Highlights

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  Abdo Mohamad

  Abdo Mohamad is an Egyptian designer and founder of the type studio Boharat Cairo. He is focused on revitalizing Arabic calligraphic heritage, a theme common among many current day Arabic type designers. Mohamad takes inspiration from the studio's location in Cairo, using antique signage and type found in situ. As Mohamad says, “Every street has great lettering in shop signs, walls, car stickers, houses’ doors”.

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  Mahmoud El Hossieny

  Mahmoud El Hossieny is an Egyptian designer also working on creating new, sleek Arabic typefaces. According to Scene Arabia, El Hossieny “recently contributed to the flourishing world of digitized Arabic lettering and calligraphy with a series of uniquely crafted designs of Arabic words, phrases and idioms rooted in Egyptian culture”. El Hossieny also draws inspiration from old movie posters with Arabic lettering, reimagining them in digital format.

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  Mohamed Gaber

  Egyptian designer Mohamed Gaber focuses on interdisciplinary work, doing everything from fine arts to footwear design (and everything in between). In an interview with the Design Repository, Gaber states that he wants to help redefine graphic designs’ conventions coming from the Northern part of the globe and encourages designers from the Southern hemisphere to explore a different set of design principles.

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  Naguib Hawawini

  Naguib Hawawini was a 20th-century calligrapher under King Ahmad Fouad I of Egypt. Hawawini was the calligrapher of the Royal Court, therefore his work was highly regarded as a standard for calligraphy during the time, and many other future calligraphers studied under him.

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  Amy Nimr

  Amy Nimr was another Egyptian artist alive during the late 1800s/early 1900s, working primarily in painting and drawing. She was born in Cairo, but received a fine arts education at Cheltenham Ladies’ College and later the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Her work was shown in the official Salon du Caire in Egypt in the early 1930s, which played a large role in increasing her notoriety of the time.

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  Dara Hassanein

  Dara Hassanein is an Egyptian designer, illustrator, and founder of RebelCairo. She describes the brand’s ethos as “making clothes that people would like to wear and makes them feel good”. She founded RebelCairo in 2019 as a space for designers looking to work outside the typical design conventions. Hassanein speaks to the brand's name ‘rebel’ as being a mindset, rather than an aesthetic.