While Al Ismaelia continue their restoration of several buildings in the neighbourhood, a response to the onslaught of plexiglass-mounted, LED-lit signs obscuring some of the most beautiful architecture in the city, was launched.

Khotoot West El Balad is a typographic celebration of the ubiquitous Downtown Cairo shop sign. It is an initiative aimed at preserving the typographical heritage of the hand-painted calligraphy which many are remembered for.

To keep this heritage alive, we turned the handmade craft to digital craft by creating a series of typefaces

6 Arabic typefaces have been designed, drawing inspiration from original Downtown Cairo shop signs. Every typeface is free to download on the website for all personal and commercial use, providing Arab designers over the chance to express themselves with them.

The idea was executed with the deployment of a team with diverse specializations- Design professors and professionals, design students, typography specialists and branding, with the aim of spending time in main and narrow streets of Downtown researching and documenting the historical, cultural and artistic significance of the different signage in the area.

The above process resulted in a wealth of signage,typefaces and the stories behind them which served as the inspiration to creating the 6 typefaces.

The fonts were then offered for free on the website as a way to give back to the artists/designers community who were constantly in search for inspirational fonts drawn from their own culture and language.

Downtown fonts project falls at the core of what Al-Ismaelia is about; the restoration and preservation of the neighborhood and its revival in contemporary times.

Upon launch, artists and designers produced art pieces by drawing inspiration from the six fonts.

The project inspired musicians, jewelry designers, foreign artists as well as local press.

Massar Egbari, a well known band in Egypt has used the font for their album cover "Chirophobia". Moreover, during one of their concerts at the German university of Cairo, the band projected in the backdrop designs using the font.

Jewelry designers such as Dido Embaby, Noha Abbasi and El Agaty (one of the oldest silver jewelers) have also used the fonts to design limited edition pieces for their collections. Dido is currently working on a full product line inspired by "Khotout West El Balad".

The Shorook newspapers, a daily newspaper in Egypt with a wide reach used the fonts for one of their headlines to celebrate the project in one of their editions.

Khotoot West El Balad is an initiative aimed at preserving the typographical heritage of the hand-painted calligraphy which many are remembered for.

To keep this heritage alive, we turned the handmade craft to digital craft by creating a series of typefaces.

Each and every typeface is inspired by an iconic neighborhood shop sign, & named after an element of Downtown Cairo culture.

Every typeface is free for any and all personal and commercial use.

To advertise the typefaces, a series of vintage-styled posters were created, celebrating the iconic landmarks which inspired them.

The idea was executed with the deployment of a team with diverse specializations – research, typography specialists, branding and advertising, with the aim of spending time in main and narrow streets of Downtown researching and documenting all the different signage in the area.

From shops signs, to cafes, restaurants and bars, to lawyers and accountants offices, to theaters, all serve as canvases for many fonts and type faces that could be looked at as a documentation of history, culture or art, or all of the above.

This project recreates these fonts in a contemporary setting, develop them into complete alphabet and makes them available for free to be used by today’s artists, businesses and retailers through a micro-site. A book was also developed to document the whole project - Research, design process and outcome.

Al Ismaelia for real estate investment is focused on the restoration of old buildings in the Downtown area to their former glory in terms of architecture, while equipping them to today’s needs.

The interest of Al Ismaelia in Downtown does not stop at the buildings they acquire, but rather to its historic, cultural and artistic values.

We are looking to launch a project that would shed the light on the cultural and artistic side of Downtown.

The key objectives of this project is to attract the right type of crowd and reflect the company’s passion and interest in the area beyond its buildings.