Whilst respecting the cultural and regional preferences, Dalton Maag translated Reith’s original design characteristics to create Qalam. The Latin and Arabic scripts complement each other offering a consistent visual experience across all of BBC News.
The language specialists led by Eiad Barazi integrated the new font into an on-screen redesign.
Today the BBC has Reith, Latin and Cyrillic characters as well as the Arabic script Reith Qalam, with more than 27 languages services adopting the fonts into their design, including 2 TV Channels and 58 bulletins and programmes across the globe.
Qalam was aptly named by Creative Director, Mitra Turani as the word loosely translates as pen, stylus or pencil which really appealed to us as designers.
Having been able to commission Qalam's development I am really proud of the teams work as the font spread across the globe.
Design Director: Paula Thompson
These works were created by –
Creative Directors: Eiad Barazi, Nick Davey, Mitra Turani, Matt Boulton.
Senior Designers: Adil Tazrouti, Alex Kessling.
Real Time Graphics Developers - Senior Software Engineers: David Hughes, Steve Mantz, Martin Ayub, Luis Gomez, Max Blaber.
and the BBC News Motion Design team
Project Managers: Emma Plant, Sevi Sariisik, Louise Smith, Louise Aslangul.