Kaf-Boom: Arabic Graffiti in Lebanon and the Arab World

I will be giving a lecture about Arabic graffiti in Lebanon and the Arab World (like Palestine, Jordan, Egypt…) on the 18th of November at 14:25 at Notre Dame University part of the City Street Conference.

29letters T-Shirts

I did some Arabic Vernacular T-Shirts design in my spare time.
I would appreciate your comments on them.
You would buy any? There is a style you prefer against another? or…

The number of Arabic letters that creates the Arabic script is 29.

Bombing Beirut – Arabic Graffiti Workshop

On the 4th, 5th and 6th of November I took part of an Arabic graffiti workshop which was given by the German graffiti artist Mr. Don Karl. It was great to finally meet up with Lebanese graffiti artist and get to know the people behind the graffiti and tags in Beirut.

Lebanese Graffiti 02

After last year’s post of Lebanese Graffiti in 2007, the streets of Beirut were filled even more with new lebanese arabic graffiti. Below are some of the nice graffiti tags in the “Karantina” & “Gemeyzé” regions in Beirut.

“Deen Tight” Arabic Hip Hop Documentary Movie

I was asked to create an Arabic Hip Hop style title for the Deen Tight Movie. The title is spelled in English but it should reflect the Arabic Square kufi style and incorporate the Hip Hop look in it.

Culture Exchange Graffiti / Beirut-Berlin

I was contacted by Don R. Kari after he saw the Lebanese Graffiti post on my blog. Don Kari is a german graffiti artist. He and his german graffiti colleagues initiated a project in Cuba and now they want to do the project in Beirut. You can have a look on the graffiti project in Cuba at the following link: CubaBrazil

Lebanese Graffiti

(for more Artistic lebanese Graffiti, you can also link to the new posts Bombing Beirut and Lebanese graffiti 02 of the new tags that were drawn in 2008 after this post was written.)

Nearly all of the graffiti in Lebanon over the past years were either 1. political words & sentences or 2. signage for shops or places. However, last week I was driving to Beirut and I have spotted a new graffiti that did not have either a political connotation to any political party or it was a signage for a shop. It is a pure social graffiti done by young Lebanese groups to express their feelings about Beirut.

Politics by means of Arabic Type

During the last month political slogans took over most of the Lebanese billboards.

On the right is the first set of billboards and the left is the second set. Compare the two. Notice the difference between the Alef-Hamza, the Heart shape and the Arabic type used. And for sure you notice you added sprayed Arabic type and the rainbow logo.

The first set of billboards conveyed a non-political method using the slogan (or logotype) as “I Love Life” in all three languages Arabic, English and French.

Happy New Year 2007 from Lebanon

I was thinking for the last days what to make as an e-card for the New Year and send to my friends and colleagues. Due to the sad events lately in Lebanon, I could not get any nice ideas for the coming year. So I did this fast sketch expressing what I and most of the Lebanese people are feeling. We are hoping for a better year but at the same time we are worried that it is going to be even worth then 2006. That is why the sketch is fast illustration of Lebanese buildings bombed and black smoke developing above the cityscape. If you look Closely you notice that the black smoke is composed of Arabic letters reading “Happy New Year” in Arabic. That is “Aam Saaid”. The sketch is done with black ink on a dark grey paper. After I finished the sketch I have added on it with white tip-ex a sentence hoping a white 2007 year on Lebanon and not black as the previous year.
Happy New Year.

Arabic Type Today

I will be giving a lecture at Notre Dame University on the 20th of November about the recent history of Arabic type and the type design process.