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.

Abdullah Ragheb

Kuwait City-based designer of the free typeface American Captain (2015). [Inside the font however, we find a copyright notice of The Fontry, dated 2010.] [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ali Almithaly

Graphic designer from Sanaa, Yemen, now loacted in Kuwait City. Creator of several Arabic typefaces in 2013: Rabi4a, Suhali, Aqeeq (Zakdesign, free), Alfarooq, Ara Alm Bon.

In 2014, he created Sheba. In 2015, he added Sanaa, Balqees and Sheba Ye. In 2016, he designed Sanaa Ye. In 2017, he added the rough brush typeface Angry Bird. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alnaqaaa

Free Arabic typeface made in 2015 by a female type designer in Kuwait, aka Purity KW. Google Plus link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Amoona Saohin

During her graphic design studies at the American University of Kuwait, Amoona Saohin designed the triangle-themed geometric typeface Triagulum (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Boutros International (or: 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, who run Boutros Foundry out of London, UK. 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.

The early ITC collection in the 1980s had six Arabic typefaces: ITC Latif, ITC Boutros Calligraphy, ITC Boutros Setting, ITC Boutros Kufic, ITC Boutros Modern Kufic, ITC Boutros Rokaa.

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

In 2008, Boutros co-designed 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.

In 2017, Mourad Boutros and Soulaf Khalifeh published the free low contrast Tajawal sans typeface family for Latin and Arabic. Google Fonts link. Github link.

In 2018, Boutros Fonts published URW Geometric Arabic.

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

Fabrizio Schiavi
[Fabrizio Schiavi Design (or: FSD)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fabrizio Schiavi Design (or: FSD)
[Fabrizio Schiavi]

Fabrizio Schiavi was born in Ponte dell'Olio in the Piacenza province in 1971. FSD Fabrizio Schiavi Design in Piacenza was opened in 1998. With Alessio Leonardi, he co-founded Fontology. He also co-launched the experimental graphics magazine Climax in 1994.

Bio at FontFont where he made FF Mode 01, FF 0069, FF GeabOil, FF9600, FF Trade 01, FF Steel Mix, FF Steel Ring, FF Steel Jones.

[T-26] designer of D44 (1994), Lithium (1994, dingbats), Moore895 (1994), Moore899 (1994), Sidewalker (1994), Exit (1988). Many of his typefaces are grungy such as Washed (1994). Some are minimalist, such as Monica Due (1999), Monica (1999), and Eco (2001, developed from a logo in the 70s for Ageco). The latter three fonts are very geometric in nature.

Other fonts: Washed (1994), Parakalein, Aurora Nintendo (1995), Aurora CW (1995), Mode01 (1995), GeabOil (1995), 9600/0069 (1995), Fontology (1995), CP Company (2000: a corporate sans), FSDItems (2001), FSDforMantraVibes (2001), Pragmata (2001, monospace, designed for programs), PragmataFlash (2002, a pixel font), Pragmata Pro (2011, still monospaced), Sys (2002), SysFlash (2002, a pixel font), Sys 2.0 (2012, a condensed sans designed for very small print), Virna (2003, a multiline typeface for Italian MTV, discussed here). The Pragmata and Sys series were optimized for screen usage. In addition, Sys has many ink traps, so it prints well at small sizes, and is more legible than Verdana.

He does some custom typeface design, such as the innovative sans serif family called CP Company (2000). Other clients include Al Hamra Complex Kuwait, Nike, MTV, YU, Beretta, Abitare magazine, Ferrari and Philip Morris.

In 2007, he produced a stencil and signage font, Siruca (see also here), for the Al Hamra Complex, one of highest skyscrapers in the world, located in Kuwait. Siruca Pictograms (2008) is free. In 2015, he followed that up by a non-stencil rounded sans called Sirucanorm: Designed using golden ratio formulas, it's inspired to DIN and Isonorm typeface.

In 2013, he published Sys Falso, Abitare Sans (30 weights, originally commissioned by the group Rizzoli Corriere della Sera. Abitare is an Italian magazine).

Typefaces from 2014: Nove (a German expressionist typeface inspired by B movie typography: Nove freshly reworks exploitation film era movie poster lettering, refitting the genre to a contemporary audience. The expressive typeface was done for a Nike Italy spoof campaign featuring 1970s cult film director Enzo Castellari and a recently found film reel from his archives, featuring several current Italian athletes and American basketball star Kobe Bryant).

