REPORT 2012 BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK
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MESSAGE FROM ORGANIZERS QUOTES INFOGRAPHICS
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LAUNCH EVENT/ DESMEEM CONFERENCE PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS’ EVENTS OPEN STUDIOS WORKSHOPS TALKS STREET INTERVENTIONS FILM SCREENINGS
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SCREEN & PRINT OUTDOORS COLLATERALS BY PARTICIPANTS TELEVISION PRESS ADS & ARTICLES SPONSORS
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BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK IS ORGANIZED BY MENA DESIGN RESEARCH CENTER
MENA DESIGN RESEARCH CENTER We at the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Design Research Center believe that designers are far more capable of improving the world than their often undermined occupations as mere makers of beautiful things. We have come to realize that the creative process involved in problem solving -whether in communications, products, environments or services- could be applied to a varied scale of disciplines and fields. The MENA Design Research Center is aimed at promoting this diverse understanding of design thinking through the implementation of design research and collaborative multidisciplinary projects in the region. The MENA Design Research Center is a non-profit organization incubated by TAGbrands, a regional design and branding consultancy.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MENA DESIGN RESEARCH CENTER Doreen Toutikian Director, MENA Design Research Center
Since 2006, Doreen Toutikian has been dedicated to Design Research and education in the Middle East. During her postgraduate studies in Germany and the UK within the Master of European Design, Doreen became more familiar with the notion of being an interdisciplinary designer. She developed her understanding of design thinking based on creative methodologies for problem solving. She attended the Glasgow School of Art, where she studied product, service, system and social design. She worked on projects with Skills Development Scotland and Careers Scotland to provide better career choices for the Scottish youth. In the Koeln International School of Design, she wrote her Master thesis book ‘Design Education in the Middle East’, which was awarded in the 2010 Cologne Design Prize. Doreen believes that the key to successful design is collaboration. This belief has inspired her to initiate various projects with designers in order to encourage multidisciplinary teamwork for social innovation. Such projects include ‘Public Design Intervention: Beirut’ and DESMEEM. In 2010, she moved back to Beirut and co-founded the MENA Design Research Center, as planned in the proposal of her master thesis book.
menadesignresearch.com
Maya Karanouh CEO, TAGbrands
In the past decade Maya Karanouh has been an active entrepreneur, founding several companies and being a leading member of the regional creative sector. Maya is currently the CEO at TAGbrands. As an award winning branding strategy firm that aligns brand image with the strategic objectives of the company, TAGbrands work impacts several aspects of the business including the retail environment, the relationship with customers and the organizational structure. TAGbrands is proud to have amongst its regional client base: Bank Audi, Doha Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ghandour, Bonjus, Patchi, L’Oreal and Taanayel. Through the company, Maya has been honoured to receive the following awards: the 2006 British Council’s Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year for Lebanon, 35 under 35 Global Women Entrepreneurs award in 2007 and Rising Talent” by the Women’s Forum in France in 2008. As Maya is a strong believer in design and innovation she decided to co-found and incubate the MENA Design Research Center in 2010, a non-profit organization dedicated to design research and social change in the Middle East and North Africa as the CSR branch of TAGbrands.
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Dear Friends, We, the MENA Design Research Center founders and Beirut Design Week organizers, would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who contributed in making the first Beirut Design Week a great success. We are pleased to note that we made headlines in local regional and international press. Over 3500 attendees took part actively in launch events, workshops, talks, conferences, film screenings, and open studios whilst activating Beirut’s design community in one collaborative effort on multiple fronts. From established to young and upcoming designers, the participants showcased Beirut’s current design culture. In this documentation of Beirut Design Week 2012, we have gathered a collection of images and text that summarize the major events that took place during the week. We have also included most of the online and printed press that were released regarding major events. Amidst political turmoil and instability, we believe that Beirut Design Week is very important for the country’s creative economy and brand image. We are dedicated to the progressive development of Beirut Design Week in the coming years and aspire to promote it as a global event (like all design weeks in major cities), knowing that Lebanon is a small country with a young design history. We hope that Beirut Design Week becomes a yearly event where we all collaborate as one voice, and one entity to showcase Beirut as the Design Capital of the Middle East to the global community.
