I usually spend a lot of hours digging the internet for old photos about cities that I admire: Amman, Damascus, Cairo ..etc. It’s really interesting to see how these cities evolved!
This time, I’ll be sharing some photos of Amman, from the 20’s till the 90’s. You’ll notice that most of them are having a nice and well-designed shop signs; which is my well-known passion!
Photos have been collected from different websites, copyrights are reserved for their owners. Captions are available for most of the photos.
Enjoy!
1948, Beautiful bilingual sign, it was in Yazeed Bin Abi Sufian St., besides Sydney Hotel current location.
Beautiful shop signs, 50’s I guess..
The eastern wall of al-Husseini Mosque, the small perfumers shop still there, but with an ugly signage of course..
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
1961 – Izzat’s store still at the same place of King Faisal Square. Marriage Of King Hussein Of Jordan With Toni Gardiner. (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
1961 – Beautiful shop signs everywhere, look at the Firestone signage in the center! We’ve lost all of this beauty 😦
(Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
1961 – The small alley here is where Abed Joukhy shop is located, Asfourco has moved to a smaller shop in the same Prince Mohammad street. (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
1961 – Mohammad Salah bikes shop is active since 1938! This beautiful shop sign and many others were removed by the stupidity and ignorance of the Amman’s municipality! (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
1961 – You can’t look at this corner now, it’s full with ugly shops and signages (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
1964 – Heartbreaking shot! The upper signage is for an existing coffeeshop in King Faisal Street, it was made by the company of: Sadat, Kurd Ali and Arbakani.
Official Visit Of Paul Vi To The Holy Land. (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
Goldsmiths market in King Faisal Street: Elegance, elegance and elegance!
1964 – Kayyal 😍
Official Visit Of Paul Vi To The Holy Land. (Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images)
Nice wall behind Ghassan Kanafani!
Amman, Jordan, 15th September 1970, (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
1979 – Great bilingual logo/shield. (Photo by Jean-Claude Deutsch/Paris Match via Getty Images)
Epic 60’s!
I’m not sure if this shop is in Amman, but it has an amazing signage! (Photo by Luis Marden/National Geographic/Getty Images)
The nice smell of Arabic dishes in Dar al-Sourour restaurant still in my memory!
al-Waleed stationery shop still exist in the same place, in King Talal street, with the same beautiful signage. (Photo by Independent Picture Service/UIG via Getty Images)
Interesting bilingual sign. (Photo by Independent Picture Service/UIG via Getty Images)
Regions hotel in Dahiet al-Rasheed, nice matching between Arabic and Latin letters. (Photo by Maher Attar/Sygma via Getty Images)
1989 – Even parliament candidates needs a calligraphers to design their names.. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)
1990 – I remeber those signs in King Talal street, now they all gone! (Photo by Francoise De Mulder/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
1990 – Truly Amman! (Photo by Francoise De Mulder/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
1991 – Era of plastic signs and political shopfronts! (Photo by Independent Picture Service/UIG via Getty Images)
1991 – Handmade banners for Egyptian and American movies.. (Photo by Francoise De Mulder/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
1991 – Example of huge sign making and lettering.. (Photo by William Foley/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)
1998 – Nice vernacular illustration for the royal crown.
Nice fabric banner.. (Photo credit should read RABIH MOGHRABI/AFP/Getty Images)
Finally, another part of my memory: the hully gully carnival ride in Das al-Ain park! (Photo by Independent Picture Service/UIG via Getty Images)
Wow!
… and: Henry Kissinger in Jordanian Shmagh! (Photo by Claude Salhani/Sygma via Getty Images)
[…] Take a look at this beautiful post celebrating Amman’s handlettered store fronts before the curse of Photoshop on Hussein Alazaat’s blog. […]
I love it. Great pictures! I love fonts and typography, but can’t help feeling that digital typography is partly responsible for killing Arabic calligraphy. Why aren’t there as many beautiful signs anymore in Amman? Is the skill of calligraphy just too time consuming in a digital age? Do we just need more Arabic fonts?
[…] Take a look at this beautiful post celebrating Amman’s handlettered store fronts before the curse of Photoshop on Hussein Alazaat’s blog. […]
I love it. Great pictures! I love fonts and typography, but can’t help feeling that digital typography is partly responsible for killing Arabic calligraphy. Why aren’t there as many beautiful signs anymore in Amman? Is the skill of calligraphy just too time consuming in a digital age? Do we just need more Arabic fonts?
[…] Alazaat […]