Style combination · Pairs well
Contemporary Arabic × International Typographic Style
Use a strict, mirrored grid and a neutral sans so Arabic and Latin columns align in rhythm and weight.
Mix them and make something Contemporary Arabic International Typographic Style
01
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 International Typographic Style
- Type from Contemporary Arabic
- Colour from International Typographic Style
- Form from International Typographic Style
- Composition from International Typographic Style
- Surface from Contemporary Arabic
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Display · Contemporary Arabic
Form
Fira Sans, standing in for Frutiger Arabic and Helvetica Arabic (Nadine Chahine)
Text · International Typographic Style
A post-war refinement of the New Typography in which the mathematical grid, objective photography and neo-grotesque sans-serifs were used to communicate with clarity and neutrality. Taught at the Basel and Zurich schools, it became the default language of international corporate and institutional communication.
Inter; International Typographic Style used Akzidenz-Grotesk and Helvetica
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Contemporary Arabic. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Contemporary Arabic & Dual-Script Type Design International Typographic Style
-
#f2f0e9ground · 36% -
#111111ink · 14% -
#e1251baccent · 18% -
#1f4e9caccent · 14% -
#0f6e6eaccent · 10% -
#7a7a7aaccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2f0e9;
--ink: #111111;
--accent-1: #e1251b;
--accent-2: #1f4e9c;
--accent-3: #0f6e6e;
--accent-4: #7a7a7a;
--font-display: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Inter", sans-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.
04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Contemporary Arabic
- Corporate Identity Modernism Pairs well · Roll a matched Arabic–Latin family through a standards manual so both scripts carry the identity with equal authority.
- Urdu Katib Lithography Contrasts · The katib's stacked Nastaʿlīq cascade is everything a screen-optimised Arabic sans gives up; quote it where warmth and history matter more than efficiency.
- Machine-Age Simplified Arabic Type Pairs well · Its digital successor: dual-script families pair Arabic with a matched Latin while keeping the firm baseline, even colour and reduced stacking that simplification made familiar. 29LT's UA Neo (2013), detached revivals of Khattar's Unified Arabic, is where the two touch.
- Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy Pairs well · Keep hand-drawn calligraphy for the mark itself and set the running text in a well-made contemporary Arabic typeface with a matched Latin companion, instead of imitating Dîvânî in body text.
- Post-Binary Typography (Bye Bye Binary and Inclusive French Type) Contrasts · Both extend a typeface's character set for a language need, but dual-script design matches two scripts for neutral, institutional legibility, while post-binary type invents new characters within one script and keeps them visible as a political statement.
- Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design Contrasts · Turkey replaced Arabic letters with Latin in 1928, and Emin Barın carried calligraphic habits into the new script; contemporary dual-script type design keeps both scripts and matches them as equals. Compare the two to show replacement against coexistence.
- Bulaq (Amiriyya) Naskh Book Printing Pairs well · Set long reading text in an Amiri-style calligraphic Naskh and use a low-contrast contemporary Arabic sans for headings, captions and screens, so each register does one job.
- Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef) Contrasts · Both set Arabic beside Latin, but that type culture matches the two scripts in font families on rational, mirrored grids, while these anthologies letter both scripts by hand, one story at a time, and mirror whole pages so that the reader turns the magazine round with the script.
With International Typographic Style
- Art Nouveau Contrasts · Ornamental curves against an orthogonal grid make a strong deliberate tension.
- Brutalist Web Design Pairs well · Strip the grid to raw HTML defaults to get a rawer, contemporary take on Swiss honesty.
- Psychedelic Poster Contrasts · Its exact opposite on legibility; borrow one swirling element to break a too-cold Swiss layout.
- Japanese Postwar Modernism Pairs well · Add Japanese restraint and emblematic colour fields to the grid for warmth without losing order.
- American Traditional Tattoo Flash Contrasts · Rational grid and sans-serif against sentimental, hand-lettered emblems: one flash motif on a Swiss layout makes a sharp contrast.
- Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Contrasts · Put a single tag or throw-up over a strict Swiss grid to stage the clash between institutional order and a street voice.
- Pop Art Graphics Contrasts · Set one loud appropriated Pop image inside a strict grid with a neutral grotesque so the irony reads as deliberate rather than chaotic.
- Italian Painted Film Poster (Rome Studios) Contrasts · Grid, restraint and photographic objectivity are the opposite of a crowded painted montage.