Yara Khoury Nammour interviews Lebanese graphic designer and educator Leen Charafeddine.
They start the conversation discussing her entry into the field of Graphic design which stemmed from her interest as a teenager in the advertising profession. Later she unrolls in the graphic design program at the Amrican University of Beirut (AUB), then goes on to receive two masters degrees from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and the School of Poetic Computing (SPC) in New York. After a short stint in advertising, Leen's work shifts to graphic design and creative coding.
Leen discusses in detail her work with the Lebanese children’s publisher Dar Onboz. At Dar Onboz she is reintroduced to the Arabic language and script, and her interest in multidisciplinary and experiential education is triggered. This lead her to pursue an MA degree at RCA with a thesis project for teaching math in an alternative and visual way. This interest further launches her into creative coding and she joins the School for Poetic Computation in New York.
Leen talks about a few of the publication design projects she worked on with Dar Onboz, and elaborates on how she incorporated her experiences with the children in her family in these publication projects. One of the focuses in her work became teaching the Arabic language in alternative ways, and looking into playful ways to underline connections between science, art and making. After her RCA graduation she started working on a paper engineering project with her nephews and nieces that used math and building to describe how things grow in the real world. Based on that project she was approached by the Palestinian museum to create more paper engineering works for The History of Palestine Through Everyday Objects project which consisted of a series of pop-up books and a box of activities. Further collaborations with the Palestinian Museum included the Sanasel Arabic language educational online platform developed with the accessibility for the Palestinian diaspora and building connections in mind.
The conversation revolved around Leen's interest in language, mathematics, creative coding and how these can define how we see and practice design in the future. She expresses her interest in learning new skills and technologies, and using them to empower marginalised communities and amplify the voices of those that are being silenced. The conversation ends with a discussion about an Arabic coding language and the current challenges that coders face when working with Arabic typography in a dynamic way, and in real time.
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Leen Charafeddine is a graphic designer based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her practice is focused on creating alternative pedagogical tools. She graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut, and an MA in Visual Communications from the Royal College of Art, London. She is a self-taught creative coder in Processing, and attended online courses at The School for Poetic Computation in New York to learn OpenFrameworks.
Connect with Leen Charafeddine 👉 https://instagram.com/leencharafeddine
Hosted by Yara Khoury Nammour
Yara Khoury Nammour is an award-winning graphic designer and typographer. Her research interests include Arabic typography particularly bi-linguality, type design, legibility, book design, modular systems and much more.
Connect with Yara Khoury Nammour 👉 https://www.instagram.com/yarakhouryn/
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns
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