Ma’an معًا / Couleurs communes is an event inviting reflection about environmental challenges and artistic creation in the Mediterranean, bringing together designers and visual artists. An exhibition organized at the Marseille-based art and design gallery Studio Fotokino presented the result of their research, aimed at encouraging the use of natural colors in the arts, printmaking and design. The identity was designed in-house at Studio Fotokino, using the typefaces Scenery (Lucas Le Bihan, Formagari) and Exposure (Federico Parra Barrios, 205TF). The Arabic font is yet unidentified.

Front covers (DE and EN editions) with all-caps New Edge 666 Rounded and debossed text in unidentified typefaces

Musafiri. Of Travellers and Guests is a research project that culminated in an exhibition shown at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) from 8 March to 16 June 2025. The accompanying publication was designed by Uncoated using New Edge 666 Rounded and BBB Baskervvol. The covers additionally feature debossed text in various scripts, set in yet unidentified typefaces. From publisher Archive Books:

The Musafiri: Travellers and Guests reader follows the entwined paths and encounters of those that embark on journeys, traversing the worlds that open up when the confines of familiar surroundings are left. They are musafiri, a word that denotes the traveller as well as the guest in a plethora of languages such as Arabic, Romanian, Turkish, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Swahili, Kazakh, and Uygur. This reader addresses questions of departure and arrival, of who is welcome and who is not, of artistic expressions during travels, of the global circulation and transformations of ideas and commodities, of religions and pop culture. The essays, interviews, and artistic contributions in this volume accompany the eponymous exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and introduce the worlds of determined travellers, of individuals and communities displaced in the past, and of migratory movements of today. The spectrum of perspectives presented includes the figure of the hermit in ancient China, whose retreat is understood as a journey into nature and selfhood, the transcultural experiences of Japanese artists in the Latin American diaspora, the mobility networks of Afghan traders in the geographical spaces of the former Silk Road and beyond, or the sıla yolu, the transit route to Turkey, on which thousands of people travel every year to visit their old home.

Back covers (DE and EN editions)

Book index spread

Spread with various symbols

Spread with BBB Baskervvol for body copy alongside photographs

Spread with short bios in BBB Baskervvol, with headings in New Edge 666 Rounded

Rizo Masr’s 2026 Ramadan Emsakeya (إمساكية رمضان) is a foldable A3 Riso-printed monthly tracker. It contains prayer timings, duaas, athkar reminders and habit trackers for the Islamic holy month. The foldable format allows the user to use it as both a practical printable and also a visual asset when it opens showcasing photographs of Cairo Ramadan street decorations and lanterns printed in duotone.

Frizbee by Typeverything is used across the branding of Bahrain-based brunch and breakfast spot Popina. Their visual identity was designed in 2024 by Zeal Studio, combining approachable typography with a playful, fresh and contemporary look and feel. The restaurant closed doors in autumn 2025. Frizbee is complemented by Cabinet Grotesk and a yet unidentified typeface used for Arabic.

Front cover of the design research edition

Habiter l’entre-deux (“Inhabiting the In-Between”) is the name of my Master’s thesis in social and ethical design at Campus Fonderie de l’Image in Bagnolet, France.

Between Morocco and France, this project is rooted in a personal and familial history that echoes the broader historical and social context of North African immigration to France in the 1970s.

Through visual research, this written work brings contemporary practices into dialogue with colonial legacies, highlighting how art and design can serve as tools for cultural emancipation and visibility within experiences of exile and migration in France.

Drawing on the writings of Frantz Fanon and Édouard Glissant, the thesis explores the possibility of a relational and situated Afro-diasporic design practice. It asks: how can two cultures be brought into dialogue?

Situated at the intersection of multiple disciplines history, sociology, psychology, ethnology, and sensitive family archives this research lays the groundwork for a future collaboration with Transplantation, a Paris-based socio-cultural association, art gallery, and documentary archive, as part of the final diploma project.

Research and writing support by Loan Grac. Featured artists, researchers, and designers include Françoise Vergès, Chimurenga Chronic, Ahomé Studio, Maya Inès Touam, Babelfont
Akakir Studio, Syncretical, Atelier Eddy Terki, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Transplantation Project
Appartement 101, Kmar Douagi, Uncivilized Collective, Hannah Puzenat, Mohamed Bourouissa, Kawthar Bina, Douce Dibondo, Lydia Matiegous Keita, and Kawtar Bihya.

Familial Lexicon explores words that exist only within a family – private expressions that outsiders don’t understand. These intimate terms form a micro-language, showing how language grows through shared experience, closeness, and everyday life.

The cover is made from aluminium with an embossing effect.

Designed by Enzygal at Kunstuniversität Linz, making early use of DGM Saffron. Arabic and Armenian text are added in ABC Diatype.

Global image direction by Paris-based design studio Feelings for artist Danyl’s first album ZMIG (2026) and the accompanying campaign, including a shirt for shows in fall/winter 2025/2026, a poster for the Sprinter Tour 2026, and an announcement for the concert at Zénith Paris in November 2026.

The collegiate slab serif appears to be Weichi He’s LL Champion (Lineto, 2024). It’s supported by Axel Pelletanche Thévenart’s Dank (Ornamental & Title Type, 2025). There’s also another sans and an Arabic font (for “دانيل زميڨ”) which are yet unidentified.

Snap* is more than a newspaper—Snap is a poster, a collector’s item, and a platform for experimentation. Snap does not talk about art, but rather from the perspective of those who encounter it: children, young people, visitors, people. We understand mediation as shared storytelling, as a space for resonance, polyphony, and the sharing of perceptions. Snap makes visible what happens in the spaces in between: a quick whisper behind a hand, an embarrassing slip-up, an unexpectedly good thought, a snap of the fingers.

Snap is designed by Thea Kleinhempel and appears at irregular intervals, but several times a year, and can be purchased for €2. A snap of the fingers.

The program is a collaboration between Kolumba Museum Cologne and the Kinder- und Jugendzentrum Meschenich. Snap No. 1, Dec. 2025, “The Gems” is an edition of 500 copies. The concept was developed by Susanne Heincke.

* To snap (English): The sound made when the thumb and finger (usually the middle or index finger) are rubbed together quickly and the finger snaps away jerkily. It is a gesture used to attract attention, signal an idea, or just for fun. In the film Tongs Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1985), it is a powerful, liberating sign of black gay identity—a short, concise sound with multiple meanings.

Sudanese–Canadian poet and musician Mustafa the Poet has released his first literary work, Nour (نور). The title, Arabic for “light,” captures the essence of the book: a collection that moves between poetry, photography, Arabic calligraphy, and collaborative writing, exploring faith and memory in the face of grief. It was published in collaboration with WePresent and designed by Turbo Studio.

Hope from Jerusalem is an online position paper and article collection that delineate a vision for creating a shared place that embodies peace, reconciliation and hope for the conflict-ridden region of Israel–Palestine.

The website uses a color palette that delicately references the various identities and cultures that make up the city of Jerusalem, against a simple typographic scheme comprised of two multilingual font families. The website is primarily bilingual (English/Hebrew), but makes use of Adapter’s Arabic character set throughout the headings in both language versions of the website.

Ir Amim is a non-partisan Israeli NGO that addresses the complexities of life in Jerusalem in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the city’s political future. Ir Amim works toward the vision of Jerusalem as a fair and equitable city, while advancing conditions for a negotiated political future in Jerusalem.

Tribute poster for Umm Kulthum, using 29LT Idris Flat. From Wikipedia:

Umm Kulthum (Arabic: أم كلثوم; c. 4 May 1904 – 3 February 1975) was an Egyptian singer and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She was given the honorific title Kawkab el-Sharq (Arabic: كوكب الشرق, lit. ‘Star of the Orient’). Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Umm Kulthum is a national icon in her native Egypt; she has been dubbed “The Voice of Egypt” and “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid”. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Umm Kulthum at number 61 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Her funeral in 1975 drew a crowd of over 4 million people, the largest human gathering in Egypt's history, even surpassing that of president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

From BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE:

With contributions by Adam HajYahia and Haitham Haddad, Deena Abdelwahed, Laila Hida with Amine Lahrach, Mohamed Abdelkarim with Abla elBahrawy, Nadah El Shazly, amongst many others, this cookbook includes recipes chosen and prepared by the artists in an intimate setting, coupled with stories both personal and about their art practice.
Adapted from its namesake online program produced by Mophradat from 2021 to 2023, this book is a celebration of the varied cuisine of the Arab world and its relationship with inherited food practices and the cultures of cooking and talking about food.

