Khatt Chronicles: Stories on Design from the Arab World

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Kurdish-Iranian graphic artist and designer Kourosh Beigpour. Their conversation unpacks his journey starting in Iran and continuing his practise as a researcher, graphic artist, and type designer in Los Angeles. He has exhibited his work in several cultural and academic institutions and his work is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).Together they delve into Beigpour's interest in medieval soufism, Fazulallah Astarabadi’s numerology, mysticism of letters; and the way all this has shaped his visual language and design philosophy. He is currently pursuing his PhD studies at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, focusing on sufi corpora such as Shams Tabrizi’s “Maqalat” (Conversations), performative recitation, and the relation between calligraphy, music, and mystical incantations.His belonging to one of the several ethnic minorities in Iran and western Asia has informed his areas of research, namely research on ancient Persianate scripts. In this conversation, Beigpour discusses a recent and ongoing project on ancient languages and their scripts, including Pahlavi, Mandaean, Avestan, Aramaic, Hebrew, Armenian, Yazidi, and Perso-Arabic.They close the conversation with reflections on the role of designers in a post-AI world. Beigpour states: “in the future, designers that show care, presence, and intention, may become rare but essential.”@khattfoundation@khatt_chronicles@khatt_books@kourosh_beigpourwww.khtt.netwww.khattbooks.comKourosh Beigpour is an independent scholar, artist, and graphic designer based in Los Angeles. His work brings together visual practice and scholarly research, with a focus on Iranian visual culture, mysticism, and the role of language in shaping cultural memory. He holds MFAs in Contemporary Art and Design Practice and in Graphic Design, and completed postgraduate raining in type design at TypeWest. Alongside his design practice, Beigpour conducts sustained research on Persian Sufism of the medieval period, with particular attention to mysticism, orality, and the transmission of meaning in oral and performative texts. His scholarly interests include Persian Sufi discourse, calligraphy, ritual speech, and the relationship between spoken language and written tradition in works such as the Maqālāt and related Sufi corpora. He has participated in more than fifty exhibitions internationally, and his work has been presented at institutions including Stanford University, UCLA, and UC Irvine. His visual work is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).Connect with Kourosh Beigpour 👉 https://instagram.com/kourosh_beigpourHosted by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès  👉 https://www.instagram.com/khattfoundation/Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the founding director of the Khatt Foundation. Born in Beirut and based in Amsterdam, she has lived and worked in the US, Europe, and the Arab World since 1985. Author of Arabic Typography: a comprehensive sourcebook (2001), Experimental Arabic Type (2002), Typographic Matchmaking (2007), Typographic Matchmaking in the City (2010), and Arabic Type Design for Beginners (2013). She has contributed chapters to various academic books and trade magazines. She holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies from Leiden University (Ph.D, 2017), and in Graphic Design from Yale University School of Art (MFA, 1990) and Rhode Island School of Design (BFA, 1987). She specializes in multilingual typographic research and design. She has taught and lectured on typography and graphic design in Beirut, Dubai, the Arab region, and internationally. She has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 2016. She currently supervises research of Ph.D candidates at Leiden University’s Arts Program and works as a design curator, writer, designer, and publisher. FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Moroccan (Andalusia-Based) activist and comics author Zainab Fasiki. They start the conversation discussing her how she has been an avid reader of French comics as a teenager in Fez. Then discovered political comics from Moroccan and Arab authors, and started developing narratives, and drawing characters in her notebooks, unconsciously turning her notebooks in comics books. When she turned 16, her older brother gave her a graphic tablet as a gift, believing in her talent and this allowed her to start publishing her illustration at an early age.Trained as an engineer, and after a short professional stint in the field, she returned to her childhood passion and took on comics and illustration as a career. She was inspired by comics magazine such as Samandal in Beirut, Garage in Cairo, Skifkif in Casablanca. She attended workshops by the renowned Skifkif comics collective and trained herself further by undertaking illustration projects for social causes. The conversation started with discussing Zainab's collective Women Power in collaboration with Jawjab, a cultural space in Casablanca that brings together girls from popular neighborhoods and offer them training workshops, networking and mentoring opportunities.Zainab candidly discusses her studies as engineer and her travails to find her place in the Art world and into the illustration profession. Her interest in drawing started from her early school days and her facination with drawing the human (and female) body in particular got her into trouble with her teachers and classmates. Even in later years she faced censorship by Instagram and social media because of her drawings, thus facing censorship from both humans and computer algorithms. This led her to decide to publish her graphic novel Hshouma (Shame) and to explore and question why the female body is often censored. She followed her passion and is still surprised by her success: publishing Hshouma which got translated to 5 languages, followed by four other comics books, and traveling the world participating in workshops with some of the best people in the field.The conversation moved to the sustainability of making a living out of illustration. She worked in an engineering office next to her work as graphic artist until it became untenable with travel and commitments. Moreover, the harassment and death threats in Moroccan online