Zizi Nassour was an incredible woman who fled political upheaval in 1960’s Egypt. 

She had to pretend her family was going on vacation to the United States. And make her three young kids pack one single bag before saying goodbye to their friends and home forever.

This custom lettering of her name reads in English (left to right) and Arabic (right to left). It aims to fuse the typographic landscape of Egypt and Los Angeles where she would spend the rest of her days raising my father.

All latin based type is set in Sunset Gothic which is modeled after the uniquely Californian '60s hand lettering style of John Baldessari, a visual staple of the Los Angeles they escaped to.  

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Year – 2022

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My grandmas nickname “Zizi” reads forwards in English and backwards in Arabic (loosely). The English letter “i” makes a Z sound in Arabic and the lower case cursive “z” shape makes an “i” sound.