Ila'l Amam Type Family Typography by Sara Mansour

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

SM : Creating an italicized oblique Arabic type family due to the lack of one in Arabic type.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

SM : The main goal was to tackle the brief, creating a new typeface, in an unconventional way.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

SM : To transform the typefamily to be used by the masses on the computer.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

SM : Concept inception was in April 2012; project completed in May 2013.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

SM : The project was initially created for an Advance Typography & Publishing Course at Dar Al Hekma University.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

SM : This project will be produced and sold online and all rights will be reserved.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

SM : The love of Arabic scripts and typography.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

SM : The first Latin display type ever created, also known as "Fat Face", and the Iranian Kufic scripts of the 11th century.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

SM : A display type to be used by designers and visual communicators for large-scale purposes such as poster designs.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

SM : It is an oblique Arabic font, a pioneer of its kind.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

SM : "Ila’l Amam" in Arabic means "go forwards" based on the angle in which the letters are facing (right to left).

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

SM : Graph paper, pencil, Adobe Illustrator.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

SM : Italicized oblique Arabic type family.

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

SM : Setting this project in motion.

DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?

SM : Researching Arabic scripts and Latin typefaces to get inspiration.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

SM : The dynamics and complexity of the Arabic script. Keeping all the letters in uniform, minding the overall geometric composition and calculated slant.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

SM : As a postgraduate, it was reffered to me by my former programme director, Cordula Peters.

DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?

SM : Extensive patience and attention to detail.

DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?

SM : The inspiration behind the overall look of the tryptich posters came from the modern and futuristic feel of the overall typeface design. In addition, the photograph used is one of my favourite photographs from the NASA photography archives.