2016 Winners & Shortlists

Creative Execution

In the digital fast-pace age we live in today, art forms requiring handcrafting like typography can easily fade away. The old signage of Downtown are canvases that have preserved old writings when everything was hand-wrought. As these signs start to decay, so the art carried along. This is what led us to the idea behind this project and to the development of a microsite where these fonts can be downloaded and continue to exist on the user's device, it is this shift from online to offline that will preserve the fonts.

The website was recently launched, and with the support of the campaign promotional material as well as the art influencers' social media, we are expecting to have several layers of people to start downloading and using the fonts; starting with artists and art enthusiasts leading on to those who are simply passionate about downtown. Within 2 days of the campaign launch, we have received positive feedback from artists who are asking about the website launch date to start downloading the fonts and creating designs. So we are not only expecting downloads, but also art pieces using those fonts.

Al Ismaelia is a real estate development company tasked with restoring the classical grandeur of Downtown Cairo, or West El Balad, the city’s neighborhood relic of a bygone era. While Al Ismaelia continue their restoration of several buildings in the neighborhood, a response to the onslaught of plexiglass-mounted, LED-lit signs obscuring some of the most beautiful architecture in the city, was launched. Given the nature of the product Al Ismaelia provides, it attracts a specific target audience who share the same passion for Downtown as the center of Cairo. A project to document the fonts of Downtown Cairo and to recreate them is not only needed but also falls at the core of what Al Ismaelia is about; the restoration and preservation of the neighborhood and its revival in contemporary times.