Three madrasas face one square in Samarkand, and each one leads with a pishtaq — a rectangular portal so large it hides the building behind it. The wall is not painted, it is clad: kāshī glazed tile mosaic set into a cobalt ground, over a body of ochre fired brick.

The lettering is banna'i — squared Kufic laid out of the brickwork itself, so type is structure rather than decoration. This system inherits that discipline: rectangular frames, a saturated blue field, turquoise as the working color, and gold used thin, the way leaf is actually applied.