We look forward to seeing you next year,
Doreen Toutikian and Maya Karanouh Beirut Design Week Founders and Organizers
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A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO Our partners, sponsors and supporters are the heroes of the Beirut Design Week initiative, without them, none of this would have been possible. On such short notice, you all pulled through for us and we want you to know that we truly appreciate all your efforts in helping us. Vrouyr Joubanian, for being the world’s most enduring Project Coordinator Ulrich Novak and Farid Majari from the Goethe Institute Barbara Hewitt from the British Council Nada Sardouk and Mona Fares from Ministry of Tourism Brahim Samaha and Nidal Riachy from Laboratoire D’art David Munir Nabti from AltCity Wael Hmaidan, Nadine Ajami and Layal Nehme from Indyact Nada Debs Nadine Fares from Curve Magazine Dina Debbas for providing calming and soothing advice The whole team at Tagbrands for supporting and pitching in when needed Carol Murr from MTV for being a grear supporter and sponsor Alain Saba from Promonet Media Jihad and Rachad Achkar from Anis Printing Press Francois Harik and Marcus Matossian for creating great animations All the Desmeemers for putting their heart and soul into their projects Tony Feghali and Eliane Saade at AUB for all their support with the conference Elie Hasbani at the Municipality of Beirut Wyssem Nochi for his support and advice Ziad Mugraby for his great support and all are our other sponsors, media partners, participants, friends and family.
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IMPRESSIONS OF BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK 2012 “Beirut Design Week was a great opportunity for bringing together the local design world under one roof. There are a lot of designers who do not have their own space or who have only one or two objects that they would like to showcase... Beirut Design Week gave them the opportunity to showcase their work. It also gave professional design offices and outlets the incentive to present some of their new products or design processes. Beirut has a lot to offer in the design field and this could be the beginning of something very exciting for all of us as well as for future designers.”
Nada Debs (Text excerpt from Curve Magazine)
“its about time Beirut celebrated its design creative energy and curving the gap. Thank you BDW for taking the initiative in realizing this beauty project. ”
Wyssem Nochi On/Off
“Our workshop with Beirut Design Week was a great success, with many participants and a fantastic good spirit. We are looking forward for next year’s!”
Cyrille Najjar, White sur White
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“I thought Beirut Design Week was great, it allowed a gathering of design academics to present their experiences of how design has changed radically over the last 20 years - so setting an agenda for dealing with the present and engaging with the future. The conference format was inspired - it allowed the dissemination of the ideas debated across a broad spectrum of interests, professional backgrounds and age groups. The fact that the whole BDW/Mena project was structured as a dialogue was fantastic, professors and design practitioners opening themselves to involved discussion, rather than just delivering lectures or presenting work. Additionally, the juxtaposition of the established strengths of Lebanese design - jewelry, handicrafts and textiles - with the design research and social engagement of young practitioners and an international cohort of recent graduates was a landmark in how design can act as a tool for debate and fuelling social innovation.”
Prof. Gordon Hush,
Glasgow School of Art
“We were really happy with the way Beirut Design Week went for us. We thought that the organizers did a good job communicating the Design Week and we had really great feedback from customers.”
Johnny Farah (Text excerpt from Curve Magazine)
“Beirut Design Week in 2012 was a great step forward in gathering creative, problem-solving individuals and showcasing their talent, potential and innovations. Not only did it reinforce our faith in Lebanon’s hidden creative geniuses but also placed a large number of up and coming design hubs, collectives and people on the road map to local and international recognition. Looking forward to the next one!
The Creative Space Beirut
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5 INTERESTING FACTS 1. The brand equity created with Beirut Design Week was
so powerful in terms of marketing that many designers across the country created an event and promoted it as ‘during Beirut Design Week’ even though they were not part of the official participants list.
2. ‘Beirut Design Week’ is now a registered trademark 3. Beirut Design Week is the only week long national event in the Middle East that is completely independent from art exhibits and events.
4. New participants for next year’s Beirut Design Week have already started applying.
5. Beirut Design Week received:
$100,000 in funding $200,000 funding in kind
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BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK 2012 LAUNCH EVENT BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT | 15
BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK LAUNCH EVENT DESMEEM EXHIBITION AT THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM
Beirut Design Week 2012 was launched at the Ministry of Tourism in Hamra with the DESMEEM exibition. The launch event hosted over 450 visitors and marked the beginning of the first Design Week in the Middle East.
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DESMEEM is the international design project of 27 designers from Europe and the Middle East, who collaborated with Lebanese NGOs to create more sustainable and efective solutions to a variety of l issues in Lebanon. BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT | 17
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BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK 2012
THE FUTURE OF DESIGN EDUCATION CONFERENCE BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT | 19
THE FUTURE OF DESIGN EDUCATION CONFERENCE AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT The main conference of Beirut Design Week was held at the American University of Beirut and included a line up of influential design educators from Lebanon & around the world. They came together in Beirut to discuss the future of design education.
