The Arabic Type Design Archive

An Arnold Boecklin letraset transfer, when he was nine years old. Since then, he hasn’t stopped playing with letters, written or drawn, working as a type designer, visual arts educator and creative director for print, digital and video. He has designed over fifty typeface families for Zetafonts foundry, which he co-founded with Francesco Canovaro and Debora Manetti . His typefaces include Cocogoose, Blacker (selected by Myfonts as one of the best new families of 2019), Monterchi (CA typography award 2020, Myfonts hidden gem 2019), Stinger (CA typography award 2021), Stadio Now (TDC68) and Keratine (CA typography Awards 2023). He has a cat named Bodoni and too many books.

Brahim Boucheikha is a French-Moroccan graphic designer and typographer. He lives and works between Paris and Marrakech where he teaches at the ESAVM (École Supérieure des Arts Visuels in Marrakech) After a Moroccan childhood, Brahim Boucheikha arrived in Paris to pursue his secondary education, after which he joined the ECV (Ecole de Communication Visuelle). He attended the school and made lasting contacts with several teachers. At the same time as his studies, he trained in Arabic calligraphy with Abdallah Akar.

Fereydoun Nematpour has been working as a graphic designer since 2005. He is currently working with Studio Plus, as a graphic designer.

Mike Abbink est le directeur exécutif de la création dans l’équipe Brand Experience and Design au sein d’IBM. Il a démarré sa carrière en 1996 en tant que designer chez MetaDesign à San Francisco. Il est ensuite devenu directeur de la création pour le Museum of Modern Art, pour Wolff Olins, pour Saffron Consultants et pour Method (dont il est également le cofondateur). Il a par la suite occupé le poste de directeur du design chez Apple Computer. En parallèle de sa carrière de graphiste, Mike Abbink a également créé des polices au caractère énergique pour lesquelles il a reçu plusieurs récompenses, telles que FF Kievit, FF Milo, GE Inspira, Brando Serif et Sans et, plus récemment, IBM Plex®. Enfin, Mike Abbink continue de concevoir et de collaborer à la création de polices avec Bold Monday.

Peter Biľak works in the field of editorial, graphic, and type design. In 1999 he started Typotheque type foundry, in 2000, together with Stuart Bailey he co-founded art & design journal Dot Dot Dot, in 2012 he started Works That Work, a magazine of unexpected creativity, in 2015 together with Andrej Krátky he co-founded Fontstand.com, a font rental platform. He collaborates with the choreographer Lukas Timulak on creation of modern dance performances, and together they started Make-Move-Think.org, a foundation for interdisciplinary artistic collaborations. Peter is teaching at the Type & Media, postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).

NamelaType is a type foundry based in Magelang, Indonesia operated by Nur Syamsi and Bustanul Arifin. Passionate about harmonizing Latin and Arabic fonts, we aim to create innovative solutions that align their weight, shape, and style—despite their opposite flows—while exceeding our own and our readers’ expectations.

An independent type foundry based in Barcelona dedicated to the design and distribution of digital fonts. Founder and principal designer Andreu Balius has experienced type design since the late 1980’s.

An independent type foundry based in Cairo, Egypt. Driven by the love of our Arabic heritage, we're on a mission to explore the wide boundaries of Arabic letters potential. Our motto is "Arabic lives, Arabic lasts".

A type foundry and design studio specifically focused on developing high quality Arabic typefaces. It is the result of a collaboration that started in 2011 between Kristyan Sarkis and Peter Bilak of Typotheque.

Being the first and most experienced independent font foundry from South America, PampaType was founded in 2001 in Argentina by Alejandro Lo Celso, with the purpose of developing high quality typefaces for the widest range of uses, engaging in both retail & bespoke font industries. Since then their passion and work, which pioneered the Latin American type design scene, have become widely known and appreciated. Their typefaces have been broadly recognized for their quality and originality, and their team have become more international and more experienced. They believe in the idea of diversity. It is not unusual that PampaType families include various styles, some of them meant for immersive reading, some others for titling or decorative use. Their fonts are carefully handcrafted. They pay serious attention to details so characters look good both printed and on screen. Spacing and kerning are made by hand following visual strategies rather than mathematical methods. Therefore instead of feeling mechanical, their fonts build an organic rhythm, aiming at a friendly atmosphere and comfortable reading.