Different cities, one soul.

While walking in the city of Madaba last month (South of Jordan), I’ve stumbled upon the signage of this tailor shop, it says: أزياء بندلي Bandali’s Fashion, the usage of the Diwani script in this charming way that shows freedom and appreciation to smoothness and details, it definitely made me loves the signage and sees the clear connection with the tailoring craftsmanship.

And, last night, I was walking in the city of Al-Khobar (Eastern province of Saudi Arabia), 1,642 KM away from Madaba, I’ve found this beautiful sign, which says: رند Rand, and it happens to be the exact same style as the Bandali’s Fashion, and the stunning thing was: Another tailor shop! Wow..

I’m not sure if they were made by the same signmaker, I doubt.. I asked the shop owners in Al-Khobar and they have no idea who’s done the sign for them, while in the one in Jordan was closed when I photographed it. Nevertheless, I’m so glad that I’ve spotted those two gems in two different Arab cities, but with one soul for sure. It’s a proof that there are many things to unite us.

Advertisement

An 800 years Arabic Dietetic book!

I’ve spent the day reading Taqwīm al-ṣiḥḥah تقويم الصحّة, a manuscript written by Ibn Buṭlān, it was presented to Saladin’s son, الملك الظاهر, the King of Aleppo in 1213 AD. Basically, the book is a long mesmerizing chart that’s briefly reviewing many kinds of food, herbs, habits, even music, and sports!

All pages of the content are having the same design, for an instant, the following page is reviewing some types of fruits, and what are the cons and pros and why? And what’s the targeted age group.. plus much interesting information:

What’s the difference between الكمثرى and الأجاص ?

And here is an interesting clipping, which talks about Maqlouba on the section of dishes!

The section of bread types made me look exactly like this emoji:

The first city in the world to have its own ‘SYSTEM’ font!

DUBAI CLAIMS TO BE THE FIRST CITY IN THE WORLD TO HAVE ITS OWN CUSTOM FONT, WHILE AMMAN AND MANY OTHER CITIES HAVE ACHIEVED THAT AGES AGO! 

I’ve been provoked yesterday by the recent news from Dubai, that Microsoft and Monotype have created a new custom font for Dubai!

Authentic again!

Like any other vivid city, Amman has its own aesthetic and well-designed shop signs. Looking back at Amman’s photos from the 60’s and 70’s, up until the few ones left nowadays; one can identify the highly flavored visual identity placed above each shop entrance. The signs were designed and produced by local sign painters, using their own taste in calligraphy, colors, composition and sometimes logo design. They were the designers of their era, without any academic direction or any written guidelines to follow, just a pure spontaneous design practice.

Unfortunately, this vital craft has vanished with the rise of computer graphics and mega size printers, and nowadays it is near extinction.

As part of my participation in Amman Design Week 2016; I’ve brought back two of the authentic sign painting masters to the scene, to produce new signage for ‘The Crafts District’ shops in the Raghadan area, and to create a real encounter between the craft masters and the designers of Amman.

Curator of ‘The Crafts District’: Dina Haddadin

Text and photography: Hussein Alazaat

كأي مدينة أخرى تضج بالحياة، فإن عمّان تملك ذوقها الخاص في لافتات المحال التجارية، وبالتتبع لصور الشوارع واللافتات في عمّان منذ الستينات والسبعينات وانتهاءً بما تبقى منها في أيامنا هذه، نجد الهوية البصرية المرتبطة بنكهة المكان والأشخاص والأعمال في المدينة على لافتات جميلة فوق مداخل المحلات، تم تصميم وتنفيذ هذه اللوحات على يد خطاطي عمّان، والذين قاموا باستخدام فراشيهم وأدواتهم، وفهمهم للتصميم والتكوين الحروفي، وذوقهم بالألوان والظلال والتأثيرات، قاموا بمقام “المصممين” المتفردين بالمدينة، خاصة عندما نرى أن بعضهم تجاوز مساحة اللافتة إلى تصميم شعارات ومواد طباعية أخرى مثلاً. كل ذلك بمنهج عفوي بسيط يتكلم مع الشارع والزبائن وضيوف المدينة بلهجة واضحة مفهومة ثنائية اللغة في معظم الأحيان.

