Monk Font Typeface Design by Paul Robb

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

PR : The idea was to create a font that would work together seamlessly in Latin and Arabic. Especially when mixed in communications. A lot of fonts have both versions but they seem different fonts am I wanted harmony.

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

PR : Harmony in languages, especially when used together, for example, international signage, newspapers, etc., basically where they would appear together and need to be one continuous communication.

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

PR : I would love to start specializing in corporate brand typography Winning that award is an award from my peers, so after a lot of months of work is it satisfying that they see the merit in the work.

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

PR : Because it was a self-generated font it took way too long, especially the concept of interchangeable geometric shapes, but the original idea for the form took around 4 weeks.

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

PR : Originally it came out of an old conceptual project that I needed to resolve into a commercial typeface.

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?

PR : I would love to start working with another company to create an extended family, even a variable version.

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

PR : Basically a love of letters and seeing those forms come to life in the shape of words.

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

PR : All type design is an influence as I love old signage and letters in the street, to a beautifully crafted letter from font foundries.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

PR : Corporate branding would be my target. Companies need to be authentic and to be that you need to stand out from the crowd, and have an original font does just that.

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

PR : The idea for shared geometry, they are integrated and work together.

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

PR : The idea monk, comes from the origin of the project, they were the diffusers of communication and I wanted to retain that idea of dialogue.

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

PR : Illustrator, Fontographer & Glyphs

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

PR : Shared geometry, because as I said lots of fonts now have Arabic versions, but they tend to be stepchildren, sometimes a sanserif font will have the Arabic version in calligraphic style, I wanted the same feeling in both sets.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

PR : We worked in the studio as a team, I am lucky to have passioned people who shared my vision.

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

PR : At the final stages, it is crucial to the development, but original sketched fonts were the beginning.

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

PR : I knew what I wanted to express in the harmony between languages, but I wasn't sure that it would be possible, especially the idea to develop an Arabic font, with such a strict design narrative.

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

PR : We won an award last year, so this is our follow up.

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

PR : That I can get lost sometimes in perfection, which probably slowed to production.