Today, type designer Nadine Chahine debuted a brilliant project to bring aid to her native city following the devastating blast that killed more than 177 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.
In just one week, Chahine curated Li Beirut, a typeface composed of more than 300 glyphs drawn by 157 designers.
“To show support and solidarity for the people of Beirut, the international type design community has come together to create a typeface that would raise funds to support the victims of the blast and the reconstruction efforts,” Chahine writes in the project’s Indiegogo. “The font includes decorative isolated Arabic letters and Latin capitals, as well as Arabic numerals and a few symbols, all in one font file, together symbolizing the solidarity of the international community with Beirut and its people.”
The list of contributors is a powerhouse of industry minds. Among them:
-
Maha Akl
-
Khajag Apelian
-
David Berlow
-
Martina Flor
-
Tobias Frere-Jones
-
Jessica Hische
-
Yara Khoury
-
Martin Majoor
-
Erin McLaughlin
-
Wael Morcos (who released a typographic blanket to benefit Beirut last week)
-
Toshi Omagari
-
Jean-François Porchez
-
Mamoun Sakkal
-
Kristyan Sarkis
-
Bahia Shehab
-
Erik Spiekermann
-
Neil Summerour
-
Erik van Blokland
-
Petr van Blokland
-
Hannes von Doehren
As the campaign details, “The contributing designers wrote many messages of hope, and the overwhelming sentiment was a message to the people of Beirut: you are not alone, and we are with you. By contributing to this campaign, you are sending that message too.”
The Indiegogo includes two options: the Li Beirut font by itself, or a version that features a pack of goodies from the Karaky Printing Press in Beirut. The latter, Chahine writes, was important in its symbolism that Beirut carries on, and its presses will not stop.
Back the project here.
