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Tarkeez Series

Font Design, Specimen Series

Booklet 5 x 7”
Posters 18 x 24"
Judgement 19 x 21 x 5”
Bronze prototypes collectively 1.25 x 0.25 x 0.25”

September 2025 - Present.

Tarkeez is a sleek, modern typeface that prioritizes legibility and translation into letterpress sorts. It was created as a reaction to the struggle of integrating Arabic into early letterpress systems. This series takes part in the reintegration of Arabic type to analog printing. By utilizing the typeface in sculpture, it also works to explore natural material as a means of font classification.

This project started as a self-lead experimentation and ended up expanding alongside my creative practice. The Tarkeez series currently encompasses one 7-page type specimen booklet, two posters, five prototype sorts, and a multimedia sculpture titled Judgement.

Judgement was inspired by the physical presence of my bronze prototypes. I wanted to explore other ways I can create font instances in the third dimension. The foundation is CNC milled from cherry wood, with interchangeable parts made from ceramic, plaster, oster bronze, and PLA filament. All components of Judgement are standalone phrases or letters that can be rearranged to create new words, in turn creating font instances dependent on factors of craft (material, surface texture, hardness) rather than weight or point size.

Aya Bazzi