living between…
THE STUDIO
Launched in London in 2000, Rana Salam STUDIO started exporting her Arab culture to the West.
Ten years later Rana relocated the studio to Beirut and in 2011, she opened the Rana Salam SHOP selling home products and a collection of accessories, art prints and one-of-a-kind objects with stories to tell and sell from the Arab world.
Her ‘vintage finds’ section features unusual objects collected during her travels.
Her artistic intention is to project the Arab world in a fresh engagingly mpositive light.
Rana’s visual cues are mainly from popular culture such as fashion, food, street ephemera and signs of consumerism which she translates into visually captivating solutions for her clients, delivering a contemporary reinterpretation that extends the global relevance of her designs across everything from retail spaces and interiors to products.
The daughter of pioneering Lebanese architect Assem Salam, Rana grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. Her father gifted her a Vespa at the age of fifteen which inspired her to explore the city’s streets, unconsciously exposing her to the shaabi (popular) culture that later became her inspiration.
Her mother Josephine Bisharat, born in Jerusalem, studied at Vassar College, NY followed by a fellowship to Harvard University focusing on Middle Eastern studies. She then returned to the Middle East to teach at both the American University of Cairo and then Beirut.
She loved cooking and baking, which had a huge impact on Rana’s childhood, growing up surrounded by cookbooks such as The Joy of Cooking, Chez Panisse and A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.
one more thing…
Inspired by Paul Smith, Sonja Rykiel and
Kate Spade, it’s easy to see how these brands have influenced how Rana works.
Rana Salam’s career took off straight out of college when she designed the windows of the upscale London store Harvey Nichols, translating hand-painted Beirut street billboards and pop stars into glamorous Western icons such as Bettie Page and Brigitte Bardot. Soon Liberty of London embraced the flair of Middle Eastern street art and commissioned Rana to design their then new swimwear department.
Harvey Nichols London window design,1995
Rana has since acquired broad experience and developed specialized knowledge in art direction, design and consultancy for retail, product, print, hospitality, and exhibitions. Her design reputation is also well-established within the GCC and globally.
A milestone
Rana’s career highlight came in 2008 with the publication of her book,
‘The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie’.
Co -authored with Malu Halasa, the book has sold 10,000 copies to date.
curiosity killed the cat…
How did this all begin?
Ironically it was not until later, during my design education in London, that I studied and fully discovered my own country’s creativity.
With no facility for formal design education in Lebanon during the civil war, I left Beirut in 1986 to pursue my BA in Graphic Design at Central St. Martins, followed by an MA in Visual Communication and Art Direction from the Royal College of Art.
London in the 80’s, tell us more…
At the time, London was leading the global design-branding explosion and artistically expressing the era through the creation of iconic designs in magazines such as The Face, ID and Wallpaper. Inspired by London’s projected introspection, I turned to Lebanese popular art and culture, exploring it and merging it with the latest design technology. Creating my own distinctive style, I started to export my culture through projects to change people’s perceptions of the Middle East.
If you were not a Graphic designer what would you like to be?
I’d be a fashion designer who wanted to be
a cook!