Redesigning popular English logos into Arabic logos
I chose two known logos: Kodak, and Boeing.
The challenge was to accurately re-design the logo into another language, which in this case it is Arabic, a difficult alphabet to use when designing a foreign logo that has to follow a specific style and enunciations.
Observation for Boeing:
- The typeface that is used by Boeing is a special typeface that was created & copyrighted by Boeing, a sans-serif font with an angle of 233.13° and slanted to the right.
- The typeface that is used by Boeing is a special typeface that was created & copyrighted by Boeing, a sans-serif font with an angle of 233.13° and slanted to the right.
- In some of the letters, the strokes differentiates (example, the vertical lines of the N are thinner than its diagonal line in the middle, and the teeth of the E are thinner than the vertical strokes.)
- Doing the letters in Arabic the same width and size as the Latin letters was not preferred due to the nature of Arabic letters connecting, the “ب” connected would have been elongated to the same size as its Latin letter, which proved not so nice visually. As for tracking, they’re not similar but with not much of a change, just made them a tiny bit wider so the Arabic is a bit more legible and not so tight visually.
- The “غ” in Arabic took most of the work time, with different tries of the letter’s nature. When the “غ” is connected, it loops, but when it’s stand alone, it resembles a backwards 3. Tested both ideas and landed on the open “غ” for a more interesting visual.
Observation for Kodak:
- The Kodak logo has many redesigns as years pass, the one used here is the 1987 design. After many serif logos, the company tries another approach with sans-serif for the name, which simplified the design.
- It was given a modern look and feel to it. On my personal observation, I noticed they kept a serif like shape on the letter A and it was not given to any of the other letters, which I found interesting.
- With my redesign, I was highly inspired from the Kufic script to use its spirit and elements onto the Arabic re-design of the logo.
- I’ve played around with different options, mostly for the “و” and “د”. I wanted to give reference to the serif in the A in Latin and put it onto the “ا” (alef) in Arabic. The “ك” at the beginning was also referenced from the capital K in Latin.