media against a group of 20 feminists (artists, journalist, authors),among them Zainab, led her to move to Andalusia Spain in 2024, which reminded her of her city of origin Fez and made her feel home. She was forced to leave Morocco to continue practising her work as illustrator.Zainab discusses her first comics, Feyrouz Versus the World (2018), published by the Beirut-based comics publishers Toshfesh. This was then followed by her renown Hshouma (2019), Iraniana (2024), Madame Haram (2025), Féministes Musulmanes (2026). She states that her books are her eternal babies, and that they are a beautiful and peaceful means to fight social taboos. She talks about her characters, the symbolism behind her color palette (bright colors and unreal with blue skin inspired by hindu goddesses) that lighten-up the heavy and sad topics she tackles in her work.Zainab Fasiki is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book, Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024).@khattfoundation@khatt_chronicles@[email protected] Fasiki, born in Fez, Morocco, in July 1994, is a mechanical engineer by training. Comics became her escape in a society that doesn't accept women's decisions about their bodies and careers. After gaining online recognition for her courageous illustrations since 2016, she has published her comics with publishers such as her graphic essay Hshouma (Shame) in 2019, Iranienne in 2024, Madame Haram in 2025, and Feministes Musulmanes in 2026. She currently resides in southern Spain.Connect with Zainab Fasiki 👉 https://instagram.com/zainab.fasikiHosted by Yasmine Nachabe TaanDr. Yasmine Nachabe Taan is Associate professor of Design and Design History at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut.She holds a PhD in Art History and Communications Studies from McGill University. Her research focus is on design writing and research, visual culture and gender representation, design, media, photography and visual culture in the Middle East and North Africa. She publishes articles on visual culture in a number of international journals. She has illustrated more than twenty children’s books and has participated in a number of residencies in Berlin, Cairo, Beirut and Bratislava. Her artwork has been exhibited in New York, Berlin and Beirut.Connect with Yasmine Nachabe Taan 👉 https://www.instagram.com/yastaan/Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lebanese graphic designer and educator Leen Charafeddine. They start the conversation discussing her entry into the field of Graphic design which stemmed from her interest as a teenager in the advertising profession. Later she unrolls in the graphic design program at the Amrican University of Beirut (AUB), then goes on to receive two masters degrees from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and the School of Poetic Computing (SPC) in New York. After a short stint in advertising, Leen's work shifts to graphic design and creative coding.   Leen discusses in detail her work with the Lebanese children’s publisher Dar Onboz. At Dar Onboz she is reintroduced to the Arabic language and script, and her interest in multidisciplinary and experiential education is triggered. This lead her to pursue an MA degree at RCA with a thesis project for teaching math in an alternative and visual way. This interest further launches her into creative coding and she joins the School for Poetic Computation in New York.   Leen talks about a few of the publication design projects she worked on with Dar Onboz, and elaborates on how she incorporated her experiences with the children in her family in these publication projects. One of the focuses in her work became teaching the Arabic language in alternative ways, and looking into playful ways to underline connections between science, art and making. After her RCA graduation she started working on a paper engineering project with her nephews and nieces that used math and building to describe how things grow in the real world. Based on that project she was approached by the Palestinian museum to create more paper engineering works for The History of Palestine Through Everyday Objects project which consisted of a series of pop-up books and a box of activities. Further collaborations with the Palestinian Museum included the Sanasel Arabic language educational online platform developed with the accessibility for the Palestinian diaspora and building connections in mind.   The conversation revolved around Leen's interest in language, mathematics, creative coding and how these can define how we see and practice design in the future. She expresses her interest in learning new skills and technologies, and using them to empower marginalised communities and amplify the voices of those that are being silenced. The conversation ends with a discussion about an Arabic coding language and the current challenges that coders face when working with Arabic typography in a dynamic way, and in real time.     @khattfoundation @khatt_chronicles @khatt_books @leencharafeddine www.khtt.net www.khattbooks.com       Leen Charafeddine is a graphic designer based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her practice is focused on creating alternative pedagogical tools. She graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut, and an MA in Visual Communications from the Royal College of Art, London. She is a self-taught creative coder in Processing, and attended online courses at The School for Poetic Computation in New York to learn OpenFrameworks.   Connect with Leen Charafeddine 👉 https://instagram.com/leencharafeddine   Hosted by Yara Khoury Nammour   Yara Khoury Nammour is an award-winning graphic designer and typographer. Her research interests include Arabic typography particularly bi-linguality, type design, legibility, book design, modular systems and much more.   Connect with Yara Khoury Nammour 👉 https://www.instagram.com/yarakhouryn/   Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Egyptian graphic designer Nora Aly. They start the conversation discussing her entry into the field of Graphic design and her studies and masters project at the German University in Cairo (GUC). They discuss her interest in Arabic lettering and typography that engage with language and help shape collective identity.       