Posted by Tarek Atrissi

For the second year, I will be a guest critic at the School of Visual Art’s workshop in Design History, Theory and practice in Venice and Rome. An exciting two weeks intensive workshop with some of SVA’s top faculty and some guest Italian faculty members. A great opportunity to experience a design course from SVA in a European context. More info on the workshop can be seen on the following link http://design.sva.edu/masters_workshop_italy/

By Tarek Atrissi

I was glad to take part of the graphic design week in Saudi Arabia, organized by Dar El Hekma college in Jeddah, and witness the first event of its kind in the kingdom. On one hand, discovering the local charm of another Arab city was very exciting on all levels: Looking at the beautiful old areas of Jeddah; documenting the graphics and typography on the streets; and viewing closely wonderful examples of the traditional Hijazi architecture and style. On the other hand, the conference itself, entitled “Tawasol”, was a stimulating event that triggered a considerable local interest. Speakers included high profile international designers, design critics and communication experts such as Jonathan Barnbrook, Tea Triggs, Anja Lutz and Adbusters media foundation.
I personally enjoyed very much the lecture of Lebanese architect and artist Nadim Karam and his concepts and projects often narrating the “dreams of cities”: Projects such as the Archaic Procession urban art installation in Beirut Central District in 1997, a series of gigantic sculptures which I recall positively as a very curious addition to the city during my study years at the American University of Beirut. The talk of UAE national Mohammed Harib was highly appreciated by the audience: He is the creative mind behind the Middle East’s pioneering animated 3D series, Freej, a project celebrating the culture and tradition in the UAE through animated characters that literally became national heroes across the Emirates.

I gave a lecture and a workshop at the conference. The lecture was a critical look on emerging graphic design practice in the Arab world today. The workshop followed the same one day course module I gave in Kuwait a week earlier, consisting of a typographic lettering exercise that invited senior and junior graphic design students to “design” an Arabic word of their choice. Sketching the graphic and typographic endless possibilities of a specific word lead to very interesting results, some of which are previewed below. They ranged between calligraphic solutions, geometric ones, and freehand lettering style.

Selected work from the workshop. Top, right to left: Zainab Al Mashat, Nouf Ahmed Dahran , Marya Bakhsh, Alaa El Khereiji, Amnah Naghi, Amna Kamel.

All in all, I was most impressed I think by seeing the emerging graphic design scene in Saudi Arabia and the motivated young generation of local Saudi female designers highly interested in design and typography. It was not surprising then to pick up a local graphic design magazine, “Design”, initiated by one of the graduates of the graphic design department of Dar El Hekma college.

Preview from the workshop process: Above: Lettering by Anwar Ghader . Below: Sketches and process work by various participants.

By Tarek Atrissi

I just returned from a short yet a very productive visit to Kuwait, where I gave a public lecture and where I conducted two workshops: one for the students at the American University in Kuwait; and another one open for professional practicing designers. All part of the Nuqat ‘ala el Hurrouf conference, a new and promising event that is very much needed in the country. The theme of the event focused on one hand on Arabic design and typography, and on the other hand on creative Arabic copywriting for designers.
One day workshops are always very challenging to plan, and for this event I came up with a new assignment of Arabic lettering to explore with the participants. Between the art of classic traditional Arabic calligraphy and the contemporary digital Arabic type design skills, lies the discipline of Arabic lettering, a task often in the hand of graphic designers in the context of Branding, logo design and title design. This workshop consisted then of a typographic exercise inviting designers to focus on one Arabic word, and to explore it typographically in all possible visual ways. The focus was to try to “design the word”: to look beyond the letters and experiment with sketching the word in order to give it the most unique and memorable shape.

Workshop work by Sara Al Falah (top) , Noura Al Naggar (middle) and Muneera Al Qinaie.

The results were very exciting and I share here a selection of the exploration on the Arabic word “Thaqafa” (culture) and other sketches of different words. The practical side of the workshop was backed up with a presentation of case studies that rationalized and presented different methods and approaches that designer can follow as they work with Arabic lettering.

Thanks to Khalid Al-Growi, I collected some charming vernacular printed advertizing material from Kuwait, material that is always interesting to look at and study its typographic and graphic old style treatment.

Vernacular printed advertizing work from Kuwait.

More workshops in Abu Dhabi
By Tarek Atrissi

I always enjoy returning to the HCT colleges in Abu Dhabi to conduct the yearly workshops for the graphic design students at the Women’s college. With the first and second year students, I give a one week workshop offering introductory design courses that are essential skills in my opinion for any designer aiming to work in the Arab world. The first workshop focuses on creating Arabesque patters and on exploring the art of creating Arabic geometric patterns. The second workshop consists of an introduction to the use of Arabic calligraphy in design. Students are taught a basic overview of the general Arabic calligraphic styles and are then asked to find local calligraphers in Abu Dhabi: Each student will brief the selected calligrapher and art direct his process, to eventually use the commissioned artwork in a printed piece the student will design. Besides enjoying the final work developed by the local students, it is always exciting to discover through the students some of the hidden talented Arabic calligraphers in Abu Dhabi, and encouraging the students to bridge a working relationship with them.

Selected work from the workshop. Above: work of Fatima Al Baloushi. Below: Work of Sheikha al Marzouqi

Lettering, stenciling and shop signs, as part of the urban typography that dominates the visual language of Caracas, capital of Venezuela. Photography by Hilda Mecharrafie.

By Tarek Atrissi

We travel, and always look at the street typography that defines the character of every city and new urban environment we experience. I enjoyed documenting the street graphics and typography in my latest trip across Panama, and so did Hilda in her travel in Venezuela. A quick preview shown in the images below, giving a taste of the rich typography in central and Latin America.

Preview of street typography from Panama.