“Manovich’s work demonstrates the endless possibilities in visualization techniques and layout variations of assembled data on a computer screen,” says Yasmine Taan, associate professor in the School of Architecture and Design who coordinated the event.

“In other words, he examined how we combine microscopic and telescopic vision, close reading and distant reading of artifacts that create new visual patterns,” she continues.

“As visualization has become ubiquitous in mainstream culture, the ability to detect patterns in visualization of large cultural data sets allows new possibilities for the studies of both contemporary and historical cultures,” Manovich says.

Moscow-born Manovich is a professor in the Visual Arts Department of the University of California—San Diego and is the author of numerous books on the topic of digital media, the most prolific being The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001) which is considered compulsory reading for anyone critically engaged in an understanding of digital media and has been translated into eight languages worldwide.

“The most exciting venture is being able to uncover how cultural objects come to be,” Manovich continues. His most recent project consists of uncovering sophisticated breakdown of patterns and creating visualization out of images themselves.

The expert explained how he navigates massive visual collections of user-generated content, which may contain millions of images and thus allows us to see patterns in cultural data that were not previously possible.

After giving a brief history of visualization since the mid 1990s, he showed some fascinating examples of visual media such as art, photography, film, animation etc. The audience was particularly impressed by the sight of the pixelized abstract composition which when enlarged revealed million of Manga (Japanese comics) illustrations on the projected screens.

“It was mesmerizing to witness how data could be transformed into works of art and how art revealed stories of our evolving culture,” says Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Management Dr. Elise Salem who attended the event.

First year communication arts student Rima Taha concurs, “It is great to be exposed to an international figure and learn about these interesting conceptual ideas—especially graphing cultural patterns,” she says.

“As an artist myself, it is very inspiring,” continues Taha.

The designer's cerebral leanings are clear--she prefers to read existential literature over fashion magazines in her spare time; in fact, the first line of Bird on a Wire was inspired by French philosopher Michel Foucault's idea of "heterotopia" and Lois Greenfield's photography of ballerinas.

Both of these highlight the idea of an imaginary space, such as the make-believe world of small children or the imagined scenes deftly conveyed through ballet choreography.

To be sure, Morcos designs have a kinship to the architectural sensibility that she developed while a student at LAU. "I construct clothes," she explains.

"I think in 3-D."

Unlike most artists who work in typical two-dimensional sketches in a notebook, Morcos works in 3-D, with Play-Doh and crunched up paper. She sews preliminary versions of her designs in cheap cotton, sending this rough prototype and patterns to a local atelier who turns the designs of her imagination into wearable clothing. "The man at the atelier suffers a lot because of me, I owe him some happy pills," she says, laughing.

For the  LAU alumna (B.S.'03), fashion has always been a part of life. Growing up, her mother, a Fine Arts graduate of LAU (then called BUC) infused her life with creativity and inventiveness. "My mother's eccentric style was my early source of inspiration," she says.

Her mother and father also inspired her decision to pursue higher education. "My parents wanted me to have a strong background before going into an 'uncertain' field such as fashion, so I chose to obtain a degree in interior design from LAU," she explains.

She also cites the "dynamic classmates and encouraging professors" she encountered at LAU as important sources of inspiration that motivate her work.

Now an instructor herself at Esmod Beyrouth, she preaches what she practices. In the classroom, Morcos' asks the next generation of Lebanese fashion designers to throw away their magazines and try something completely new, says former student Maryz Abdel Massy.

"She basically taught us to play and experiment ways of coming up with new volumes and prints, like thinking outside the box and forgetting everything we see in magazines and on TV," Abdel Massy continues.

Moving forward, Morcos is going to launch a new line in September and she is also busy perfecting a necklace line built from dozen of copper or wooden pieces that fit together like the bones of a reconstructed dinosaur.

A full version of this article was originally published in The Daily Star on July 18, 2012 (click to view) and is here posted with additional reporting by LAU staff.
 

The story started when 15 plain toys were distributed in June to students from five Lebanese universities.

“We wanted to get the help of arts students to come out with design ideas that reflect what MINI is all about,” says Natalie Khalife, marketing and communications manager at Bassoul Heneine Lebanon – importer of BMW and MINI – the group behind the competition.

Once submitted, the designs were directly sent to BMW-MINI head office in Germany where the Design Department was in charge of the final selection. “The criteria for judging was based on concept, creativity, originality, skills and techniques,” says Khalife.

According to Maria Bahous, visiting instructor in the School of Architecture and Design who supervised Assaf during this adventure, “Design agencies realize the effort students put in their work and thus look at the candidate as a risk taker and an ambition designer who strives to shine against others.”

Conversely, competitions are generally a great learning experience for students, she adds, as they give their best creative output driven by the desire to win but also and mainly for the fun of it.

Proud of her achievement, Assaf says, “As soon as I saw the toy, I knew that I wanted to create a futuristic design. Then I got my inspiration from the MINI Cooper dashboard.”

001, as Assaf named her toy, is based on the MINI cooper interior design and producers’ approach that she abstracted into graphical form and shape.

While the idea emerged quite quickly, the production process turned out to be a lot harder than expected. “Every class, from my foundation year to my typography class and even 3-D animation class, helped,” Assaf said.

According to Bahous, Assaf’s toy visually translates what a designer should do best: Pick the most powerful concept and present it in a new innovative approach.

“I feel proud, it is a nice feeling to see the progress, and self achievement of a student you have been following up for years,” Bahous said.

