Reza Abedini designs vibrant posters with 29LT fonts

A Collaborative approach between a graphic designer and a type designer

29LT multilingual typefaces were offered to the renowned Iranian graphic designer, Reza Abedini, for him to explore their potential and create compelling typographic posters.

Abedini experimented with the typefaces using a striking and playful approach instead of merely typesetting the fonts in clean and corporate typographic layouts. Since we wanted the posters to be a collaborative effort between Abedini’s (graphic designer) and my (type designer) skills, Abedini had full freedom to play with the fonts and create unique visuals, instead of just designing the posters to showcase the fonts. Abedini wanted the posters to stand by themselves as unique visual items and not only as typographic products promoting a certain set of fonts.

A human figure was introduced in each poster to interact with the typeface displayed. A young Arabic literature expert, Hussein Nasseeddine, gave Abedinin a set of phrases and quotes written by several renowned Arabic poets and writers such as Illias Khoury, Hassan Dawood, Mahmoud Darwish, among others. In each poster, the selected text, the human silhouette, and one of 29LT fonts were meticulously chosen to create the right visual aspect of the poster.

For each poster, Abedini chose Black and one Pantone color and then introduced a second Pantone color overlaying the whole design. He wanted to create an experimental printing process whereby the printer could play around with the colored silhouettes plates and overlay them on the finished posters in a random manner. He had the posters printed in three steps giving the possibility of three end results for each poster:

First step Black on white without any human figure.

Second step. Addition of the designated human figure.

Third step. Random overlaying of a second human figure chosen from any other poster.

The result was a colorful set of interactive posters integrating type and images.

We have selected three posters for further explanation:

29LT Zeyn Poster designed by Reza Abedini

29LT Zeyn Type-family

With its fleeting edges and graceful drift‭, ‬Zeyn permeates the authentic tradition of the cursive‭.‬

‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬زين‭ ‬يعزّز‭ ‬تقليد‭ ‬الأحرف‭ ‬المتّصلة‭ ‬الأصيل،‭ ‬وذلك‭ ‬فضلاً‭ ‬لحافاته‭ ‬الخاطفة‭ ‬وانحرافه‭ ‬الجميل‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم

Beautiful‭, ‬elegant‭, ‬graceful ‬وفاتن ،‭ ‬وراقٍ،‭ ‬جميل



Category الفئة

Display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ

Hybrid Naskh/Thuluth خطّ‭ ‬هجين‭ ‬النّسخ‭/‬الثّلث



Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ

Modern Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سريف‭ ‬حديث

Design Description وصف التصميم :

The 29LT Zarid typeface is very robust and echoes seriousness. Its black edgy pen strokes contrast sharply with the white space within and around them. Abedini chose to work with the quote of Mahmoud Darwish, “The Truth is white, so write it in the ink of crow. And the Truth is black, so write about it with the light of the mirage” to reflect the seriousness of the type design and the humanistic idea of Black and White. The font was outlined and overlaid with a pattern of striped lines reflecting the vagueness of black or white truth. The typographic visual was emphasized with a figure of a speechless woman and that of a superior woman with a loud voice coming from inside her.

29LT Zarid Type-Family will be available in early 2015.

Design Description وصف التصميم :

The 29LT Zeyn typeface is very delicate and reflects elegance and grace. Its extremely high contrast had to be displaced in a big size to reveal the intricacy of its outline. A silhouette of a determined, focused man in a precise outfit and elegant atmosphere is illustrated with a thin line and black mass reflecting the elegance and contrast of the typeface. Abedini chose the quote from Hassan Dawood, “I always want to have something to see, like I am watching something, to be able to write. Only then, when I am describing what I see, I find myself in writing.”

29LT Massira Type-Family

Massira is the typeface that refuses confinement and projects the destabilizing urgency of change‭.‬

مسيرة‭ ‬يُعتبر‭ ‬خطّاّ‭ ‬يرفض‭ ‬الأسر‭ ‬ويعكس‭ ‬ضرورة‭ ‬التّغيير‭ ‬الملحّة‭ ‬والقاطعة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم

Demonstration‭, ‬march مظاهرة،‭ ‬ومسيرة



Category الفئة

Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ

Ruq’a خطّ‭ ‬الرّقعة

Design Description وصف التصميم :

The 29LT Massira typeface is a freehand type inspired from the political graffiti writings in Beirut. Abedini chose a revolutionary satirical quote from Mohammad Al Maghout “What is the benefit in being able to write anything in this world, when you are unable to change anything in it.” The human figure is taken from a screen shot of a woman from a political movie. She represents the revolutionary ideas of women even when they are shown to be calm in statues.

Below are the rest of the posters:

29LT Azer Type-Family

Azer’s asymmetrically modern characters connect to infuse a reassuring presence to your text‭.‬

حروف‭ ‬آزر‭ ‬الحديثة‭ ‬المتباينة‭ ‬تنضمّ‭ ‬فتضفي‭ ‬لمسةً‭ ‬مريحةً‭ ‬على‭ ‬نصّكم‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم

Help‭, ‬support ‬والعون ،‭ ‬والمساعدة،‭ ‬المساندة



Category الفئة

Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ

Naskh النّسخ

Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ

Sans Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سان‭ ‬سريف

29LT Bukra Type-Family

Bukra’s geometric structure sheds the frills to deliver your clear corporate message‭.‬

هيكلة‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬بكرا‭ ‬الهندسيّة‭ ‬تتخلّص‭ ‬من‭ ‬أيّ‭ ‬تكلّف‭ ‬لتزويدكم‭ ‬بالتّالي‭ ‬برسالة‭ ‬تجاريّة‭ ‬واضحة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم

Tomorrow ‬غدًا‭



Category الفئة

Text and display type خطّ‭ ‬عرض‭ ‬ومحتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ

Kufic الخطّ‭ ‬الكوفيّ



Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ

Sans Serif ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬سان‭ ‬سريف

29LT Kaff Type-Family will be available in early 2015.

29LT Makina Type-Family

Makina stands out of its display frame by recreating the charm of typewriting‭.‬

‭ ‬إنّ‭ ‬خطّ‭ ‬ماكينة‭ ‬يبرز‭ ‬من‭ ‬إطار‭ ‬عرضه‭ ‬عبر‭ ‬استرجاع‭ ‬سحر‭ ‬الطّباعة‭ ‬على‭ ‬الآلة‭ ‬الكاتبة‭.‬

Name Meaning معنى‭ ‬الإسم

Machine ماكينة



Category الفئة

Text type خطّ‭ ‬محتوى

Arabic Style الطّراز‭ ‬العربيّ

Simplified Naskh النّسخ‭ ‬المبسّط



Latin‭ ‬Style الطّراز‭ ‬اللّاتينيّ

Mono-linear‭ & ‬mono-width type خطّ‭ ‬ذو‭ ‬سماكة‭ ‬وعرض‭ ‬متساوييْن

I became friends with Reza in 2008 and later-on colleagues at AUB (American University of Beirut). Since then, we always thought of what kind of collaboration we can collaborate on, but constantly busy schedules postponed our intentions and willingness.

29LT Posters were made available for the first time at Nuqat Design conference 2014 via The Yard bookstore.