The Mashrebiya screen is an iconic element of Arab/Islamic architecture. Mashrebiyas are still popular as separation screens or walls, however they are often constructed from complex geometrical parts and shapes, and rarely using only letters. There are no fonts around that are specially designed for producing this kind of translucent screens.
———
Deadlines:
Phase I: Submission will close on the 30th of June 2017.
The shortlist will be announced on 31st of July.
———
The Competition
The Mashrebiya competition will take place in two phases:
Phase I.
In phase one the jury will make a selection for a shortlist from sketches for a proposed Mashrebiya font. The selected designers will then be invited to produce a functional font file in OTF format that incorporates all the basic character set for Arabic, Farsi (and basic Latin).
Phase II.
The jury will select from the submitted fonts (complete font files) a maximum of 4 typefaces to be awarded a prize of €1000 each. The jury has no obligation to award design admissions. The jury can decide to award as many of the maximum of four awards available as they see fit. Awards have to be top level quality type designs.
———
Awards
Each award winner will be paid € 1000,- plus an 3D award produced in their own winning font design. In return, the prize winners will give a free license for the winning fonts to use by the Khatt Foundation and its directly related organizations.
All participants in the competition will allow Khatt Foundation and Khatt Books to publish their submissions for free in any medium and in perpetuity. All font designs remain the sole property of their respective designers.
———
Who can participate
The competition is open to all members of the Khatt Foundation online community, those interested that are not members can sign up for free as new members on this website.
The submission can be made by one individual designer or can be a collaboration between 2-3 designers. Each designer or design team can submit more than one design sketch.
A good command of design software for creating clean outlines, and later font design software is important.
The design may be for Arabic or Latin, but dual-script (Arabic & Latin) typeface design will be an added value.
———
Jury
—Yara Khoury Nammour, Graphic and Type Designer, Al Mohtaraf design studio.
—Pascal Zoghbi, Type Designer, 29LT Font foundry.
—Edo Smitshuijzen, Inpedendent Graphic and Product Designer.
———
For details on the Design Brief , Technical considerations, and submission guidelines please visit the competition page by clicking here.
For information and questions please address your emails to khatt[dot]foundation[at]gmail[dot]com