Around the world, readers of Arabic are immersed in the work of prolific type designer Dr. Nadine Chahine. Currently the Arabic type specialist for Monotype, Chahine counts Frutiger Arabic, Neue Helvetica Arabic, Univers Next Arabic, Palatino Arabic, Koufiya, Janna, Badiya, and BigVesta Arabic among her designs—along with the new Zapfino Arabic.

Nadine Chahine grew up in Lebanon, and she says her foremost source of inspiration is still the streets of Beirut. During the 1990s, she studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut, and this is where her passion for type was born—in part due to frustration at the lack of well-designed Arabic typefaces.

Arabic has a rich heritage of beautiful calligraphy, but when Chahine was beginning her design studies, this artistic tradition hadn’t been carried into the modern era. She remembers, “If you wanted to design a poster for a party, there was nothing informal. If you wanted to make a corporate identity for a bank, there was nothing that looked professional and contemporary. We had only traditional, badly drawn fonts…. It’s almost like you’re not allowed to become modern—because if you’re not allowed to express it visually, how can you be it?”

Chahine went on to earn her MA in typeface design from the University of Reading, in the U.K., which she says opened the doors to her design career. One focus of her studies at Reading was creating harmonious relationships between Arabic and Latin typefaces—her typeface Koufiya was the first to include simultaneously designed Latin and Arabic parts. In 2005, she joined Linotype (which later become Monotype) in Germany, where she has been ever since.