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From left to right, the speakers and moderators of the conference: Linda Selwood Choueiry (NDU), Uta Brandes (Koeln International School of Design), Halim Choueiry (AUST), Michael Erlhoff (Koeln International School of Design), Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art), Doreen Toutikian (moderator/ director MENA Design Research Center), Jamer Hunt (Parsons New School), Simon Mhanna (moderator), Ayssar Arida, and Tim Marshall (Parsons New School).
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BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK 2012 52 PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT | 23
PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS
Jewelry
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Beirut Design Week 2012, the first design event of such a large scale in the region, included 52 participants and over 50 events. These events include collection launches, book launches, performances, catwalks, open studios, workshops, talks, and street interventions. In the next pages, you will find the photos of events of the participating designers that took place in Beirut during the week. BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT  |  25
NADA DEBS
Nada Debs invited the public to an ‘Artisanal Performance’, where artisans work with their hands on her furniture designs in Saifi Village
SARAH’S BAG
Sarah’s Bag hosted a special visitors day where people came to discover her latest bag collections, with a ‘Making Of’ video projection. 26 | BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT
ANNABEL KARIM KASSAR
NADA ZEINEH
CAI LIGHT
Annabelle Karim Kassar and CAI Light displayed their designs in Balima, a restaurant in Saifi Village.
Nada Zeineh had an impressive collection launch in her Sursock boutique with a lovely rooftop overlooking the city at sunset. Guests included some of Beirut’s more charismatic characters.
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MARIA HALIOS
‘Boho Beirut’, the title of the new book that was launched by Shirine Saad at Maria Halios design showroom in Mar Mikhael.
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SPARE ARTS GALLERY
Spare Arts gallery displayed their latest furniture collection and hosted a newcomer into the scene, in Mar Mikhael.
MUKHI SISTERS
An upcoming young and trendy duo, bursting on to the jewellery design scene are the Mukhi Sisters. Their event in Beirut Souks brought together a surge of happy visitors, each getting their own special goody bag.
GEORGES EL TEN
Georges El Ten displayed his new collection ‘Out of Clutter’ at Spare Arts Galery in Mar Mikahel. His works are interpretations of musical pieces into illustrations on metal plates.
ATELIER G
Aterlier G launched their new collection of colorful flowy dresses ‘Four Years on the Move’ at their space in Sassine.
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OPEN STUDIOS
Open Studios refer to the days that the participating designers invited the public to visit their studios and offices to be informed about how and where they work. .PSLAB
Internationally acclaimed, Beirut-based .PSLAB opened up their perfect postmodern design studios to the public with private tours by the staff in Mar Mikhael. MAAJOUN
Maajoun, a young duo of typographers and communication designers opened up their doors to other young and curious designers along with homemade cake and beverages. Their studio is located in Corniche al Mazraa.
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APRACTICE
Apractice, an architecture studio in Gemmayzeh invited guests to explore their new interiors and a showcase of their work.
CREATIVE SPACE
A non-profit initiative, the Creative Space in Achrafieh, hosted the entire international team of speakers of the Beirut Design Week conference and met with their young ambitious fashion designers. BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT | 31
WORKSHOPS JOHNNY FARAH - BAG DESIGN
Johnny Farah’s bag making workshop was such a success that they had to add extra sessions to accomodate the curious participants. The photoshoot with Joe Keserwani was one of the highlights of the Beirut Design Week.
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RANDA TABBAH - JEWELLERY DESIGN
Randa Tabbah’s boutique in Saifi welcomed dozens of people who learnt how to make their own jewellery pieces.
WHITE SUR WHITE - PRODUCT DESIGN
White Sur White’s workshop allowed designers and architects to manufacture their product designs using 3D printing at their studio in Achrafieh.
MIRADA MADRID - DESIGNPRENEURS
Mirada Madrid’s workshop ‘Designpreneurs’ served to bridge the gap between being a designer and an entrepreuneur at AltCity, Hamra.
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DESIGN RESEARCH COMPANY - DESIGN RESEARCH
Design Research Company partners Bianca Bender and Pia Drechsel from Cologne came especially to shre their expertise on Design Research at Laboratoire D’Art. Gemmayze. 34 | BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT
DENSITY DESIGN - INFOGRAPHICS
Density Design infographic experts Giorgio Roberto Uboldi and Donato Ricci taught the participants how to create infographics using tags about Lebanon from international news reports. This resulted in an exhibition of the created works on the last day of Beirut Design Week.
