridayfonts]

[More]  ⦿

Pascal Naji Zoghbi

Lebanon-based Arabic type designer who runs the Arab type news and blog site called Arabic Typography. KHTT link. An ex-student of the KABK in 2006, he currently is a part time instructor of design and typography at Notre Dame University, Louaize, Lebanon, as well as a part time instructor of typography at the American University of Beirut (AUB), both since 2007. Home page called 29letters. At ATypI 2008 in St. Petersburg, he ran a workshop on the Arabic Kufi script. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin on the topic of political resistance and expression through graffiti in Lebanon and Palestine. His contributions to type design:

• Massira. He has embarked on a project with Martin Majoor to design some Arabic fonts that fit Majoor's designs. He writes: Massira is my graduation typeface at Type&Media postgraduate course at The Royal Academy of Arts [KABK] in The Hague. Huda AbiFares contacted me while I was finalizing Massira and presented the opportunity to collaborate with the Dutch type designer Martin Majoor to design an Arabic typeface, which is part of the Typographic Matchmaking 01 project organized by Khatt Foundation. At first I was a bit worried due to the fact that it would be my first professional type design work and that the due date was too close. However, after taking a closer look at Martins type FFSeria and analyzing its characteristics, I noticed that the treatment of the stroke and the structure of the letters shared similarities with Massira. In both fonts the use of sharp broken curves and crispy feel is present. Consequently, I grew confident in project and decided to use Massira as a starting point for the new Arabic companion of FFSeria. Echo, which is Sada in Arabic, is the repetition of a sound caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface. Accordingly, Sada is the echo of FFSeria. The modifications on Massira consisted of making Sada perform like FFSeria. It had to have the same point size, line space, color, contrast and feel as FFSeria. Concerning the details of Sada and the inclined angle of the vertical strokes, it was derived from the FFSeria Italic. So Sada has the same feel as the Roman but is inspired from the Italic. More on the Sada project. In 2009, Sada was renamed FF Seria and published by FontFont.
• Another project of Zoghbi involves a type family being developed for newspaper headlines.
• In 2007, he created a 3-style Phoenician type family called Fniqiya.
• Alef Pixel Caps Type for Alef Magazine (2008). Done with Huda AbiFares. This is a Latin ornamental type family.
• Al Rouiya Arabic Type for the Al Rouiah Newspaper in Kuwait, 2008.
• Bukra Extra Bold display type for Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, 2008. Looks like Futura Bold.
• A corporate font under the heading, Arabic for Univers (2008). Zoghbi: An Arabic corporate typeface for a global shipping and transport company. The Arabic is intended to work with the Latin type Univers. Unfortunately, I can't mention the name of the company nor the design firm I did this Arabic type work for. I was the Arabic type consultant/specialist and associate type designer alongside Leah Hoffmitz. The font will used in all Arabic publications, ads and packaging for the company.
• Baseet (2009) is a hybrid Neo-Naskh / Modern Kufi geometric typeface. It is a mixture of straight vertical, horizontal and diagonal pen stokes incorporated in-between curved corners and edges.
• At FontStruct, he made Arabix 01 (2009).
• UAE Embassy Corporate Type (2010). This is a commissioned Latin typeface based on the same concept as of an Arabic font. Each of the 26 Latin letters has Caps, Initial, Medial and Final shape enabling the letters to connect as in the Arabic script. The drawing of the letters was all done using the Arabic calligraphic bamboo stick and based on the Naskh Calligraphic Style. Opentype help from Erik van Blokland.
• The Mathaf Corporate Arabic-Latin Font (2011). Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art opened its doors to contemporary Arab art lovers in December 2010 in Doha, Qatar.
• Nada Debs (2010): a contemporary geometric Kufi type commissionewd by Nada Debs.
• For Ascender, he did Droid Arabic Naskh (see OFL) and Droid Arabic Kufi (OFL).

