Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
In 2017, I attended the Arabic Type Design workshop in Beirut. I designed my very own Arabic typeface, with the help and guidance of specialists in Arabic type design: Lara Captan, Krystian Sarkis, Khajag Apelian, and Yara Khoury.
DALIL
Project Assignment:
Type Design Workshop
Arabic Type Design Beirut
Lebanon, 2017
Discipline:
Type Design
Arabic Calligraphy
Tools:
Glyphs
Calligraphy pen & ink
Below is the process of the digitization of Dalil, from week 4 to week 6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Another common characteristic of the Arabic script is high stroke contrast (picture 2). For Dalil, I chose to have a moderate stroke contrast, as very thin strokes would disappear when looking at the typeface from a distance, and its legibility would be compromised.
After 6 weeks of intensive work, I created Dalil, an Arabic typeface for wayfinding on a university campus. When designing a typeface for wayfinding, certain aspects should be taken into consideration. First, the letters should have large counters to enhance legibility from a distance, while remaining compact enough to fit on narrow billboards. Second, the letters should be recognizable, which means that they have to stay close to their original shape in the chosen script. Therefore, all design elements should be subtly added to the smallest details, eventually giving character to the typeface. Lastly, the overall mood of the font should be strict, as it would be used on a university campus, and playful enough to appeal to young students, casually looking for directions.
The Arabic script is a cursive script that follows the movement of the pen. The script I chose to work from is called the Naskh script. It is most commonly used for text. Regarding its legibility issue, many characteristics had to be revisited. Firstly, Naskh has a slant (picture 1). As my typeface would have to fit in confined spaces, the slant had to be removed.
Picture 3 shows the tightness of counters in Naskh. Some counters even disappear, which brings me to one of the most important attributes of a wayfinding typeface: big counters for recognizable letters. The process of opening up my counters was quite challenging, as I had to preserve my lettersʼ overall proportions.
Finally, picture 4 demonstrates a beautiful phenomenon seen in many Arabic scripts, of which Naskh, is called cascading. It describes the cascading effect created by two or multiple letters, which accentuates a wordʼs slant. Removing all cascading in my typeface was interesting, as it made me think of new ways of connecting many letters.