Arabic Typography

Eme issue 1 · 2013 89 pp. 89-91. ISSN 2253-6337 Arabic Typography. Andreu Balius Writing as drawing, Associate professor at Pompeu Fabra University word as image Graphic designer specialized in type design Member of AGI Unlike Western writing, in Arabic calligraphy the im- being the mere record to become the pictorial representa- age of the written word has priority over the drawing tion through calligraphy, a development of writing that is Andreu Balius is a graphic designer of the individual letter, hence its evocative power is in much more than being the speaker of a sound signal. It specialized in type design. He’s a the force of the calligraphic image that issues from the could be said that, although in a slightly unorthodox way, member of AGI (Alliance Graphique ensemble, reinforced by including ornamental images. that music is to speech as calligraphy is to writing. Internationale), TDC (Type Direc- It is a quality with which many contemporary design- To write is to “illustrate” concepts through words, a tors Club), and ATypl (Association ers have been able to approach modernity. On the other way of “creating” and evoking images through the text. Typographique Internationale). He hand, the peculiarities of Arabic writing, besides con- In fact, poetry, as a literary genre pursues this end. Dif- founded his studio in Barcelona textual causes such as religious ones, have made it different artists and writers have experimented with ob- in 1992, which also specializes in ficult to translate into typographic characters without jects and texts to create poetic relationships (see some typography and custom type design. succumbing to a “latinising” of its forms. For that rea- of Joan Brossa’s examples of visual poetry) or have In 2003 he established the digital son the current renaissance in design of Arabic fonts played with the composition of the verses with the aim foundry typerepublic.com, where he must be approached from the understanding of the cal- of creating graphic representations (as per the experi- publishes his fonts and corporate ligraphic origins and their cultural transcendence. ments of some artists, such as Joan Salvat-Papasseit or type design. He’s carried out type Junoy, of the historic vanguards). It should be recalled design projects for Victoria’s Secret, Key words: typography, Arabic caligraphy, writ- that the word “poetry” comes from the Greek poietes, Ferrovial, Instituto Cervantes and La ing, image, drawing, signs, design which means “he who creates or makes something.” Vanguardia. He’s an associate pro- In writing, calligraphy means elevating the idea of the fessor at Pompeu Fabra University What was first, voice or writing? message to the status of “poetic image”, of artistic im- (Barcelona) and has participated in age. The word calligraphy, from the Greek kallos (beauty, several international events, giving The need to communicate through signs is as old as good) and graphein (writing, stroke), exactly defines this conferences and workshops. He holds the need to establish some form of lasting record. idea. The Andalusi sage, Ibn Al-Sid from Badajoz (1052- a BA (Hons) in Design from the Uni- Enduring registry and oral expression have been 1127) defined calligraphy as the “procedure that allows versity of Southampton (UK). linked from remote times. Writing and speech are ac- transmitting language by means of writing, following a tivities that function in parallel and refer to the overall number of techniques whose end is to achieve clear, solid scope of language and its meanings. and beautiful writing”2. For the calligrapher Claude Medi- Most of the world’s great religions confer the verb avilla, calligraphy is just the “Art of writing beautifully”3. the capacity of creation. According to David McLagan1, the different myths that Relationship of calligraphy and typography try to explain the act of Creation in the different cultures co- incide in giving the word, speech, and verb creative force. The calligrapher Wan Hsi Chih establishes a dis- 01 In the Hebrew alphabet the letters are associated tinction between writing (handwriting) and calligra- MACLAGAN, DAVID: Mitos de la creación. to the human being since it is considered that they, phy: “Writing needs the meaning, while calligraphy Madrid, Debate, 1977, p. 29. the letters, have body, soul and spirit. The kaballistic expresses itself above all through form and gesture; 02 4 PUERTA VILCHEZ, JOSÉ MIGUEL: La Aventu- tradition maintains that the Hebrew alphabet served elevates the spirit and illuminates the emotions” . In ra del Cálamo, Edilux, Granada, 2007, p. 223. to create the world and in their names, their graphic this sense, as Mediavilla affirms, calligraphy is revealed 03 shape, their numeral value and their position within to be closer to painting than to literature. MEDIAVILLA, CLAUDE: Caligrafía. the alphabet (alef-Bet) find their reason for being. Its In our Western culture handwriting and calligraphy Valencia, Campgràfic, 1996. 