To continue with the newspaper series, we now jump outside of Lebanon to the London based Al-Hayat newspaper. It is arguably the one with the highest number of circulation amongst all Arab newspapers and I’ve seen copies of it all over Europe.
Fonts: The styles used are mainstream conventional typefaces. The headline font uses the thick baseline to add boldness, but the result is uninspiring. It also feels a bit cold and unwelcoming. It might be my personal impression, but it never makes me to want to pick it up.
Layout: The layout is ok. Uncluttered and direct to the point. Still, if you compare it to the Annahar example, you can see that the latter uses the page space in a more effective manner. Also, they need wider margins, and that the black line in the middle is disturbing.
Masthead: The logo in itself is quite interesting, especially with the middle swash (also like Annahar). I’m not sure that the stylization of the globe with a Fatha on top of it is appropriate, or the 2 colored boxes on each side of it.
Overall impression: This is a conventional design that could have been better executed. It reminds of Annahar but is of a less effective design quality. The choice of imagery is as important as the fonts, and the example shown is not exactly eye-grabbing photography.
hello Nadine, impressing case study! well i might be ‘hors-sujet’ or in the wrong position/place to ask, but… is it possible to have some links or book names about the history of arabic type, its characteristics and may be some case studies?! this is a part of my senior project, Im still @ my ‘researching’ level, while researching i came across ur koufiya specimen + Thomas Milo’s case studies about arabic type they helped a lot, pascal’s studies were helpfull too… is there any other sources that could help students to reach and understand the history n characteristics of arabic type? if yes pls do leave a thread for ‘us’- students… thank you :)
Left by n on February 20th, 2007