2017 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Al Ismaelia is a real estate Investment company tasked with restoring the classical grandeur of Downtown Cairo (DTC), or West El Balad, as a destination for all Egyptians to live, work, shop and socialize. Throughout its history, Downtown Cairo (DTC) has always been home and source of inspiration to artists, thinkers, intellects, philosophers, and authors and the focal point of change in the social, and cultural fabric of the city. The significance of Downtown Cairo facades reaches beyond identifying the locations that carry them. They are canvases that have preserved old writings when everything was still hand wrought. After decades of neglect, the facades of DTC are in decay, along with the art form they carry. A project to document the fonts of Downtown Cairo and to recreate them is hence not only needed but also falls under the company’s interest in the area, which extends beyond its aesthetics to restore the deeper cultural and artistic values of what used to be the heart of Cairo. Khotoot West El Balad (Downtown Fonts) is an initiative aimed at preserving the typographical heritage of the hand-painted Arabic calligraphy, drawing inspirations from the old facades of DTC where a wealth of hand-written Arabic calligraphy is recorded. Our main challenge in this project was how to preserve, and even revive, such an authentic form of handcrafted art in the fast-pace age we live in today. To truly preserve this fading art form, we had to adapt it to today’s means, which led to the core idea of the project: To turn the hand-written craft into digital craft. The project resulted in 6 original Arabic typefaces, that were named after key landmarks in the area that inspired their making. The fonts were then offered for free on the website – khotoutwestelbalad.com - as a way to give back to the artists and designers community who were constantly in search for inspirational fonts drawn from their own culture and language. The key success measure to the DTF campaign is the number, as well as the diversity, of art expressions using one or more of the 6 developed fonts. In less than four months, the 6 fonts provoked the art scene across Cairo and beyond, and inspired a wide spectrum of artists: Arab and international designers: From local designers to a Brazilian artist, the fonts provoked many designs Contemporary jewelry makers: Dido Embaby and Noha Abbassi, two young jewelry makersfound inspiration in the DTFs and designed quite unique pieces Art galleries: One of the typefaces that were digitally created found their way back to its original form on the façade of one of the key galleries of DTC. Young underground musicians: Masar Egbari,used on the fonts on one of their cover of their latest album (Chirophobia) as well as projecting it on stage during their album tour Azza Fahmy Design Studio:DTFs is now officially part of the studio curriculum Newspaper: El Shorouk, a local newspaper used Nefertari font to write one of their headlines.