It’s time for a new era in Arabic Type design!
We invite you to join us on Friday November 10th to the final of East Type West Type!
The panel and the reflection are the wrap-up of the project East Type West Type in which international designers and performers have participated. The panel will focus on the idea behind Lara Captan’s research. Captan did an extensive research on the original Arabic typography from an Eastern perspective. In the panel and the presentations we will concentrate on the cultural perspective and appreciation of design, mutual influence and identity. The panel will be led by Özkan Gölpinar (writer, member of Raad van Cultuur and former program manager at The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture)
Panel members
According to Libanese designer and typographer Lara Captan the letterdesign, the translation of script to type, still has a lot to improve in Arabic typography. The Western design has been dominant and there has been a lack of experimentation with Arabic letterdesign. For the publication: the Kanat, she designed her own font. Together with Kristin Sarkis she founded Typotheque and wrote a manifest for Arabic typography.
With his Palace of Typographic Masonry (poster, debates, installations), Richard Niessen creates a visual institution for graphic design, according to the Dutch Design Award. He translates his search into colourful metaphors. Niessen has designed an alphabet for an exhibition in the Tijdelijk Museum and a spatial tifinagh (Berber script) in Nomadic Traces.
Asieh Deghani is a graphic designer from Iran, she was active in a designers collective that wanted to stimulate critical reflection on Persian type. She has recently finished her masters design at the Sandberg Institute.
Two designers, Matthias Kreutzer of Our Polite Society and Richard Niessen each designed a poster based on the muse of this project, Lara Captan’s research. The posters will be available to buy during the event.
Reflection
Captan’s research inspired three institutions for cooperation into this project, AGA LAB and Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam West and the GWA in Amsterdam Oost. With masterclasses, lectures, performance, installation and a residence period they invited young artists and designers from Scandinavia, Egypt and The Netherlands. They worked with the monopoly and cultural meaning of color in the Pantone color system and with questions such as ‘How can you design your own type without having any set of rules?’, ’How can you create your own set of (design)rules?’.
During the final we will look back on the project with Josien Pieterse (director Framer Framed) and visual artist Maze de Boer.
Program
Friday November 10th (panel, reflection, exhibition and DJ)
16.30 – 17.00 Entry
17.00 – 18.30 Short introduction of panel members and panel
18.30 – 18.50 Reflection by Josien Pieterse and Maze de Boer
18.50 – 20.00 DJ Q with an East West Mix
During the evening works by Captan, Niessen, Kreutzer and others wil be exhibited, with drinks and soup after.
Let us know if you come: info@agalab.nl
Partners
East Type West Type is a project by GWA, Podium Mozaïek and AGA LAB.
In collaboration with Framer Framed and Uva Bijzondere Collecties.
Thanks to our sponsors: Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Prins Bernard Cultuur Fonds, Stadsdeel Amsterdam West
Sincerely,
Team AGA LAB