BOOKS FROM THE EAST AND WEST ✹ Design Repository

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BOOKS FROM THE EAST AND WEST
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Design Repository

→ As the founder and designer @Design Repository, we constantly seek ways to engage people and stimulate their curiosity about Arabic design. That is why we come up with initiatives all the time. This particular one, titled "Books From The East & West," is a curated, comprehensive virtual library of Arabic design books released periodically.

The aim is to replace the current lack of Arabic design dedicated sections in physical book stores and illuminate some of the seminal works of Arabic Design, whether from the East or the West. The name is borrowed from a book series by "The National Institute for Printing & Publishing" with a similar name and two similar globes for its logo. The two globes possibly reassembled a feeling of distance and alienation, considering each East and West as their separate planets. The symbol for the same series, later on, became represented with one globe, which also might indicate a shift in perception with the rise of globalization.

The format of this library will be audio-based. So we were inspired by old radio programs that aired in Egypt during the 80s onward, particularly a show by the radio presenter Salwan Mahmoud which had music by the German organist Klaus Wunderlich and was about poems and had a charming and seductive overtone.

The first book is Nasri Khattar, A Modernist Typotect by Yara Khoury. We asked Yara to record a small synopsis about the book.

Alongside managing the initiative, planning, and curating the book selection, I also worked on two motion videos that had Arabic typography as its central focus.