2015 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

A deliberate media blackout has put Gaza under the constant threat of obliteration. The Gaza Font was created to shed light on the stories kept untold with a new unconventional approach. The objective of the font is to reveal the hidden stories and immortalize them, because what has been written can never be erased. The font is downloadable and useable, which allows the stories to be shared to a wider audience, because what has been written can never be erased.

The Brief

We were asked to shed light on the recent tragic events in Gaza that were partially covered and kept in the dark. A journalistic approach was requested that would however reach readers differently and outside the Assafir newspaper.

How the final design was conceived

Every letter is the beginning of a story relating to the most recent war on Gaza. The mechanism consists of combining a basic Helvetica typeface with an image and a text. Stories are written with an objective journalistic approach and the images are treated in black and white to best reflect the drama.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The campaign was launched February 18. The press conference was held and the UNESCO Palace, covered by all local TV and press media and well a quite a few regional media. It was announced on the 8 o’clock news bulletin of all local and regional TV stations and the cause was unanimously acclaimed for its creative and disruptive approach. As of the launch, thousands of supporters have visited the website and downloaded the font. Propagation of the font and the stories has just been sparked. Engagement is rising exponentially by the day given the nature of the campaign and the font itself being intrinsically relevant to all the supporters of the Gaza cause growing to become a movement.

Assafir states its mission as to be "the newspaper of the Arab world in Lebanon, and the newspaper of Lebanon in the Arab world." The newspaper slogan and promise is to be "the voice of the voiceless", which solidly justifies the Gaza Font campaign. Building on the local popularity of the daily, and its constant quest to shed light on matters left untold with a highly intellectual approach, the Gaza Font targets Assafir's considerable reader base and goes beyond it to a wider audience that supports the Palestinian cause by principle. The font was developed on a pro boon basis, and the actual work was done by volunteers in a show of solidarity to the cause.