Interview
Drawing an Arabic face for a signage system
Three weights, cut to survive a stencil on steel and a 6pt line on a form.
2 min read
Interview · June 11, 2026
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Khat Al Waha was commissioned as a signage face and ended up carrying an entire wayfinding system. Its designer explains what changes when a face has to work at two extremes.
Execution is a criterion, not a courtesy
A good idea badly made loses to a modest idea made well, and the criteria say so out loud. Jurors are asked to look at the join: the kerning on the sign that will be read at forty metres, the fold that has to survive a courier, the fallback when the typeface is not installed.
The entry form asks for the working files and the specimens for the same reason. A flat render proves an intention; a print sheet, a screen recording or a spec proves a decision was carried through.
Arabic is not a second pass
Work that carries both scripts is judged on both. A layout that mirrors cleanly, a type pairing that holds its colour across two writing systems, and numerals that behave in a table are all execution, and all of them are visible to a jury that reads Arabic.
The commonest deduction is not an ugly Arabic setting. It is an Arabic setting that was clearly done last, at a smaller size, in a weight that does not exist in the family.
About this conversation
The conversation was recorded for the programme and edited for length. The full transcript is above the related posts, so nothing said here depends on being able to play the film.
Transcript
The film is edited for length. This is what was said.
On what the brief actually asked
Khat Al Waha was commissioned as a signage face and ended up carrying an entire wayfinding system. Its designer explains what changes when a face has to work at two extremes.
The constraint was the useful part. Once it was written down properly, most of the options disappeared on their own and what was left was arguable rather than arbitrary.
On entering
Read the sub-category before the deadline, not after. The group decides which of the four criteria carry weight, and strong work loses every year for being entered where its strengths are not counted.
