The Lasting Petals of Palestine is an immersive memorial to the many Palestinian lives lost in genocide. We have created a poppy field in which each flower represents a life lost. As the national flower, it embodies the unwavering spirit and resilience of its people. We have mapped official lists to the field, displaying the name and age of each Palestinian lost. Honouring names and lives, not numbers. The project aims to raise awareness and link people through to helpful links of information and action.

My Business Towards Success (original Arabic title: مشروعي نحو النجاح) is a guide about entrepreneurship authored by Farida Hamed and published by Dar Rosa, Qatar. The book was designed by Cairo-based designer Raghda Moataz using 29LT Zeyn and 29LT Zarid Text. From designer Raghda Moataz:

In order to create texture and warm feelings when experiencing this book, we used scraps of paper similar to that on which the author wrote down her ideas while writing the book and expanded them into more different textures with different formats and used it to design the “quotes” spreads.

OFFF Tel Aviv is a visual design festival hosting innovative and international speakers, a meeting point for all talents around the world to collaborate.

The visual identity for the 2018 edition uses Bely Display as the centerpiece of the logo, paired with a custom lettering by Re-Levant for Hebrew and an Arabic translation set in 29LT Zeyn. The sans serif Montserrat is used for “TLV” (the airport code for Tel Aviv) as well as some type on the conference badges. The ticker on the website uses LCD Phone.

Bumpers were animated by studio&more.

Post-conference catalogue for Tasmeem Doha 2017: Analogue Living in a Digital World, an international art & design biennial held in Doha, Qatar. Designed by Lauren Thorson, using 29LT Zeyn and Suisse Int’l Arabic.

See also Lauren’s work for the Tasmeem Doha conference 2017 identity.

Abjad Orientation is a Graphic Design MFA thesis designed and written by Mohammed Nassem at the Rhode Island School of Design. The body of work investigates verbal and visual language through a lens of translation, queerness, and diaspora. Abjad Orientations is a process of shifting the focal viewpoint to reorient myself and/or audience and allow for a closer probe of cultural reality. My eclectic identity as a queer, muslim, multilingual Arab living in the United States drives the form and content of the design inquiries to reconcile one or more aspects of selfhood.

The Greta typeface collection – I have used Greta Sans (Latin) + Greta Arabic and Greta Text (Latin) + Greta Text Arabic) – is both beautiful and robust for typesetting this bilingual book which contains a variety of informational, discursive, and poetic writing. The elegant 29LT Zeyn enhances the expressiveness of the content and features distinctive shapes that help illustrate the differences between the Arabic and Latin scripts.

title page

essay text

chapter divider

project description

Interview text

tasmeemdoha.com:

Tasmeem Doha, launched in 2004 and hosted by VCUQatar, is a biennial international art and design conference that attracts prominent speakers and artists from all over the world. Tasmeem is the Arabic word for ‘Design’. Tasmeem addresses contemporary topics on art and design, and brings together international designers, artists, academics, students and industry professionals. Over the years, the ambitious and timely themes of Tasmeem have gained widespread attention and praise, while fostering partnerships that enhance the educational, creative and cultural vitality of Qatar and beyond.

Analogue Living in a Digital World aims to dialog with art and design’s leading thinkers, educators and practitioners whose ideas transcend media and speak to our human existence in a technological society. The intent of this conference is to explore the intersection between the analogue and digital within the context of our lived experience, and to examine where the two modes differ, intertwine, and coexist. By looking at past and present art and design methodologies and practices, we endeavor to create a context for examining the relevance of our current attitudes to discover new ways to grow and evolve.

We are experiencing a paradigm shift, as aspects of our lives that were formally analogue become digitized. This radical change impacts how we define ourselves as individuals, and as creative beings. It challenges our institutional foundations, and our roles in society. The gradual evolution of the last several decades is steady and unrelenting, and the ramifications of this transformation have just begun to be revealed and interrogated.

تصميم دوحة ٢٠١٧

تقوم جامعة فرجينيا كومنولث في قطر ومنذ عام ٢٠٠٤ باستضافة مؤتمر تصميم دوحة، هو مؤتمر دولي في الفن والتصميم يعقد مرة كل عامين ويستقطب العديد من المتحدثين والفنانين البارزين من جميع أنحاء العالم. يتناول المؤتمر موضوعات معاصرة في الفن والتصميم، ويجمع العديد من المصممين العالميين والفنانين والأكاديميين والطلاب والمتخصصين في هذا القطاع. اكتسبت المواضيع الشيقة التي تناولها المؤتمر، على مر السنين، الاهتمام والثناء على نطاق واسع، وعمل المؤتمر على رعاية الشراكات التي تعزز حيوية العملية التعليمية والإبداعية والثقافية في قطر والمنطقة.

