The Arabic as the starting point
Based on the work of the calligrapher Al-Qandusi, we extracted 3 different textures. His work is specifically unique because he used wider pens to write this style, normally almost scrictly written in a thin pen. With each pen thickness the duality of solid and fluid forms take a different expression. The concept is to design 3 styles that go beyond the difference in weight and highlight the mixture of solid and fluid forms differently depending on the intended texture, overall character and available space.

From Regular to Dark, basic skeletons change as well as the contrast and drawing/writing ratio in the structure of the letterforms. They all involve mixing solid and fluid constructions, highly stylised letterforms, rotations in the pen, sudden changes of contrast, but in different degrees. The Regular is the most humble with variations that are not too drastic. The Medium is the most peculiar in terms of contrast, with excess in rotations and thick/thin ratio, and is more drawn than the Regular while the latter is more written. The Dark is the one that involves drawing the most with a highly stylised interpretation of the calligrapher's work and of the Maghribi style in general.

Above are some of the key characteristics of this type system.
Vertical connections, stacking letters, swashes, specific connections, ligatures, contextual alternates,
elongated letterforms, unorthodox connections to name a few.

The Design Concept of the Latin

The biggest challenge for the design of the Latin was to create three different weights that could ‘communicate’ with the Arabic and the Tifinagh in a contemporary design context, but paying tribute to our referent, the Arabic calligraphy manuscripts, matching their spirit, energy and grace, but also to the own script. The starting point was a deep analysis of the construction of this specific sample of Maghribi writing, and the definition of how to reproduce that in a Latin Alphabet:
• Exploration of the reversed horizontal stress based on rotation.
• Definition of how to fluid and how solid it should be.
• Marking the limits between calligraphy and drawing.
• Built as a semicursive, kind of an upright italic, with some reminiscents of the calligraphic ductus in the serifs.

This exploration was complemented with the research on Latin printing types and manuscripts that could share some of the most relevant features of the Arabic calligraphy: the rotation of the pen.

The historical references are:
• For the Regular: The XVII century Manierist calligraphy examples, where the contrast of the stroke is the result not only of changes in the direction of the stroke, but also in the orientation.
• For the Medium: Ancient examples of gothic and ornamental types, because of their innovative solutions based on calligraphy, with added drawing but structured as our arabic calligraphy referent. Some letters are experimentally ornamented (‘E’ 'T' ‘k’).
• For the Regular and the Dark: The Civilité types designed by Robert Granjon as a French response to the Italian italic. There I found responses for the rotation feature, for both, the regular and the dark as seen in the closed counters ( ‘a’, ‘y’) the curly tails of the descenders.

The terminals, the linear counters, and the amount of contrast are shared features all over the three scripts. The ligatures for the Dark are based on the stacked letters as a wink to Arabic.

The expansion to Qandus Latin Solid, Original and Fluid
This 'Original' construction was the first to be designed, but while designing the three scripts simultaneously, the designers felt the need of designing several Stylics Sets for each weight, what eventually could become a problem for the user. The solution for the retail version was to split the fonts into three subfamilies:
• Original as a mix, in the pure style of Al-Qandusi

• Solid, more into a Kufic structure (for the Arabic), carved (for the Tifinagh), and ‘constructed’ for the Latin.

• Fluid, more expressive (in Arabic), written on sand (for the Tifinagh), and totally upright italic for the Latin.

The design concept of the Tifinagh 
Tifinagh is an ancient script used to write the Amazigh (Berber) languages in several countries of the North of Africa. It has survived a long period of displacement by foreign scripts, namely Arabic and Latin. Therefore, its use has been scarce over the centuries, although it is undergoing a significant growth and governments promotion in past decades.
The most outstanding consequence of this historical context is the lack of models other than inscriptions engraved, scratched or painted on stones in remote areas. There is not a calligraphic tradition in Tifinagh. Actually, there are no known manuscripts using this script, so the modern digital fonts designed so far sought for inspiration in the geometric shapes of those inscriptions.
This state of affairs gives rise to a whole set of challenges when it comes to approaching a multi-script project in which Tifinagh has to match the Arabic and Latin scripts. Their utterly different nature, history and tradition make this matching a complex enterprise in which multiple factors need to be considered. Moreover, the fact that the three weights present diverse approaches, goals and features, posses an added challenge to the project. 

The concept of the project (detailed before) proposes a dialogue between kufic/solid/geometric influences and more gestural/organic/fluid writing styles in Arabic calligraphy. In order to follow this scheme while keeping faithful to the tradition of the Tifinagh script, the "solid" extreme of the system is based on the engraved geometric letterforms, whereas the "fluid" one is modelled on the most common instance of handwriting among Tuaregs: writing on sand. These two extremes are then differently combined in the three weights according to their specific purposes, while keeping an eye on the other two scripts. The lack of historical models implied a high level of freedom, but it also made assessing every character even harder.
The result is a complex interplay that seeks for a subtle balance of all the factors involved. The image below shows the main features of the design and how this interplay was achieved.