For Assaf nothing could have been possible without the support of devoted instructors. “I would like to thank my teachers who had to put up with me throughout this project and who gave me the push I needed to reach my goals, with pride.”

Besides winning a MINI for a week-end and an iPad 3, Assaf will have her toy displayed in showrooms and prime locations in the country.

A group of four LAU graphic design students has been selected to revamp the website of Child of Lebanon, a non-governmental organization that promotes good practices in child rights, after winning a contest to create a new online identity for the NGO.

Members of the Graphic Design Department and representatives from Child of Lebanon announced the winners of the month-long contest on March 5 at the Beirut campus.

For winning students Sari Awada, Hiba Fares, Mahmoud Daoud and Nour Chamoun, it was the first time dealing with a "real client."

"We usually have to answer to our professors, but this time we were dealing with an outside party -- we actually had a real client to satisfy," says Awada. "It was a genuine professional experience."

The contest began when Child of Lebanon presented Randa Abdel Baki, chair of the department, with the idea of having LAU's graphic design students compete in producing a new and refreshing website that would better represent the organization and its achievements.

"The website was outdated and did not communicate our success and accomplishments," says Dr. Bernard Gerbaka, the NGO's founder and president.

The contest represented the opportunity for young graphic designers to get hands-on training, and consequently became a graded project for students taking the Web Design course. Divided into six different groups, students were asked to produce colorful and elegantly designed websites.

"We came up with a new logo, a new online identity, a whole new website," says Awada, who will soon move to the practical phase of the project, which is to build the actual website in collaboration with the organization's team.

MarieJoe Raidy, Child of Lebanon's head of communications, is the one behind this initiative. "I think that no one can better raise awareness than students, especially when advertising this kind of NGO, since they are the bridge between childhood and adulthood," she says. 

Her trust in the students has paid off. "The students worked wholeheartedly on this project and managed to convey the message in a very clear and pure way," says Raidy.

Although all of the website proposals were attractive, the winning team, according to Raidy, proposed a simple and "straight forward" new identity.

For Abdel Baki, however, the project meant more than just bringing graphic and web design together to produce a visually enticing website. "I hope this is the starting point for the students to become more active citizens," she says.

Child of Lebanon works to empower individuals and organizations in helping prevent child abuse in Lebanon.  Its advocacy is based on the principles of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child..

The NGO, and its identity revamping project, are supported by Raidy Printing Group, Time Out Magazine, Creative Lounges, Time Kids Magazine, Tagged Magazine, World Environment Magazine, Societe Generale de Banque au Liban, Yumi Sushi Restaurant, Papers of Dialogue Magazine, and LAU. 

LAU alumni Nisreen Mohtar, Danny Khoury and Dalia Baassiri each designed and painted two of six new benches on Beirut’s Hamra Street on October 4 and 5. They were selected as part of a painting competition in the Maraya 2011 Hamra Street Festival, which took place from August 30 to September 1.

Ms. Najwa Baroudi, the organizer of the festival, was delighted with the contributions of the three LAU alumni, saying the point of Maraya is to celebrate the spirit of Hamra, which she describes as “the center of intellectual activity in the city.”

“Dalia, Danny and Nisreen are fine artists. Their work is diverse and broad in its meaning, and their energy and enthusiasm are exemplary,” she says. “We are very happy with our choice —and LAU should be proud,” Baroudi says.

Baroudi hopes more benches can be installed in Hamra, as well as in the rest of the Ras Beirut area.

“We’re encouraging a high standard of varied cultural and artistic activities to draw in the diverse local and foreign communities that converge on Hamra,” she explains.

Khoury, a 2002 graphic design graduate, expressed pleasure in using his design skills to enliven the much-needed resting space on his favorite street.

“Benches were always a missing part of Hamra,” says Khoury, who published his first book, At the Edge of the City  in 2010, “This project is part of an attempt to revive the street,” he adds.  

Khoury was inspired by — and set out to capture — the distinctive spirit of the iconic Ras Beirut street.

“One of my benches is rather abstract in its design,” Khoury comments, “but I felt its elements reproduce the lively soul of Hamra.”

2003 graphic design graduate Baassiri is currently working as a freelance graphic designer. She took her cue from local pedestrians in her approach to the project.

“I watch different people’s faces and get inspired,” she explains, adding that. “I am also interested in illustrating human cells and features.”

Baassiri — who is set to continue her graduate education at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London — was also motivated by her emotional attachment to a neighborhood she’s lived in for ten years.

Mohtar, who graduated in 2003 with B.S. in Interior Design and a minor in Fine Arts, initially had misgivings about painting on a busy street like Hamra.

“At first I was terrified,” she admits. “It’s definitely different from painting in a studio alone. I doubted whether I would be able to reflect my ideas smoothly while passersby watched me.”

Ultimately Mohtar’s extensive experience with exhibitions — at LAU, AUB, and the International School of Choueifat — served to calm her nerves, and her work was very positively received.

“I had comments from famous artists,” she says, “as well as a number of requests for future painting work. I think this kind of work is good marketing for us.”

The limited print 12 stamps profile cultural icons that were selected by the Ministry of Communications.

The series includes singer Fayrouz, poet Said Akl, singer Sabah, dance troupe Caracalla, actor Nabih Abou El-Hossn, comedian Hassan Alaa Eddine (aka, Chouchou), sculptors the Basbous brothers, and actor and singer Wadih El Safi.

