Project Assignment:
Final Year Project
BS. in Graphic Design
Lebanese American University
(2016)
Discipline:
Branding
Arabic Type Design
Environmental Design (Wayfinding)
Tools:
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Glyphs
The Museum of Arab Art & Design is a new cultural center in the Middle East. It exhibits the work of Arab artists from many different creative fields.
Museum of Arab Art & Design
The museumʼs visual identity revolves around its architecture. The museum is spread over five separate rectangular buildings, where each of these buildings serves a different purpose: the permanent collection building, the exhibition center, the studios, the library, and the cafeteria. The most important step in designing the museumʼs identity was creating its own typeface. As each building's name is written on one of its exterior walls, I designed a stencil font that mirrored the geometry and sharpness of the building itself. After having set the characteristics of the typeface, the design of the icons followed, as well as the museumʼs wayfinding.
As part of its visual identity, the logo brings together the two most important aspects of the brand: its architecture and its typeface. The emblem is the product of the combination of the geometric shapes on the museumʼs blueprints. It was later further developed to match the typefaceʼs stencil quality. This typeface is bespoke to the Museum of Arab Art & Design. It is based on the Kufic script, which is the most geometric of all Arabic scripts. The typeface does not have any curves, to reflect the buildings' very angular shapes.