Power. Politics. Identity.

Typefaces embody the unspoken messages in our words, which is why it’s more important than ever that there is plurality for the voices of the Arabic culture. Award winning typeface designer Nadine Chahine argues there’s a place for both the classical and the modern lettering in the contemporary language. This talk was given at a…

Noto Sans Arabic

  My work at Monotype allowed me to take part in Google’s project and its development of the Noto Sans family. I designed this Arabic typeface which is mainly targeted towards reading on screen. Noto Sans is the largest typeface family worldwide and aims to cover every known writing system that is encoded.

Univers Next Arabic

  This typeface is part of the Linotype library and is a companion to the iconic typeface Univers Next. The design is a Kufi-Naskh hybrid and comes in 3 weights. This design, alongside the Frutiger Arabic, was approved by legendary designer, Adrian Frutiger. It is best suited for short pieces of text.   Universe Next…

DIN Next Arabic

  This typeface is part of the Linotype library and is a companion to the popular DIN Next family. The design is a modern Kufi which is best suited for headlines and short runs of text. This typeface has proven to be quite popular for TV usages.   DIN Next Arabic is available for licensing…

Dubai

  In 2015, Nadine and Monotype were asked to develop a special Arabic+Latin typeface to carry the name of Dubai and that would ship with Microsoft Office 365. Nadine lead the design team and was the principal Arabic designer on the project. The new typeface family was launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed…

SST Arabic

  While at Monotype, I designed the Arabic part of the new corporate typeface for Sony, SST Arabic. The typeface is part of a large family comprised of many scripts such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Thai, and Japanese. The design is a Kufi-Naskh hybrid that is mean to work in a variety of sizes and…

Amariya

  This typeface is part of the Monotype library and is meant for long format texts, especially for on screen reading. The design is a traditional Naskh design and it comes in nine different weights. The brief was to design an Arabic typeface meant to encourage reading and promote legibility.   Amariya is available for…

Gebran2005

  I was asked to design the headline newspaper for An-Nahar which is the largest and oldest Lebanese daily. The project was part of a larger redesign of the whole newspaper by renowned designer, Mario Garcia. This project dates to when I was the Arabic Specialist at Linotype. The typeface is in the traditional Simplified…