Lara Assouad in Conversation With Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

The Khatt Chronicles podcast is back in a third season! Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès moderates a conversation between the hosts of Season 3. The discussion addressed the several topics and themes that are planned for this season. Huda begins by briefly introducing the hosts – Roshanak Keyghobadi, Yasmine Nachabe Taan, Yara Khoury Nammour, and Fawzi Rahal. The season will expand to include Iranian designers and will focus on women from the Southwest Asia and North Africa region in general. It will also expand the conversation to other fields of specialization related to graphic design practice (including digital media and calligraphy). The discussion delves into the importance of archiving and publishing on design from the region, and how the interviews and choices of guests will work to expand this discussion and support educational programs. The idea is to widen the broad reach and topics of the podcast, and the team at Khatt Chronicles is very excited to share these developments with you.  

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lara Balaa, Lebanese editorial designer and PhD Candidate at Rutgers School of Communication and Information. They discuss Balaa's journey into becoming a graphic designer, and her fascination with connecting graphic design to storytelling, strategy and communication.Balaa shares her experience of teaching design history, questioning how knowledge is consumed and produced, and how this has led to her interest in research and writing on design from the region. They unpack Lara's approach to editorial design and her emphasis on creating an easy and enjoyable reading experience, especially in bilingual publications.Balaa recounts her experience researching and writing her book "Emile Menhem: Invigorating Arab Journalism," part of the Khatt Books Arabic Design Library series. She describes the collective mentality of the 70s generation of Arab designers whose design work motivation was social engagement.Balaa reveals some of her inspirations and important design commissions that have left an impact on the way she practices design today. She also discusses setting up Maajoun design studio in partnership with Khajag Apelian – where they attempted to mix commissioned design work like their seminal book design project for Beirut-based Hachette-Antoine publishers – with initiating design projects such as exhibitions and workshops.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Dubai-based Lebanese graphic and type designer @laraassouad. Together they discuss her journey into type design and her other passions and side practices such as book-binding, leather accessories, and pottery.The conversation focuses on Lara's trendsetting work in developing modular Arabic scripts that go beyond type design and practical graphic design application, claiming a place in the contemporary art world.She revisits the ubiquitous applications of the Arabic script to various media – a common practice in the traditional Islamic arts – and brings this into today's art and design practice. She candidly discusses her fascination with the various and diverse Kufi scripts describing them as elegant, mysterious and easily adaptable to contemporary minimalist design, for which she has great personal affinity. FollowInstagram: @khatt_chroniclesTwitter: @khttnetYouTube: Khatt Chronicles - YouTubeKhatt.net_Khatt Chronicles: https://www.khtt.net/en/page/28678/khatt-design-chroniclesTHIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORKThe afikra Podcast is our flagship series featuring experts from academia, art, media and beyond who are helping document and/or shape the histories and cultures of the Arab world through their ‎work. Our hope is that by having the guest share their expertise and story, the community walks away with a new ‎found curiosity and maybe some good recommendations about new nerdy rabbit holes to dive into head first. ‎Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubXABOUT 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

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Beirut-born Lebanese graphic designer @RanaSalam, "Queen of Arab Pop", founder of Rana Salam Studio in Beirut, Lebanon. Together they unpack her journey as a designer, what inspires her, what she is passionate about, and how she translates that into a unique visual language. They also discuss her Arab Pop (Shaabi) style – defining its characteristics and aesthetics – and the importance of using graphic design as a means for presenting Arab popular culture to a diverse international audience. They talk about her book "Syrian Lingerie" and discuss sexuality in the Middle East, and the realigning of misconceptions and stereotypes about art and culture in the region.www.ranasalam.com @ranasalamFollowInstagram: @khatt_chroniclesTwitter: @khttnetYouTube: Khatt Chronicles - YouTubeKhatt.net_Khatt Chronicles: https://www.khtt.net/en/page/28678/khatt-design-chronicles***** About afikra *****afikra 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. Read more about us on afikra.com

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews UAE-based design studio MOBIUS and its founders, graphic designers Hala Al-Ani, Hadeyeh Badri and Riem Hassan. They candidly share their backgrounds and path: a friendship that brought them together and that evolved into a solid professional relationship and design studio. The conversation unpacks the fine points on designing for the cultural sector in the UAE, the travails of teaching and working as designers, and the engagement with self-initiated projects that challenge the way graphic design is practiced and understood in the region. The conversation reveals the power of the women designers in the region, their entrepreneurial spirit and role in raising the bar of graphic design practices in the region.

