Participants during the workshop organised by Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation partner university, recently hosted a talk and workshop by award-winning Arabic Type and Graphic Designer, Wael Morcos.
Morcos, who was named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club, and an Ascender by the Type Directors Club, has been working on a number of branding and exhibition design initiatives for various institutions in Qatar, including the Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar. He has worked on Arabic typefaces for major organizations such as Nike, Bloomberg Businessweek, Yale University School of Art, Penguin Random House.
In his talk, titled, “Wael Morcos: Right-to-Left”, Morcos described the set of challenges that comes from translating typographic concepts from one writing system to another. He also shared some of his projects by his company Morcos Key, including Arabic lettering for Nike, and exhibition designs from around the Middle East.
In his workshop at VCUarts Qatar, Morcos explained to the University’s graphic design students that typeface design “requires a lot of craft that can only be mastered through practice. Spending time drawing letters is a great way to get started,” he said, adding that “A deep understanding of how the script flows, connects, extends and changes following different styles is important.”
Graphic Design Associate Professor Basma Hamdy said, “We were honored to host Wael Morcos at VCUarts Qatar. He brings a fresh and playful approach to Arabic type and graphic design in general. He was very inspiring for the students and whole VCUarts Qatar community!”
“There are many projects that were amazing and very inspiring for me as a designer,” said Graphic Design student Marwa AlKalbani. “I never ever knew Arabic typography requires so much time, effort and passion to be able to master it. It is way more complicated than Latin.”
Another Graphic Design student Ayah ElNour added, “As a graphic designer that is a native Arabic speaker, I feel proud to see such work that I can relate to and use as an inspiration, which gives me hope that I can help spread the importance of Arabic in the visual world of Graphic design.
