Wissam Shawkat
United Arab Emirates
Born in Basra in 1974, Wissam Shawkat is an award-winning artist and designer based in Dubai, with a focus on Arabic calligraphy and typography. His work departs from classic calligraphy, yet maintains its craftsmanship. Since 2003 he has been working on a new script named after himself (Al Wissam Style), and in recent years, he started ‘Calligraforms’, an art movement that merges the graphic qualities found in classic letterforms and western Abstraction and Cubism. Wissam has had many solo shows and has participated in many group exhibitions. His calligraphy and typography designs have appeared in several books and magazines about art and design.
Email : wissamshawkat@gmail.com
Talk Title: Matching Arabic Logotype: Its Calligraphy, Its Lettering, Its Type Design
In the late 1970s there was an effort to integrate Arabic script with logo design. These efforts resulted in the production of logos in Arabic designed to match the font of the logos of Western corporations moving into the region.
The Subject of creating an Arabic logotype for an existing brand or developing one from scratch, is very crucial for designers who works in the region, however this subject is treated very irrespectively when it comes to some design practitioners due to lack of knowledge to the subject, or sometimes is carried out by the foreign designers who work in these agencies. Creating such logotype is not a matter of cut and paste or chopped off - letter parts from the Latin to create the Arabic, but a real understanding and respect to the system that governs Latin and Arabic script, and a great deal of this understanding are the rules of Arabic calligraphy, the different styles, Arabic letter forms, and the ability to work professionally with both of them.
The design should be drawn from scratch keeping in mind the proportions and characteristics of the Latin logotype.
In this talk I will point out on important aspects from Arabic calligraphy that designers should understand when working with Arabic logotype design or Adaptation. Also will be showcasing some wrong examples and good ones !
Workshop Title: Matching Arabic Logotype
March 8, 14:00 - 18:00
The workshop leader will work with the participants to develop their individual skills following the rules and insights about Arabic logo-type from the talk, participants will be given 3 assignments during the workshop :
Create a full Arabic logotype matching a given English one.
Create a full Arabic logotype matching a given English one that has more free lettering style.
Complete a missing letters from an Arabic logotypes already designed, participants need to figure out the shape and the style of the missing letters.
All the work will be carried out by as a Hand Lettering Exercise and no computers needed.