Style combination · Pairs well

Contemporary Arabic × Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

Its dual-script matchmaking methods fit the Cyrillic and bichig signboards and documents Mongolia's state bodies are moving to: match weight and colour across a horizontal and a vertical script.

From the research on Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament

Mix them and make something Contemporary Arabic Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, their arrangement from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, the finish from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy. 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.

Contemporary Arabic & Dual-Script Type Design Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament

Type from Contemporary Arabic: Humanist sans
Grotesque & neo-grotesque
Colour from Contemporary Arabic: Monochrome
Limited spot colours
Form from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Folk & sacred symbols
Emblems & badges
Composition from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Central symmetry
Column grid
Surface from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Flat

The type

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

Display · Contemporary Arabic

Public

Fira Sans, standing in for Frutiger Arabic and Helvetica Arabic (Nadine Chahine)

Text · Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

Mongolia's classical script and the auspicious ornament that frames it on state, Buddhist and household objects. Mongol bichig is an alphabet written in vertical columns that advance left to right, its letters joined down one continuous spine, and condensed into 'folded' forms for seals, emblems, coins and stamps. Around it curl ugalz, horn scrolls mirrored on a central axis, with auspicious signs (five-eyes roundel, endless knot, wishing jewel, lotus) and the Soyombo, in symmetric roundels and borders of flat blue, red, yellow, white and black.

Shippori Mincho; Mongol Bichig Calligraphy used Classical Mongolian (Uyghur-Mongolian) script, ninety letter forms joined vertically by continuous strokes, written with a reed pen until the 18th century and with the brush after it and 'Folded' condensed forms of the script, drawn to fill emblems, logos, coins and stamps, as in the 'Mongol Uls' of the State Seal

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Contemporary Arabic, with a counter-accent from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Contemporary Arabic & Dual-Script Type Design Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament

#f7f6f2 ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#c1272d accent · 18%
#e0a526 accent · 14%
#0f6e6e accent · 10%
#8c8c8c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f7f6f2;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #c1272d;
  --accent-2: #e0a526;
  --accent-3: #0f6e6e;
  --accent-4: #8c8c8c;
  --font-display: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Contemporary Arabic & Dual-Script Type Design: Arabic must be set with correct contextual shaping and right-to-left direction; disconnected or reversed letters are a common and offensive error. Have every Arabic word checked by a fluent reader, avoid setting Qur'anic verses or the names of God and the Prophet as decorative texture, and commission or credit Arabic type designers rather than deriving Arabic glyphs from a Latin font.

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament: Mongol bichig is the living script of Mongols in Mongolia and in Inner Mongolia, where in 2020 China moved three school subjects in Mongolian-medium schools into Mandarin, met by protests and school boycotts; UNESCO lists Mongolian calligraphy as heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, and at inscription in 2013 only three scholars were training just over twenty young calligraphers. Have every word written or checked by a fluent reader or calligrapher: letters change shape by position, so pseudo-script, mirrored text, text rotated the wrong way and letters broken up as texture read as nonsense. The Soyombo is a state symbol on the flag and emblem, and Mongolia regulates the use of its state symbols by law (Constitution, Article 12(7)): the Law on State Symbols (1994) forbids disparaging them and imitating the State Seal. The endless knot, wishing jewel and lotus are Buddhist auspicious signs; keep them and the state symbols out of trivial or demeaning uses. The khas (swastika) is an old Mongolian sign of good fortune but reads as the Nazi swastika to many audiences, so avoid it outside a context that explains it, and commission or credit Mongolian calligraphers and craftspeople rather than tracing their work.