Heheh Collective [ not a foundry ]
A colorful, diverse, humble, dedicated and fun bunch of people that love type, lettering/calligraphy and books! We are an ethical Arabic collective based in Cairo, that is interested in the synergy of our vernacular calligraphic culture and contemporary typographic needs. Our name is a reminder to keep that curious and enthusiastic child in you, exploring the vast universe of type with a smile on your face.
Broad Spectrum of Members:
– Lettering Artists + Calligraphers
– Type Designers / Font Artists
– Font Engineers / Font Makers
– Typographers
– Editorial Designers
Also:
– Archival Researchers
– Writers
– Illustrators
– Artists
– Art Directors
– Creative Directors
– Motion Designers
– UI Designers
Current Members
[ alphabetical ]
– Alaa El Hadidy
– Amina Gabr
– Amr Bakr
– Carine Fanous
– Doaa Fahmy
– Eman Fikri
– Kholoud Khaled Essawy
– Mariam Maraghy
– Farida Ashraf
– Habiba El Badrawy
– Nouran Ahmed
– Rana Wassef
– Shahd El Sabbagh
– Mama Manuel ;)
Heheh Type Studio [ also not a foundry ]
The studio/core-team is managing (bigger) projects especially for ethical institutions, companies and design studios, providing help and the framework for all the designers in the that could be interested in joining in, including ones in our collective who are already working for other foundries, design studios or even own a foundry.
The collective itself is not a foundry. The collective is more like a network, a family ... a womb. A place that is dedicated to nurture the especilly independet type designers from Cairo and to make it easier for them to earn a living from type design – or at the very least get their creations out in the world. The Studio takes on bespoke projects, comissions for Arabic extensions for existing Latin typefaces and then creates teams with members from the collective, etc. All the money that is currently made is poured back into the collective. But we are still in the beginning and only recently decided to elavate the whole project from a fun “professional” commercially-non-viable “hobby” to something real/little-more-viable. Properly investing more time and our resources into it, so that more and more of our members can eventually make a living from doing what they love. Also – a minimum of 10 percent of our sales (not profit) including custom/bespoke projects will always be donated to good causes, right from the start. Currently all of it is going to trusted organisations in Palestine. Once Heheh is commercially more viable we are planning to get get the percentage up and invest more diversly to support good causes in Egypt and around the world.
Public/External Font Catalogue
– Al-Donya [ by Alaa | Hassen Khattak]
– Bolton Arabic [ by Shaqa Bovand + Manuel | F37 Foundry]
– Earth Arabic [ by Shahd + Maha Akl | Sharp Type]
– Fawazeernelly [ by Kholoud | Makyn ]
– Gawhar [ by Shahd + Manuel ]
– Khansaa [ by Zeina | Eyen ]
– Mamshooq [ by Kholoud | Makyn ]
– Maraya [ by Habiba | Eyen ]
– Moreeh Naskh [ by Alaa + Amr | Hassen Khattak]
– Nihaya [ by Eman | Eyen ]
The above are all the ones that are publicly available. If you want access to more typefaces, please contact us. Some of the above fonts are not in the heheh package though, as they are exclusively sold through the external foundry/website.
Get more here 👉🏽
Not available anymore:
- Dobb [ by Nour ]
The renowned Egyptian artist Helmi El Touni passed away in September 2024. Dobb started as a student project and is based on six of his hand-letterings on the covers of the famous folktales series “Agmal El Hikayat El Shaabiyya” (The Most Beautiful Folktales). The artist never officially approved, nor disapproved the typeface. Nour donated all the money she made with licenses from the very beginning to various charities. Nour humbly asks to not use or promote Dobb anymore. Licenses will not be sold anymore, without exceptions. If there are any questions about it please
— Looking for FREELANCERS to join Heheh —
🧑🏽💼👩🏻💻🕵🏾♀️👩🏼🏭👩🏾🎓👩🏾🎤👩🏾🏫🧑🏼🎨👩🏿🚀👷🏻♂️
Searching now [starting 1—4 d/month, later up to 3d/week]
– Junior Developer [Python, JavaScript, Automation, FrontEnd, Github, Mac, Chat-GPT / other ML]
– Arabic Font-Engineer/Type-Designer [mainly Mastering, OT Features, Glyphs Workflow]
– Junior Assistent/Manager [Slack, Google Docs, Process Optimisation, (Chat-GPT), Cairo-based]
Searching soonish [1—4 d/month, end 2025 / 2026]
– Financial Strategist & Accountant
– Position/Consultant for Cultural Funds [Egypt, Mena-Region, Europe, Germany]
– Managing Director
– Co-Working-Space/Feel-Good Manager
– Senior Editorial/Book Designer
– Position for Archival Work [good lettering/type design, and historical knowledge]
– Lawyer / Legal Consultant [type/graphic/design/art, intern./ger/egy]
– Junior programmer(s) [with interest for machine learning]
– Senior/Lead Developer
– Senior Arabic Font-Engineer [Glyphs Workflow]
– Senior Latin/Multi-Script Font-Engineer
– Minority Script Consultants [for all the many less popular Arabic languages/scripts]
Just try, we wont bite:
– CV + Portfolio/Website/Github [just whatever it is, no need to customize it]
– Your day rate, min—ideal [6 hour work day + 2 hours optional self-education]
– One paragraph about work
– One paragraph about life [what are you passionate about in work/life,
voice message is also good, max: 5min]
– Most favourite project(s)? [tell us what was so great about it]
Heheh Collective is currently managed by Shahd El Sabbagh and Manuel von Gebhardi. It was founded together with Nour in 2020. Nour is not part of the collective anymore. She decided to fully dedicate her time to her own illustration practice.
No room for zionism/supremacism/facism/racism – zionism ≠ judaism
Last update: 03/2020