Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Lara Balaa

Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Lara Balaa

Author: afikra March 8, 2024 Duration: 44:38

Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lara Balaa, Lebanese editorial designer and PhD Candidate at Rutgers School of Communication and Information. They discuss Balaa's journey into becoming a graphic designer, and her fascination with connecting graphic design to storytelling, strategy and communication.

Balaa shares her experience of teaching design history, questioning how knowledge is consumed and produced, and how this has led to her interest in research and writing on design from the region. They unpack Lara's approach to editorial design and her emphasis on creating an easy and enjoyable reading experience, especially in bilingual publications.

Balaa recounts her experience researching and writing her book "Emile Menhem: Invigorating Arab Journalism," part of the Khatt Books Arabic Design Library series. She describes the collective mentality of the 70s generation of Arab designers whose design work motivation was social engagement.

Balaa reveals some of her inspirations and important design commissions that have left an impact on the way she practices design today. She also discusses setting up Maajoun design studio in partnership with Khajag Apelian – where they attempted to mix commissioned design work like their seminal book design project for Beirut-based Hachette-Antoine publishers – with initiating design projects such as exhibitions and workshops.

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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5mMJ782dhW6yvfq0E0_HhA

ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
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Khatt Chronicles: Stories on Design from the Arab World is a series of dialogues that pull back the curtain on creative processes often overlooked in global design narratives. Produced in collaboration with afikra, each episode sits down with a different practitioner-be it a typeface designer reimagining Arabic letterforms, an illustrator weaving social commentary into their work, or a researcher digging into historical patterns and contemporary craft. These aren't formal interviews, but more like candid conversations that delve into the guest's personal journey, the challenges and inspirations specific to their context, and their hopes for the future of visual culture in the region. When you listen to this podcast, you're hearing firsthand accounts of how ideas move from sketchbook to reality, how tradition converses with modern technology, and what it means to build a creative practice rooted in the Arab World. The discussions naturally cover everything from the intricacies of book design and street art to the philosophy behind material choices and color palettes. Khatt Chronicles serves as an oral archive, chronicling the vibrant and evolving scene of Arab visual communication, one story at a time. It’s for anyone curious about the stories behind the objects, images, and letters that shape our visual environment, offering a nuanced perspective directly from the minds that are shaping it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Khatt Chronicles: Stories on Design from the Arab World
Podcast Episodes
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Hussein Alazaat [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:49
Huda AbiFarès interviews Hussein Alazaat about his passion since childhood for Arabic letters, Arab comics, and Arab graphic design. Alazaat discusses his influences: his education through his professional experiences in…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Farah Fayyad [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:22
Huda AbiFarès interviews Farah Fayyad about her passion for and practice as screen printer at her co-founded Nice Nice Prints. She candidly tells her story about coincidentally becoming a graphic designer, staring with r…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Turbo Studio [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
Huda AbiFarès interviews Turbo Studio founders Mothanna Hussein and Saeed Abu-Jaber about the story behind their the founding of their studio and their cross-disciplinary skills, backgrounds, and how they marry contempor…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Margherita Abi Hanna [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:11
Huda AbiFarès interviews Magherita Abi Hanna about the relation between her graphic design background and her contemporary jewellery design. Ghita discusses her experimentation with form and material; her accidental mish…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Pascal Zoghbi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:06
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Pascal Zoghbi, from 29LT type foundry, about his love for Arabic letters and typography. Zoghbi discusses the practice and challenges of Arabic type design; and his educational and professi…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Foundland Collective [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:20
Ghalia Elsrakbi is a design professional, researcher, and design educator. After obtaining her a Master's degree in Design at the Sandberg Institute, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, she joined the post-academic in…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Nathalie Fallaha [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:09
Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Nathalie Fallaha about her entrepreneurship and design ventures. The interview explores Fallaha’s agency specialisation in web design and branding. Together they unpack Fallaha’s design pro…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Karim Farah [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:02
Huda AbiFarès interviews Karim Farah about his graphic design and Arabic lettering work. The interview explores the potential of music in Karim’s development of his unique visual language in which he questions the aesthe…
Khatt Chronicles in Conversation With Jana Traboulsi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:57
Khatt interviews Jana Traboulsi about the relation between drawing, illustration and expressive graphic design. The talk explores ideas on engagement with political and cultural issues, and on combining personal explorat…