Arabic Graphic Design

I love studying the languages and cultures of the peoples of the world, and integrating them into my work—one look at my graphic design portfolio will demonstrate that.  While up to this point most of my non-English design work has involved Chinese language and cultural elements—no surprise given that I lived in China for 3 years—I’ve always been keen to observe the shapes and forms, and the creative possibilities inherent within, in the written languages and traditional folk patterns of other people groups.  I especially love seeing examples of Arabic calligraphy. The letterforms in Arabic calligraphy run the gamut from traditional, highly readable letterforms, as can be seen here, to highly stylized, abstracted letterforms, as can be seen here.

The communication design blog Graphicology recently posted galleries of Arabic typography, focusing on how famous English-language Western brand identities translate visually into the Arabic script.  It’s pretty interesting to see how the companies translate their identities into an entirely different script, while still trying to retain a consistent visual branding across both languages.  Graphicology has a gallery of brand identities here, and a gallery of packaging design here.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.

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