Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews New York-based Iranian designer Zeynab Izadyar. They discuss her journey into the field of design and textile design; beginning with her education as graphic designer in Tehran, followed by her postgraduate studies at Yale University School of Art, then backtracking to her childhood. Zeynab candidly shares stories about her creative father and her collaboration with him on "making" things, from books and furniture for her dolls, to knitting, and drawing. The moment...
Jun 13, 2025•26 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews London-based Lebanese designer Samar Maakaroun. They discuss at length her journey into the field of branding and lettering, her work at Pentagram studio in London and what it means to be the first Lebanese partner in the studio. They cover her independent project on lettering "29 Words for 29 Letters" – playing with meanings, writing systems, and animation, to build a playful and experimental multicultural glossary, and embracing the multiplicity and complexity th...
May 16, 2025•37 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès moderates a conversation between the hosts of season 4 of @khatt_chronicles. The discussion addressed the three main themes that are planned for this season, focusing on the overarching theme of Graphic Women from the SWANA region. The Khatt Foundation's latest research project that culminated in the publication "Revealing Recording Reflecting, Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa" published by Khatt Books at the end of 2024 will be used to guide the them...
Apr 18, 2025•24 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews UK-based Iranian type designer and researcher Sahar Afshar. They discuss Sahar's journey into the field of type design, the challenges she faced along the way, and her views on the responsibility of designing a typeface. They discuss some of Sahar's main and award-winning type projects. They touch upon specific topics of technology and how it might facilitate certain tedious tasks and speed up the design process. They also unpac...
Mar 07, 2025•36 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews France-based Algerian graphic and designer Walid Bouchouchi. They discuss his journey into the field of graphic design, his move to France (first Paris, then Marseille), and his professional transformation along the way. Walid discusses the design education and practice in Algeria in caparison with Paris and Marseille. They unpack his ideas on designing, researching, type design, publication design, and other range of gra...
Feb 07, 2025•57 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Yara Khoury Nammour interviews France-based Iranian educator and independent type designer Sina Fakour. They discuss his design teaching and the paths one can take as a graphic designer. They unpack his ideas on designing thinking, research, creative coding, type design, publication design, and a range of other graphic design practices. They zoom in on his type design process, how he develops his concepts, his interest in multiscript typeface design, and how ...
Jan 10, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Roshanak Keyghobadi interviews Iranian designer Mitra Shahsavand, design director and founder of the Mitra Shahsavand Design Studio. They discuss Mitra's journey into the field of graphic design and focus on some of her impactful and challenging projects of presenting women products within the Iranian public space. They also discuss education, the role of women in the Iranian graphic design scene, and the attitudes of the new generation of designers. They end...
Dec 06, 2024•25 min•Season 3Ep. 9
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian designer Aria Kasaei, who co-founded Studio Kargah with his classmate and friend Peyman Pourhossein. They discuss his journey into the field of graphic design and the cultural engagement from Studio Kargah's humble beginnings in a basement in Tehran to its present day status, and the recent setting up of a satellite studio in Paris. Together, they discuss the archiving, exhibiting and publishing on design history ...
Nov 08, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese design writer and critic, Sahar Khraibani. They discuss her journey into the field of design writing through graphic design and illustration. Together, they unpack the importance of design and critical writing at this moment in time. They discuss Sahar's major writing projects, the importance of exposing local narratives, and how to present these untold stories to a wide range of audiences. They end their discussion ta...
Oct 11, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
In this episode of Khatt Chronicles, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Iranian type designer and researcher Amir Mahdi Moslehi. They discuss his journey into calligraphy and type design. Moslehi discusses his extensive research into #Persian calligraphic and #script heritage, namely Nastaaliq and Manuscript Pahlevi. The discussion touches upon technologies and script-specific #design issues, and dives deeply into a number of Moslehi's award-winning type design projects. ***** About Khatt Chr...
