Beirut Design Week is organizing a competition where graphic designers and creative people have to design a poster from the future that envisions Beirut in the year 2090. I don’t know why they chose a date 77 years from now but it would be interesting to see what the participants will come up with. One thing is for sure is that if we keep going at this current rate, we’d barely become another Dubai by 2090.
We are asking graphic designers and creative people of Lebanon to design a poster from the future that envisions Beirut in the year 2090.
Imagine the world in 77 years from now. What has Beirut become:
A haven of cultural renaissance and a high-tech hub in the Arab World?
A city of polluted decay enforced by war and destruction?
Another Dubai, with a dense gridlock of high-rises and cars?
Or an entirely new concept of city life and culture that is yet unimaginable by the citizens of today?
This is your chance to explore your imagination of your city’s future with no constraints, and show the public your creative design and conception skills. You will design a poster that acts as a personal visualization and interpretation of Beirut in the year 2090, while depicting a scene or showing an essential side of the city’s future character. You may use any media such as illustration, photography, typography, or computer generated graphics as long as it can be sent as a digital file and printed on a poster. [Link]
Whenever I am looking for an original and unusual gift for a birthday or any occasion, Galerie Vanlian is where I would go. Once you go in that gallery, you get lost in the wide selection of unique, fashionable, classic and sometimes way too eccentric accessories and home furniture. My favorite items were the Ritzenhoff beer glasses, mugs and shots and I would always tell myself that I’d buy the whole collection one day if I had the money. For some reason though, I always thought that the items displayed are all imported from abroad and never imagined they’d be created by Lebanese designers.
However, and as it turns out, a large number of Vanlian’s furniture and accessories are developed and created by in-house Lebanese designers and there’s an International Interior Design Department located in the heart of Beirut and headed by Vick Vanlian “who supervises and oversees the work of a team of professional designers catering the design of any project regardless of size and location.” [Website]
I am sure many of the blog’s readers already knew about that but I had no clue until recently and this is one of the reasons that pushed me to post about it, to let more people know about talented Lebanese such as Vick and his team. Another reason is the Vick Vanlian event that I got invited to this upcoming Friday, which I am looking forward to attending even though I am as far from being artistic as they can be.
The reason why I am attending is because I’ve always been intrigued to know how artists and interior architects come up with ideas and concepts, and also because I get to have a say “as a Geek” in developing one item design direction for 2013 (If I manage to come up with something interesting lol!).
Fore more info about Vick Vanlian or Galerie Vanlian, click [Here] and [Here].
PS: The event is by invite only but I will be tweeting updates [@LeNajib] and posting pictures on Instagram [LeNajib] the whole time.
This production is part of the Lebanese Economic Association project (TheLEAproject): Upgrading Lebanon’s Economic Analytical Capacity; a project funded by the International Development Research Centre, Canada. It is a short animation explaining what is Inflation, what is the CPI, how it is calculated and how Inflation should be measured more accurately in Lebanon.
Illustration and Animation are done by the one and only Maya Zankoul.
When interior designer May Daouk moved back here from New York with her sons ten years ago, she was exceptionally lucky to find a charming single-story late-19th-century villa, belonging to one of Beirut’s leading families. Situated in the smart Achrafieh district and featuring a sea view and a tree-shaded terrace, it has a tranquillity rare in this frenetic city. [AD]
Very cool anti littering awareness campaign designed by graphic design students Mohamed Olaymi,Nadine Razzouk and Lama Shehadeh. It’s a very simple idea, they printed out messages on the back of what looks like a folded LL10,000 note and dropped them in strategic places. When passerby’s notice the money on the floor they bend down to pick it up only to discover it’s not really money and instead find the anti littering message on the back. Here is a link to their [Facebook Page]
Does anyone else think that having an airplane crashing into a damn tree isn’t really the best idea for an airport to put up as Christmas decoration? I have a flight from Jeddah to Beirut tonight, and I really hope we don’t end up recreating this scene (Although it would be a bit hard to find a Christmas tree in the desert)
So a new burger place opened in Lebanon and I’m not sure if the owner is aware or not but his logo is a blatant rip-off of Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets is a popular US franchise that’s available all over the Middle East and they were even open in Lebanon back in the late 90s before they closed down. I remember before they closed down they were having incredible offers on their burgers. If you were a student you could have a burger for LL1,500 which was ridiculously cheap considering Coke cost LL4,500.
I’m a big fan of zaatar w zeit but I absolutely dislike their new identity as well as the new look and feel of their branches. With their new identity I feel like they’re leaving the Lebanese culture behind and heading towards a generic fast food chain look. Why drop the beautiful Arabic typography? Why go from warm, cozy and homy to cold and clinical?