They discuss in detail her discovery of the Nubian culture in Egypt, its endangered language and script, and the revival of the Nubian script. Nora talks about her design research project for a Nubian stencil font, a henna tool kit, and a publication, and elaborates on the importance of publishing and developing creative tools that raise awareness on the topic and that contribute to the livelihood of women in the Nubian community in Egypt.       The conversation moves forward to address Nora's interest in exploring the Arabic script's structure and flexibility, manipulating the letterforms to create lettering that visualize meaning. She discusses as case study the Cairo Art Book Fair, and the ideas behind its dynamic logotype and visual identity. She then talks about her recent publication, "7 Years of Rejections," which embodies her belief in the importance of embracing rejections and documenting failed ideas and concepts. Nora stresses on the importance of publishing these work with explanations; she believes that they help advance the discourse on the challenges and imperfections of the creative process.       She voices her fears that in the future relying on AI might dilute the personality in the work of graphic designers. However, she hopes that this might also be a moment that will revive an appreciation for the handmade and for human labor. Nora closes the conversation with a recommendation to make "A note to ourselves to be truthful to our creative process."       Nora Aly is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book, Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024).       @khattfoundation   @khatt_chronicles   @khatt_books   @nora_aly   www.khtt.net   www.khattbooks.com FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 describes her process that starts from writing and creating a script, and then drawing the story. Her work focuses on real-life stories and she describes her work as comics journalism.   The conversation moves to more concrete examples from her work. Her first zine, Not From Mars (2016), was experimental in the way it narrated her personal story in snapshots from her daily life, describing her transformations she was going through and the social challenges she was confronted with. Her second zine, The Insubordinate (2017), based on news clippings, documents an incident during the civilian protests in Beirut in 2015, and raises questions about the legal system in Lebanon. Her first graphic novel, Inside the Giant Fish (published in Arabic in 2021, and English in 2022), about the privatizing of the public beach connected to her village and has a string social message raising awareness about the impact that such developments have on the lives of her community living by the beach. The conversation moves to her style of illustration and how she develops the characters in her comics (often characters that resembles her).   The conversation ends with talking about the challenges of finding time to create comics and graphic novels while keeping the integrity of the work, and balancing this with earning a living. They discuss the negative effects and limitations of online publishing platforms and social media on the creative process and the ethics of works produced today.   Rawand Issa is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book, Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024).   @khattfoundation @khatt_chronicles @khatt_books @rawand.issa_ www.khtt.net www.khattbooks.com https://rawandissa.tumblr.com/ FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 project was seminal for her career during which she was introduced to the Khatt Foundation's first "Typographic Matchmaking" project that continued to inspire her work throughout her career.Typographic Matchmaking resonated with her preoccupation with expressing her dual identity and how it was manifestated in her design work. Naima then discusses her type design work in general and her finding inspiration in North African scripts and visual culture, as well as stories in hidden archives, namely in feminist print archives from the SWANA region. Next to her commissioned projects, she conducts her own research for her personal type design projects. She elaborates on her "personal" typeface design project La Grotesque, based on the Arabic Maghribi style and translating this style to a modern and low contrast font family. She explains how this project was a continuation of her research and typeface design for the Khatt Foundation's "Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib" project. Naima then goes on to discuss the challenges and limitations of creating Arabic companions for Latin font family. She discusses her TCD Award winning text typeface for 29LT typefoundry, Azahar, for which she designed the Arabic character set. Naima and Yara discuss the parameters of Arabic type design pedagogy, where it overlaps and where it differs from Latin type design pedagogy, and the need to develop a hand-ons workbook that introduces the field to beginners. They conclude with the statement that we "need to build up and build collectively" [the field of Arabic type design]. FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES: » Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206 » Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB » Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489 THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhA ABOUT AFIKRA afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity. 📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters 🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts ⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership 🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_ 🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official 🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 Key (@morcoskey) with his partner Jon Key in Brooklyn, New York. The conversation revolves around what it means to design in the diaspora versus when living in the culture for which one is designing, and what the pros and cons are for working bilingually and biculturally. They unpack Morcos' work as a type designer and his various collaborations with well-known Arab and American type designers, and go on to discuss his Arabic lettering workshops and various prestigious branding, exhibition and publication design projects for clients like the 