Sep 13, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Beirut-based Lebanese designer Nisrine Sarkis. They discuss her journey into the world of branding and lettering. Focusing initially on illustration and graphic design, Nisrine gradually realized the importance of Arabic typography to her practice after starting to work professionally as a graphic designer. Nisrine discusses her interest in display Arabic typefaces that she intends to develop out of her lettering projects. They also explore her teaching Arabic typo...
Aug 16, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 5
***** About Khatt Chronicles ***** Khatt Chronicles podcast features remarkable designers, illustrators, and researchers from the Arab World. We host engaging conversations about their practice, vision, and aspirations. In line with the rest of the Khatt foundation projects, focuses on new developments with Arab typography and design. By Arab, we mean people working with the Arabic language, script, and audience, who are not necessarily Arabs. These initiatives are dedicated to the younger gener...
Jul 12, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 4
The four enter into a conversation that goes beyond describing the content of their books, addressing the challenges of undertaking design in a geographical context where material and archives are hard to find, where relying on oral history and primary accounts is key, and where distribution of printed matter is complicated. They each elaborate on the particularities of translation, of conveying the spirit of the content, and the importance of highlighting both the voice of the subject-designer ...
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 3
They zoomed in on some of Wissam's unique projects, from his calligraphic script Al-Wissam to his Calligraforms artworks and logotype designs. They explore Wissam's process of developing a new calligraphic script and the difference between that and his process of type design. They discuss the overlaps between calligraphy, type design and graphic design work, as well as how these fields intersect and influence each other. They conclude the conversation with a chat about Wissam's favorite projects...
May 17, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 2
The Khatt Chronicles podcast is back in a third season! Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès moderates a conversation between the hosts of Season 3. The discussion addressed the several topics and themes that are planned for this season. Huda begins by briefly introducing the hosts – Roshanak Keyghobadi, Yasmine Nachabe Taan, Yara Khoury Nammour, and Fawzi Rahal. The season will expand to include Iranian designers and will focus on women from the Southwest Asia and North Africa region in general. It will ...
Apr 12, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lara Balaa, Lebanese editorial designer and PhD Candidate at Rutgers School of Communication and Information. They discuss Balaa's journey into becoming a graphic designer, and her fascination with connecting graphic design to storytelling, strategy and communication. Balaa shares her experience of teaching design history, questioning how knowledge is consumed and produced, and how this has led to her interest in research and writing on design from the region. They...
Mar 08, 2024•45 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Dubai-based Lebanese graphic and type designer @laraassouad. Together they discuss her journey into type design and her other passions and side practices such as book-binding, leather accessories, and pottery. The conversation focuses on Lara's trendsetting work in developing modular Arabic scripts that go beyond type design and practical graphic design application, claiming a place in the contemporary art world. She revisits the ubiquitous applications of t...
Feb 01, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Beirut-born Lebanese graphic designer @RanaSalam, "Queen of Arab Pop", founder of Rana Salam Studio in Beirut, Lebanon. Together they unpack her journey as a designer, what inspires her, what she is passionate about, and how she translates that into a unique visual language. They also discuss her Arab Pop (Shaabi) style – defining its characteristics and aesthetics – and the importance of using graphic design as a means for presenting Arab popular culture to a div...
Jan 05, 2024•25 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews UAE-based design studio MOBIUS and its founders, graphic designers Hala Al-Ani, Hadeyeh Badri and Riem Hassan. They candidly share their backgrounds and path: a friendship that brought them together and that evolved into a solid professional relationship and design studio. The conversation unpacks the fine points on designing for the cultural sector in the UAE, the travails of teaching and working as designers, and the engagement with self-initiated projects...
Dec 01, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Egyptian comics artist and designer Mohamed Shennawy – co-founder of TokTok comics magazine and founder of Al-Fann Al-Sabi’ (the 9th Art), a comics publishing and events company. They talk about his personal journey as an artist and his migration – first to Brussels, then to Barbados – and how this is translated in his wordless graphic novels. Shennawy talks about his process and about organizing the yearly Cairo Comics Festival. He addresses the challenges of dis...