“It was important for me to show the spirit of the artist for whom I was designing the stamp,” says Mikdashi, who is a part-time lecturer at LAU’s Department of Graphic Design.

The stamps set the cultural figures against a brightly colored background. The images were all sourced from archive materials found by Mikdashi.

“I didn’t want the image to be too far from who the person is now, but I thought they should be very graceful figures. For example, Fayrouz is not smiling, but you see her smile in the movement of her hair or the shape of her lips.”

The stamps are part of an ongoing initiative by the Ministry of Communications to raise the profile of Lebanon’s historical and cultural importance.

The set was heralded as “a great success” by Hind Fadel, the marketing director of Liban Post. “Everyone has a youthful memory of the people featured in the collection, so they all feel invested in the stamps,” Fadel adds.

Mikdashi designed her first set of stamps about the liberation of South Lebanon for Liban Post in 2001. Since then, she has designed nine series of stamps, with themes ranging from famous buildings to the sixth Francophone Games held in Beirut in 2009.

“Stamps are not leaflets or posters, so when making them I have to think about much more than just design issues. Stamps have a social responsibility and document some of the things that are almost forgotten,” says Mikdashi.

The process for deciding what is featured on stamps is well planned. First, Mikdashi and officials from Liban Post and the Ministry of Communications meet and discuss possible themes. The ministry then finalizes the theme, and chooses the subjects that should be highlighted in the collection. Each series of stamps has a limited run, after which a new theme is explored.

“It’s not about aesthetics,” says Mikdashi, adding that the design “has to work socially, culturally and naturally, so that everyone is affected by it, and also it must fit on a 2–3 cm bilingual stamp.”

Mikdashi, who specializes in philatelic stamp design, holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the American University of Beirut, and a Master of Arts in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths College in London.
 

“The goal of the event is to showcase our final-year students’ work, along with all the work done in our graphic design classes,” said Randa Abdel Baki, Chair of LAU’s Graphic Design Department, at the opening. “It also aims to help students interact and discuss their ideas with professionals from the industry,” she added.

The exhibited projects covered a wide range of topics, including environmental and social issues.

Abdel Baki voiced her contentment with the displayed senior projects. “The 38 projects tackled various issues of our daily lives,” she said. “They were versatile, rich in content and graphics.”

Dr. Elie Badr, acting dean of LAU’s School of Architecture and Design, echoed Abdel Baki’s sentiments. “Year after year, I am amazed by the creativity that I see in your projects,” he told the students.

“This country relies on you greatly as we can see a deterioration in the quality of the messages around us. But I think with you as the professionals of the future, your messages will be elevated to the professional level,” Badr said.

Abdel Baki says the feedback of this year’s event has been particularly encouraging. “People who attended the event were pleased and impressed with the outcome,” she says. “Everyone agrees that every year the department is progressing.”

During the opening, two students, Aleen Chehayeb and Nour Kays, were each awarded with a Certificate of Excellence in Graphic Design.

Chehayeb received the award for her project “How Long is Now,” which is a magazine based on her personal photography capturing daily life.

“My hard work and endless overnights definitely paid off and it was a valuable memory that I will always hold on to as the highlight of my stay at LAU so far,” Chehayeb says.

The exhibition was organized by LAU’s School of Architecture and Design – Department of Graphic Design.

Melissa Plourde Khoury, assistant professor of graphic design who teaches the course, asked students to choose issues they wanted to communicate to the larger public while considering what the visual perception would be of those who would view their projects.

“The students really wanted to explore how they, as graphic designers, can intervene in issues of interest to the public as a means to challenge, inspire and possibly provoke,” says Plourde Khoury. “They used YouTube and Facebook as a means of exposing their projects to as wide an audience as possible. That sort of exposure made the students take the project very seriously,” she adds.

Topics included the environment, the issue of Lebanese war prisoners, Lebanon’s ongoing political tensions, and the need to unite and work together. Most projects were presented in Byblos, but some students also took theirs off-campus, to Hamra and Gemmayze.

As a way of bringing attention to the environment, Sybil Layous (left) hung 100 brilliantly colored umbrellas upside down over a main walkway on the Byblos campus.

“I came up with the idea when it was almost December and it still wasn’t raining. People kept saying, ‘God did not send us rain this year,’” Layous says.
 

Layous hung the umbrellas upside down, she says, to symbolize the need to preserve water.

She also hung tags from each umbrella with the name of her project, “God Did Not Stop the Rain,” and a link to its Facebook group.

The installation was also a call for rain, Layous says. Three days after being hung, a storm swept through Lebanon and destroyed the project.

To learn more about the installation, visit Layous’ blog.

Patricia Farah followed a “guerrilla tactic” — a more intrusive approach — to highlight a cause.

To raise awareness about the thousands of Lebanese citizens abducted and held in Israeli and Syrian dungeons during the Lebanese Civil War and the decades of occupation, Farah and her group of friends arbitrarily kidnapped unsuspecting students, handcuffed them and subjected them to some mild torture. Farah then slapped stickers over their mouths describing the typical forms of torture Lebanese prisoners face.

Farah says she wanted to target students in order to expose them to a war they often hear stories about, but which they never experienced.

“A lot of students came up to me afterwards and told me about a relative they had in a foreign prison,” Farah says. “They all wish this problem could be solved.”

Farah’s tagline for the project was: “If you don’t hear about it every day, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

Farah created a video that documented her intervention and included an interview with an LAU staff member whose brother went missing during the war. The video can be found on YouTube.