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Egyptian comics artist and designer Mohamed Shennawy – co-founder of TokTok comics magazine and founder of Al-Fann Al-Sabi’ (the 9th Art), a comics publishing and events company. They talk about his personal journey as an artist and his migration – first to Brussels, then to Barbados – and how this is translated in his wordless graphic novels. Shennawy talks about his process and about organizing the yearly Cairo Comics Festival. He addresses the challenges of distributing and disseminating comics publications in the Arab World, and talks about what he's doing to further develop and improve this. The conversation concludes by discussing the future of Arab comics, and exploring new media and platforms for Arab comics.  

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Lebanese type designer Kristyan Sarkis and founder of TPTQ Arabic font foundry in Amsterdam. Kristyan shares his education and journey into becoming a type designer. He states: "I learned how to connect with my own cultural design heritage at the Type and Media masters program, at the Royal Academy of art in The Hague." Kristyan discusses at length his typeface design approach and his research-based and culturally-immersive pedagogical practice. The talk also delves into his personal contemporary lettering work which affords him a break from the systematic discipline of type design.The talk unpacks some Arabic type design notions: the difference between writing and calligraphy; the connection of handwriting to digital type design; and the differences between Arabic calligraphy, lettering and type design. Kristyan advocates for new style classifications for digital typefaces that are dissociated from the established calligraphic conventions. He stresses the importance of researching historical developments while creating fonts that are culturally relevant yet express their respective contemporary era.https://tptq-arabic.com/http://arabictypedesign.com/

Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese-British researcher and designer Lina Hakim about her professional journey into research on material culture, technology, crafts and play. Lina discusses with Yasmine modes of teaching and how to empower students to define their practice as designers. They delve into Lina's book "Dia Al-Azzawi. Taking a Stand: Activism Through Graphic Design." Lina discusses how she put forward the local understanding of graphic design without imposing western definitions. She explored through the book how 'design histories' get recorded, how identity and memory are preserved through design practice. Hakim explains how she approached Al-Azzawi's archive, reflecting on it, and pulling themes that formed the chapters of the book. She discuss the important of research in graphic design education, and how to decenter and decolonize design history by engaging in collaborative course development, and by exposing students to design history from the periphery and from outside the western design canon.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Jordanian Eyen graphic design studio’s founders and designers Omar Al-Zo’bi and Yousef Abedrabbo. In this conversation Omar and Yousef candidly speak about their journey to becoming Eyen Design and their motivations and attitude towards design practice and education, particularly in Jordan. They discuss the importance of being engaged with local culture, listening to one’s collaborator, and designing with the user in mind. They explain the different ways that they have endeavoured to provide an alternative educational and collaborative working space within Eyen, mentioning in particular their latest project, the Arabic Letter Lab.For more information: https://www.eyen.design/

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lebanese graphic designer and educator Maya Saikali about how she marries her interest in socially engaged practice and commercial design work. Maya explains since she was a design student, first in Beirut (Lebanon) and then in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), she was always interested in raising social awareness through design and believing that “design can be a tool for changing the world.” She discusses how later as practitioner she took advantage of the slow summer period to dedicate time and offer her services to non-profit organizations and causes. In this talk, Maya candidly recounts stories about specific projects and why they were important for her development as a designer and educator. She sates: “the challenge in design is to be in sync with the changes that are happening in the world and to create relevant work that is critical.”  For more information: https://kitecreative.com/FollowInstagram: @khatt_chroniclesTwitter: @khttnetYouTube: Khatt Chronicles - YouTubeKhatt.net_Khatt Chronicles: https://www.khtt.net/en/page/28678/khatt-design-chronicles***** About afikra *****afikra 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. Read more about us on afikra.com