Titus Nemeth is a type designer and typographer with expertise in Arabic script culture. His internationally recognised practice spans commercial and cultural work, and his interests and activities extend to academic research and teaching in higher education. His original type designs have won multiple renowned awards and are widely used for complex cross-cultural visual communications. Titus holds a PhD in Typography & Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, UK, an MA in Typeface Design from the same institution, and a diploma in Graphic Design from Die Graphische in Vienna, Austria. He has taught type design and typography at schools in Austria, France, Morocco, Qatar and the UK. Since 2015 Titus is a member to the invited TDC non-Latin advisory board. Since 2018 he serves as the ATypI country delegate for Austria. He is a member of the ATypI, the typographische gesellschaft austria, and Design Austria.
About my work
My work is about content. Type and typography are vehicles for content, which makes my work by definition highly multidisciplinary. For me its interest derives from the continued crossing-over into other domains, whether they are history, technology, fine arts, crafts, linguistics, or teaching. This stance is reflected in my work, as I engage with all related aspects of my trade. In my view, expertise arises from the interplay and cross-fertilisation of these various elements. When I make and use type, general cultural, narrowly technical and specialised artistic skills all come together in an integrated approach to typographic design.
Awards
- Nassim typeface selected among the Best typefaces of 2011 by typographica.org.
- Nassim typeface selected by the jury of the Letter.2 competition of the ATypI, 2011.
- Aisha typeface selected for the juried ‘Type Annual 2011’ of UK design magazine Creative Review
- Aisha typeface nominated for the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2011
- ‘Certificate of Excellence in Typeface Design’ for Aisha typeface in the TDC2 2010 competition
- Nassim typeface shortlisted by the Design Museum London in the category Typography as ‘Design of the Year 2007’ and exhibited in the accompanying show
- First prize for Nassim typeface in the original typeface category in the European Design Awards 2007
- ‘Certificate of Excellence in Typeface Design’ for Nassim typeface in the TDC2 2007 competition
Publications
- Arabic Typography: History and Practice, (ed), (2023), Salenstein: niggli. ISBN 978-3-7212-1017-0.
- “Foundations of Arabic typography”, (2023) in Nemeth (ed.), Arabic Typography: History and Practice, 229–310.
- “The typography of the Nahḍah”, (2023) in Nemeth (ed.), Arabic Typography: History and Practice, 311–86.
- “Overlooked: The role of Craft in the Adoption of Typography in the Muslim Middle East”, (2022), in Reese, S. (ed.), Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition, Studies in Manuscript Cultures, 26. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110776485-002
- “On Arabic Justification”, (2020) Journal of Electronic Publishing 23, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0023.104
- “Arabic Hot Metal: The origins of the mechanisation of Arabic typography”, Philological Encounters no.3 (2018), special issue edited by Thomas Mullaney.
- Arabic Type-Making in the Machine Age: The influence of Technology on the Form of Arabic Type 1908–1993, Islamic Manuscripts and Books 14. Leiden · Boston: Brill, 2017.
- “Harmonised type design revisited”, in Dyson, M. C. & Suen, C. Y. (eds.), Digital Fonts and Reading, Series on Computer Processing of Languages, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2015.
- “A bespoke typeface for an Austrian publishing house”, in Kudrnovská, Linda (ed.), (2015), 365Type, Paris: étapes:editions
- “Lammerhuber: Schriftfamilie für einen Photographie Verlag”, in Slanted (ed.), (2015), Year Book of Type 2, Zürich: Niggli
- “Rosetta Type Foundry: The Perils of Harmonization”, in LetterSeed, 7, no. 1, (2015), 164–171
- “Simplified Arabic, a new form of Arabic Type for hot-metal composition”, in Typography Papers, no. 9, (2013), 173–189
- Middendorp, Jan, (2012) Hand to Type, Berlin: Gestalten Verlag
- “Kull ʿām wāntum biḫayr”, (2012), in TYPO 50, 20
- Heller, Steven, (2011) Typography Sketchbooks, London: Thames & Hudson
- “Design Education”, (2011), in TYPO 43
- The Type Directors Club, (2010), Typography 31, The annual of the Type Directors Club, New York: Collins Design
- “Internationally Austrian”, (2010), in TYPO 41, 84–85
- Dohmann, Antje, (2010), Hochprozentig, in PAGE 06/10, 50–55
- “Nassim”, (2010), in Philizot, Vivien (ed.), “Langage et typographie” in Livraisons, 13, 122–125
- Dohmann, Antje, (2009), Arabische Moderne, in PAGE 11/09, 54–59
- “Complex Dutch Arab Complex”, (2009), in TYPO 36, 86–93
- “Create Arabic Type”, (2009), in Computer Arts Projects 124, June 2009, 54–58
- Design Museum, (2008), Brit Insurance Designs of the Year – exhibition catalogue, London
- The Type Directors Club, (2007), Typography 28, The annual of the Type Directors Club, New York: Collins Design
- Pawlik, Andreas and Tiefenthaler, Martin (eds.), (2007), for tga, fonts / 1993–2007 / AUT /, minimal
- Dohmann, Antje, (2007), TDC² 2007, in PAGE 5/07
- ED-Awards, (2007), European Design Awards 2007, Amsterdam: BIS Publishers
- “Reading 2006”, (2007), in TYPO 24, 22–31,
- “Vienna Gender Policies”, (2006), on PAD (palermodesign.it), [offline]
Conference presentations
- September 2018 “Making some sans”, presentation at the ATypI conference, Antwerp.
- September 2016 “There is nothing Arabic about the Arabic script”, presentation at the ATypI conference, Warsaw.
- March 2016 Opening lecture for talks series on Multiscript Typography, Institut Visuelle Kommunikation, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Basel.
- July 2015 “Harmonised Type Design revisited”, presentation at the third Granshan conference, Reading, UK. Watch a recording of the talk here.
- October 2013 “Complexities and Simplifications”, presentation at the annual ATypI conference, Amsterdam
- October 2012 “Simplified Arabic”, presentation at the annual ATypI conference, Hong Kong
- September 2012 “Arabic typography – complexities and simplifications”, presentation at the New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE
- October 2011 “BBC Nassim, pioneering Arabic web typography”, presentation at the 1st Typo London conference, London, UK
- June 2010 “L’arabe maghrébin, reviving an Arabic metal typeface”, presentation at the 4th ICTVC conference, Nicosia, Cyprus
- February 2010 “Typographische Reisen”, talk given in the series “vor Ort” by typographische gesellschaft austria, Vienna, Austria
- October 2009 “L’arabe maghrébin, reviving an Arabic metal typeface”, presentation at the annual ATypI conference, Mexico City
- March 2009 “Quelques aspects de l’écriture arabe et sa representation typographique”, presentation at the École des beaux arts, Rennes, France
- October 2008 “Périples typographiques”, presentation at the École superieur d’art et de design d’Amiens, France
- September 2008 “Typeface design in Arabic”, presentation at the annual ATypI conference, St. Petersburg, Russia
Credits
This website was designed and coded by Elena Ramirez (with some input from my side). The typefaces used are my Carignan and Nassim.
This site is hosted on servers in Bielefeld, Germany, by Greensta, a Greenpeace-accredited provider of sustainable web hosting which runs on 100% renewable energy.