Penguin Cube
[Nadine Kobayter]

Penguin Cube seems to be a design studio in Lebanon that serves the Middle Eat since about 2004. One of its people, Nadine Kobayter, designed the dingbat face Stereotype-wkg30 (2010). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ramzi Ibrahim

Art director in Beirut. His type family Exquisite (2011) started out from Latin letters and developed an Arabic family from those roots. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rana Bulbul

Rana Bulbul (Beirut) created the DNA typeface for Latin and Arabic in 2012. It is based on the structure of DNA. Rana also drew the experimental typeface Fuse 2 Use (2012, a circuit board font for Latin and Arabic). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Randa Abdel Baki

Randa Abdel Baki is a scholar, graphic designer and artist, currently living in Beirut. She chairs the Graphic Design Department and is an Assistant Professor at Lebanese American University. Among the courses she teaches are Intro to Typography and Advanced Typography classes with an emphasis on Arabic type and layout design. Currently, her interest is on highlighting successful bilingual compositional methods, solving the challenges of Arabic and Latin bilingual type layouts. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin where she explained bilingual (Latin&Arabic) layout systems. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rita Saad

Lebanese designer of the experimental face Mesomorph (2008). She explains: Mesomorph is digitally created and modified using a variety of repeated geometric forms that often echo the forms of arabesque or meso-american culture, such as Maya and Aztec. Initially derived from Islamic architechtural shapes these forms, taken together, embody a never-ending pattern. Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Roones

Illustrator in Beirut who created some ornamental alphabets in 2012, such as Poof and Bottlecapped. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Scriptorium (Ragnarok Press, Fontcraft)
[David Fleming Nalle]

Dave Nalle was born in Beirut in 1959, but lives and works in Texas. He is currently in Manor, TX. From his wiki page: Dave Nalle is a political writer, game author and font designer who was active in the early history of the development of the internet. He is Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a group that promotes libertarianism within the Republican Party and is Senior Politics Editor at Blogcritics online magazine and is the CEO of Scriptorium Fonts. A creative and prolific designer, he has made hundreds of beautiful (often historic) fonts. His outfit, Scriptorium (based near Austin, TX, est. 1989), also does custom font and logo design. At some points, Scriptorium was also known as Ragnarok Press and Fontcraft. It specializes in artsy and ancient faces. Some subset of the fonts is made by Michael Scarpitti. Free font demos.

Images of his best selling fonts. Special subpages:

