Freedom Of Creation has launched the production and distribution of the world's first 3D font and made one further step towards its dream of totally customized industrial production available to a global public. Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin are the two versions of the three-dimensional font, developed by Yara Khoury and Melle Hammer in collaboration with FOC and upon invitation by the Khatt foundation for Arabic typography and design research.
A Milestone
With the innovative Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin 3D fonts, the customer can type his personal text, word or acronym on the computer and order his sculptural text directly from the 3D printers of Freedom Of Creation. This means 100% customization: the very first opportunity to have a standardized basis product personalized to every single one's needs, fabricated just in time in an industrial way and distributed all over the world. The rapid manufacturing dream is becoming reality and Freedom Of Creation once more is the pioneer.
Kashida 3D font
Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin font have been developed by Yara Khoury and Melle Hammer on invitation by the Khatt foundation, an Amsterdam based Center for Arabic Typography aiming at building cultural bridges and advancing design in the Middle East and North Africa.
The font is based on the concept of a thin and wide ribbon, bending freely through space. Just from one perspective the text reproduced by the ribbon can be read. All other points of view just offer suggestive visions of a banner floating in the air and bending on the ground in order to create a visually dynamic sculpture.
For more high res images, check our Flickr Press account here.
Cultural content
The new Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin 3D fonts transform the characteristics of the Arabic and Latin letterforms and invert them. The sloping Arabic letterforms become straight and strict and vice versa, generating a fusion of the two cultural backgrounds. This is enhanced by the fact that in 3D typewriting the result is non directional: neither from left, like Latin writing, neither from right, like Arab writing. It is just about space … and the two writings can meet in the middle.
The FOC expertise
Materializing the Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin 3D fonts as a sculptural object in traditional ways, like bending metal ribbons or similar, would have been artisan work and undergone the influences of the skills of every single craftsman. Choosing the FOC expertise in 3D printing is the will to make the 3D font available at standardized aesthetic and material quality to everybody thanks to rationalizing the production. Letters just will be typed on a computer, which will do the rest about connecting them in a fluid way. After having calculated in order to transform them into a single CAD file, the additive layer manufacturing process can start, the polyamide shape can materialize.
Where to buy
Kashida-arabic and Kashida-latin 3D fonts are available online at www.freedomofcreation.com. Realizing a sculptural brand name, a personalized jewel a particular nameplate and many more is just a few clicks away.
Freedom Of Creation believes in a future where data is the design product, and where products are distributed in the same way images and music travel through the internet today. FOC visions a future where storage is virtual, and the materials used for creating tangible products can be recycled and reused for any future creation people's hearts desire. FOC's work has something revolutionary, its products and services are part of a new movement that is changing the world. The journey of FOC started in 2000 with creating products for interior design. The company has come a long way and is now spreading the Freedom Of Creation message to a vast selection of clients in all areas of product development all around the globe.
About Khatt foundation - www.khtt.net
The Khatt Foundation is a cultural foundation dedicated to advancing Arabic typography and design research in the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas. Building cross-cultural creative networks is an important instrument for this end.
The Khatt Foundation has developed a network of design specialists working on research projects and programs focused on contemporary design in the Arab World and Middle East. It aims to raise awareness of the vital role design can play in building a sustainable environment through conferences, forums and publications. It strives to stimulate design and production of socially relevant products and artifacts, to the highest professional standards.
Founded in 2004 in Amsterdam, the Khatt Foundation has established itself as a platform for launching innovative design projects that address needs in the region. In partnership with established institutions, it has turned the results of these projects into viable products. The Khatt Foundation has organized a number of successful events and established an online creative network (www.khtt.net) dedicated to excellence in design research and typography from the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas, which serves the foundation's educational objectives and provides information about various resources, projects, news and events to do with design and the visual arts in the Arab World and Middle East.