Cultural Connectives: Bridging the Latin and Arabic Alphabets

Review of the book 'Cultural Connectives: Bridging the Latin and Arabic Alphabets' by Rana Abou Rjeily (New York: Mark Batty Publisher, 2011). 112pp. The Lebanese graphic designer Rana Abou Rjeily uses her book as a platform to showcase her innovative new typeface 'Mirsaal', which strives to close cultural gaps through simplifying language. By attempting to reduce the graphic differences between Arabic letters and their Latin counterparts through Mirsaal, Abou Rjeily challenges the Arabic language's traditional visual conventions with the hope of facilitating its comprehension amongst non-speakers. Mirsaal defies the standard rules of Arabic writing for the sake of easing cross-cultural communication and streamlining technological interface, and breaks with the cursive quality of Arabic lettering via the detached nature of its characters. Review notes that the question of whether the methods used in the book succeed in providing a better understanding of the Arabic alphabet depends on each reader's experience. (Quotes from original text)