Hussein Alazaat in conversation with Huda AbiFarès [Khatt Chronicles]

Huda AbiFarès interviews Hussein Alazaat about his passion since childhood for Arabic letters, Arab comics, and Arab graphic design. Alazaat discusses his influences: his education through his professional experiences in both Doha and Amman, prior to establishing his multi-functional studio space ElHarf House (elharf.com) where he hosts calligraphy and design workshops, and where his personal archive of rare printed Arabic books, magazines and ephemera are kept, that he named Khazanet El-Kutub el-Jamila / The Beautiful Books Trove (khazanet.org). Alazaat discusses his project Wajha (Wajha.org), a social design initiative he founded with his friend Ali Masri, that offers local shops in Jordan and other Arab countries, free visual identity and hand-painted shopfront signs as means to bring pride and beauty to less well to do neighborhoods. He also discusses his project related to old Jordanian/Arabian scripts and coins, and the importance of connecting old cultural heritage and visual culture of the 70s and 80s to contemporary graphic design.

About Khatt Chronicles

Khatt Chronicles, in collaboration with afikra, features remarkable designers, illustrators, and researchers from the Arab World, in engaging conversations about their practice, vision, and aspirations. A podcast series that chronicles and introduces the latest explorations in Arab visual communication and material culture.