OUGD504 - Arabic Research

Arabic Calligraphy Research

From research it was found that Arabic was the Dubai's official language with English also widely spoken and written across the City. It was also found that Arabic scripture is calligraphic in style and a bamboo square nibbed pen was used to write traditional Arabic scripture. 

From this it was considered that perhaps looking at some examples of this style of writing and the shapes of the letterforms could help in the development of the beach and road lines within the design.

 Looking at examples it was found that:

-There was high contrast between thick and thin strokes within letterforms

- Letters were created using ink allowing for fluid curves to be created

- Finials of letters were tapered or had a flourish creating a mix between angular curved strokes

- Ascenders and descenders are different lengths 

- Arabic is very decorative because of its calligraphic roots and that often letters are attached to one another creating fluid, combined forms.

- The red dots with letters indicate a short vowel

- The dashes indicate a constenant

It was also found that Arabic was written and read from right to left across the page, so this could perhaps influence the orientation of text within the book. Furthermore, Arabic books are also read from back to front rather than front to back in English. This could influence the way the narrative within the guidebook is followed.