A custom typeface for the Louvre Abu Dhabi Part 2.

It is not often that you get the opportunity to design two typefaces for the same institution within a ten-year timeframe. Back in 2013, before the inception of TPTQ Arabic, our founding partner Kristyan Sarkis was asked to create a custom Arabic typeface for the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum. Kristyan worked with Philippe Apeloig, Hala Wardé, Jean Nouvel and their teams to develop an innovative, high contrast typeface that complemented the distinct architecture and identity of the museum. It included an uncommon feature at the time: the organic extension of the letter connections (or in Arabic Madd).
The LAD Arabic typeface designed in 2013 applied in the museum's signage showcasing the organic Madda feature.
Seven years later, when the museum decided to update their visual identity, there was a need for a new typeface, this time in Arabic and Latin. It was a full circle moment for us to be asked to develop the new typeface.
Video courtesy of Louvre Abu Dhabi
Working with Wiedemann Lampe and the LAD design & marketing team this time around, the project started with defining the relationship between the old and the new typeface as well as the one between the Arabic and Latin script.
Different pairings of construction and contrast
Multiple questions arose:
- Will the new typeface replace the previous one?
- What kind of pairing effect are we considering? What combination of Serif/Sans (Latin) and High Contrast/Low Contrast (Arabic) better represents the vision of the museum?
- Will the new Arabic typeface be a redesign of the previous one or will it be a completely new design?
Due to the success of the first typeface and the parameters of the new identity, it was ultimately decided that the new typeface would be an altogether new design for Arabic and a constructed grotesque Sans serif for Latin with the aim to complement the previous one rather than replace it.
And so, we set out to design a new typeface in Arabic and Latin in three upright cuts Display, Text Regular and Text Bold, and two italic text cuts for Latin.
While the new Arabic is seemingly completely unrelated to the previous ones, it does take some of its cues from the latter; most importantly they share similar letter widths, overall stroke width and curvature in the connections. The new typeface is also built on the same fluid structure as the previous one, however with larger, more rounded and geometric counterforms, it decidedly departs into a more constructed and less humanistic realm, in line with the new identity and its Latin counterpart.
The Latin design is a classic highly functional grotesque Sans serif. The text cuts feature a large x-height, which improve the legibility in small sizes. It is also wider, and more loosely spaced, Generously proportioned, darker, wider, typical features of typefaces intended for small sizes to improve legibility. On the other hand, the Display cut, designed for short texts and headlines, is lighter, crisper, more compact and detailed, featuring strong incisions on the stroke connections reminiscent of the influence of the calligraphic pen.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi typeface was designed by Kristyan Sarkis (Arabic) and Peter Bilak (Latin). Maha Akl assisted in the production of the Arabic counterpart. The fonts are now alive and well, and being used across all marketing and communication platforms of the museum.






Images 1–5 courtesy of Wiedemann Lampe