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service design - giulia bazoli & Eeva campbell
In the Service Design Workshop the participants were asked to design a service for different scenarios using various methods. 36  |  BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK REPORT
video documentation - Nina martin, giorgio bordiga & sara manzini
The Video Documentation Workshop required that each participant develop a new perpective of Beirut. The results were exhibited on the last day of Beirut DEsign Week at Laboratoire D’Art.
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TALKS
Audiences gathered from all over to AltCity in Hamra from Tuesday til Friday to learn from a multitude of designers and their experiences.
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Simon Mhanna and Linda Selwood Choueiry deliver their talk ‘Emotion Flows with Mindful Design’.
Joanna Choukeir tells the public about Imgaination Studio, a social design project to eliminate sectarian differences.
Left: Joumana Ibrahim reveals the issues involved with the lack of public information in Lebanon. Right: Samer Yamani talks about the Design Road project which plans to come to Beirut next.
Left: Ziad Abillama discusses ‘Are Derrida and Design Strangers that never Met?’ at Atelier S/Z in Gemmayze. Top right: Sarah Naim, delivering a DESMEEM talk about the role of design in creative education alongside her teammates Sara Manzini and Tatiana Toutikian. Bottom right: Connie Yeh delivers a DESMEEM talk about the role of design in Energy consumption awareness with teammates Karim Badra, Farah Yassine, and Peter Mattar (below right).
Right: A DESMEEM talk with the Sustainable Consumerism team (Mary Rizk, Giorgio Uboldi, Marwa Boukarim & Nisrine Sarkis) anout how we can use plastic bags to design everyday objects.
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STREET INTERVENTIONS ALL AROUND BEIRUT
EXPAND
Two daring communication designers (Elie Bou Fadel & Sara Makki) decided to take their designs to the streets of Beirut and EXPAND people’s visual field of perception. PACMAN
Image courtesy of Brofessional Review
The Urban Pacman team was at the St. Nicholas Stairs in Gemmayze on the last day of the week selling road signs as memorabilia, a sarcastic take on urban laws in Beirut.
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FILM SCREENINGS
AT ST. NICHOLAS STAIRS IN GEMMAYZE
Every night of Beirut Design Week, a curated selection of design documentary films were screened on the St. Nicholas Gemmayzeh Stairs.
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SCREEN & PRINT
Beirut Design Week 2012 website
Organized by
Organized by
2012
BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK Invitation cards
The MENA Design Research Center cordially invites you to the launching event of the Beirut Design Week & Desmeem Exhibition DATE 6 PM, 25th June 2012 VENUE Ministry of Tourism, Hamra RSVP hello@menadesignresearch.com For more information please visit www.beirutdesignweek.com
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2012
BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK
THE FUTURE OF DESIGN EDUCATION CONFERENCE The MENA Design Research Center cordially invites you to attend the Beirut Design Week Conference. DATE 10 AM to 4 PM, 27th of June 2012 VENUE West Hall, AUB GUEST SPEAKERS Tim Marshall Parsons New School for Design Jamer Hunt Parsons New School for Design Uta Brandes Koeln International School of Design Michael Erlhoff Koeln International School of Design Gordon Hush Glasgow School of Art
Ayssar Arida Q-DAR Howayda Al Harithy American University of Beirut Linda Selwood Choueiri Notre Dame University Halim Choueiry American University of Science & Technology Randa Abdel Baki Lebanese American University Marc Baroud Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts
Map Catalogue
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OUTDOORS
MORE THAN 40 BILLBOARDS ALL OVER BEIRUT
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OUTDOORS
5000 POSTERS ALL OVER BEIRUT
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COLLATERALS BY PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS ADAPTATION OF BEIRUT DESIGN WEEK LOGO
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TVC ON MTV SHORT ANIMATION
TV spot promoting Beirut Design Week on MTV for 2 weeks
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PRESS ADS
Beirut Design Week was advertised in Local & regional print magazines.
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PRESS ARTICLES Beirut Design Week was covered by the following local and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
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LOCAL NEWSPAPERS
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A SPECIAL 27 PAGE REVIEW IN CURVE MAGAZINE
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ONLINE ARTICLES
LOCAL & INTERNATIONAL PRESS
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Beirut Design Week was featured on dozens of local, regional and international online magazines , these are some samples.
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MAIN PARTNERS
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
MEDIA PARTNERS
The Mapping Company
DESMEEM NGO PARTNERS
MENA Design Research Center 2nd floor Block D, Lazarieh Bldg Riad El Solh, Beirut, Lebanon T +961 1 980 089 (ext 117) E hello@menadesignresearch.com