![]() ![]() ![]() Why? Because the argument could be made that the Egyptian Hieroglyph Slab Serif was made purely as a display type - arguably the first of its kind. Basically, any headline from the 1800s is a good place to start - just don’t look too much deeper in the paper. The same is true of anything that’s vaguely steampunk-related, since it too is of that era. Remember the animated newspapers from the books and more specifically the films? They were likely based on the newspapers of the 1800s, which used Egyptian Hieroglyph Slab Serifs. No seriously, that’s what I think of when I see a chunky Slab Serif. Where would I see an Egyptian font? Harry Potter. Again, there was no physical or design connection between Egyptian civilization and these fonts it was all about timing. They created a series of chunky serif fonts that they would name Egyptian Hieroglyph Slab Serifs. Since Egypt was so popular, typeface designers at the time decided that they should leverage that as a naming convention on their newest font styles. As it turns out, it was more about timing. There are no similarities between the two. Now if you look at a cartouche you may wonder how any of that resembles an Egyptian font at all. And one thing that attracted a lot of attention was the language, specifically, the use of cartouches in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Think about it: people living in areas surrounded by pyramids that were essentially giant mausoleums? That’s pretty crazy, even by today’s standards. Back then, Napoleon came back from an expedition to Egypt, and all anyone could talk about was how cool that whole culture must have been. The idea of an Egyptian font dates back to the early 1800s. Now I know what you’re thinking right now: “But Kevin, what is an Egyptian font?” Well, I’ll get to that in just a minute. And this time around, it’s all about slab serifs - specifically, Egyptian fonts. It’s time to buckle in and get ready for a deep dive into the world of typography. All the typefaces created in the project will be available for licencing on Modern Belya is the first of these typefaces to be published in July 2022.OK, font junkies. Tarek Atrissi Design curated the overall project by conducting a series of educational and research-oriented workshops, and supporting 5 Egyptian designers to get the creative, technical, and financial support needed to bring their design concepts to life and producing an Arabic typeface professionally produced and ready for publishing. The typeface was developed as part of a grant awarded to Tarek Atrissi Design NL, in partnership with Al-Qalam foundation in Cairo, by the Creative Industries Fund NL: the national and government-supported cultural fund for design, architecture and digital culture In the Netherlands. It is exclusively published on Najla Badran initiated the project concept aiming to preserve and revive the intangible typographic heritage created by Khudair and to bring it back to life and reintroduce this rich typographic artistic heritage to a wider audience of Arabic designers. The typeface was designed by Egyptian designer Najla Badran and Egyptian Calligrapher Khodeir Elborsaedy. The typeface has been recognized and honoured in several international type design competitions including being shortlisted at the prestigious D&AD design competition and receiving a special mention at the Granshan international competition, in the category of Arabic Display Typeface. It insures adding to any project a touch of artistic hand-lettering character, that gives a sense of authentic and nostalgic Arabic spirit to any piece of communication using the font. The display typeface is ideal for usage in headlines, logos, branding, and various graphic design contexts such as publications, motion graphics, or exhibitions. The typeface simply brings back the beauty of 70's and 80's Egyptian typography to the scene, in a digital type family consisting of 4 different weights, while maintaining the same level of beauty and flexibility without losing the core of the free-hand style developed by the artist In addition, Modern Belya font has a vast number of ligatures and stylistic sets of some of those distinct ligatures. ![]() The typeface has many unique features, such as a wide stylistic set for specific letters which help support designers to have flexibility and variety in their designs. Some of the most renowned movies of the Egyptian cinema had calligraphic opening titles crafted by khodeir Elborsaedy. His calligraphic work was very influential across the entire Arab world, as he introduced Avant guard styles of Arabic letterforms characterized by beauty, flexibility, and unique variability within each of the unique styles he introduced. ![]() Modern Belya Arabic typeface is a revival of the work of one of the most influential Egyptian calligrapher of all times, Khodeir Elborsaedy (Mosaad Khudair), known for his work which dominated the Egyptian cinema and theatre scene in the 1970’s and 1980’s. ![]()
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