Every young Arab has experienced the trauma of learning Arabic. It’s considered to be one of the hardest languages to learn, and it only gets harder as you get older. But if you’re feeling ambitious, this graphic designer has found an easy (and cute) way to make your experience a little bit easier.
Mahmoud Tammam is an Egyptian architect and graphic designer with a strong creative streak. His project, “Arabic Letters,” is “an experimental illustration/typography project transforming Arabic words into the shape of their meanings,” according to his website.
Basically, the word “cat” would be written in Arabic and shaped in such a way that it actually looks like a cat. For students, associating words with images could be an easy way to expand their Arabic vocabulary.
Calligraphy is a big part of Arab culture and heritage. Though it is no longer widely practiced, Tammam’s project is one of several revitalising the Arab script and traditional art of calligraphy with a modern flair. Hassan Massoudy is another – he does live calligraphy on a projector during music and poetry performances.
Tammam’s letters are a part of a project with Haeptik studio, a design studio based in Alexandria. The calligraphy project was actually published a year ago, but recently made the rounds on social media and gained about 15,000 views on Tammam’s Behance page alone.
Their bright colours and cute designs make them ideal for kids, but adult learners could probably benefit from the vocab lesson as well. Many social media users suggested that Tammam should make his calligraphy into a kid’s book, which would probably make many parents’ jobs easier.
You can check out the full project on Tammam’s Behance page or on his Instagram account.
