Vernacular Kufi Workshop

‘Vernacular Kufi’ is a new approach that I thought of in order to introduce the kufi workshop to the AUB Typography II students and make them interested in it.

Here is a brief summary of the workshop’s objectives and methodology:

Objective

1. Students will research the Arabic Calligraphic Styles and get more
familiar with the anatomy of Arabic letters.

2. The “Sketching Type” techniques will be introduced in class. Students
will be able to draw and sketch type in a professional manner.

3. The three known Kufi styles (archaic, floral and square) will be introduced in class and student will practice drawing them.

4. By the end of the project, each student would have created his
own kufi artwork based on the three Kufi styles.

Methodology

1. Research about Lebanese vernacular words or sentences.

2. Each student will then choose a vernacular word (or few words)
to be used in the creation of the Kufi artwork.

3. A lecture will be given about:
a. Anatomy of the Arabic letters,
b. Arabic Calligraphic Styles,
c. The three most know Kufi Styles,
d. Drawing Arabic type & the proportion of Arabic letters.
e. Techniques of creating Arabesque patterns that fits with the kufi letters.

4. Each student will choose one of the three Kufi styles
discussed in the lecture. The choice should have a link to the word
and the feel of the artwork that the student wants to show.

5. Sketching the drawing the word from different approaches.
Creating several alternatives.

6. Choosing on of the sketched alternatives and finalizing the
Kufi artwork.

7. Testing the artwork in different sizes (big and small) and
modifying the artwork until all weak points are removed.

8. Coloring the Kufi artwork.

By the end of the Workshop each of the students did one square and one floral kufi of his/her Lebanese vernacular word/s.