HUDA SMITSHUIJZEN ABIFARÈS BRIDGES EAST AND WEST BY DESIGN / WDCD2011

‘The primary goal of creating the Khatt Foundation in 2004 was to bridge and establish dialogues between East and West through design and typography,’ Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès says. ‘As a typographer, graphic designer, researcher and writer, I work with whatever means and talent I possess to make design a meaningful and positive part of people’s lives.’

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès was born in Beirut. She was educated in graphic design at Yale University School of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. While teaching design at American educational institutes in Beirut and later Dubai, she realized that Arab designers generally looked to the West for inspiration. ‘We rarely took the time to examine and study our Arab and Islamic heritage when thinking of design. I realized then that we needed to look at our heritage, but not copy it.’

Bringing back the heritage of Islamic applied arts into contemporary design and reconnecting Arab youth to that heritage was the other reason to start the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography. The centre received plenty of attention in 2007 through its three-year Typographic Matchmaking Project that allowed Arabic and Dutch type designers to collaborate on creating five new Arabic fonts that match Latin fonts.
Smitshuijzen AbiFarès curates exhibitions, organizes collaborative design research projects and acts as editor of the Khatt website. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Leiden University while working between Europe and the Middle East as a typography and design consultant on projects of cultural relevance.