Linotype's Arabic Type Design Competition Deadline is Extended to November 11, 2005

Due to public demand, the deadline for receiving applications to the Arabic Type Design Competition has been extended to November 11, 2005.
Linotype Library has the pleasure to invite designers and calligraphers from around the world to take part in its first Arabic Type Design Competition. The competition is the first of its kind in recent years and is a response to the growing publishing demands in the Arab world. Recent developments in font technology have opened new doors for Arabic typography and have eased out the process of developing a complex script like Arabic. Now that technical limitations have been conquered, the remaining challenge is to seek out a new vision of Arabic typography that is free from past limitations, and is in direct contact with the everyday life and usage of the Arabic script. The competition aims to encourage and support the development of Arabic typography and to detect and publish new and original trends in Arabic type design.
To these ends, the type design competition offers the winners attractive prizes as well as the chance to gain worldwide popularity through Linotype Library’s marketing activities. Clear and fair license agreements are the basis for this relationship. Linotype contests are internationally renowned and offer type designers an excellent opportunity to attract attention to their work.
The winners will be announced in the Award ceremony in the upcoming Kitabat: Arabic Calligraphy and Typography Conference in Dubai in April 2006 and the winning entries will be displayed in a special exhibit.
The jury is made up of renowned calligraphers, type designers, and academics who have each offered a great contribution to the development of Arabic typography. They are Samir Sayegh (Lebanon), Fiona Ross (UK), Mamoun Sakkal (Syria/USA), Kris Holmes (USA), and Huda Abi Fares Smitshuijzen (Lebanon/Netherlands). Also participating as an honorary guest juror is the master calligrapher and type designer Hermann Zapf.
The competition has 3 categories: text, display, and calligraphic. The text category is reserved for text faces, the display category for designs intended for larger sizes, and the calligraphic category is intended for designs based on calligraphic models or any undigitised work.
Sponsors for Linotype’s first Arabic Type Design Competition are Winsoft S.A. and the UAE-based calligraphy magazine, Hurouf Arabia.
For details about the submission of typefaces and for further details please contact +49 (0) 6172 484 2460 or by mail to [email protected]
More information is available at the website at www.linotype.com/contest
Linotype Library GmbH, based in Bad Homburg, Germany and a member of the Heidelberg Group, looks back onto a history of 119 years. Building on its strong heritage, Linotype Library develops state-of-the-art font technology and offers more than 6,000 original fonts, covering the whole typographic spectrum from antique to modern, from east to west, and from classical to experimental. All typefaces (in PostScriptâ„¢ and TrueTypeâ„¢ format as well as 2,300 fonts in OpenTypeâ„¢ for Mac and Windows) are now also available for instant download at www.linotype.com. In addition to supplying digital fonts, Linotype Library also offers comprehensive and individual consultation and support services for font applications in worldwide (corporate) communication.

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