• Three free fonts: Onuava (a mini-serifed hybrid fixed-width font), Divona (sans), Sirona (based on Lombardic calligraphy).
• Decorative initials such as the 20th century sign lettering initials set Pencraft Initials (2009), Holly Initials (2010, based on Real PenWork (1880s, Knowles and Maxim), Vyones (2010), Vergennes (2001), Cascade (2009), Bergling (2010; based on initials by John M. Bergling).
• Wild West fonts: Academy, Atkinson Boomtown (2009, after the lettering of Frank Atkinson), Atkinson Eccentric (2009), BigIron, Cibola, Lachesis, Perdido, Plowright, Primer, Riudoso, Niederwald, San Lorenzo (2011, with a Mexican and Tuscan look), Stonehouse, Manquo, Rochambeau, Purcell, Vaquero.
• Arabic simulation fonts: Samaritan is based on the poster lettering of Alphons Mucha from his poster for the play La Samaritan. Serendib and Waziri are based on the hand lettering of René Bull from his edition of the Arabian Nights. Caliph (1993) is derived from Ernst Schneidler's classic Legende font, with variant characters based on his original lettering. And there is also Samarkand.
• Celtic fonts: the fonts include the Durrow font (1993, traditional rendering of Insular Minuscule calligraphy), Malvern, Glendower (based on the most common lettering in the Book of Kells), Knotwork (caps based on Celtic knots), Alba Text (modernized text font based on Celtic uncial lettering), Lindisfarne (based on a square uncial style), Stonecross (1997, derived from Celtic cross and gravestone inscriptions), Celtic Spirals (dingbats), Celtic Borders font (lets you combine key strokes to form decorative borders; many frames and borders are original Celtic designs by Arts&Crafts period artists like Evelyn Paul and Louis Rhead), Spiral Initials, Brigida (based on Rudolph Koch's interpretation of a squared uncial), Coverack (heavy non-traditional uncial), Dahaut (modernized uncial), Morgow (1999, spiral uncial), Teyrnon (elaborate spurred uncial), Padstow (heavy uncial), Vafthrudnir (2011, uncial), Sualtim and Columba (decorative initials based on characters found in the Book of Kells), Albemarle (2001).
• Oriental simulation fonts: Yoshitoshi (2003, based on the 1900-style writing by Yoshi Toshi.
• Gothic fonts, including Alt Gothic, Koch Gothic, Barnabas (2011), Montgisard (2010, roman capitals with blackletter lower case), Montressor (2010, ornamental blackletter capitals), T4C Beaulieux (1998, a free copy here), Bastarda (2011), Burgundian, Cadeaulx, Collins OE, Cortrai, Ereshkigal, Franconian (1993, a Schwabacher), Froissart (2000), Ghost Gothic, Magdeburg, Melusine, Monressor (2010, blackletter caps), Pyle Gothic, Rheingold, Sanctum, Stuttgart Gothic (2010), Textura, Theodoric, Yngling (2002).
• Renaissance fonts: Monumental Gothic, Caswallon, humanistic cursive (Palmieri, Castiglione and Hanes Italic), quirky Italian cursives (Fiorenza and Alleghieri), a Roman style hand-lettered font (Rudolfo and Rudolfo Swash), a Trajan-style Roman lettering (Hadrianus), a classic flourished cursive (Trinculo) and a set of floral intials from the Quattrocento (Fraticelli).
• Modern poster fonts: Ascelon, Bilitis, Cosmic Dude, Dromon, Ducatus Rough, Eglantine, Ekberg, Fortinbras, Hamilton, Jambon, Oblivion, Posada (2008, based on the poster lettering of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada), Squiffy, Suspicion, Magnin (2003).
• Mapmaker fonts: building elements are available in Basilica; Ortelius is a map dingbat font; Queensland (based on lettering by artist and calligrapher Eric Sloane), is bold, hand-drawn and reminiscent of medieval writing on maps. There are also Brandywine, Windlass (1996), and Cityscape. Orford (2008) is based on samples of hand lettering from a 1693 manuscript collected by Lewis Day in his classic book on historical paleography, Alphabets Old and New.
• Calligraphic fonts: Albemarle (2001), Azariel, Moncrief (2011, based on the calligraphy of J.M. Bergling), Pavane, Rasael (2009), Abdiel (2005), Roncesvalles, Gazardiel (2003, connected script), Spoonbill (2003, arts and crafts), Maacteris (Roman uncial font), Antioch Uncial (Roman uncial font), Burgundian (Classic black letter font), Franconian (993, a classic black letter font), Castiglione (Attractive Renaissance lettering), Cicero (Roman Rustica font), Formidable (1993, very bold late medieval / Lombardic style), Collins Old English (Classic Old English style gothic), Corbei Uncial (Roman uncial font), Cymbeline (late medieval lettering), Durrow (Standard insular minuscule uncial font), Theodoric (Classic black letter font), Ghost Gothic (Unusual gothic font), Glendower (Uncial font based on Book of Kells), Gloriana (Interesting hand lettering style), Folkard (from the hand-lettering of Charles Folkard), Offenbach Chancery, Ranegund Merovingian Courthand, Benevento (8th century Lombardic), Hesperides.
• Art deco faces: Borealis (2009), Criterion (2011), Illuminata, Madding (2009, a bold poster font that grew out of Aventine), Alexandrine (2009), art Deco Stencil (2009, based on samples of Art Deco stencil lettering by Pedro Lemos), Falmouth.
• Art nouveau faces: Acadian, Agravain (2009), Amphitryon (2009), Ariosto, Asphodel, Beaumains (2011, based on J.M. Bergling's lettering), Beauvoir, Belgravia (based on J.M. Bergling), Bernhardt (based upon the lettering of the Czech art-nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha), Bentham, Berenicia, Boetia (2003, based on J.M. Bergling's lettering), Bruges, Bucephalus (1993), Burd Ellen (2009), Butterfield, Curetana, Elsene (2011, based on lettering by early 20th century illustrator Clara Elsene Peck), Elysian, Flaubert, Gaheris, Ganelon, Goodfellow, Harbinger, Jugendstil Kunsthand (2003), Lysander, Maginot, Munich (after the Munchner Jugend magazine), Norumbega, Odeon, Ormandine (2010), Pantagruel, Phaeton, Reggio, Rochmbeau, Rockne (2009), Rudolfo, Setebos, Sprite, Summerisle, Sylphide (2005), Undine, Valentin (2008), Vambrace (2010), Walhal.
• Arabian-look fonts: Caliph, Satampra, Serendib, Jerash, Samaritan, Samarkand, Waziri.
• Interview and bio.
• Latest designs.
• Myfonts link.
• Mass download of most Scriptorium demo fonts at Fontflood.
• Modern poster fonts: Field Day (2003), Ascelon, Bilitis, Cosmic Dude, Dromon, Ducatus Rough, Eglantine, Ekberg, Fortinbras, Hamilton, Jambon, Oblivion, Squiffy.
• Constructivist fonts: Krasny Mir (2009), Vrubel, Structura (1997).
• Futuristic fonts: Alecto, Angelus, Circuit, Culdrose, Gearhead, Ironclaw, Parika, Sanhedrin, Semiramis (1997), Slither, Structuro, Yazata, Adastra (dings).
• Borders and ornaments. These include New Arets and Crafts Borders (20912, based on The Calendar of Golden Thoughts (Barse and Hopkins Publ, 1911).
• Boneyard fonts: Antrobus (2010), Sepultura (2002), Halloweenies, Dementia, Boneyard, Skull and Bones, Malagua (1999-2013), Paleos (2002, from titling of B movies in the cave girl genre), Carmilla, Abaddon, Black Cow (1998), Valdemar, Cuede, Ligeia, Mayhem, Mephisto, Golgotha, Sanguinary, Ironworks, Moravia, Gehenna, Nosegrind (2005, graffiti), Corpus, Ghostly.
• School fonts: Schoolhand (2010).
• Arts and Crafts movement (late Victorian period, 19th century), based on work and lettering by Walter Crane, William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Elbert Hubbard. The Arts&Crafts movement was enormously influential on the works of designers, artists and architects of the 20th century, and inspired the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Fonts include William Morris' Kelmscott (based on Morris' Troy type), and True Golden, fonts from the Glasgow branch of the movement like Chelsea Studio (1997), which is based on Charles Rennie Mackintosh's lettering, fonts from the Roycrofters of New York like Semiramis and Ganelon, fonts based on Walter Crane's work such as Crane Gothic, Pencraft Initials (2009) and Walter Crane, and even fonts from the California Arts&Crafts period of the early 1900s like Coloma. Other typefaces: Aylward, Palmyra (based on work by the Roycrofters, a design community founded by Elbert Hubbard), Aylward (2010, Victorian), Hyacinth Initials, Spoonbill, Adresack (1996), Brandywine, Changeling (2009, based on lettering by fairy artist Fanny Railton), Ganelon, Goddard, and Advertising Gothic (2003), Valentin, Gaheris, Agravain (2009). Delaguerra (2001-2009) is based on a lettering style originating in the California Arts&Crafts period commonly associated with Mission Style. It is still in common usage in signage at historical sites in California.
• Medieval fonts of Scriptorium, critiqued by Marc Smith, page 65: Batwynge is based on lettre gffe by Geofroy Tory (1529), and not on an illuminated manuscript of the tenth century as claimed by Scriptorium.