The bilingual book (Arabic and English) was edited by Mai Abu ElDahab and Reem Shilleh who also wrote the texts. Yasmine Haj provided the translations. Jenifer Evans, Ahmed Wael, and Yasmine Haj were responsible for proofreading. Cecilia Murgia and Manuel Raeder of Studio Manuel Raeder took care of the design. The publication is bound as soft cover with flaps. It has 288 pages and measures 125×175 mm.

Lentil Space. Recipes from Artists’ Homes was co-published by Mophradat and BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE. ISBN: 978-3-96436-084-7.

Slanted magazine #46, “Cairo”, is a visual journey into the vibrant heart of Egypt’s creative scene. The dynamic design culture of Cairo – and beyond – reveals just how diverse, innovative, and powerful creative voices in Egypt are today.

From graphic design, typography, and visual communication to architecture and product design, Slanted #46 showcases outstanding projects that are shaping the cultural present and future of the region. Whether through progressive branding concepts, experimental approaches, or striking visual storytelling, this issue reflects the powerful creative energy flowing through Egypt. Slanted gives space to designers, illustrators, and artists from Cairo, other Egyptian cities, and abroad—highlighting their work and personal statements. In-depth essays and articles on cultural, social, and creative topics related to Cairo and Egypt round out the issue.

Slanted #46 is a compelling portrait of a design scene in motion—bold, diverse, and brimming with fresh perspectives. On our trip to Cairo, we conducted numerous interviews with people from the creative industries, which have been edited into the short film Cairo Unscripted—Exploring Cairo’s Past, Present, and Creative Future by design studio Ntsal. It is available for free from slanted.de/cairo.

To mark the release of Slanted #46, Slanted is launching a special edition with five stunning photo prints by Markus Lange, as well as a striking hoodie collaboration with Reell and Negmedine Khaled.

731.52 cm of land is a book by artist Nour Bishouty. The typeface used across the whole publication is Cortese Sans by Mark van Leeuwen, alongside SF Mada by Sultan Fonts for Arabic text.

The publication is presented as follows by Art Metropole:

Building loosely on the form of a pocket-sized travel guide, this artist’s book unfolds into a 731.52 cm wide miniature landscape. Composed of hand-painted and digitally illustrated images stitched together into a continuous sequence, the book includes a poem and short narrative by the artist, an essay co-authored with Daniella Sanader, and an afterword by Heather Canlas Rigg. A sticker sheet featuring animal and plant forms is included as an insert.

Functioning as a poetic visual-textual essay, the book unsettles the familiar logic of travel guides and the explorer’s gaze. It troubles the impulses of sightseeing, navigation, and tourism, while calling into question the authoritative languages of archaeology, botany, taxonomy, and cartography. It emerges from ongoing inquiries in Nour Bishouty’s practice around permission, legibility, and understanding.

Through critical reflections, lyrical fragments, and visual fictions, the book offers a layered exploration of artistic inheritance, colonial spectacle, and epistemic dissonance. It challenges legibility and authority, foregrounding ambiguity, misunderstanding, and refusal as generative strategies.

The cover of IDEA no. 411 embodies the theme of the special feature on Arabic calligraphy and typography. White text is set in the 29LT Ada Flat font from 29LT, and the emerald blue typographic elements were designed by Tarek Atrissi. Additionally used fonts include Univers and Plantin. The Mincho used for Japanese text is yet unidentified.

Herokid (W Type Foundry) is used across all communication for the Arabic Design Archive (ADA). Different variants of the typeface are applied on the website and social media to maintain visual consistency. It is also used in posters and other printed materials, reinforcing the archive’s identity across different contexts.

According to their website:

ADA is a non-profit initiative that seeks to enable knowledge production about Arabic design and its history through a framework of collecting, digitizing, and exhibiting. ADA aims to provide an open and accessible platform for the public to counter the parallel, inaccessible, and non-existent physical archive of the second half of the 20th century.

The Arabic typeface used in this application is yet unidentified.

The “You Can’t Be Here” brand identity, social media, and spatial design was developed in 2022 for Zawraq Collective.

From Ananas studio:

Built around a striking plus/minus symbol, the identity distills the essence of the pandemic years (2020–2022) into a minimal, impactful icon. Inspired by the ritual of PCR testing and the constant suspense of positive versus negative results, the design transforms a medical act into a powerful visual language.

