I saw this a while ago in the theater and loved the movie. Today I thought to post a link to the opening credits. Great score and wonderful animation with faux-Arabic. These people did their research and were able to create a wonderful mood. In case you do decide to watch the movie, bring […]
I was in Lebanon for x-mas and saw that we had a new 1000 Lebanese Lira note. That’s sort of the basic unit of currency and it is worth around 66 USD cents. Interesting things about money: 1- you can never have enough of it, 2- the paper it’s printed on says a lot of […]
Last summer I started working on t-shirt designs that call for the stop of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon. As a political tool, they achieved nothing, but then neither did the UN so I’m not so worried. As a design expression, it helped me voice my own feelings at the time and I found that […]
He doesn’t mention typography per se, but he did mention dialogue… I had quoted from this speech several times now. We even quoted it in the press release for the Kitabat Conference in Dubai. This person is a gem, possibly the greatest Arab thinkers in the 20th century. I am posting below the entire graduation […]
So this morning the Lebanese were exploding with happiness and love. 3 of them went to heaven. Tomorrow is Valentine’s day. It’s been 2 years now. What a cruel cruel thing, to transform the day of love to a day of mourning and sadness. Love turns into the promise of death and the veil comes […]
Yesterdays I saw the movie Babel, a part of which was set in Morocco. The tag line is:
If You Want to be Understood…Listen
I wonder if this movie is showing in Lebanon. And if they do see it, will they think: Oh we don’t understand the Moroccan accent, this goes to show that we are not […]
A few weeks ago Lebanon was overrun with this “I love life” campaign. At first I did not know who was behind the posters. I thought that this might be a neutral organisation that was trying to talk some sense into the fighting parties. Then a friend explained to me that this was no […]
Letters. Text. Typography. Language. Dialogue. Communication. This is what we do. As designers and as people. Arabic or otherwise.
Tomorrow a new round of the screaming match starts in Lebanon. Funnily enough, I was going through my emails and found this:
NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has […]
This blog is about Arabic typography, so how come there’s so much politics on it? Last month I was in Stockholm and I was interviewed by a magazine. The editor asked me, does the situation of Lebanon (past and present) affect my views on Arabic typography, and I quickly said,”of course.”
I am Lebanese, and I […]
My friend Samar is doing a wonderful initiative in Lebanon. Today is the last day of the workshops that she has organised for the children of the areas affected by the Israeli bombing. More news here: http://www.lebanonblogtrip.blogspot.com/
I was glad to see they used one of my t-shirt designs… Best of luck, Samar!