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Darah gets a revamp


07. 09. 2009



In 2002, AlMohtaraf was commissioned by King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives to design the maquette and editorial trip of Darah, the foundation’s official magazine. To that end, we designed Darah, a display Arabic typeface influenced by early script found on Hijazi pottery.

Eight years later, we decided to initiate a second generation of the same Darah typeface to make it more legible and visually coherent, with few ligature and contextual alternate updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The size of the letters in relation to the aleph has grown. This improves legibility at smaller sizes

 

 

 

 

 

Excess ink was removed from the stroke ends. This gives the fount a crisper finish

 

 

 

The shape of all teeth was unified as to make the font more coherent

 

 

 

Not only were the teeth of the seen unified and elongated, but their upper slope also increased. This makes the

seen's teeth stand out among other teeth (such as the beh and the medial yeh)

 

 

 

The comma was eradicated and rebuilt altogether as to become more coherent with the rest of the fount, as one

can notice with the sample line set below

 

 

 

The upper two stems of the ain were made of length similar to that of its tail, and its upper stem was made crisper

via ink reduction

 

 

 

The yeh in both free-standing and final forms was enlarged, lowered, and freed of excess ink. The result is crisper

and better-adhering to classical calligraphic proportions, and is therefore more legible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Message of the day

On April 13, 2013, Al Mohtaraf Beirut studio will be hosting the launch of the book 'Arabic Type Design for Beginners' from the Khatt foundation. Book your copy: khtt.foundation@gmail.com 

 

Yara Khoury leads a workshop on Arabic Type design as part of the Khatt initiative at Tashkeel gallery in Dubai, from 12-14 November, 2012

 

Press review in RAGMAG on Al Mohtaraf's full participation in the Beirut Art Fair, 2012.

 

Kameel Hawa gives a talk on 'The Art of Heritage' at Nuqat Design Conference, Dubai, March 2012

 


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