The color palette draws directly from the atmosphere of those years: blue for sterilization and safety, red for contamination and caution. Together, they create a sharp tension that reflects the push and pull of uncertainty, resilience, and adaptation. The result is a brand that feels raw and charged – transforming a global experience into a bold cultural statement.

Transforming words into actions

The State of Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) and the Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes (CDHC) launched a statewide service to support people targeted by hate. It had a phone number. What it lacked was the public’s awareness and trust. My team at Span was brought in to change that.

Working alongside UIC’s Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design (IHDD), we renamed, rebranded, and reintroduced the service to the public. The result was Help Stop Hate – a trauma-informed, multilingual, statewide service and campaign that reframed reporting not as retaliation, but as care in action.

Initially piloted as Illinois v. Hate, the helpline's name implied conflict and positioned the state as the protagonist. Moving away from tension to solidarity, the renamed service Help Stop Hate is a three-word promise. Help centers care. Stop signals urgency. Hate names the problem—without euphemism.

Three cuts of Grilli Type’s GT Planar were used, allowing ‘Help’ to lean forward into action, ‘Stop’ to lean back in urgency, and ‘Hate’ to sit still—unignorable. The visual language draws on civic forms: rigid diagonals, grounded color, modular composition. Designed to function everywhere from Chicago CTA ads to community newspapers and rural county billboards.

To reach survivors—not just residents—we kept the value proposition simple and kind. “Report hate, get support” is about access and letting people know: they are not alone.
This is where the secondary type Grenette come in with a quiet strength. Its rounded serifs and open forms contrast the sharpness of GT Planar, with enough tension to hold your attention. It reads almost tender, full of warmth and charm with a subtle nuance that feels hand-touched.

The Not in Our State campaign launched in the seven most spoken languages in Illinois: English, Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Hindi, Tagalog, and Mandarin. To complement the primary sans and serif styles of the identity, each language pairing used two typefaces. For Arabic, we selected Noto Sans Arabic and Noto Naskh Arabic. Hindi used Noto Sans Devanagari alongside Noto Serif Devanagari. Mandarin was set in Noto Sans SC (see Source Han Sans) and Noto Serif SC (see Source Han Serif).

Mir’a creates cultural events such as concerts, screenings, and exhibitions to promote Middle Eastern and North African artists in some of Europe’s most prestigious venues. Their new visual identity was created by Zaina, and is typeset exclusively in Forma DJR Arabic, designed by Wael Morcos and Khajag Apelian, and its companion Latin that was revived by me (David Jonathan Ross) based on the original Latin from Nebiolo.

Zaina describes their thinking behind the identity:

The visual identity reflects Mir’a’s unifying mission. The bilingual logo design plays on the relationship between the two wordmarks, with shared punctuation and harmonious stacking. The symbol evokes cultural synergy, emphasising the connection between Arabic and Latin writing to create a simple yet striking icon. The typography-led communication uses both scripts assertively to present the artists and their native countries in a spirit of representation and integrity.

I worked with Zaina to customize Forma DJR Arabic with a series of fine-tuned weights between Medium and Bold, and the alternate R and j deployed as the default forms.

This is the first time I have seen Forma’s Latin and Arabic bouncing off of one another in this way, and I am so happy to see Zaina harnessed this interplay so successfully in their work.

From design agency Branded:

mezete, a Jordanian brand, cracked the code on transporting authentic Middle Eastern food globally—no refrigeration needed. After 20 years of perfecting the flavour, the founder had the taste just right. But the original packaging? It didn’t tell the same story. So we went straight to the source—immersing ourselves in the heart of downtown Amman (the capital of Jordan).

Our strategy was to make someone “taste the Middle East” by looking at the pack. The idea was to transfer the energy, busyness, vibrancy, and chaos of the souks (bazaars) of the Middle East onto the packs, rather than using the typical Middle Eastern patterns. The typography is expressive and draws inspiration from the way poems are written in Arabic.

The system was applied to 40 SKUs, with multilingual versions for Canada and other global nations. The product is now sold in 40 plus countries. This new branding has had a sparkled reaction worldwide, the most recent one being spotlighted by Forbes at Expo West 2025 in the Food & Beverage category.

Arsenica is supported by Neue Haas Unica. The Arabic typeface is yet unidentified.