> Al Musiqa at the Paris Philharmonie

Music has always been at the heart of my life since the very beginning: as a toddler dancing with my dad to the sound of his vinyls, as a teenager fascinated by indie rock & new wave, and then as an inspiration for photo shoots, slogans, captions... I truly believe Music has saved the planet from going totally mad...till now ;-)
Let's celebrate it together with my review of the wonderful exhibition currently held at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Watch for more!

> BERGERAC: a book, restaurant, a lifestyle...

As an art director, I rarely take book projects unless they really are different, and require more communication & art direction skills than actual editing and publishing expertise.
For example, a few years back I worked on a room service menu that looked like a ride through Beirut's street food spots.

And this year, I also took on an exciting project for Bergerac.

Now if you're a foodie, you probably know this little Sud-Ouest restaurant located in the heart of Achrafieh.
Serving mainly duck specialties and cuisine from the South West of France, Bergerac is more than a restaurant. It's a convivial place that you can enjoy with a laid back bunch of friends, and discover what they call the french paradox (yes french people don't get fat eating foie gras with wine! :)

And since we Beirutis need a lot of convincing to get out of our food patterns, I answered Marc's call and worked on the design of this cute menu-booklet, that is actually much more than that:

It is a full-fledge book that talks about the South-West region and traditions and why these appealed to Marc, how he met the Chef. The Chef's recipes and tips, along with a nutritionist explanation around the benefits of duck fat (yes!), a user-friendly wine guide, fun illustrations by Andrea Turvey whom I discovered from Jamie Oliver's magazine...

The project went beyond our initial ideas, and so, Antoine found it interesting and you can now get it from there as well!

But what i truly advise you to do, is go try Bergerac if you haven't already and don't miss their flamed canelé with rhum...

...Their hilarious karaoke mondays, and their friendly family who will make you feel home in no time!

BIFEX 2015 Conference & Pop Culture GALA dinner

I can't believe it's been three weeks we finished BIFEX, the yearly conference of LFA, Lebanese Franchise Association!
As usual, my job was to create this year's conference branding, all the animations that passed on the screen, as well as all the prints.

Concerning the closing Gala, the theme was the "Lebanese Pop & TV Culture" of the seventies.
Tonight I will be on #BalaToulSire - Future TV to talk about it, as Zaven is also very interested by this theme and is actually publishing a book about the subject!

Here are a few pictures; first the preparations of the giant TV screen:

The hundreds of TVs in the Deco...

The old soda bottles with carnations, the "in" flower at the time:

Having a laugh on the vintage TV set:

The Diffa Ladies, totally in the theme ;-)

Pierette Katrib, the perfect MC

Souad el Achi " As3ada allahou masakom..."


Allo hayété... Pierette and Mr Majzoub:

 8eme Art performing Allo Hayété:

George Khabbaz paying a tribute to all the late stars...

Zaven & Rima Karaki with the 7up bottles ;-)

Chou batariytak? Vintage ads played by 8eme Art..

Yanasseeb dour w seeb... The real Lebanese Lottery Wheels!


After that, the awards started, and then we fired up the dance floor, in good LFA tradition...

Huge thanks to Mr Makdessi for the TL archives, IAA for the advertising archives, Rita Moussalem & her team who found solutions to produce all my ideas. Sultan Touma, Omar Youssef and all the Screen-Lighting-Audio-Video-Photo team, 8e Art for a wonderful performance, Bassam Abou Zeid, Rita & Jean Aoun, Joe Alam who made BIFEX a trending hashtag on social media this year...

We were about 50 people striving to make this event a success and it was even more. Thank you all!

Little update! Here's the sequence with Zaven!

Beirut & the Four Seasons, a Passionate Love Affair

It's not the first time I am challenged to work on an amazing project for the Four Seasons Beirut; you've already had a glimpse of the video installation I did for the Roof two summers ago.
Only this time I've been asked by Christian Klaus their amazing F&B director to design: "An In-Room Dining Menu, which is not an In-Room Dining Menu"! "... Hmm, Pardon?" My eyes asked.
"Well, I want a book about Beirut, but not Ministry of Tourism Beirut, I want YOUR Beirut."
WOW. Is there a better brief you can get from a client? I mean, God knows I am passionate about my city, but could I let go? Put all my passion and guts into this book?
I did. And I invited Ghassan Koteit to capture this journey and take you on a 24 hour ride "Through Beirut"...

This is how it starts:

And here are a few of the pages:

After the ride, you have the menu on a thicker and more sensual aquarelle paper:

And it ends with a map of all the spots covered in the book, inviting the reader into the inner soul of my intricate complicated contradictory but oh-so beautiful city...

The book was just published this week, an exquisite farewell gift to Christian who's moving forward to FS San Francisco as Hotel Manager; may you inspire as many people there as you did in the last three years. And huge thanks to Four Seasons Beirut for this opportunity to design one of the most beautiful projects of my career.

> SneakPeek: BOOKS & MEN RJmag11 published next week

Men who read are sexier.
Books are sensual.
And wandering in the worlds of fictional characters is definitely our kick!
Have a wee look at RJmag 11, inspired by Oscar Wilde, Sherlock Holmes, intrepid Lebanese publishers, old friends and old books...

Concept & creative direction: Maya Metni, Photography: Imad El Khoury, Styling: Julien Abboud, add to that the wonderful work of all the RJ power team.

More here.

> New Guide " Beirut Revealed " by Carole Corm

The year ended + the first month of 2013 is well on its way and I even didn't have the time to share this beautiful new guide with you!
325 rich pages by Beirut based journalist and Monocle correspondent, Carole Corm,
& Photographer Nadim Bou Habib.
A little peak at the content proves that it is not your regular basic guide, and even I, the unconditional Beiruti, found many tips!

And there are very interesting contributions about various subjects,
like Gregory Buchakjian's piece about the Beirut Art World:

And Ghassan Koteit's piece about Beirut & Film:

and last but not least ;-) a small contribution by MM ( me!) the foodie, Carole was so generous to include me in the local insights, amidst great Beirut figures like Chef Hussein Hadid, or Rabih Kayrouz to say the least, so I'm really happy and I hope you enjoy my tips!

Click here for the Daily Star's review about the guide.