Baraboux - Letters to Wear

 

Mariam Nihal

Saudi Gazette

 

The Khatt Foundation is a cultural foundation dedicated to advancing Arabic typography and design research in the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas, and to building cross-cultural creative networks.



Founded in 2004 in Amsterdam, the Khatt Foundation has since established itself as a platform for launching innovative design projects that address the immediate needs of design in the region and globally.



Partnering with established institutions, it initiates and supports projects that educate, promote the exchange of ideas, and encourage collaborative work.



It is a center for information about contemporary design in the Arab World, providing resources for all interested (regionally and internationally), and bringing cultural projects to a wider public.



Huda Smitshuijzen Abifares, founding director of the Khatt Foundation spoke to Saudi Gazette about their participation in Design Days Dubai taking place March 16-20.



Born in Beirut, Abifares holds degrees in graphic design from Yale University School of Art and Rhode Island School of Design.



Abifares is the author of several books on typography including Arabic Typography: A Comprehensive Sourcebook. She was professor at the American University of Beirut and the Chair of the Visual Communication Department at the American University in Dubai.



Khatt Foundation are involved in the conceptualizing and publicizing of the design competition ‘Letters to Wear.’



Luxury bags brand Baraboux collaborated with Khatt Foundation, for the design competition which was open to artists, designers and typographers to design a set of Arabic letters that will be transformed into bag charms and displayed at Design Days.



“As always, innovation, inspiration, and a way to show the role that the Arabic script and visual culture can play in contributing a fresh perspective to international design.”



Abifares has been attending Design Days since its inception, offering workshops, participating in panels and exhibiting work by the Khatt Foundation.



“We have spread the word about it through our online network of Middle Eastern and interested designers, as well as our social media. 



We also designed the image and title of the competition. Our role was advising on the organizational aspects of the competition and we were involved in helping write the design brief,” she said.



Abifares will be joining the jury members and designers for the panel discussion around the competition, launch and announcement of the winner at the exhibition.



“We remain interested in new innovative approach of Arabic lettering and typography. We are working on educational guides and publications that archive design from the region and plan to publish within the series entitled Arabic Design Library.



The Arabic Design Library series focuses on inspiring design achievements from the Middle East and North Africa.



It aims to highlight the work of prominent Arab typographers, graphic designers and illustrators. With this series of concise monographs, Khatt Books strives to establish a visual record of Arab design history of the 20th century, and pave the way for critical writing, by Arab authors, on design from the region,” Abifares added. 



Khatt Foundation aims to raise awareness of the vital role that design can play in building a sustainable environment through conferences, forums and publications.



The Khatt Foundation online network (www.khtt.net) was launched in 2007 and has since grown at the rate of 90 members per month.



The online community is designed to operate as a borderless virtual design center that transcends cultural and geographical divides, and that allows for open dialog and the fermentation of transcultural initiatives.



Their online network is a dynamic portal to the unexplored world of design in the region, and a flexible framework for networking and meeting other (young) Arab and Middle Eastern designers, in a semi-social environment. In partnership with established institutions, it has organized several successful events.



Since 2009, The Khatt Foundation has regularly designed and conducted several intensive workshops in the Arab world on contemporary typography and type design.



The Khatt Foundation’s online creative network is a networking platform and a virtual information center on design and visual culture from the MENA region.



In 2011, it has been selected by design critic Alice Rawsthorn and senior design curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Paola Antonelli as one the hottest twenty designers who will have the biggest influence on design over the next decade, and this list was printed in the Rolling Stone Magazine issue that coincided with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.



In its aim to publish critical writing and establish a knowledge center on contemporary design from the MENA region, the creative director of the foundation has set up an independent publishing arm, Khatt Books.



It not only specialize in publishing on design and visual culture from the Middle East and North Africa, but it ensures that all its publications are bilingual (English and Arabic, with an occasional additional language) as means to bring the western and Arab cultures under ‘one cover’ and to build a design vocabulary in the Arabic language.



The goal is to stimulate critical writing on these topics from within the culture, and to pave the way for critical writing, by Arab authors, on design from the region.



The publications are a mix of education ‘how-to’ books on Arabic typography and type design, a critical documentation of the Khatt Foundation research projects, and historical research on a specific type style, design movement, and designers.



Find more information: http://www.khtt.net/page/43203/en and on www.khattbooks.com