Fonts from 2013: Original Django (after the titling font in Quentin Tarantino's movie Django Unchained).

Klingspor link. Abstract Fonts link. Dafont link.

View David Nalle's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Studio Al-Mohtaraf Assaoudi

Lebanese design studio which created the Arabic text typeface Midan, which won the second prize for Arabic text type at Linotype's 1st Arabic Type Design Competition in April 2006. That typeface can be bought from Linotype. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Talia Douaidy

Talia Douaidy (Beirut) created the Latin / Arabic knot-based typeface Laced (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tamara Yasser

Graphic designer and illustrator in Beirut, who created the corset-themed typeface Tighten Up (2012) for Latin and Arabic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tania Shoukair

Tania Shoukair studied visual communication at The Lebanese University. She created Kafiye (2012, a textured Latin typeface). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tarek Atrissi

Arab type site by Tarek Atrissi, a Beirut-born Lebanese professional designer, who is located in Hilversum, The Netherlands. He holds a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut, Masters of Arts in Interactive Multimedia from Utrecht School of Arts in Holland and an MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts in NY. A Designer of the 6-weight Arabic family called AT, The Spirit of Doha (2004, for the Asian Games 2006), Al-Ghad (for the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad), the Ghad TV font (for the Jordanian station ATV), Etisalat (custom type for Etisalat Communications), Ayna (a squarish face done for Ayna.com), and Ambesque (2006, for the Amwaj Islands of Bahrain). He manages Arabtypography.com, a site dedicated solely to Arab typography. In 2008, he created Atrissi Sans. In 2007, he embarked on a project with Peter Bilak to develop Fedra Arabic to accompany Bilak's Fedra family. In 2010, he designed a custom Arabic font for the new BBC Arabic TV channel and custom Farsi face for the new BBC Farsi TV channel. [Google] [More]  ⦿

