This is an unfinished, unpublished lettering job for the Kunsthalle (Mucsarnok) in Budapest, Hungary.
Iranian-born visual artist Shirin Neshat, who lives in the United States since 1974, gained worldwide renown beginning with her photographic work and video installations, which reflect on the social structures of the Islamic world, and the situation of women in Iran. Some of these works will be on display at the Kunsthalle this year and I was asked whether I could come up with an idea for the lettering of the titles.
The concept I came up with was—based on the cultural background of the artist and the initial preference of the museum—to create a workable mix of Arabic calligraphy and Sans typefaces.
A sample showing features of the lettering concept such as the fixed x-height and free-flowing baseline, slightly different vertical angles to convey motion, connecting letterforms and terminal swashes. Note also the lack of letter-cases.
I used Glyphs to create and test weight and width variations of the lettering—actually a type design with restricted glyph set—quickly and easily.
The artist's name rendered in this style.
The title of one of the artist's video installation—Rapture—in English.
The title of one of the artist's video installation—Elragadtatás—in Hungarian.
The title of one of the artist's video installation—Zanin—in English.
The logotype in vertically stacked format and an ornate version.
Mock-up of a billboard featuring the logotype.
Mock-up showing the Kunsthalle with a billboard featuring the logotype.
It is not a finished project by any means—wacky spacing and imperfect curves just to mention a few things which would have been amended had it been published—still I was having a good time whist working on it.
Thanks for viewing!
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