Read more about Farah’s project on her blog.

Myriam Melki’s goal was to promote collaboration. She set up a stand at the Byblos cafeteria where students wrote on ribbons, one line each, to complete a story. They were only allowed to view the ribbon immediately preceding their own.

Melki called the project “No Matter What it Takes,” which was the first and last line of the 100-line story.

“I wanted to do something collaborative because we are very self-absorbed; we don’t think about others,” Melki says. “It’s nice to keep a piece of others with you, even if you don’t know them. That’s what’s great about this collaborative project.”

Melki recorded each student reading aloud the ribbon they had written on and strung them together in a single audio clip, which can be found on her blog.
 

The annual end-of-year graphic design exhibitions brought together dozens of graduating students to show off their final-year print and digital-media projects, from May 31–June 3 and June 3–10 at the Byblos and Beirut campuses, respectively. Like every year, each exhibit featured a theme.

It was the first end-of-year exhibition organized by the School of Architecture and Design which opened its doors in fall 2009, combining all architecture and design programs previously offered by the School of Engineering and Architecture, and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Byblos

In Byblos, the exhibition was called “Echo10.” Organizers Tarek Khoury, co-chair of the Graphic Design Department, and Melissa Plourde Khoury, graphic design assistant professor, say they aimed to challenge student designers to consider the impact of their work on culture and society, keeping in mind that their designs — no matter how seemingly trivial — always have repercussions.
 

On the floor of the Rima Hourani Exhibition Room in Byblos is a board game designed to help dyslexic children learn to read and spell. The idea came about when the designer’s friend, who teaches dyslexic children, complained that there was no fun way to teach the children.

Nearly every inch of the exhibition room’s walls and floor were dedicated to the print-media students, who numbered 17. The 12 digital-media students ran their projects — including websites, interactive media, and movies— on a computer stationed under posters of their designs.

Digital-media students were required to complete a poster, and either an interactive CD, movie or website.

One student created a short movie about the benefits of horse therapy for children as a means of building confidence. Another student created an interactive CD that teaches children about safety. Among the most popular projects was a website that shows the relationship between people’s personality and their favorite chocolate.

Plourde Khoury explains that the print-media projects had to include a poster, visual identity, a package, a promotional item and a publication. One of these elements was featured as the main piece.

Here, a student designed a store that takes traditional Middle Eastern products and turns them into new items.

Another student designed a store that sells modern-looking clothing derived from the kimono, the traditional Japanese dress.
 

Student Mira Yassin shows the brand identity she created for Middle Eastern restaurants. She took traditional Islamic motifs and modernized them using 3D imagery for use on place mats, tables, and dining ware.

Determined to challenge traditional notions of Lebanese identity, student Iffat Hamdan visited Hamra Street in Beirut, where she posted questions about identity on walls throughout the area and came back later to discover a variety of responses.
 

Beirut

In Beirut, the exhibition was named “Propel.” As Graphic Design Department Chair Randa Abdel Baki describes, the theme was about the progression and evolution of the times, particularly signified at LAU by the establishment of the School of Architecture and Design.

Like each year, projects on both campuses were judged in a single competition for best design. Students Sami Kiwan and Ghaith Fleifel, both from the Beirut campus, won the competition this year, and won iPods nano.

Kiwan, a digital-media student, who last year won a logo competition for TV talent scout program Studio El Fan, produced a short film (right poster in the above photo) about aliens that invade Beirut. “I have always been obsessed with aliens since I was a child,” Kiwan explains. “The movie is a small wake-up call for people to remember that there may be other beings outside our world with their own environments that one day may reach Earth.”

Fleifel, a print-media student, designed a concept tram system (1st project from left in the above photo) for Beirut, as a solution to the city’s heavy traffic congestion and pollution.

“The winners were chosen not only based on the quality of their projects, but also based on their participation and effort in their courses throughout the years,” Abdel Baki explains.

Aside from Fleifel’s tram project which brought to the table the issue of sustainability, Abdel Baki explains that many other students attempted to shed light on social issues. A project by Maher Bayomi looked at the destructive process of stone mining and tried to develop a more ecological system of extraction. Some projects dealt with women’s abuse and illiteracy. Others looked at recycling and the importance of conserving water and energy.

Like in Byblos, computers were set up for digital-media students to show off their projects.

Unlike in Byblos, the Beirut exhibition also featured projects from non-graduating students, which were displayed outside the main hall, because of the space restrictions. These projects were created by packing-design students.

“I was very happy with the works,” Abdel Baki says. “They were versatile, and applied with refinement.”

The exhibition, a part of the LAU Graphic Design Department’s event series, is showing until March 31, in Sheikh Zayed Hall every day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Nejabati presented his talk in Farsi, which was simultaneously translated into Arabic for the audience. He explained that while graphic design has existed for a long time in Iran, before it became a recognized discipline, it was known as “graphic calligraphy.”

Type, image and color are the elements of Islamic calligraphy he said, adding that many artists use art to spread religion’s message — “Writing should be beautiful because it is the word of God,” he said.

Nejabati explained that in Islamic calligraphy, the illustration matches the calligraphy. He explained that images are not always realistic but instead are symbolic, adding that there are no realistic images of nature in Islamic art — and that colors and images vary by area and country of origin.

