Designer transforms Arabic words into illustrations to show their meaning

Egyptian graphic designer Mahmoud El Sayed recently created an Arabic typography project that is both adorable and educational.

Bending and shifting the shapes of the Arabic letters, El Sayed turns ordinary words into pictures of the words they represent. For example, the letters in the word for "cat" ("Qatt" in Arabic) form the head and tail of a cat, while the letters in "Koala" form the marsupial's ears and legs as he clings to a eucalyptus tree made from the alif letters.

"I have always been fascinated by word manipulation, so I started this project as a personal challenge," El Sayed wrote in a post on the website BoredPanda.

After trying it on a few words, he expanded the project and illustrated over 40 different Arabic words.

Calligraphy has been an art form for centuries in the Middle East, using Arabic words and verses to depict animals and nature, as representations of humans are traditionally considered to be forbidden in Islam.

Designer transforms Arabic words into illustrations to show their meaning

Source: www.albawaba.com