In partnership with Studio Kawakeb, the Beirut Design Week team sought out strong visual statements in the graphic design and print production of all the communication process. The brief was to create a concept, which visually portrays the theme of the year focusing on sustainability and translating it clearly to the participants, partners and audience of BDW.

 

Studio Kawakeb's Christina Skaf, Hussein Nakhal, and David Habchy delved into the world of recycled papers and sustainable printing techniques, while creating a new language that involves the audience in the process. The main challenges were to use less ink and waste less paper, while having an authentic, simple and captivating approach.

 

PAPER RECYCLING

Instead of using new paper, Studio Kawakeb decided to recycle all the previous catalogues of Beirut Design Week in order to make the posters and invitations. With the help of a small organization in the south of Lebanon, run by women from nearby villages each piece of paper was hand-made with the perfect consistency of texture.  The phases of paper being torn into pieces and eventually becoming a texture was documented on BDW’s social media pages and the website. Moreover, Studio Kawakeb also used older maps of BDW, which were of a thicker density to create the covers of the notebooks that go in the goodie bag.

 

PAPER FOR PRINTING

Since using handmade recycled paper is not possible for offset print production, Studio Kawakeb decided to research the least environmentally harmful ways to print the catalogues of BDW. One of the key aspects of sustainable printing, is decreasing paper waste. After studying the sizes of papers that printers use, they found out that standard sizes are best to use, as the leftover paper is absolutely minimal. Therefore all the 3 publications are in the A6, A5, and A4. Moreover the amount of printed publications was reduced, urging more people to use the website and the app for information. As for the paper company, they are certified environmentally friendly paper suppliers – where one tree is planted for every tree that is cut.

 

INK

In terms of ink, ideally, the less ink used, the better. Ink is toxic and harmful to the environment. And although organic ink has been invented, they are not available in Lebanon. Therefore, Studio Kawakeb decided to use only one Pantone color in the program and the feature to decrease the use of CMYK, which was only used in the Design Directory. However, the Directory –unlike the program- is a publication that is meant to stay in the bookshelf, as a timeless memoire of BDW2016.

 

BINDING

Two out of three BDW publications use saddle-stitch binding. It is the preferred method to use since unbinding the paper for recycling is much easier than other methods. Perfect binding, which uses hot glue in the process, is not environmentally friendly and very difficult to unbind. However, once the publication exceeds a certain amount of pages, it becomes the only feasible choice. Perfect binding was used for the Directory as well, but as mentioned previously, it is meant to last in our audience’s homes.

 

DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Instead of having billboards, posters or flyers, Beirut Design Week opted for digital billboards, which use LED lights. Not only are they more attractive and allow more room for content, they are also far more environmentally-friendly than the weather resistant Flex banners, or glued paper billboard with a very short life span.

 

ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS

Apart from recycled invitation cards and official invoices, all communication with participants of Beirut Design Week is done online through email. Moreover, BDW encourages people to check on the website, all social media channel and the mobile app, for detailed information about all events and participants of the event.