The renowned graphic artist said the reason for unrealistic images in much Islamic art is that we will go to another world when we die, which is more beautiful so the pictures resemble our world but not realistically. “Everything drawn is made more beautiful than it is in life,” he said.

Nejabati said that colors make a big difference in Islamic art because in a simple geometric square “the design hardly shows if it’s not filled with color.” Notably, he shared his view that there are seven primary colors — not only three (red, yellow, and blue) as is the common view in the West. “Black, white, gold and silver are also primary colors,” he said.

Nejabati, who notably designed “Persia” typeface for Bitstream Co. USA, further explained that every culture, every country has its own style of art and design, which is evident in all aspects of a country’s society, from clothes to packaging and buildings.

“Art is like an identity for a country,” he said, offering the example that at first only Farsi-speakers were his audience, but now people from all languages and cultures want to know his work and Iranian art. He added that he is proud of the popularity of Iranian arts nowadays.

Randa Abdel Baki, the chair of the Graphic Design Department at LAU, says that events such as this are extremely important for both design students and the community at large, due to the significant intercultural dialogue and understanding that is generated.

“We’re trying to revive the art of calligraphy in Lebanon — it’s vanishing,” she says. It was important to have this presentation by Nejabati, because calligraphy “is the foundation of Arabic type,” she says, adding, “The integration of calligraphy in the work of Iranian artists is very deep, and we want our students to see this.”

She adds, “We want to show our students everything — modern, old, new. Everything should be part of their education, which should be an encyclopedia of art and design.”
Nejabati was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1967. An alumnus of the University of Tehran, he earned his M.A. in Graphic Design in 1999, although he started his professional career in 1988, and has taught graphic design and typography since 1996.

He said he chose graphic design as a professional medium to follow because it is a form of communication. And while he has also worked in film, the artistic medium he has focused on has remained graphic design.

As an artist, Nejabati explained that graphic design enables him to communicate with all of those people who cannot attend art exhibitions — those who are not the “upper class.”

He has designed posters and book covers, among other cultural forms of art. He says that he now finds his work everywhere he travels in Iran.

“Design has to move from being marketing-centered to being sustainable and user-friendly,” says Mithra Zahedi, visiting assistant professor at LAU from the University of Montreal who teaches foundation courses.

“When we design, we should think about the context and our relationship with the object,” she adds. “At the moment, not everyone is considering that.”

The film featured interviews with about 20 designers across the world including Japan, the United States, France and Germany, at companies that produce assortments of products from toothpicks to telephones.

A large part of the film focused on the issue of sustainability, explaining that despite the belief among many designers and manufacturers in the need to move toward producing sustainable products, the task has proven to be very challenging.

The film explained that in order to transition toward sustainability, companies must reconsider every aspect of manufacturing their goods — from material sources, to design, production, shipping and even developing a way to dispose of the product responsibly — which is an expensive and tremendously difficult undertaking.

Objectified also pointed out that sustainability is still a relatively recent trend that has been forcing designers to adapt to the green movement.

“You have to be a responsible designer,” says Randa Abdel Baki, chair of the Graphic Design Department in Beirut. “Being conscious of your environment is one of the most important aspects of design.”

The “Poster4Tomorrow” exhibition was launched simultaneously across 21 countries last week to mark the 61st anniversary of UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The exhibition, organized in Beirut by LAU’s Graphic Design Department and the Italian Cultural Institute in Lebanon, features 100 posters made by artists from more than 70 countries around the world. The same posters are on display at each exhibition. The works were selected from among 1,834 submissions.

Many posters appear to criticize war, government and religion. Some objects reoccur in the works, including the pencil, the veil, and the hand covering the mouth.

“They get to the point immediately,” says Ennio Troili, director of the Italian Cultural Institute, referring to the posters’ explicit messages.

While there were no artists from Lebanon featuring their works at the exhibit, Lebanon is one of two Arab countries (along with Morocco) to host the event.

Lebanon “is the only country in the Middle East where this exhibition is being hosted,” Troili says. “And that is a very important element — you are an example of democracy and a multi-cultural and multi-religious society,” he adds.

“We are proud to host this because it represents what we believe in at the Graphic Design Department, which is the freedom of being yourself and being unique,” says Randa Abdel Baki, chair of the Graphic Design Department–Beirut.

Internationally, “Poster4Tomorrow” is being held under the patronage of the Council of Europe and the French National Commission for UNESCO, and is endorsed by Amnesty International and Reporters Sans Frontières.

“What is interesting about this event is having work from Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, etc.,” Abdel Baki says. “It’s a universal expression.”

The exhibition will run in the Sheikh Zayed Hall of the Safadi Fine Arts Building until Thursday, December 17, from 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

The exhibition features a collection of 34 digital prints that American Plourde Khoury has created over the past three years living in Lebanon. The series of work is entitled “Translations: Perceptions of Lebanon Through Foreign Eyes.”

The images being exhibited are all digital photos of objects that she has used as a starting point to tell a story. “They are all digital photography, each image is of a different object and through the object I tell a story about an experience that I’ve had here in Lebanon,” Plourde Khoury says.

“I love photography and thought it was interesting that there are a lot of images of Lebanon — of its people, its architecture, its landscape and the war,” she explains. “But I think Lebanon’s history and culture are richer than that. I’m interested in still life photography and I really believe that objects can depict a reality that is much richer and deeper than those things.”

