A Pioneer

Rana Salam is a multi-lingual art director and designer whose work explores and repositions the visual culture of the Arab world through a contemporary lens. Her practice focuses on reframing cultural narratives by drawing on popular art, everyday imagery, and regional aesthetics, translating them into distinctive design projects.

Over the past decade, she has led her own studio, specializing in brand creation and rebranding, visual identity, and cultural projects across design, publishing, and art direction.

A woman designer Rana Salam sitting on a modern white chair in front of large vintage posters of women, with one large poster behind her and two smaller ones on each side, in an indoor setting with overhead lighting design studio

Her work is characterized by a deep engagement with Middle Eastern visual culture, combining archival references with contemporary design approaches to produce designs that are both rooted and forward-looking.

Rana has collaborated with a wide range of international cultural and commercial institutions, including The Victoria and Albert Museum, Liberty of London, Sursock Museum, Art Dubai, Paul Smith, Harvey Nichols, Duro Olowu, the London Design Biennale, Ithra, PEN International, and The Atlantic. Her practice sits at the intersection of design, research, and cultural storytelling.

A shelf with books, a vintage-style glass bottle, green cans, and decorative containers, with a framed airplane illustration hanging above.
Various colorful stationery, art supplies, and decorative items arranged on a white surface, including notebooks, paint palettes, paper clips, and decorative trays Rana Salam Studio

Her work in arts and culture focuses on everyday expressions of identity—graphic design, street culture, food, and vernacular aesthetics—as sites of cultural meaning. She develops projects with her clients or independently that are accessible, research-driven, and rooted in the city’s lived experience.

A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, Rana Salam began bringing Arab visual culture to the West, determined to change the perception of the Middle East through design.

Through design, she seeks to document, reinterpret, and reactivate cultural memory, creating work that connects with new audiences and contributes to the cultural and economic success of her clients’ projects.

She implemented this vision through commissions such as designing the windows for Harvey Nichols in London, creating the brand Comptoir Libanais, and curating and designing ‘Brilliant Beirut’ at D3 in Dubai, narrating the history of Lebanese design from the 1950s to 2015.

You can check out the highlights here

Her work has been widely published in magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Elle Deco, Wallpaper, Creative Review, Design Week, Aishti, Bespoke, Canvas, Brown Book, Monocle and many others.

Colorful storefront of Rana Salam 's shop with geometric wall art and large portrait of a woman with dark hair, striped background, and Coca-Cola themed decorations.

In 2010, Rana Salam STUDIO relocated to Beirut. A year later, she opened the Rana Salam SHOP renamed
The Beirut Bombshell selling home products and a collection of accessories, art prints, and one-of-a-kind objects collected during her travels with stories to tell and sell from the Arab world.

The image contains the word 'inspiration' written in red cursive font.
A black bikini top and a silver glove with red painted nails on a gray surface Syrian lingerie by Rana Salam

Rana’s visual cues are mainly from popular culture,
such as fashion, food, street ephemera, and
signs of consumerism, which she translates into
visually captivating solutions for her clients, delivering a contemporary reinterpretation that extends the global
relevance of her designs across everything from
retail spaces, interiors to products.

A woman with red hair and tattoos biting into a slice of watermelon on a colorful magazine cover with Arabic text of Rana Salam
The number 1950 written in a script font.
Paper cutout of red lips with teeth, on crumpled white paper background.
A black and white striped paper shopping bag with a yellow semi-circle at the top, resting on a white surface.
Pink high-heeled open-toe shoes on a white floor with the brand CHARLES JOURDAN visible on the insole.
Sign with the word 'confused' written in cursive on a beige textured wall.
A table lamp with a conical base featuring red and white diagonal stripes and a pink lampshade, placed on a white surface against a plain white background.
Slices of watermelon and pieces of cheese on white plates on a light-colored wooden table.
Three women in vintage yellow and white swimsuits standing on a beach, with a lifeguard tower and person in the background.
Green cursive text that reads 'family...'

The daughter of pioneering Lebanese architect
Assem Salam, Rana grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. Her father gifted her a Vespa at the age of fifteen which inspired her to explore the city’s streets, unconsciously exposing her to the shaabi (popular) culture that later became her inspiration.

A vintage black and white photograph of a woman with dark, short hair, sitting outdoors against a stone wall, looking at the camera with a slight smile.
A man in a suit sitting at a desk, smoking a pipe, smiling, with books on a bookshelf behind him.
Book titled 'Joy of Cooking' with a light green cover.

Her mother, Josephine Bisharat, born in Jerusalem, studied at Vassar College, NY, followed by a fellowship at Harvard University focusing on Middle Eastern studies. She then returned to the Middle East to teach at both the American University of Cairo and then Beirut.

She loved cooking and baking, which had a huge impact on Rana’s childhood, growing up surrounded by cookbooks such as The Joy of Cooking, Chez Panisse, and A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.

one more thing…

A young woman with dark hair wearing a green and white striped shirt and a long black skirt stands smiling in a colorful art-filled room. The background has vibrant posters, pictures, and decorative items on the wall. To her right is a mini display cabinet with shoes and colorful artworks, and a black bag with gold lettering hangs on the wall.

Inspired by Paul Smith, Sonja Rykiel, and Kate Spade, It’s easy to see how these brands have influenced Rana's work.

Rana Salam’s career took off straight out of college when she designed the windows of the upscale London store Harvey Nichols, translating hand-painted Beirut street billboards and pop stars into glamorous Western icons such as Bettie Page and Brigitte Bardot. Soon, Liberty of London embraced the flair of Middle Eastern street art and commissioned Rana to design their then-new swimwear department.

A woman with glasses, a white shirt, and a bow in her hair, arms raised balancing lemons, standing behind a box of various fruits, including bananas, oranges, and melons, with a yellow and white striped background. 
Harvey Nichols London window design,1995

Rana has since acquired broad experience and developed specialized knowledge in art direction, design and consultancy for retail, product, print, hospitality, and exhibitions. Her design reputation is also well-established within the GCC and globally.

Text saying 'a milestone' in light green font.

Rana’s career highlight came in 2008 with the publication of her book Co-authored with Malu Halasa, ‘The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie’.
The book has sold 10,000 copies to date.

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