Lara Balaa

Lara Balaa studies contemporary design culture in Lebanon. She uses her training in graphic design to understand how designers construct and transmit their knowledge of Arabic calligraphy, and how they develop this visual language as a distinctive skill and a global differentiator. She approaches design as a cultural practice, exploring the conditions that contribute to the reproduction of the calligraphic form; the subjective experiences of designers and the identities they mobilize in their production processes, and the experiences of audiences as they make meaning of the forms they encounter. In doing so, Balaa challenges essentialist views of Arabic calligraphy as representative of all things Arab/Islamic and establishes the form as a locus for political and identitarian negotiation.

M.A., International Communication Management, The Hague University of Applied Sciences
B.A., Graphic Design, American University of Beirut