The MicroFoundry
[Hrant H. Papazian]

From the Center for Digital Innovation at UCLA, Hrant Papazian designs and works with type, and is a specialist of Armenian. He has even done multiple master fonts for Armenian. Born in 1968 in Beirut, Hrant specializes in Armenian fonts and legibility issues in general. Designer of Linotype Maral. Founder of The Microfoundry, where he practices type design for Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Armenian and Georgian. The company is located in Glendale, CA. Latin faces: TMF Daam (with sub-version Domination, Brutaal and Cristaal, all useful as dungeon typefaces), TMF Paphos, TMF Patria (serif). Armernian fonts: Linotype Maral, TMF Arasan (see here for a download), TMF Roupen. Georgian: TMF Akhalkalak. Other fonts: Brutaal, Cristaal, Trajic NotRoman (unpublished, a destructured version of Trajan, submitted to and rejected by Emigre), and DominationAvailable. In 2004, he joined Ultra Pixel Fonts, where he made the pixel face Mana. An entertaining speaker and all-round type boulevardier, he will be remembered for many of his insightful and entertaining quotes. He invented the word Helvomita, and once replied this to a poster: I will now Fartura in your general direction. Bio at MyFonts.com. Bio at Linotype. Bio at ATypI. Interview by Daidala. He won an award at Granshan 2008. Speaker at ATypI 2009 in Mexico City. FontShop link. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

TYPO.GRAPHIC.BEIRUT 2005 conference

Type and graphic design conference, held from 28-30 April 2005 at the University of Beirut, Lebanon. Organized by Zeina El Abed, Nathalie Fallaha and Yasmine Taan, this conference was free of charge and drew 800 people.! Speakers included Ken Garland, Gerry Leonidas, Huda Smishuijzen AbiFares, Reza Abedin, Nadine Chahine, Jean-François Porchez, Heinz Widmer, Tarek Atrissi, Stephen Banham, Johannes Bergerhausen, Filip Blazek, Ashwini Deshpande, Zantides Evripides, Ben Hannam, Lazlo Lelkes, Zeina Maasri, Peter Martin, Stuart Medley, Dan Reynolds, Jennifer Spoon, and Bruno Steinert. Report by Dan Reynolds. Pictures by Porchez (change the 7 to 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for more). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Vladimir Tamari

Vladimir F. Tamari studied physics and art at the American University of Beirut where he met and was inspired by Buckminster Fuller (around 1960). He invented and built 3D drawing instruments. In the 1980s he joined the Optical Society of America to keep up with the field and holds U.S. patents for inventions based on his Streamline Diffraction Theory to cancel diffraction in telescopes. He wrote Beautiful Universe: Towards Reconstructing Physics From New First Principles (2005). He paints in watercolors and has designed Arabic fonts for Adobe. He has lived in Tokyo for the past 40 years. In 2005, he made Beautiful Universe, a physics symbol font designed to illustrate his physics theory. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wael Morcos

After receiving his BA in Graphic Design from the Notre Dame University (Lebanon), Wael Morcos worked for the news website NowLebanon. A year later he joined the branding and design department of Saatchi Beirut where he spent three years developing identities, bilingual typographic solutions and working in print and exhibition design.

His typefaces include Kufam (2013): Kufam is a bilingual typeface originally commissioned by Khatt Foundation part of the Typographic Matchmaking project. The typeface is the result of the collaboration between Dutch type designer Artur Schmal and myself. The Arabic is inspired by early Kufi inscriptions (7th century) and the Latin is inspired by Dutch urban lettering of the 1920's. The font supports the Arabic and Persian scripts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yasmine Taan

Lebanese type designer and typographer. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Zeina Georges Baaklini

Born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1986, Zeina graduated in 2008 from NDU (Notre Dame University Lebanon). Presently she is a print and media designer in Florence, Italy.

Creator of the Arabic simulation face Gibran (2012), which was created for Lebanese author Gibran Khalil.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