Help support Walls of Freedom project on Indiegogo.
Walls of Freedom is a two years research & documentation project about the street art of the Egyptian revolution.
Jameel Prize 2013 at V&A
Honoured to be one of the 10 shortlisted for the Jameel Prize 2013 at V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum.
Text from the Jameel Prize page about my nomination:
Pascal Zoghbi is an Arabic type designer who was born, lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon. Read the rest of this entry »
Nasri Khattar / Unified Arabic Type
Last August in Beirut, I had the opportunity to meet with Camille Khattar Hedrick, the daughter of Nasri Khattar, the creator of a library of fonts based on Unified Arabic.
29LT Massira is a simplified spontaneous handwriting set of fonts based on the casual writings of the Lebanese people and the Ruqaa Arabic calligraphic style. The type-family does not have weights but different styles based on different writing tools. The four styles are: PEN, TIPPEX, LIPSTICK and SPRAY.
I took part in the Arabic Calligraphy and Lettering workshop that was offered by the renowned Syrian Calligrapher Mouneer Al Shaarani at Art on 56th Gallery in Gemmayzeh, Beirut.
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Happy New Year 2013! Hopefully all Arab people will be free and democracy reigns in all Arab nations in 2013.
29 Arabic Letters [29LT] is publishing its MASSIRA Type-Family for the year of freedom 2013. The fonts are designed and inspired from the graffiti and handwritings of Arab demonstrators.
Alongside Ben Wittner and Sascha Thoma from eps51, I have giving a bilingual poster design workshop for design students at Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin KHB, in Berlin, Germany. The workshop was part of the Right to Left event that took place in Berlin all through November until December.
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Khajag Apelian and I were the last workshop leaders in the 4th phase of the Khatt Foundation Arabic Type Design Workshop Series 2012 that took place at Tashkeel, Dubai. You can read more about the workshop process and the leaders at the Khatt Foundation website.
The talk and workshop I gave at NUQAT Design Conference, Kuwait 2012, revolved around the topic of reviving traditional Arabic script into contemporary Arabic typefaces, patterns/arabesques and design applications for our everyday life. The traditional is not lost but being redefined.
The Arabic version of Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel word-mark is created in collaboration with Duncan/Channon and Hard Rock’s internal design team.
The Arabic Graffiti workshop was part of the White Wall graffiti and street art event that was held at Beirut Art Center and all over the walls of Beirut. French graffiti artist Zepha-Vincent Abadie Hafez and I gave the workshop together to 15 young Lebanese designers and artists.
I have participated in the “Beirut” typographic poster design of Show Us Your Type and they have done a small interview about the design i did and my view about Beirut’s latest socio-political events.
Thaber is a technology startup that is creating a recommendation engine based on behavioral economics. The team is mostly based in Palestine. Thaber means “to perseveres” in Arabic.
This spring, the elective course “Introduction to Arabic Type Design” at AUB [American University of Beirut] was introduced. It is given part of the Graphic Design program at AUB. Third and fourth year students who were interested in Arabic type and wanted to develop their skills in understanding and drawing Arabic letters, enrolled in the course. The course was an ongoing collaboration between the students and I. I had to evaluate what they could and needed to learn as opposed to what was too advanced for them.
The Censored. Why now? Graffiti in Beirut post Arab revolutions article and images are being displayed within the Culture In Defiance: Continuing Traditions of Satire, Art and the Struggle for Freedom in Syria. exhibition at the Prince Claus Fund Gallery from the 04th june till the 23rd november 2012.
Featured graffiti images shot in Beirut in May 2012.
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Since the publication of the Arabic Graffiti Book in 2011, which I co-edited with Don Karl, the scene and stance of graffiti in Beirut has changed drastically. With the development of the Arab Spring across the neighboring Arab nations such as in Syria and Egypt, Beirut has experienced a new Arab graffiti scene and a new censorship aspect that was not present in the previous years. Alongside Lebanese socio-political stencils and murals, Beirut is being bombarded with Syrian, Egyptian and as usual Palestinian political and revolutionary writings.
عذرا إن أزعجنا أحد، إننا في سوريا، نبني وطن
Sorry for disturbing anyone, We are in Syria, Building a Nation
An elegant contemporary Arabic and Latin type characterize the new corporate identity of Shawati’ Magazine, Abu Dhabi. The new design and layout of the magazine was complemented by the creation of a unique Arabic and Latin Display type.
Arabic Type Workshop with AJWA’ organization in Riyad for profesional graphic designers and calligraphers.
The event was organized by Fawaz Al Wzala.
The workshop focused on the type design process and technical aspects of generating Arabic fonts through lectures and start up drawings of prospective contemporary typefaces. Square Kufic patterns were also practiced.
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There was an array of interesting speakers at NUQAT Design Conference 2012 this year. Talks concerning contemporary use of Arab Islamic Art and Arabesque were addressed from Graphic Design, Type Designers, Products Designers, Jewelry Designers, Industrial Designers, Photographer, Calligraphers, etc.
From my part, I gave a talk about my journey in the Arabic Type Design field and gave a workshop about Kufic Arabesque constructions.
Droid Arabic Naskh is now shipping with the latest Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. It is the default font for the Arabic script in the smart phones using the latest Android operating systems.
Droid Arabic Naskh can be downloaded from Google Font Directory for web and mobile usage.
Selected Arabic Logos created by 29ArabicLetters in the year 2011.
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The Khatt Foundation Type Design Workshop
Hosted by Tashkeel & Pavilion Downtown Dubai, 21 – 25 October 2011
5 Days workshop, 3 Days Lecture Series by several renowned Arab designers.
Workshop leaders:
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares, Lara Assouad Khoury, Pascal Zoghbi
Guest speakers: Wissam Shawkat, Sheikha Bin Dhaher, Salem Al Qassimi
1 Poster Exhibition (outcomes of workshop)
FF Seria Arabic has been updated with improvement to the horizontal metrics.
Every customer that have purchased the fonts before September 2011 can contact FontFont and ask for the updated version for free.
Stencil “I love corruption” by lebanese artist Ali & graffiti “Soon the Union of the Arab people” by Egyptian artist Ganzeer drawn on the evening of the 21st of September, in Hamra, Beirut.
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