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ABOUT

29 Letters [Pascal Naji Zoghbi]

Madrid (and before that, 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. His Arabic type foundry is 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 display type for Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, 2008. This Futura-like typeface saw a variable part added in 2020. Adrien Midzic and Swiss Typefaces aided with the Latin.
• 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. In 2020, Pascal Zoghbi (29LT) and Ben Wittner released the monospaced Arabic / Latin typefaces 29 LT Baseet Variable and 28 LT Zawi Variable.
• At FontStruct, he made Arapix (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), Droid Persian Naskh, and Droid Arabic Kufi (2010, OFL).
• 29LT Azer, done with Ian Party and Wael Morcos: 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 nip pen calligraphic structure and contemporary outlines. The fonts include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Latin variants. Azer won an award at TDC 2014.
• Pascal Zoghbi revived the 1950s font system by Nasri Khattar called Unified Arabic as UA Neo B and UA Neo B.
• LT Makina. An old typewriter font.
• LT Kaff.
• LT Zarid (+Sans, +Stencil, +Slab, +Serif). Pascal Zoghbi designed all Arabic components. 29LT Zarid Display won an award at 23TDC in 2020. The whole family has variable styles since 2020. Jan Fromm designed the Latin for Slab, Sans and Stencil. Regarding the Latin parts: Zarid Serif Display and Text Upright were designed by Ramiro Espinoza; Serif Upright was designed by Ramiro Espinoza and Khajag Apelian; Serif Slanted and Text Slanted were designed by Jan Fromm. The Cyrillic and Greek extensions were designed by Krista Radoeva and released in July 2020. Finally, 20 LT Zarid Sans features a variable style with a single (weight) axis.
• LT Zeyn. A great high-contrast fashion mag style typeface.
• Other custom types include Expo 2020 Dubai, Swatch, Noor, MIA, Noto Naskh, Shawati, Hamsa, Fdx, Emirates Headlines, AlWatan Headlines.

EXTERNAL LINKS
29 Letters
Monotype link
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Typefaces and type design for Arabic ⦿ Type news ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type blogs ⦿ FontStruct fonts ⦿ Type design in Lebanon ⦿ Graffiti fonts ⦿ Arabic simulation typefaces ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Type design in Qatar ⦿ Type design in UAE ⦿ Type design in Kuwait ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type design in Palestine ⦿ Fashion mag typefaces ⦿ Typewriter fonts ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ The Spanish type scene ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