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.

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

A website was created to serve as the project’s portal. Users can download the typefaces for free and learn more about the project’s purpose as well as its cultural and artistic significance.

To promote the website, a series of posters were designed and distributed all around Downtown, and displayed in cafes, restaurants, bookshops, etc.

As well, a street exhibition was held in one of the oldest theaters in Downtown, Cinema Radio, displaying the series of posters. The exhibition was attended by designers, artists and art influencers as well as online media outlets who covered the experience and promoted the website over the social media.

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.