The network of institutions and individuals from the Middle East and North Africa that makes up the Modern Heritage Observatory represents a collective effort to preserve the region’s modern cultural heritage—an effort initiated by the Arab Image Foundation, the Cinémathèque de Tanger, IRAB Association for Arabic Music, and the Arab Center for Architecture. The consortium’s visual language begins with a mark that reflects convergence, conciliation and collaboration, and develops into a contemporary bilingual identity with just the right amount of recognition elements – a multi-hued yet restrained color scheme and a careful selection of typefaces – leaving plenty of room for the many shapes modern Arab culture can take.
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MoHO-Logo
In addition to the clear focus on the acronym as a concise memorable name with a particular capitalization (Mo for Modern), this bilingual mark configures the two languages where, even when flowing upwards, the Arabic reading is mainly driven by its natural right-to-left direction.
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MoHO-Observer 01
MoHo’s publication on documentary and archiving projects by the network members gets separate Arabic and English versions; each of the covers receives a language-appropriate compositional arrangement, retaining the concept of “peeking through the observer” while avoiding language adaptation mimicry.
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MoHO-Observer 02
An Arab modern heritage record
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MoHO-Observer 03
A simple contents page introduces the extended color scheme to code the different sections of the publication.
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MoHO-Observer 04
The same simple layout structure is adopted for both the Arabic and English versions of the publication, with photographically illustrated essays, archival reproductions and bold section breaks.
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MoHO-Observer 05
The color gamut is put to further use in the publication, assisting in distinguishing text elements and introducing emphasis.
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MoHO-Observer 06
Drawing from projects across the region, one section of the publication constructs a timeline of archival artifacts going back to the early 1900s.
