The crème de la crème of Lebanese design

“The Lebanese design scene isn’t definable,” says Beirut-based designer Youmna Geday. “There’s a powerful creative energy flowing in the country – designers are bold and free.”

This June, for Beirut Design Week, Geday along with 14 other designers will present her work as part a one-of-a-kind exhibition, hosted at the city’s Beit Museum. The fruitful result of a collaboration between Beirut Design Week and Adorno, the exhibition will showcase the work of Beirut’s most promising design talents and, in doing so, capture the design character, broad scope and creative energy emerging out of the region.

The exhibition started taking form just several months ago. In April, Beirut Design Week and Adorno, an online gallery and marketplace that presents curated collections of limited edition design, joined forces to launch an open call. Wanting to track down the crème de la crème of independent design, the competition was open to emerging practitioners from all corners of the capital. An extensive judging process proceeded  – a panel including Beirut Design Week creative director Ghassan Salameh, design writer and curator Ana Dominguez Siemens, and Adorno co-founder Kristian Snorre Andersen were all part of the deliberations – and a final line-up was agreed.

Fifteen participating designers will each present their work at a dedicated exhibition that opens on 22 June. Much like Lebanon’s design scene, the exhibition is diverse and features work spanning myriad disciplines including furniture, lighting, ceramics, artwork, and architectural installation.

Marianne Sargi and Zeina Aboul Hosn will exhibit Unearthly, a collection of hand-crafted and glazed clay objects, each with a unique identity, structure and colour pattern, created in collaboration. Thomas Trad, a designer who founded his own business in 2016 having worked for the likes of Fredrikson Stallard and Michael Anastassiades, will present a family of furniture in wood and marble. Elsewhere, Youmna Geday’s illuminated art installation – Unborn Creatures of Light – comprises a delicate structure of LED lamps and hollowed out and reinforced eggshells.

As well as presenting their work to the festival’s international audience, the exhibiting designers will also receive technical and manufacturing support from Fabraca Studios, a collaborative, architect-led initiative, which specialises in the creation of bespoke lighting and furniture. Several of the designers will also have their work featured in, and available to buy from, Adorno’s inaugural Beirut collection. Keep your eyes peeled!

Find out more about the founders of Adorno here.