Style combination · Pairs well

Arabic Calligraffiti × Islamic Geometric

Run a strict geometric band or tiling behind freely written letters, as Zepha sets Arabic script among geometric shapes, so the piece answers its classical source.

From the research on Arabic Calligraffiti

Mix them and make something Arabic Calligraffiti Islamic Geometric

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Islamic Geometric, their arrangement from Islamic Geometric, the finish from Arabic Calligraffiti. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Arabic Calligraffiti Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition

Type from Arabic Calligraffiti: Brush & pen calligraphy
Type as image
Colour from Arabic Calligraffiti: Full polychrome
Monochrome
Form from Islamic Geometric: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation
Composition from Islamic Geometric: All-over field
Central symmetry
Surface from Arabic Calligraffiti: Painterly brushwork
Hard offset shadow

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Arabic Calligraffiti

Halo

Rakkas, standing in for Freehand Arabic script sprayed or painted rather than written with a reed pen, after calligraphy but without its rules or a uniform hand (as the Museum für Islamische Kunst describes eL Seed's work)

Text · Islamic Geometric

A visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery. Star-and-polygon tilings repeat across whole surfaces as if continuing beyond the frame, while Kufic, Thuluth and Naskh inscriptions give hierarchy to buildings, manuscripts and objects.

Reem Kufi; Islamic Geometric used Kufic and Thuluth

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Arabic Calligraffiti, with a counter-accent from Islamic Geometric. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Arabic Calligraffiti Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition

#f7f5f0 ground · 36%
#151515 ink · 14%
#f07f1e accent · 18%
#c8a046 accent · 14%
#f6c32b accent · 10%
#a63d2f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f7f5f0;
  --ink: #151515;
  --accent-1: #f07f1e;
  --accent-2: #c8a046;
  --accent-3: #f6c32b;
  --accent-4: #a63d2f;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Arabic Calligraffiti: Many works carry Qur'anic verses, the names of God or devotional sayings, written on mosques and in religious communities: never use such text as texture or put it on floors, footwear or throwaway items, and have every Arabic or Persian word read and approved by a fluent reader before it is painted or printed. The style stretches and interlaces letters, so put a Qur'anic verse or a name of God into it only when a skilled Arabic-script writer composes it and the mosque or community approves it, as at the Jara Mosque; never digitally warp, crop or mirror existing sacred text. Never fill a design with invented pseudo-Arabic, which image models readily produce; do not ask an image model for eL Seed's Liquid Alphabet or any named writer's hand, and never present a generated wall as their work. The best-known walls rest on the consent of governors, imams, priests and residents, so get the owner's permission (spraying without it is a crime in most places), work with the people of the place, and commission and credit Arabic-script writers rather than faking the script for a brand.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition: Qur'anic verses, the names of God and the Prophet and other sacred phrases must not be cropped, distorted, mirrored, used as texture or printed on floors, footwear or throwaway packaging; have any Arabic-script text read and approved by a fluent reader or calligrapher. Abstract geometric pattern is far less sensitive than script, but credit the traditions and makers it comes from.