Plourde Khoury says her work has been described by others as being sensitive and thoughtful, to which she adds that it should be viewed as an extension of herself. “I see the feeling and tactile quality — I love texture,” she says. “With all of the images I have integrated fabrics, and the idea behind it is rooted in the Arab tradition of hanging tapestries on walls as fine art. Part of the concept of my work being exhibited is that these are contemporary tapestries. It’s digital art, but I feel the tapestry element gives it warmth.”

The project “has taken about three years from the start of its conception,” she adds.

Plourde Khoury shares a personal experience that inspired one of the works, which features a small yellow canary. “I was with my Lebanese niece, she was 4 years old,” she says. “We were looking at a little yellow canary together. She said to me pointing at it: ‘oiseau.’ Not understanding, I said ‘what?’ Then she immediately translated for me, and she also knew it in Arabic. Even though she was four years old, she knew enough to translate for me.”

She adds: “I was humbled by my niece who was multilingual and she was teaching me the word.”

“Translations: Perceptions of Lebanon Through Foreign Eyes,” a solo exhibition of Melissa Plourde Khoury, will run from December 9–31, Monday–Sunday 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m., Galerie Surface Libre d'Art. The opening is on December 9, from 6:00–9:00 p.m.

The designers were present at the exhibition, which remained open daily from 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. until November 28. They mingled with students while describing the inspiration behind each work, many of which were drawn by hand.

“I’m a big fan of the computer because I use it all the time, but sometimes sketching is very good because you can easily make a decision,” said van Dijk, who also expressed his love for painting.

The colorful works were all designed using a variety of techniques and instruments from computers to crayons.

Many of those techniques were illustrated by van Dijk and Yamamoto during the lectures several hours earlier at LAU Byblos.

During the first lecture, van Dijk, who works with design firm NLXL in The Hague, took the audience through a tour of some of his most recent projects for small and large companies.

One of the main tasks of his work, he said, was developing a fitting identity for each of his clients that catered to their needs.

“In a dynamic world with dynamic organizations, we need dynamic identities,” van Dijk said, explaining that the job was more about developing creative strategy than it was about simply designing attractive logos.

“We can all make nice things,” he added, “but the strategy behind it is more fascinating — it’s about trying to find the essence of a problem that a client has, and trying to solve that in a creative way.”

Yamamoto opened his lecture by giving a brief history of graphic art beginning with the 32,000-year-old Lascaux cave drawings in France, and the development of the alphabet.

He placed special emphasis on the importance of a medium or instrument used to create graphic art, whether it is a rock to make a carving from wood, or a paintbrush to create an image. Without them, he argued, graphic expression would bear no meaning.

“There’s a fine line between calling something graphic art, and not calling it graphic art, and it has to do with the medium that is being used to transfer it,” Yamamoto said. “It’s the medium that gives it value.”

Visitors gather in the room where the works of Japanese designer Hiroki Yamamoto are showcased.

Updated November 25, 2009—

Now in its third day, the weeklong Design Exchange ’09 conference on the Byblos campus is already a success with students, guest speakers and organizers alike.

The first two days included student workshop sessions by Bob van Dijk, a partner and designer at the design firm NLXL in The Hague, Netherlands, and Hiroki Yamamoto, a Japanese designer and president of Marvin design firm in Tokyo. Richard Doubleday, assistant professor of art at Boston University, who was also scheduled to hold workshops and a public lecture had to cancel at the last minute.

Monday and Tuesday, van Dijk presented the first two sessions of his workshop on “5 Ways of Being Creative,” which will be completed with a third session tomorrow.

The award-winning designer has lectured, presented workshops and exhibited in Europe, the United States and the Middle East.

He says he is really enjoying his workshop sessions as well as his time in Lebanon.

The workshop participants are “very enthusiastic,” van Dijk says. “They are curious, pose good questions, and are really interested in learning, and I can feel that they are already learning from the first assignment,” he adds.

The total number of registered participants for the different student workshops is about 75 people, including a little over 20 students per workshop as well as people just sitting in.

“The good thing about the fact that it’s a small group is that I can speak with the people in general but also individually,” says van Dijk.

He chose to have five small projects in his workshop, rather than one, so that students can “carry over what they learned [in one project] to the next one.”

One project was to create a ghetto blaster for the deaf, a contradictory concept. Patricia Farah, a third-year graphic design student from LAU Byblos, thought of the ghetto blaster in terms of invasion of space rather than sound. She created a concept of balloons that rhythmically inflate and deflate, becoming so big that they would intrude into the space of passers-by, including the deaf.

Along with the other participants, Farah was enthusiastic about the opportunity to attend the workshops. Comparing her mind to many closed doors before the workshop, Farah says van Dijk “had the key and opened the creative door.” She adds: “In his class the sky is the limit.”

Students “really have to get out of their box,” explains van Dijk. “That’s why, I tell them ‘never trust your teacher.’ ” This does not mean “they should not have respect for their teacher … [but] if they have a different opinion about things, [they should] start to communicate and see how far the two can learn from each other,” van Dijk adds.

The first session of Yamamoto’s workshop, titled “Construction From Deconstruction,” was held Monday, and will continue tomorrow.

The workshop involved collage and montage. Students spread out pre-existing designs in a workspace and deconstructed them. Later, they constructed new designs from the pieces.

Students create new designs using collage and montage during Yamamoto's workshop. (Photo: LAU graphic design student Patrick Makhoul).

The views of organizers
Through such workshops, LAU’s Graphic Design Department in Byblos wants to expose students to the work and ideas of professionals from different countries, explain event organizers Tarek Khoury, department co-chair and assistant professor, and Melissa Plourde Khoury, assistant professor of graphic design.

