Jordan’s self-taught calligraphers engaged each other in contests to see “who could write the most beautifully,” Mr. The finishing touch was the signature, a specially designed logo to tell the world – and rival calligraphers – this was their work. A cafe or carbonated beverage? Calligraphers would splurge with curves, loops, and bubble lettering with extra shading to give the Arabic words an added 3D pop. Tabbal and his fellow calligraphers? The design.ĭoctors’ and lawyers’ offices were given a simple, no-nonsense black-on-white Naskh script a mosque would get a delicate, curvy Farsi script. His process for producing signs takes 10 to 15 days, starting with a coat of primer on a metal sheet, then a second coat of synthetic paint before painting the text, drying it again, and encasing the sign in a protective sheet of glass. Tabbal boasts a career including writing Royal Court letters and designing the logo for Royal Jordanian, the kingdom’s flagship airlines, which still adorns aircraft today. Others were painted by Palestinian calligraphers from Jerusalem, carried by store owners when they were pushed into Jordan following the 19 wars with Israel, and eventually hung on their new shops, and new beginnings, in Amman. One bold grocery shop billed itself as “The King’s Store,” advertising its royal certification by King Abdullah I as “By appointment to His Hashemite Majesty THE KING.” Other signs read “doctor is present,” from a time when receptionists were scarce. They feature words that have disappeared from the Jordanian lexicon, including: nouveaut to mean new clothes, mobiliat for furniture, and couponat, unique sets of cloth sold by textile stores to customers wanting a bespoke suit no one could copy. The signs are also historical records, freeze frames of a lost Jordan.
Khattab tells visitors one Tuesday morning as he traces his first vintage sign with Sarsour, family name of the owners of a famous Amman garment shop, written in futuristic, blocky red-and-black letters. “Each sign is a one-of-a-kind you can see where the brushstroke started and stopped, where the brush was active, where it slowed, and where the understudy stepped in to finish the job,” Mr.
While vintage signs in the West were often produced in runs of 300 or more, Amman signs were custom-designed and painted by hand like ink-blotted snowflakes, no two signs were alike. Khattab to study graphic art in Germany, open a modern sign press in Amman, and collect the vintage signs he now displays. Calligrapher Riad Tabbal, one of Jordan's last "khattat" artists, demonstrates his steady hand and decades of calligraphy skills in his home office in Amman, Jordan, Jan.
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