2nd Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (2025) (@islamicartsbiennale), to his ongoing collaboration with the US-based Arab cultural foundation and magazine Mizna (@mizna_arabart), to his Arabic logotype for the campaign of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani (@nycmayor @zohrankmamdani). Among his many hats as a designer, Morcos maintains a commitment to Arab culture placing the Arabic script at the heart of his projects wherever and wherever possible. He also makes time to engage in pro-bono activist projects to support social and humanitarian causes, like fundraising for victims after the Beirut port explosion of 2020 with a design for a wool blanket. They discuss the growing design ecology in the Arab region and how it is an essential currency for the preservation and reinterpretation of cultural knowledge. They conclude with Morcos' plea for the need to encourage and advocate for more critical writing and debates on design amongst practicing designers from the region.  FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 her interests, struggles and doubts. She shares the fact that she has been interested in art and passionate about drawing since high school, but not until the end of her college years did she finally feel better at it and found her own voice in illustration. She discusses her creative process and how she needs the time to experiment and plan extensively before starting her drawings. She also discusses the dot-pattern illustrations and Arabic lettering that she created for a book published by Snoubar Bayrout Bookshop, entitled Dammeh [hug], among other meaningful projects she enjoyed working on. She elaborates on her mainly black and white color palette, and her fascination with drawing patterns using her ballpoint pen that she always carried with her. Recently she started integrating grays, and other vivid colors in her design work. She mentions a course she took at AUB with Lebanese graphic artist and illustrator, Mazen Kerbaj, from which she learned the importance of drawing every day (though she fails to apply this), as well as the importance of drawing every detail from scratch no matter how often it may be repeated in a composition. In her work she takes the hard way in order to feel that the outcome is of any worth.Sarah discusses the economic reasons behind her switching from being a freelance illustrator to working in a design agency on full-time basis. Her studying product design was in the same vein: namely her need to learn something different and practical that she can earn money through. To compensate for her struggle with ideas and the discipline of drawing every day, she designed an app  called Drop for the iPad about daily drawing for her capstone project at Parsons. She shares her disillusionment with AI developments and the way the world is becoming less authentic. She reveals the very personal motivation behind her work and its importance for her wellbeing, and concludes by saying: "No matter how low or insecure you may be feeling, just draw, it's possible to improve and change." Sarah Saroufim is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book, Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024). FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 emotions. She describes how she managed to merge all her learned creative skills and passions (scripts and painting) into the type of written art she has been creating for decades. She challenged herself to break the rules of calligraphy and write along musical rhythms, like a performer, capturing the essence of writing — writing the "unwritten" that expressed pure emotion. She talks about pushing boundaries, creating cultural bridges and inviting viewers to respond in individual and imaginative ways to her work. She describes her inspirations acquired through art books, and how certain abstract expressionist artists that have had an impact on her way of creating art. She candidly relays the challenges she faced in Iran in having access to modern and international art, and her joy the first time she encountered those artworks physically in a museum. She discusses how music, poetry, and dance are core elements in her work citing as example an exhibition centered around the poetry of the renown Syrian poet Nizar Kabbani. The conversation concludes with talking about her other passions for cooking, enjoying food, hosting friends, and much more. Golnaz Fathi is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book "Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa" (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024). FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 response to upsetting events, through personal political posters, some in collaboration with type designer Kristyan Sarkis. They also discuss her passion for children's books that she collects, diving into her work for children and young adults books. Hanane speaks about the challenges of illustrating children's books especially those addressing difficult social topics and mental health issues. Through the conversation they talk about the Bologna Children's Book Fair and the impact of a visit to this fair on her work as an illustrator, inspiring one of her most experimental and playful illustrated children's book. Hanane explains her process and the importance of research, as well as letting the content dictate the media and style of image-making. Hanane also talks about her latest project, an Arabic erotic dictionary, where she combines the human hand with Arabic letters, collaborating with dancers to capture the right gestures. She concludes this conversation by talking about her need for her projects to be challenging—projects that give her "something to push against" and make her "brain hurt a little." Hanane is one the visual artists and graphic women featured in the book "Revealing Recording Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa" (Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2024). FOLLOW & RATE KHATT CHRONICLES:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/khatt-chronicles-stories-on-design-from-the-arab-world/id1472975206» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ATH0MwO1tIlBvQfahSLrB» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014374489THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhAABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.