Khatt Chronicles: Stories on Design from the Arab World

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese illustrator and graphic artist Rawand Issa. They start the conversation discussing her beginnings first as a journalist for the youth section of the leftist Lebanese newspaper Assafir through which she was first introduced to comics, and to some of Beirut's renowned comics artists and illustrators. With experience in both writing and drawing, Rawand describ...

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews French-Tunisian type and graphic designer Naïma Ben Ayed. They start the conversation discussing Naïma's serendipitous journey into type design. They discuss her postgraduate studies at École Estienne in Paris and the type design student project (initiated by the Islamic Art Department of the Louvre Museum in Paris) that introduced her to Arabic type design. This pro...

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews American-Lebanese designer Wael Morcos. They start by talking about his educational journey in graphic design from Notre Dame University (NDU) in Lebanon to Rhode Island School fo Design (RISD) in the USA. They discuss the people and projects that have had an influence on his development as a graphic and type designer, leading to his founding of Studio Morcos...

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews American-Lebanese illustrator and designer Sarah Saroufim. They start the conversation by taking us through her educational journey first in graphic design at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and how this led to her interest in illustration; then to her postgraduate studies in product design at Parsons School of Design in New York. Sarah discusses candidly h...

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian visual artist Golnaz Fathi, who starts by sharing her educational journey from her initial training as graphic designer and classical calligrapher, to reaching her her final goal of becoming a painter and visual artist. Golnaz explains her love for all kinds of written scripts; her fascination with their shapes, their ways of carrying meaning and emoti...

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese illustrator Hanane Kai who shares her journey from studying and working as a graphic designer to the moment she decided to concentrate on illustration work. They discuss her illustration career that began with sketching in the park, to online blogs and social media, eventually leading to award-winning commissioned work. They unpack issues related to her res...

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian-American visual artist Golnar Adili on her journey from architecture to teaching and practicing visual arts. They discuss her work that transgresses borders and definition and how she uses the Perso-Arabic script and language as material for artistic exploration. Golnar talks about her love for science and art and how architecture brought these two pas...

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Beirut-based, French-Lebanese illustrator Aude Abou Nasr. They discuss Aude's educational and professional journey from starting in architecture into illustration and activism. Aude discusses her interest in narratives that address issues of belonging and the strife of migrants (women in particular). She also discusses her passion for projects that address justice a...

Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews Iranian California-based graphic designer and illustrator Ghazal Foroutan. They discuss Ghazal's journey as a designer, her educational stages, and her impactful first professional experience at Studio Shizaru in Tehran. Ghazal discusses her interest in design research and design history that developed during her postgraduate studies in the US. She mentions that her...

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Cairo-based Lebanese designer and visual artist Bahia Shehab. They discuss Shehab's motivation and journey as a designer and educator. Shehab delves into political engagement, the importance of portraying an authentic image of Arab/Islamic visual heritage in order to decolonize design history discourse. They discuss her influences and how her educational development...

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Beirut-based Syrian visual storyteller and illustrator Dima Nachawi. They discuss her professional journey, education, and projects. Dima shares her passion for making people laugh, clowning, drawing, singing, performing, shadow puppetry, and street theater. Her multidisciplinary practice is connected to her Syrian roots through which she documents and advocates for...

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Brussels-based, Syrian-Polish designer Kinda Ghannoum. They discuss her journey into the field of design, through practical work following her graduation with a degree in architecture from the University of Damascus. Kinda shares her travails as a self-taught graphic designer and her passion for the Arabic script, lettering and typography. The conversation cen...

Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews New York-based Iranian designer Zeynab Izadyar. They discuss her journey into the field of design and textile design; beginning with her education as graphic designer in Tehran, followed by her postgraduate studies at Yale University School of Art, then backtracking to her childhood. Zeynab candidly shares stories about her creative father and her collaboration with...

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews London-based Lebanese designer Samar Maakaroun. They discuss at length her journey into the field of branding and lettering, her work at Pentagram studio in London and what it means to be the first Lebanese partner in the studio. They cover her independent project on lettering "29 Words for 29 Letters" – playing with meanings, writing systems, and animation, to build...

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès moderates a conversation between the hosts of season 4 of @khatt_chronicles. The discussion addressed the three main themes that are planned for this season, focusing on the overarching theme of Graphic Women from the SWANA region. The Khatt Foundation's latest research project that culminated in the publication "Revealing Recording Reflecting, Graphic Women from Southwe...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews UK-based Iranian type designer and researcher Sahar Afshar. They discuss Sahar's journey into the field of type design, the challenges she faced along the way, and her views on the responsibility of designing a typeface. They discuss some of Sahar's main and award-winning type projects. They touch upon specific topics of technolog...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews France-based Algerian graphic and designer Walid Bouchouchi. They discuss his journey into the field of graphic design, his move to France (first Paris, then Marseille), and his professional transformation along the way. Walid discusses the design education and practice in Algeria in caparison with Paris and Marseille. They...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Yara Khoury Nammour interviews France-based Iranian educator and independent type designer Sina Fakour. They discuss his design teaching and the paths one can take as a graphic designer. They unpack his ideas on designing thinking, research, creative coding, type design, publication design, and a range of other graphic design practices. They zoom in on his type...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews Iranian designer Mitra Shahsavand, design director and founder of the Mitra Shahsavand Design Studio. They discuss Mitra's journey into the field of graphic design and focus on some of her impactful and challenging projects of presenting women products within the Iranian public space. They also discuss education, the role of women...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian designer Aria Kasaei, who co-founded Studio Kargah with his classmate and friend Peyman Pourhossein. They discuss his journey into the field of graphic design and the cultural engagement from Studio Kargah's humble beginnings in a basement in Tehran to its present day status, and the recent setting up of a satellite...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese design writer and critic, Sahar Khraibani. They discuss her journey into the field of design writing through graphic design and illustration. Together, they unpack the importance of design and critical writing at this moment in time. They discuss Sahar's major writing projects, the importance of exposing local narratives...

In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian type designer and researcher Amir Mahdi Moslehi. They discuss his journey into calligraphy and type design. Moslehi discusses his extensive research into #Persian calligraphic and #script heritage, namely Nastaaliq and Manuscript Pahlevi. The discussion touches upon technologies and script-specific #design issues, a...

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Beirut-based Lebanese designer Nisrine Sarkis. They discuss her journey into the world of branding and lettering. Focusing initially on illustration and graphic design, Nisrine gradually realized the importance of Arabic typography to her practice after starting to work professionally as a graphic designer. Nisrine discusses her interest in display Arabic typefaces t...

***** About Khatt Chronicles ***** Khatt Chronicles podcast features remarkable designers, illustrators, and researchers from the Arab World. We host engaging conversations about their practice, vision, and aspirations. In line with the rest of the Khatt foundation projects, focuses on new developments with Arab typography and design. By Arab, we mean people working with the Arabic language, scrip...

The four enter into a conversation that goes beyond describing the content of their books, addressing the challenges of undertaking design in a geographical context where material and archives are hard to find, where relying on oral history and primary accounts is key, and where distribution of printed matter is complicated. They each elaborate on the particularities of translation, of conveying t...