A panel on Matchmaking Arabic & Latin Fonts; discussing plurality in visual communication and multilingual design. Type Design Masters will share their knowledge and experiences in designing for bilingual and multicultural audiences.

With the rise of global markets, now more than ever before, visual communication often has to operate across cultural borders. This includes mixing script on a single page or design, scripts such as Latin and Arabic coexisting in one font family is no longer exceptional. The ability to match scripts that have different structures, histories and stylistic connotations is today a powerful skill and tool for designers.

At the occasion of a study trip to Dubai, students in the Type Design masters program from ECAL (University of Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland) dove into those questions - especially crucial in a world heavily relying on written communication.

H.E. Massimo Baggi, Ambassador of Switzerland to the UAE and Bahrain, introduced the panel which will was lead by Matthieu Cortat, Head of Master Type Design at ECAL, between Huda Smitshuijzen-AbiFarès, Director of the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography and Pascal Zoghbi, 29Letters Type Foundry, after presentations on designing for today's multicultural and multilingual world.

Free to attend and no registration required.

About Matthieu Cortat

Head of Master Type Design at ECAL, Matthieu Cortat is a type designer who works with Latin, Greek and Cyrillic script. He designs both retail fonts (distributed by 205 Type Foundry) and custom projects. His commissions range from publishers like Slatkine & Cie and Esquire magazine, institutions like Lausanne City Council, the Fondation Louis Vuitton and The Olympic Museum, to brands like Eastpak, PSLab and Hermès. In 2014–15, he reshaped the permanent collections of the Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication in Lyon (with Alan Marshall and Sheza Moledina) and since then works as Scientific Advisor to the Museum.

About Huda Smitshuijzen-AbiFarès

Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the Founding Director of the Khatt Foundation and Khatt Books publishers and is an educator, design curator, writer, designer, and publisher. She holds degrees in design and design history from Leiden University, Yale University and Rhode Island School of Design. She is a member of the select designers’ organization AGI (Aliance Typographique Internationale) since 2015. She specializes in multilingual typographic research and design, with focus on Arabic typography. She is author of several books on Arabic typography and type design, and has published several articles on design in the Arab World.

About Pascal Zoghbi

Type designer & typographer, Pascal Zoghbi founded 29Letters in 2006. A graduate from The Royal Academy of Arts, Netherlands with a Master of Design in Type & Media, Pascal has created a notable collection of contemporary Arabic and multilingual typefaces and has taught at various design schools in Lebanon (American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University, & Notre Dame University) and UAE (American University of Sharjah). He co-authored and edited the “Arabic Graffiti” book published in 2010. He was a finalist for the “Jameel Prize 3”. He has been awarded by type design competitions such as TDC (Type Directors Club) and Granshan.