5 04 twenty-two letters are also called “bricks of Creation.” have been displaced by the force of typography . Ty- Quoted in: MEDIAVILLA, CLAUDE. Op cit., 1. Indubitably language makes it possible for us to pography has evolved independently, straying from 05 “create” and “illustrate” concepts represented in an the idea of the continuous and fluid stroke, although it Taking writing as a generic concept, we distinguish different forms of writing: abstract manner under the form of words in our mind. has taken calligraphic forms as reference. This has not handwriting, calligraphic writing and The text is the record of oral language. The first writ- happened in the same way in other traditions, as is the typographic writing, depending on whether ten signs arise with the need of establishing some type case of the Arab culture. it is personal, with no other purpose than of record, a memory aid. Speech has the power to evoke Arabic writing, as opposed to that of Latin tradition, has to make a note or register a message (handwriting), writing pursuing an aesthetic meanings that are different from those evoked by writing. retained this inseparable relationship of handwriting and end (calligraphy) or with the use of The latter has, with the passage of time, gone further than calligraphic writing throughout the centuries. While in the combinable, movable types (typography). Writting · Andreu Balius 90 Translated articles West, with the printing press, writing evolved towards the rhythm to the composition. Thus, the practitioner of Ara- representation of the letters based on the principle of mod- bic calligraphy has a number of resources to use with a ularity, thus understanding the letters as separate units, the single end: the visual representation of the word and, with Arabic writing never abandoned the idea of a whole in the it, the image that this word represents and symbolises. manner in which letters are combined to form words. This Al-Asyadi considers that the “elegance of the calligra- is a characteristic trait — a fundamental one — that the tran- phy lies in its uniformity, its embellishment, its shape, its sition to typography has endeavoured to maintain. splendour, in the harmonisation of white and black and in From our Western point of view, typography and cal- its beauty in maintaining the difference within the whole”9. ligraphy are different disciplines. Knowing calligraphy The value of representation given to writing, over affords a good foundation for designing alphabets, but other practices not allowed by religion, enormously en- it is not an absolutely necessary condition. The typeface hanced the role of calligraphy in the Islamic culture. As 06 designer is not necessarily a good calligrapher, and con- José Miguel Puerta explains, “Renouncing the use of PELTA, RAQUEL & MÉNDEZ, CARMEN: versely, a good calligrapher will not necessarily design images to transmit the various messages of the Revela- «Zapf. Elogio de la Arquitectura», Visual, n. good alphabets. Rarely do we find calligraphers that tion in the places of worship made calligraphy the art, 111. 11-2004, Madrid have successfully entered the world of typography. We par excellence, of those places. Caligraphy was responsi- 07 could point out Hermann Zapf as an exceptional case. ble for marking beautifully, with the solemnity and holy Here it is necessary to distinguish cal- 6 ligraphic script as handwriting from that For him calligraphy is the basis of all typography . aura of the sacred text, the most outstanding buildings which means to transcend the message Those who have delved in both fields are aware that and all types of objects.”10 Thus, calligraphy manages to and in which the calligrapher’s subjectivity they are very different things. Although, doubtlessly, waive the difference between abstraction and represen- contributes an essential value. 08 having some knowledge of calligraphy will help under- tation, being the text itself the element which evokes sa- The Arabic writing system developed in the stand the logic of some forms in the letters, especially cred images, and so, writing becoming a vehicle of Faith. Arabian Peninsula, belongs to the family of for drawing letters of classic style. Calligraphy has been used in architecture, not only Semitic languages and originated from the Calligraphy pursues the quest of formal beauty as a decorative and ornamental element, but as a re- Phoenician alphabet just as our Latin alphabet. It developed in the IV Century evolving from in texts through the expression of the handwritten sort to give a sense of transcendence and sacredness the Nabat alphabet. stroke. To the contrary, in typography the expressive- to places through the “represented” text. The straight, According to Hamid Safadi (en Islamic Cal- ness lies in the design of each letter individually, con- geometric strokes of the Kufic calligraphic style have ligraphy. (1978), London, Thames & Hudson), 11 the late development of the Arabic alphabet, ceived as a combinable unit.

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