As usual, from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6902755.stm
“The Spirit & Life exhibition, Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Aga Khan Museum Collection, is on display at London’s Ismaili Centre until 31 August 2007.”
It includes fragments from the Blue Koran (seen above).
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 through these simple design exercises, healing could begin. The nightmare that Lebanon is going through is more than what one could easily describe in words. See, it is a serial nightmare, the recurrence of a terrible thing that happened 32 years ago, for a long 15 years period during which my childhood was spent. If anything, this is the return — with a vengence — of the monsters underneath the bed.
Dominik sent me this (Thank you!) from Russia:
(Though it is in many ways derived from Latin, so it is inherently Latinised…)
The ATypI list has received a very interesting post (links below) regarding a newspaper that is still being written by hand. Isn’t this a great find? Wow…
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/07/gallery_calligraphers
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/last_calligraphers
(My birthday is coming up in November, just in time for the European release)
:)
The interview that I did last October has been published in Cap&Design, a leading and very well respected design magazine in Sweden, and now it’s online — thank you, Jonas!— and you can see it here:
http://capdesign.idg.se/2.990/1.112375
In case you are wondering about the typeface that the word Beirut is set in, that’s the first public image of the yet unreleased Palatino Arabic. That Yeh-Ra ligature is still bugging me… The Ra appears too small. Have to fix it!
Fairuz is *the* Lebanese diva, with a voice like an angel. She is adored by millions and we grew up to her music. Every morning, many radio stations have dedicated programs where they play her songs. She’s quite prolific with more songs than I can count. She is considered to be the voice of Lebanon, and any documentary about Lebanon is not complete if it does not run at least one of her songs in the background. She is that loved. The links below go to some of her video clips in youtube.
Ya Tayr (song to the bird): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVczDSiAWPY&mode=related&search=
Ya Tayr el-Werwar: another song to a bird, very sweet voice…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUbQcxsJwWQ&mode=related&search=
Nassam Alayna Al-hawa (loose translation: the wind is breezy):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUbQcxsJwWQ&mode=related&search=
This song is one of my favourites. She says: The wind is breezy, and it’s coming from the valley. Then she calls upon the wond to take her back to her country. It sounds wierd in English but is actually quite strong in Arabic which is a very flowery language. The clip has pictures of Lebanon before the war, and for many Lebanese, Fairuz has become to mean the beauty and magic of Lebanon before 1975.
This is also shown in this clip of images of scenes from Lebanon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHgJjGgqWY&mode=related&search=
Her songs are very sweet but many are very sad. This is one of those that break your heart. You can feel the sense of loss of the “jewel of the East” and the emptiness that it left behind. She sings to Beirut to come back, for the good old days. She misses the happy times. If there ever was one song that captures the misery of the civil war, this would be the one. The page has many similar posts. If you read the comments, you’ll get a sense of the love that the Lebanese have for Beirut, and the sadness of what we are now referring to as the Lebanese diaspora. So many of us are far away from home.
A’ateni El Naye wa Ghani:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fTL_2XzUVE
This one is a classic and it is sung in formal Arabic. She says: Give me the flute and sing… You can see in the clip that her voice is not as it used to be, but she’s still great. Also, she generally doesn’t move when she’s on stage. For those who know the Arabic alphabet but not how it really sounds, this is a good thing to watch. The clip has the Arabic words at the bottom so you can follow the song.
So, this is what I could find on youtube. Fairuz is a whole genre of music. Is it possible to explain that there’s morning music? Do other cultures have this as well? Though we listen to her at any time, it always feels that the peace of the morning can only be broken by the voice of an angel.
How does this relate to typography? Not sure, except that I like to make type specimens using her songs. It brings good karma.
While this blog is dedicated to Arabic typography and type design, I feel that the connection between letters and their environment is 1- very strong, 2- very important to understand. There are many non-Arabs who are very successful in their designs, but it is always important to understand the context of type, and not just its history. So, for those who are interested in this topic, I will start a new series — the newspaper one turned out to be very popular — about the context of our letters. For this I will refer to things like cuisine, music, dance, and many other topics. I have to say though, this is my very personal view, and I’m in no way objective. I prefer Tabouleh to Fattoush, and classic oriental dance to the Saidy.
Oriental dance is very elegant and often quite sensual. The movements vary from soft and rhythmic to fast and with sharp breaks. Sounds familiar? Arabic calligraphy has many of these qualities, and it is in the alternating tempo that the richness of both dance and calligraphy lie. Both have many different styles. Both have a vast repertoire of movements. Both are elegant and pleasing to the eye.
Below is link to a video from youtube about a male dancer. This is highly unconventional but very interesting (and shocking) to see. He’s quite good and I will post more videos of dance clips in future posts. The first 30 seconds are slow so please bear with us…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6autbeh_tUk&feature=PlayList&p=0EC927A322C11319&index=3
Poster contest by Linotype with lots of prizes:
www.linotype.com/helveticaNOW
PS. This is not Arabic related, but still interesting to note
I have long complained about signage systems in Germany and the locals never believe me. I think this story backs up my claim:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6705323.stm
There’s always something fun — though sometimes plain wierd — and interesting to read on the BBC news website. Among the latest:
“Condoms ‘too big’ for Indian men”
“Sudan man forced to ‘marry’ goat”
“Sudan’s famous goat ‘wife’ dies”
“Snake bursts after gobbling gator”
P.S. My quotes are acting funny but I’m not sure why…