Rana Salam

Rana Salam is the designer and the art director of 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.
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.
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.