As faculty members, “we offer students our own experiences and knowledge but by bringing people in from the outside who are not professors but … [professionals] and within a completely different culture, [we expose students to what] they bring with them — fresh ideas, a fresh vision, new insight [and] a different way of working,” Plourde Khoury says.

“We are taking action to involve the community and enrich our students. We’re trying to move the program into the future,” she adds.

Khoury explains that the event is called “Design Exchange” because it is about exchange of cultural identity. The goal is to have students take ideas from other cultures and integrate them into the graphic design field in Lebanon.

Today’s program includes public lectures by van Dijk and Yamamoto at the Science Building rooms 607 and 608, as well as the exhibition opening in the Old City of Byblos at 6:30 p.m.
 

Posted November 23, 2009—

Design Exchange ’09, a weeklong graphic design conference featuring exhibitions, lectures and workshops led by three world-renowned graphic designers and design educators from Japan, the Netherlands and the United States, kicked off today at LAU Byblos.

The event, the first of its kind organized by LAU’s Graphic Design Department in Byblos, will last through November 28, followed by a student exhibition from November 30–December 4 in the Rima Hourani Exhibition Room on the Byblos campus.

Workshops will be held each day of the conference, excluding November 25, by Richard Doubleday, assistant professor of art at Boston University, Hiroki Yamamoto, a Japanese designer and president of Marvin design firm in Tokyo, and Bob van Dijk, a partner and designer at the design firm NLXL in The Hague, Netherlands.

On November 25, each of the three guests will present an hour-long lecture, followed by the opening of an exhibition from 6:30–9:30 p.m. in the Souk of the Old City of Byblos, where the invited presenters will display and be available to discuss their works.

The exhibit, held in coordination with Eddé Yard, will remain open daily (10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.) until November 28.

The workshops will be open only to graphic design students from LAU and the Scientific College of Design in Oman who must register before attending. The lectures and exhibitions will be open to everyone.

Organizers are promising the event will embrace the distinctions of design practice influenced by Far Eastern, Middle Eastern and Western cultures, while placing an emphasis on enhancing visual culture through modernization.

For a full schedule of events, information about registering for workshops, or for more details about the lectures and exhibition, visit the conference website, or contact Tarek Khoury, co-chairperson of the Graphic Design Department at LAU Byblos at: tarek.khoury@lau.edu.lb or +961-9-547254 ext. 2243.
 

Studio El Fan announced a contest in September encouraging people with graphic design skills to create a logo the program could use to advertise a new season of the show.

“I was overwhelmed with excitement when I found out that I won,” says Kiwan, 19, who also does part-time graphic design work for LAU’s Marketing and Communications Department, and works as a student assistant with the Graphic Design Department.

Studio El Fan originally began airing in the 1970s on Télé Liban before being picked up by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) in the 1990s, then by MTV this year. The program offers amateur singers a chance to compete for medals in different categories. It has been a launching pad for many of today’s stars in Lebanon and the region.

Kiwan says he was told about the contest on September 12 by a friend who had heard a radio announcement promoting it. With no guidelines, instructions or any other information regarding the contest, Kiwan went home and began designing a logo he felt would appeal to all demographics.

After he had finished designing it, Kiwan’s computer froze and erased his work, forcing him to start over from scratch. Several hours later he produced a similar logo and emailed it to the program representatives.

Several weeks went by before Kiwan received any news from Studio El Fan. He did not know his logo was selected until he saw it in an advertisement.

“I was driving past Forum de Beyrouth when I saw my logo on a billboard,” he says. “I was stunned,” he adds, initially believing that the program had used the logo without acknowledging it.

But two days later, Kiwan got a call officially notifying him that he had in fact won the contest.

The logo is now being displayed in advertisements on billboards, newspapers and television commercials across Lebanon.

The LAU Graphic Design Department shared Kiwan’s excitement over the prize. Randa Abdel Baki, chair of the department, says she considers the award an achievement for the entire department.

“In every single class we give, we try to encourage our students to compete and submit their work outside the university to gain exposure,” Abdel Baki says.

When asked what he planned to do with the prize money, Kiwan chuckled and said: “I’m going to put them in the bank and watch them grow.”
 

Before the reshuffling, the Architecture and Interior Design program was under the School of Engineering and Architecture -- now renamed School of Engineering -- while the Graphic Design and Fine Arts programs were offered by the School of Arts and Sciences.

"Bringing all these disciplines together in a single school of design brings more cohesion, and thus strengthens these programs that were operating under different administrative units," says Dr. Abdallah Sfeir, LAU provost. "Beirut is a hub for all creative disciplines in the Middle East, and it is very befitting that LAU capitalizes on this in its offerings," he adds.

"These programs are very much interlinked and should be in one school, in order to deliver the best education to our students and expand our school to include additional design programs" says Dr. Badr, who also serves as assistant
provost for Academic Programs.

Badr hopes to build a solid foundation for the school during his tenure, focusing on financial, governance and marketing issues. "You have to give [the school] an identity, create bylaws for it, develop its own academic plans, integrate it in the university, and set it on the right path of growth to deliver quality design programs," he explains.

Long-range plans for the school include creating a strategic plan and identifying ways to expand it.

Although the school is only a few days old and it is too early to tell what expansions it might undergo, Badr has already some ideas.