لسوء الحظ، تم القتل التدريجي لهذه الحرفة مع ظهور الكمبيوتر والطابعات الضخمة وانخفاض الذوق العام والسعي نحو السرعة والرخص، يمكننا القول بأن حرفة صناعة الآرمات قد انقرضت الآن بشكل كبير.
ضمن مشاركتي بأسبوع عمّان للتصميم في نسخته الأولى، قمت بالتعاون الفني مع اثنين من “الخطاطين المعلمين” القدامى لهذه الحرفة، وعملنا سوية لانتاج لافتات/آرمات جديدة لـ “حي الحرف” في مجمع رغدان السياحي، لإحياء هذه الحرفة من جديد ولخلق مواجهة جديدة بين شيوخ هذا الكار ومصممي عمّان.

 

Signpainter Abed Jukhy (Born in Amman, 1930) Holding his tools box. Mr. Jukhy is practicing his craft with great passion! despite all of the health issues he is facing! He is still offering his services in his authentic workshop that is located  in Prince Mohammad street, since the 1960’s.

Amman Panoramic Map 1995

While exploring my archive I’ve stumbled upon this map of Amman, it was published by “International Media Services”, as you see their credentials at the map footer.

It’s really a strange thing to find! I don’t recall how it came into my archive.. it’s like seeing a visualised memory directly in my hands. Anway, the map is really interesting, it shows you  the brands, shops, venues and landmarks of Amman two decades ago, I’m sure many of us still remembering few parts of this map, the map of a vivid city who changed a lot.

The map, obviously, was drawn by hand, the artist who done that used some weird orientations, so you find Rainbow street is west of Al-Husseini Mosque and they share the same horizontal level, then you keep going west until you reach Abdoun, a few steps after Abdoun you find yourself in the Queen Alia Airport! Funny..

However, the artist made a good effort to draw the building’s facade, I was impressed to see some iconic buildings of Amman drawn in a nice way, it seems like someone did a big research for photos and logos, and delivered them to the artist’s hands.

Many brands in this map have been extinct, and many are still surviving, but it still Amman that we love!

Bilingual Typography at the map’s masthead.

Good job on drawing this building, still exist on the Queen Rania Street.

Childhood memories at Jollibee restaurant in Shmaisany.

You can download a high-res photo of the map from here.: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alazaat/27737641776

Al-Jahith Treasury

Al-Jahith Treasury / Khazanat Al- Jahith / خزانة الجاحظ is one of my most admired places in Amman, imagine your self isolated inside a beduin tent far a way  from all of the city’s headaches between tons and tons of used and rare books! This is heaven for me!

Theeb film, Arabic calligraphy in the OSCARS

At one evening in October 2013, I sat down with the Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar to discuss the collaboration between me and him to design the Arabic main title and credits for his new feature film Theeb, I was more than excited to take the job, it was a great honor for me to work with such a brilliant director like Naji, for a great shining opportunity in the Arab film industry.

My initial quick sketches with Naji, discussing styles and calligraphy approach.

We agreed to adapt the Nastaliq calligraphic style, that relates to the Ottoman official signage system that was popular in our region in 1916, where the film’s events are happening in.

Dinar Calligraphy

From Alef to Yaa’, an experimental project to spread the love of Arabic calligraphy, the canvas this time is the official Jordanian Dinar banknotes!

Enjoy looking at them 🙂 

Another link to flickr album:

Celebrating the Levantine cuisine

My wife Lana has created a very interesting project by her own; a cooking channel talks only about the cuisine of Levant region and addressing the speakers of German language.. Enjoy watching while I enjoy eating 🙂

ISIS Typography

Since the creation of ISIS in 2013, I witnessed as an Arab and Muslim citizen the bloody image of ISIS, and their strong media presence as well, and I observed the usage of type and calligraphy in their designs for social media and other outlets. In this post, I’ll show my findings* for ISIS designs and will comment on them.

The official logo and flag of ISIS, which is the stamp of prophet Mohammad under the “Shahada” phrase that say: There is no god but Allah. The typographic style here is mimicking the stamp design in the 7th century, very basic, primitive and without any diacritic marks. ISIS used this design to declare their rights of “Khelafa” or caliphate. While in fact, the prophet Mohammad have not used his stamp as a war symbol, he used it as a personal stamp on messages to invite other rulers in the region to know about Islam. (We didn’t see the real stamp or its impression, the current known one is fake and was made by a Turkish artisan in the 19th century, the words’ order in the fake stamp above is wrong, Arabic words should stack over each other from top to down not the apposite)