The typography industry is a USD 13 Million industry where illegal downloads and usage of fonts deprive typographers of valuable income. One of them is a legendary Arabic Typographer, Ibrahim Hamdi, who is now diagnosed with Keratoconus and is rapidly losing his eyesight. While his fonts have been downloaded by many, he's never received any of the profits, which could have been pivotal for his eye surgery.

We designed 'Zael', the Disappearing. A font that loses clarity as its creator loses his eyesight.

To make the design community realize the impact of their illegal downloads.

In the Arab world, there are only a handful of Arabic Typographers. And Ibrahim Hamdi is one of the greatest. He has been commissioned by global entities like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, Lays Arabia, etc. Today, as he is losing his eyesight, it became increasingly important to open the industry's eyes to the problem of illegal downloads and help typographers like Ibrahim get their rightful income.

In the typography industry, downloading illegal Arabic fonts results in millions of dollars of losses.

A painful reality for typographers like Ibrahim, who also happens to be losing his eyesight due to a condition called Keratoconus. Preventing him from contributing to the craft he loves and accessing the medical treatment he deserves.

Millions of downloads

None of the profits

One fading hope

Protype (protype.studio), an independent type foundry, wanted to bring this issue to the industry and help typographers get the rightful income they deserve. With a small budget, we were tasked to get the entire industry's attention.

We created 'ZAEL, the disappearing'. A font that loses clarity as its creator loses his eyesight.

Working with Ibrahim’s ophthalmologist, we analyzed his condition and designed the entire Zael type family. Every Haraf, Tashqeeleh, Noqta and Kashida perfectly crafted.

Our audience, designers, art directors, agencies and brands, download free fonts from these websites, without realizing that they are depriving typographers of their rightful income.

So when they started illegally downloading Zael and using the font, we sent them updates that degraded the fonts, depicting the declining stages of Ibrahim's eyesight. We used the font update file to bundle a powerful direct message from Ibrahim, educating everyone on the consequences of their illegal downloads.

The typography designed for this project came to life in 2 parts.

First, the design of the font Zael. Working with Ibrahim's Opthalmologist,

we first understood the declining stages of his eyesight. And based on that

we created the entire Zael type family. Every Haraf, Tashqeeleh, Noqta

and Kashida perfectly crafted. And then we created several versions of it,

degrading it and making it unreadable at different levels.

The second part was to code each degraded version of the font

into the font update which was then sent to those who downloaded the font illegally.

So with each update, font users witnessed the declining stages of Ibrahim's eyesight.

The worse his eyesight, the more degraded the font became.

We used the font file to bundle a powerful direct message from Ibrahim,

educating everyone on the consequences of their illegal downloads.

Zael sparked a dialogue in the design community.

Even the region’s top design universities echoed and supported our message.

As illegal downloads of Zael began to drop, licensed downloads soared.

Zael started to spread and real hope started to appear, showing increased licensed

downloads across his entire catalog of existing fonts.

Industry leaders like Adobe, Monotype and Fontstand

are now integrating protocols to protect typographers like Ibrahim,

What started as a typeface telling a single story grew into the face of a changing industry.