Oct 26, 2023•54 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Lebanese type designer Kristyan Sarkis and founder of TPTQ Arabic font foundry in Amsterdam. Kristyan shares his education and journey into becoming a type designer. He states: "I learned how to connect with my own cultural design heritage at the Type and Media masters program, at the Royal Academy of art in The Hague." Kristyan discusses at length his typeface design approach and his research-based and culturally-immersive pedagogical practice. The talk als...
Sep 28, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese-British researcher and designer Lina Hakim about her professional journey into research on material culture, technology, crafts and play. Lina discusses with Yasmine modes of teaching and how to empower students to define their practice as designers. They delve into Lina's book "Dia Al-Azzawi. Taking a Stand: Activism Through Graphic Design." Lina discusses how she put forward the local understanding of graphic design without imposing western definitions....
Aug 31, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Jordanian Eyen graphic design studio’s founders and designers Omar Al-Zo’bi and Yousef Abedrabbo. In this conversation Omar and Yousef candidly speak about their journey to becoming Eyen Design and their motivations and attitude towards design practice and education, particularly in Jordan. They discuss the importance of being engaged with local culture, listening to one’s collaborator, and designing with the user in mind. They explain the different ways tha...
Jul 27, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lebanese graphic designer and educator Maya Saikali about how she marries her interest in socially engaged practice and commercial design work. Maya explains since she was a design student, first in Beirut (Lebanon) and then in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), she was always interested in raising social awareness through design and believing that “design can be a tool for changing the world.” She discusses how later as practitioner she took advantage of the slow summer...
Jun 29, 2023•29 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Yasmine Nachabe Taan interviews Lebanese illustrator and animator Bahij Jaroudi about his professional journey and motivation. Bahij talks about the importance for him to draw everyday, to enjoy the process and to strive to create beautiful images. He uses his work to express his emotions and to respond to current or personal events, and finds ultimate satisfaction when his work is seen and enjoyed by others. He states: “you have to be brutally honest with your self if you want to be honest in y...
May 25, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès interviews Lebanese-French Graphic Designer Naji El Mir about his beginnings in graphic design and animation. The discussion addresses the journey from homeland to becoming a successful independent designer in diaspora. The talk explores ideas on self-teaching, exploration of different media or techniques or aesthetics, following one’s passions, and engagement with one’s community and issues of social justice. Naji’s candid and humble retelling of his visions on the wa...
Apr 27, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 2
This episode is the official launch of Season 2 of the Khatt Chronicles podcast. In this episode Afikra host, Mikey Mhanna, introduces the Khatt Chronicles hosts, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès (Founding director of the Khatt Foundation), Yasmine Nachabe Taan (professor at the Lebanese American University and Director of The Institute of Art in the Arab World), Yara Khoury Nammour )Graphic design Professor at the American University of Beirut), and Fawzi Rahal (Director of Flat6 Lab). He discuses wi...
Mar 30, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Huda AbiFarès interviews Hussein Alazaat about his passion since childhood for Arabic letters, Arab comics, and Arab graphic design. Alazaat discusses his influences: his education through his professional experiences in both Doha and Amman, prior to establishing his multi-functional studio space ElHarf House ( elharf.com ) where he hosts calligraphy and design workshops, and where his personal archive of rare printed Arabic books, magazines and ephemera are kept, that he named Khazanet El-Kutub...
Feb 16, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Huda AbiFarès interviews Farah Fayyad about her passion for and practice as screen printer at her co-founded Nice Nice Prints. She candidly tells her story about coincidentally becoming a graphic designer, staring with randomly studying design at the American University of Beirut (AUB), studying renowned local calligrapher, her professional experience with local design studios and cultural centers. She also discusses her design approach to printmaking, lettering and the intimacy of book design’s...
Jan 19, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Huda AbiFarès interviews Turbo Studio founders Mothanna Hussein and Saeed Abu-Jaber about the story behind their the founding of their studio and their cross-disciplinary skills, backgrounds, and how they marry contemporary design with local heritage in their design practice. They discuss the way they create non-elitist design that speaks to everyone, bringing nostalgic well-designed everyday object into complex visual identities such the visual identity of Amman Design week and various music gr...
Dec 15, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 10
