A designer by day.

Ever wondered what's behind that 4m high monumental wall along the Beirut Highway (going from downtown to karantina)? I had always seen that "shou fi wara l 7ayt" graffiti on the wall and it always made me wonder, but I had always missed the link to the answer.

Well,
*drum rolls*
it's a train station!

I can't believe that! Mar Mikhael station, hidden right in the middle of Beirut. And to think I went all the way to the Bekaa to see another station along that railway.
Please check this link for more info: shou fi wara l 7ayt?

Also, as you can see in the events page, there will be a 2-day open doors at Tripoli Railway Station on June 25 and 26. Check the event's facebook page and be there!

Seriously, is there anything better than discovering the historical treasures of your own country?!

It took me a while (a pretty long one actually) to figure out how to go about this one, then I thought I'd mess around with the awesome blend tool in Illustrator and this is where it got me!

You know how, sometimes, when you learn a new word, you start seeing it everywhere around you? The same thing is happening with the "lebanese oldies revival" theme. For instance, every Friday you can now watch Sami Clark, Abdo Mounzer and Le Petit Prince at Orientis and bring back the golden age! And just yesterday, I went to the opening of VideoWorks 2011 and the opening video was all based on footage from that era.

The short is called Under a Rainbow by Roy Dib. It featured scenes from Remi Bandali's Amani tahta kaws kozah (which, by the way, is a must-see movie) spliced with scenes from Studio L Fann, Samira Toufic, Ferial Karim, Madonna, etc. All cut and edited in a way that greatly contrasts our happy childhood memories with what was really going on at a time of war.
It's sad that my generation turns amnesiac when it comes to the 80s and that this period in time might never be thoroughly documented, not politically nor musically. I'm in constant search of what defines our Lebanese identity as such and I strangely find the answer in the songs and artists of that era.

The second movie was Prologue by Raed & Rania Rafei. It handles yet another subject that am sure most of us have never heard about and that's March 19, 1974 when AUB students rebelled against the administration and took over the campus. The rebellion was mainly against a 10% increase in tuition but it underlined deep divisions along social, political and ideological lines.
As the name states, there will be another movie about the event and I can't wait to watch it!

VideoWorks 2011 remains till May 21, you should really check it out.
More info here.

So I decided to try out the "Lebanese Oldies" series digitally and here's what it looks like! So what do you think? Should I rework the others too?























Sorry bout the name but a designer's gotta do what a designer's gotta do!

I think I'm developing carpal tunnel syndrome from sketching and resketching the letters and moving from the sofa to the desk to the window! My room is anything but ergonomic.


Sami Clark was actually reviving the Golden Age at Orientis last weekend along with Abdou Mounzer and Petit Prince, but I found out about it a bit too late! I love it when there's a general wave of reviving Lebanese history. I think we forget too much as Lebanese.

This song should be in every lebanese wedding if you ask me. Enjoy it!

This is the most free-spirited arabic song I can think of! It's been a long time since I colored anything by hand but to honor the spirit of the song I thought I'd give it a go. The scanning kinda ruined it though! I'm thinking next up should be a Sami Clark song, who doesn't love that guy! :)

Enjoy the video!

There's nothing like a good old lebanese song to put a smile on my face. And this is my try at reviving these songs! This will be part of a series, experimenting with arabic typography. It's been ages since I've done any experimentation and I'm still not sure if this is the final version. So what do you people think?