"Lebanon is very well known for its jewelry and fashion design. ... These are some ideas that we will think about in expanding the school," he says. "We will see which design fields are more suitable for the country and for the region," he adds.

According to Badr, Lebanon and the region do not have many schools focusing on design, so the new LAU school -- with its existing and future programs -- will serve the industry well.

"With the foundation of the new Architecture and Design School, LAU has once again revealed its remarkable determination to break boundaries, test limits and excel in all its endeavors and undertakings," says LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra. "The school's establishment, derived from the same core values that have for decades kept LAU moving forward and cemented our moral and academic prominence, will offer specialized and student-tailored academic programs for outstanding theoretical and practical education," Dr. Jabbra adds.

Provost Sfeir, who came up with the idea for the school four years ago, spearheaded the initiative last year. The school is now fully recognized by the Lebanese government, and an amendment to LAU's charter by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York is in progress.

Acting dean is an addition to an already long list of positions Badr has held at LAU. Read more.

The new school groups architecture, interior design, graphic design and fine arts programs under one roof.

Last month, students displayed works ranging from posters, desk calendars, CD and book covers, advertising and packaging designs, corporate logos, a children's board game, silkscreen and caricatures to animation, websites and Arabic typography in motion.

The Beirut exhibition entitled "BrainstormInk" indicated students' freedom and endless experimentation as they conceived their concepts independently and with originality, according to Graphic Design Program Coordinator in Beirut Randa Abdel Baki.

Awards were presented to print media specialist Dana Abdul Ghani, and Hayat Sheikh and Ahmad Shami, specializing in digital media. Abdul Ghani produced a tourist guide-cum-diary of Gemmayze, a print production that she claims "transforms tourists into locals." Sheikh portrayed how online social networks mask our real identities, and how the "Internet is turning us into mutants." Shami explored the theme of violence in video games through his final project, a 3-D martial-arts movie.

The Byblos exhibit, entitled "Origin," embodied the theme of return to the essence of material. Every design starts on a blank paper and requires deep research and time to develop into a creative project, said Associate Professor Melissa Plourde, who participated in the organization of the Byblos exhibit with Graphic Design Program Coordinator Ruth Maalouf and Assistant Professor Tarek Khoury.

Some Byblos students explored notions such as the calendar and the seasons; the origin and evolution of chocolate; and the elements of life--earth, fire, water, air--adding the element of love. Others chose to portray humanitarian issues. Mira Abou Jawde focused on child soldiers, while Neamat Tawil prepared posters on children with cancer, and donated more than $1,000--raised during the exhibition--to The Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon.

This year's exhibitions saw an improvement in the quality and quantity of the attendees. Dr. Plourde said the Byblos event was well-attended by LAU students and teachers, but also recruiters, faculty from other universities and art lovers.

"LAU has provided a very good budget for the graphic design exhibits which helped raise them to a top-notch level... [This] created an eager interest in the program that made many graphic design students from other universities transfer to LAU," said Nathalie Fallaha, faculty member in the Graphic Design Department in Beirut.

A Daily Star article on the event noted that "more Arab students than ever before are choosing to study graphic design and the discipline is experiencing a boom," adding that Lebanon is at the forefront of the industry, with its graduates assuming dominant positions in graphic design studios throughout the region.

Students on both campuses presented their work in well-attended exhibitions in June 2006, drawing interested visitors and professionals in the field.

In Beirut, 28 senior students put their final projects on display in Sheikh Zayed Hall. A jury of LAU faculty members and industry professionals had evaluated their projects and guided their work.

"The exhibition is an opportunity for students to expose their work. During the opening, they were ready with their business cards to distribute among visitors from the industry," said Graphic Design Program Coordinator in Beirut Yasmine Nashabe Taan.

Taan stressed the importance of the catalog that was published for the event, describing it as a portfolio that graduates can use as they prepare to start their professional careers.

The exhibition, entitled "Play," was inaugurated by LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra on June 14 in the presence of university administrators and faculty members as well as professionals and students. "Play", for Taan, denotes competition as students are encouraged to play to the end, until they win.

Three students, Aline Bezirjian, Ayman Moussa and Khalil Halwani, received awards this year for presenting the best final projects.

Dr. Jabbra praised the students' work, expressing the university's pride in embracing talented creatives in the field of Graphic Design.

Students specializing in print design had to submit a 40-page book with an accompanying package and poster, while those emphasizing on digital design were asked to come up with a website design and computer animations.

Exhibition designer Silia Abu Arbid displayed Apple computers on colorful fur-like stands to help visitors view the students' digital work.

Students chose their topics and researched them in papers presented during the Graphic Design seminar class. They later on searched for the appropriate visual solutions to convey their messages with the help of their professors.

Also on display during the one-week event were works by students from typography, illustration, silkscreen, packaging, computer graphics, animation and web design courses.

In Byblos, "Erosion" was the theme explored by Graphic Design students in their exhibit this year featuring the work of 10 senior students.

Students researched a positive connotation of the concept of "erosion" in its social and cultural contexts. "The project is a fusion of contrasts and a collection of innovative ideas," said Byblos Graphic Design Instructor Tarek Khoury.

Khoury revealed the theme "erosion" was open to students' individual interpretations, with the aim of encouraging them to express and visualize their own creative and unique message using a technique of their choice.

The Byblos exhibition, inaugurated June 6, invited a group of professionals from advertising agencies and graphic design studios in Lebanon with the aim of promoting the work of graduating students among future employers.