Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art opened its doors to contemporary Arab art lovers in December 2010 in Doha, Qatar. The museum hosts exhibitions, programs and events that explore and celebrate art by Arab artists. It is an inspiring space for dialogue and scholarship about modern and contemporary art in the region and the Arab diaspora.
An ultra thin font lends “Mathaf” a contemporary corporate image. A strong tension materializes when the curvy pen strokes meet up with the sharp cuts and corners of the letters. A hybrid modern Kufi-Naskh Arabic letterforms complement an edgy lowercase Latin letters to present a unique bilingual Arabic–English type.
Wolf Olins NY are behind the whole corporate images for the museum. I was asked to create an Arabic/Latin font that they will incorporate in the whole corporate identity of the museum starting with the logotype, signage, publications, advertisings, website, promotional items, etc…
The Arabic and English logotypes of the museum are created using the corporate Mathaf font with the “ ha’ ” in the Arabic logotype and the “a” in the English logotype replaced by hand doodle.
Standard and unique Latin ligatures were drawn in the font in order to make the Latin as mush as possible coherent with the Arabic. Latin ligatures with horizontal letter connections amplified the coherence between the Arabic and Latin script.
When setting up to establish 29LT digital type foundry in 2013, Lebanese designer and educator Pascal Zoghbi aspired to explore the diversity and potential of the Arabic script. Zoghbi envisioned 29LT with a cross-cultural approach. Having evolved, studied and worked in a multicultural and largely bilingual environment, he embraced multilingualism. Coming into contact with more than one language in his everyday life, he has developed an exceptional ability to think global and to reflect the various technical, conventional, and cultural writing systems into his work. Accordingly, he has excelled in creating innovative, high-quality contemporary multiscript type families, each of which is unique in its design approach and responds to regional and international market needs. Staying true to his culture, he worked on turning traditional Arabic script into contemporary type. Always on the lookout for new ideas and harmony between scripts, he explores various tools and techniques and regularly partners with a team of professional designers specialized in specific scripts to create multiscript typography.
Not only is he heavily involved in the practice of Arabic type design and typography, but he has also contributed to the field as an educator. Between 2007 and 2017, he taught at various design schools in Lebanon (American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University, and Notre Dame University) and in the UAE (American University of Sharjah). Besides lecturing at universities, he takes part in a range of design events worldwide and provides trainings and workshops on Arabic typography at universities, conferences, and agencies.
Zoghbi has gained an international reputation for his work and has received throughout his professional career prestigious design awards and honors, such as TDC Typographic Excellence, Granshan, AIGA, and was nominated to Jameel Prize 3. His work encompasses an outstanding collection of contemporary Arabic and multilingual typefaces. He co-authored and edited the “Arabic Graffiti” book published in 2010.
Zoghbi started his academic journey at Notre Dame University in Lebanon where he grew interest in Arabic typography. He further developed his type design skills at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), the Netherlands, where he obtained in 2006 a Master of Design in Type & Media.
In 2018, he relocated to Madrid where he is currently based. Since then, his interest in a vast number of Spanish historical and cultural topics, especially those that showcase the merging of Arabic and Spanish cultures, grew keener. 29LT expanded accordingly, shifting from supporting only Arabic and Latin scripts to a global multiscript approach tapping into other world scripts.
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