The rounded sans typeface Widiba Bank (2015) was co-designed with Jekyll & Hyde in 2015 for the brand identity of the new bank of Gruppo Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

In 2016, he designed the custom corporate typeface R&M in art nouveau style.

In 2020, he released the (variable) retail version of CP Company called oook.

In 2021, he released Nure (a 54-style sans font family that includes a three-axis (weight, optical, width) variable font).

At ATypI in Rome in 2002, he spoke about the need for more fonts.

Hellofont link. FontShop link. Font Squirrel link.

Showcase of Fabrizio Schiavi's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Farah Asaad

At the American University of Kuwait in Kuwait City, Farah Asaad designed the decorative Latin / Arabic typeface Mixaur (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fareed Abd Raheem Al-Ali

Kuwaiti calligrapher. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hasan Alnajdi

Graphic designer in Kuwait who created an Arabic typeface in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Horouf Design Competition

The 2014 Horouf Type Design Competition saw these winners: Sultan Mohammad (gold medal for Change), Ferran Milan (silver medal for Baldufa), Ahmad Al Hindi (bronze medal for Zamalka). This bilingual (Latin / Arabic) type design competition was initiated by Nuqat and 29Letters. The results were announced in December 2014 at the Nuqat Design Conference in Kuwait. The jury consisted of Huda AbiFares (of the Khatt Foundation), Kameel Hawa (of Mohtaraf), Mouneer Shaarani (Arabic calligrapher), Peter Bilak(of Typotheque), Patrick Giasson (of Loose Atom), and Reza Abedini (Iranian graphic designer). This sentence is interesting: Whilst the jurors are all excited to take part in the very first annual Horouf design competition for typography design, they agree that this year's entries left much to be desired in terms of innovation and technical execution. This is reflected by their reluctance to award any first prizes. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joseph Xavier

Graphic designer in Jleeb al Shuyoukh, Kuwait. Designer of the Latin caps alphabet Striped (2013). The outlines of Striped are from Nova. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Khaled Aldousari

Designer (b. 1990, Kuwait) of the free dingbat typefaces Camera Fotograami (2019), Fotograami Lamp Islamic (2018), Fotograami Shuruq (2018), Fotograami Hearts (2016) and Fotograami Flower (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Khalid Al-Mazrouei
[Kmaz]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Kmaz
[Khalid Al-Mazrouei]

Kuwaiti designer of the Latin display typeface Lino (2019) and the Latin stencil typeface Minimal (2019). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Mai Ghannam

Damascus, Syria-born, 1993. As a graphic design student at the American University of Kuwait, Mai Ghannam created the display typeface Primitive Type (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mariam Al-Hassan

During her studies in Qortuba, Kuwait, Mariam Al-Hassan designed the squarish typeface Hantangular (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Meshari Al-Muhaini

Designer in Qurtoba, Kuwait, b. 1988. Flickr page. In 2010, he designed Dots and Lines. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mohamad Abdallah

Kuwait-based designer of the Latin typeface MHD (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mohamed Al Marouf

Kuwait City-based designer of the free all caps sans typeface Black (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mourad Boutros
[Boutros International (or: Boutros Arabic Typefaces)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Najd Al Taher

Kuwait City-based designer of a geometric kufi Arabic typeface in 2016. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pascal Naji Zoghbi
[29 Letters]

[More]  ⦿

Rami Hoballah

Designer in Hawalli, Kuwait. Creator of the calligraphic Arabic typeface Muhammad (2012), which includes outlined, shadow and 3d versions.

In 2013, he created the Latin typeface Pills. In 2014, he created the Latin typeface Folded Paper and the calligraphic typeface Aramisque. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rawan Alhussaini

During his studies at the American University of Kuwait, Rawan Alhussaini (Qortuba, Kuwait) designed several all caps Latin display typefaces (2016) and the skull-themed Skullets (2016, for Latin and Arabic). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Saleh Bashatah

Adiliya, Kuwait-based designer of the free font Circle Curve (2018), and the free font Clicky (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Shahad AlAsfour

Student in Kuweit. Pure geometry (circles and lines) and a rigorous design process led to Shahad AlAsfour's Turns of a Tensile Typeface (2012) for Latin and Arabic. [Google] [More]  ⦿