Arabic leads
We draw the Arabic mark first. If it only works when the Latin is added, it does not work.
01 The Studio
A studio that reads before it draws.
We founded Harf because too many Arabic brands were being dressed in Latin clothes. We wanted a studio where the Arabic letter leads and the Latin follows in step.
Harf opened on Rainbow Street in 2011 with a drawing table, a light box, and a stubborn idea: that an Arabic identity should be drawn from its own letters, not translated out of an English one. For years the brief was always the same — “make the Latin logo work in Arabic.” We flipped it. We draw the Arabic first, and let it set the rhythm the Latin has to keep.
Today we are eleven people — designers, a type designer, a strategist, and a copywriter who argues about a single letter for an afternoon and is usually right. We work slowly on purpose. An identity outlives the launch by a decade, so we would rather spend the extra week on the mark than the extra year regretting it.
Specimen № 001Ḥāʾ — the first letter of Harf
What we hold to
The letter is the unit
Get one letter right and the word follows. Get the word right and the whole system holds.
Prove it small
A mark must read at a favicon and a facade alike. We test it small before we call it done.
One book, both directions
Every guideline we write runs right-to-left and left-to-right with equal care. No afterthoughts.
A few marks along the way
- 2011
The table on Rainbow Street
Two designers, one light box, first client by month three.
- 2015
Our first custom Arabic face
Drawn for a publisher, it is still on their spines today.
- 2019
A shelf of awards
Regional recognition for a bilingual identity system.
- 2024
Eleven at the table
Same street, same standard, a larger room.
The people at the table
LK
Lina Al-Khatib
Founder · Creative Director
YH
Yousef Haddad
Type Designer
RQ
Rana Qasim
Brand Strategist
KN
Karim Nabulsi
Senior Designer
DS
Dana Suleiman
Verbal Identity · Copy
— Start an identity
Have a brand that deserves its own letter?
Tell us the word first — the mark comes after.