The Importance of Graphic Design in the Middle East

Could Good Type Design Promote Literacy In The Middle East?

This article discusses how the industries of graphic design and type design have a huge impact on the way Arabic is read. In this particular article, the writer discusses how one type designer has used her skills to try and improve literacy rates in the Middle East. Nadine Chahine is a Lebanese type designer who used an eye-tracking machine to follow the eye movements of people reading Arabic. She had the different people reading three different “styles” of Arabic: Naskh, Traditional and Simplified. Each one is slightly different in the way that the letters can be represented and whether vowels are used or not. Her study found that what was important was the message and it’s context. For instance a traffic sign that needed to be read quickly should use the simplified version so people can read faster. Overall, in the article Chahine says that it is important for a designer to understand the audience and purpose of a piece of literature. The usage of design and understanding literacy in the Middle East seemed to be interconnected issues. Both topics can have a large impact on the other. Chahine highlights this point in the article: “What we need to do is collect design, education, and literacy and look at them as one subject… We need to present material in a way that is visually enticing and encourage people to read to their kids before they go to school and transition into literary Arabic.”  Both parts of this quote show the importance of designing, education and literacy in a country where the literacy rate is very low. It is important for designers, not just in the Middle East, to realize that their job is far bigger than designing. Chahine illustrates this by saying: “We need to acknowledge how designers influence culture and environment…It’s not enough to design logos and books. This is a talent, to be able to communicate to the masses.”
As a graphic design major, I found this article to be interesting because it is sometimes easy to get wrapped up in the way we design. It is important for designers to understand how the audience will read the piece we are designing. If the reader cannot understand or read what we are trying to portray to them, then our design is not effective. This article is a prime example of why designing is so influential.