Arabic Calligraphy
I recently got a very cool piece of art. So that's what this post is about.
First things first, here it is framed and hanging on my wall:
The design is Arabic calligraphy of the word al-Hurriyah (الحرية), meaning "freedom" or "liberty". The artist is Everitte Barbee—I ordered it from his Etsy store.
One thing I really like about this piece is that the same word is written over and over inside the shape of the big letters. It gives it a kind of fractal nature.
I find Arabic calligraphy in general to be very interesting. A lot of artistic license can be taken with the shapes of the letters, while keeping the overall topology (e.g. loops, dots, and connectivity to other letters) correct—giving the artist lots of flexibility.
Logos for companies and events in the Middle East often have cool calligraphic designs. For example, this one is from an event in Sharjah earlier this year (the non-calligraphic Arabic name and English translation are under the logo, for comparison):
Another well-known example is the logo for Emirates (الأمارات) airline: