World Expo
Client: Dubai Government, UAE.
Expo typeface is a bilingual Arabic and English set of fonts created by Dino dos Santos from DSType and Pascal Zoghbi. The Latin character set is designed by dos Santos while Zoghbi designed the Arabic. It is a contemporary typeface drawn with extreme refinement in seven weights (Thin, Light, Book, Medium, SemiBold, Bold and Black) answering the corporate identity of the event. A modern-day sans serif Latin and a simplified Neo-Naskh Arabic were drawn to echo the theme of the Expo: “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”. A clear and open design approach of both scripts lends the fonts a feel of vibrancy and openness that speaks well to the anticipated 25 million cultural, business and corporate visitors to the event as well as the hundreds of businesses participating in the Expo.
The world Expo in Dubai aims to gather the global community in order to forge new partnerships and find solutions for cultural and business topics, ultimately leaving behind a strong transformative social and economic legacy across the Arab region and the world. The echoing design of both the Latin and the Arabic letter-forms aims to reflect this global partnership.
It is a type family created with maximum legibility and ease of usability mindset. The letterforms were drawn in a certain composition representing neutrality while retaining its connection to calligraphy. It is a humanistic typeface in searching for the essence of the Arabic and Latin typographic structures.
A number of elements bring both Arabic and Latin scripts together: the design approach, open counters, proportions, terminals and finials, weight and contrast. Both scripts were created in synergy and were inspired by each other simultaneously. Both dos Santos and Zoghbi didn’t want to sacrifice the value or aesthetics of one script to the other, hence they approached the same design brief of an adequate typeface from the different aspects of the Arabic and Latin scripts.

















