Bilingual Arabic–English branding for UK businesses selling into the GCC

More UK companies are bidding for work in Saudi Arabia, opening offices in Bahrain or the UAE, or selling to Gulf customers online. Most arrive with a brand designed only for English. It usually works well enough at the start. Then come the Arabic company profile for a tender, the shopfront sign, the bilingual website and the social campaign, and the brand starts to bend in ways nobody planned.

This guide covers what to sort out before that happens, written for UK marketing leads and founders who are preparing to enter the Gulf.

Start with how you will sell there

Your Arabic brand needs depend on how you plan to do business. A consultancy selling to Saudi government entities and giga-projects needs credible bilingual documents first. A consumer brand launching in Riyadh malls needs packaging, signage and social content. A software company selling online may need a fully bilingual website before anything else.

Write down your first three points of contact with Gulf customers. Those are where Arabic has to work first, and they set the order of everything else.

Your name in Arabic

Most UK companies transliterate their name, so the Arabic sounds like the English. It sounds simple, but there are decisions to make:

• Spelling. Some English sounds have several possible Arabic spellings. Choose one, document it and use it everywhere.
• Meaning and sound. Check that the Arabic does not accidentally resemble an unfortunate word or a competitor’s name in the local dialect.
• Length. Long names can become unwieldy in Arabic, especially next to the Latin version in a lockup.
• Legal and registration. Your local entity, partner or sponsor may need the Arabic name on commercial documents. Check the requirements for your market with your legal adviser or the relevant authority, and check trademark availability before you print anything.

Test the chosen name with native speakers in the market you are entering, not only with Arabic speakers in London.

The bilingual logo

You have three common options:

1. Keep the Latin logo only. Fine for many B2B and tech brands, especially where English is the working language of your buyers.
2. Add an Arabic lockup. An Arabic version of the name, designed to sit with your existing mark. This is the most common route for UK brands entering the Gulf.
3. Redesign as a bilingual identity from the start. Worth considering if you are rebranding anyway or the Gulf will be a major market.

Whichever you choose, the Arabic must be designed, not typed in a default font. Arabic and Latin letterforms have different proportions, baselines and rhythm, so they need to be balanced by eye. Our guide to bilingual Arabic and English logos goes into the detail.

The Arabic must be designed, not typed in a default font.

Typography and layout

Your brand fonts probably have no Arabic. You will need an Arabic typeface that matches the character of your Latin type: geometric with geometric, humanist with humanist. Check its licence covers web, print and apps.

Layout also changes. Arabic reads right to left, so grids, icons with direction (arrows, progress bars), charts and image placement often need mirroring. Build this into your brand guidelines rather than leaving each designer to improvise.

Website: separate pages, not a widget

If Gulf buyers will visit your site, give them proper Arabic pages:

• Real Arabic copy, written for the market, not machine-translated from English.
• Right-to-left layout that has been designed and tested, not just flipped.
• Separate URLs for each language, linked with hreflang so search engines show the right version.
• Local contact routes: a Gulf phone number or WhatsApp where you have one, and forms that accept Arabic names.

A translation plug-in may seem cheaper, but it tends to produce awkward Arabic and pages that search engines handle poorly. Our website development work covers bilingual builds of this kind.

Documents that need Arabic

For B2B companies, the first Arabic asset is often a document rather than a logo. Tender submissions, vendor registrations and partner meetings in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain often go better with an Arabic company profile or an Arabic summary alongside the English. Some processes may require Arabic for certain documents; the tender or registration instructions will say. A bilingual company profile designed from your brand guidelines saves you from a rushed translation later.

Tone of voice in Arabic

Your English tone of voice will not translate directly. British understatement and humour can read as vague or flippant in Arabic business writing. Gulf audiences often expect a more formal register in corporate material, while social media in Saudi Arabia can be lively and conversational. Define how your brand sounds in Arabic for each channel, with examples, and have it reviewed by fluent writers in your target market.

A practical order of work

1. Decide the Arabic name and check it legally and culturally.
2. Design the Arabic lockup or bilingual identity.
3. Choose and license an Arabic typeface; extend the guidelines for RTL.
4. Produce the first-contact assets: company profile, website pages, presentation template.
5. Add campaign, social and signage assets as you launch.

Talk to our London studio

CREATVZ works from London as well as Riyadh and Manama, so we write and design in English and Arabic as one job. If you are taking a UK brand into the Gulf, our branding and design team can extend your identity properly. Send us your current brand and target markets through the start a project form, or message the London team on WhatsApp from this page, and we will suggest where to start.