Rana Salam

Rana Salam is the vibrant and vivacious graphic artist, designer and art director behind Rana Salam Studio. Forever inspired by shaabi (popular) cultures of the Middle East, London–Beirut based designer takes her cues from everyday ephemeras and signs of consumerism, and then interprets them into bold visuals and 3D projects. Her powerful sense of observation and insight into Middle Eastern popular cultures gives her the edge to visually translate tastes and experiences. “I am always on a quest to capture positive images of the Middle East and portray them in my work. What better way to impact and change perceptions than through the power of design?” Salam has been cultivating a sense of Beirut, the city she grew-up in, since the age of 15, when she would wiz through the bustling streets on the scooter her father, Modernist architect Assem Salam, gifted her. It was on these adventures that she discovered and unconsciously collected the street references that later became her core inspiration. With no facility for formal design education in Lebanon, she left to London in 1986 to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphics Design at Central St. Martins, followed by a Master’s Degree in Visual Communication and Art Direction from the Royal College of Art. At a distance, Salam was able to fully explore and appreciate her own country’s creative flair and began indirectly documenting the Middle East’s design history. She embraced Middle Eastern popular cultures and merged them with distinct design know-how to cultivate her own stand-out eclectic style and colourful artistic voice. “For me, inspiration comes from observing both ends of the spectrum, from the old-fashioned to the contemporary, the dull to the extraordinary, the filthy to the pristine! Everything is mesmerizing and delicious to look at! I hide nothing!” Straight out of art school, Salam designed the window display of upscale London store Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge (1996), which caught the attention of Paul Smith (2000) and Liberty of London (2003), amongst others like Comptoir Libanais who also commissioned her to bring her Arab street art savvy and Middle Eastern popular flair to very new contexts. Salam returned to Beirut in 2010 to directly engage with the dynamic capital and bring London’s value for design to the frenetic city “that is continuously exploding with creative resilience.” Rana Salam Studio opened in 2012, with the artistic intention of projecting the Middle East in a fresh, engaging and new light. “My unique interpretation of design and signature language bring to life and celebrate the contrasting juxtapositions of my environment. I want to brilliantly transform the perception of the Middle East. What better way than through play!” Rana Salam continues to capture her culture and use her growing archive of found objects and everyday signs to expose and document visual experiences of the region by publishing books (The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie) revealing the expected and shaping exhibitions (Iconic City: Brilliant Beirut at D3-Dubai Design Week 2016) that uphold the importance of the Middle East, particularly Lebanon, in the international design scene.