يهدف تصميم دوحة ٢٠١٧ ـ المعيشة التقليدية اليدوية في العالم الرقمي ـ إل ى تبادل الحوار بين كبار المفكرين والمعلمين والممارسين في الفن والتصميم والتي تجاوزت أفكارهم وسائل الإعلام وتتحدث للوجود الإنساني في المجتمع التكنولوجي. القصد من هذا المؤتمر هو استكشاف نقاط الالتقاء بين الطرق التقليدية اليدوية، والرقمية، في سياق التجربة التي نعيشها، ودراسة نقاط الاختلاف، التداخل، والتعايش. وبالنظر في منهجيات وممارسات الفن والتصميم السابقة والحالية، نسعى لابتكار سياق لدراسة جدوى الاتجاهات الحالية لدينا واكتشاف طرق جديدة للنمو والتطور.

نحن نشهد نقلة نوعية، حيث تحولت جوانب حياتنا التقليدية إلى رقمية. هذه التغيرات الجوهرية تؤثر على تعريفنا لأنفسنا كأفراد، وككائنات إبداعية. فهي تتحدى قوام مؤسساتنا، ودورنا في المجتمع. التطور التدريجي للعقود الماضية ثابت وصارم، وقد بدأنا لتونا في الكشف عن تداعيات هذا التحول والتحقيق فيها.

Poster series created by renowned Iranian graphic designer Reza Abedini, showcasing various typefaces by 29Letters.

Since we wanted the posters to be a collaborative effort between Abedini’s (graphic designer) and my (type designer) skills, Abedini had full freedom to play with the fonts and create unique visuals, instead of just designing the posters to showcase the fonts. Abedini wanted the posters to stand by themselves as unique visual items and not only as typographic products promoting a certain set of fonts.

A human figure was introduced in each poster to interact with the typeface displayed. A young Arabic literature expert, Hussein Nasseeddine, gave Abedini a set of phrases and quotes written by several renowned Arabic poets and writers such as Illias Khoury, Hassan Dawood, Mahmoud Darwish, among others. In each poster, the selected text, the human silhouette, and one of 29LT fonts were meticulously chosen to create the right visual aspect of the poster.

The 29LT posters were made available for the first time at Nuqat Design conference 2014 via The Yard bookstore. See the 29LT Blog for more information.

The 29LT Zeyn typeface is very delicate and reflects elegance and grace. Its extremely high contrast had to be displaced in a big size to reveal the intricacy of its outline. A silhouette of a determined, focused man in a precise outfit and elegant atmosphere is illustrated with a thin line and black mass reflecting the elegance and contrast of the typeface. Abedini chose the quote from Hassan Dawood, “I always want to have something to see, like I am watching something, to be able to write. Only then, when I am describing what I see, I find myself in writing.”

The 29LT Zarid typeface is very robust and echoes seriousness. Its black edgy pen strokes contrast sharply with the white space within and around them. Abedini chose to work with the quote of Mahmoud Darwish, “The Truth is white, so write it in the ink of crow. And the Truth is black, so write about it with the light of the mirage” to reflect the seriousness of the type design and the humanistic idea of Black and White. The font was outlined and overlaid with a pattern of striped lines reflecting the vagueness of black or white truth. The typographic visual was emphasized with a figure of a speechless woman and that of a superior woman with a loud voice coming from inside her.

The 29LT Massira typeface is a freehand type inspired from the political graffiti writings in Beirut. Abedini chose a revolutionary satirical quote from Mohammad Al Maghout “What is the benefit in being able to write anything in this world, when you are unable to change anything in it.” The human figure is taken from a screen shot of a woman from a political movie. She represents the revolutionary ideas of women even when they are shown to be calm in statues.

An elegant contemporary Arabic and Latin typography is at the core of the corporate identity of Shawati’ Magazine, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The design and layout of the magazine demanded the creation of a unique Arabic and Latin display typeface. The Arabic is inspired from both Naskh and Thuluth calligraphic styles while the Latin is drawn based on the Modern Serif Roman style.

The letterforms are drawn with extreme refinement and high contrast between the thick and thin pen strokes that convey modernity in a stylish approach, simultaneously, for Latin and Arabic, with many elements bringing them together like weights, contrast and proportions.

Each letter of the Shawati’ typeface has been designed individually; making sure all had the extreme thick and thin pen strokes. This extreme contrast was coupled with strong cuts and edges to give the font a strong and crispy feel.

The Arabic letters are drawn with a free hand approach. The descenders are cut in an elegant thin open stroke. The loop structures were drawn with extra-extended strokes with thin endings, as opposed to the traditional fully circular or triangular approach. The weight of the tooth in the letters is a balance play between thick and thin strokes that lend the letterforms a contemporary feel with a sturdy structure.

Originally created for exclusive use in Shawati’ Magazine in 2010, the typeface was subsequently further developed and released for general licensing as 29LT Zeyn in 2014.