Look around you

New Year: let's recycle !

2012-01-02T09:37:00.004+01:00

Happy new year from Look around you !

This year, we thought the tree should be different, so we decided to recycle !

Instead of our usual christmas tree ornaments, we collected Soda cans, cleaned up, cut up and painted to decorate our tree !

Hope you like it ! I wonder how the tree will look like next year !

Lebanese Christmas with no Arabic at Zaitunay Bay

2011-12-28T12:11:00.001+01:00

if Zaitunay Bay wanted to add some Lebanese soul to the Christmas Market, shouldn't they have considered making a bilingual poster in Arabic as well ?

Permanent Breakfast in Beirut

2011-11-19T18:17:00.016+01:00

Have you heard of the Permanent Breakfast ?

The idea was born in May 1996 a group of artists around Friedemann derschmidt began to breakfast in public places.
The idea is quite simple and catching: one person invites to breakfast in an open public space . The invited persons commit themselves to invite to a public breakfast on the next possible date.
I was first introduced to the concept by Adriana Young while she was in Beirut.

So on November 12th, six friends gathered around Labneh, Zaatar Manakich, and yummy foul and Balila, on the rare surviving public in Beirut: Ramlet el Baida.

We celebrated the use of public space in the city and celebrated our Scorpio birthdays on a sunny November morning with kites and Poi !

http://www.permanentbreakfast.org/?p=1697

Definitely something' I'll do again !
Organize yours soon; anyone can !
Check out the blog for inspiration : http://www.permanentbreakfast.org

Video LCD screens

2011-11-13T12:13:00.004+01:00

I've been thinking: How legal are those video LCD screens ?
Are their placements always safe ? I got that thought when, at night on the highway, my attention was more drawn to the movement in those shiny billboards then the road.
Don't get me wrong, they could be very interesting, and in traffic, they 're priceless ! But I'm just questioning the safety part.
And anyway, some of the ads are static for the moment. Guys, if you're paying twice/triple the price to put your ad on an LCD, at least put the effort in animating it. Sometimes, the smallest movement gives a great effect. Check out these cinemagraphs ! They're the way to go !

A good reason to leave your car at home

2011-11-13T11:10:00.003+01:00

Today's Car free day in Tripoli.
http://carfreetripoli.org/
It's a great initiative and hopefully we can see it organized in Beirut as well.

One (out of many!!) of the good reasons to leave your cars at home ?
We're starting to run out of spaces to park in the city! So choose to leave the stress at home for a day or two..

I love my bike ?

2011-10-31T13:01:00.002+01:00

I love my... bike ?
( on Independence Street, Beirut)

Stop illegal hunting in Lebanon

2011-10-19T10:34:00.009+02:00

Up until last week, i thought bird hunting was illegal in Lebanon and the selling of guns is done only under the table. Until I came across those billboards (in mass quantity!! ) on the highway, next to Jounieh !

Hunting was banned in the mid-1990's but never regulated properly, what is illegal was still legal.

And we're going in the wrong direction, and those billboards prove it ! Those shops are doing nothing except encourage this national "sport" all year long (not just in october where it's supposedly "ok" to hunt), and are so far from actually educating people how irresponsible killing of those birds changes the ecosystem or how some endangered species shouldn't be touched.

People hunt birds in the whole world, but in Lebanon there is no awareness and no control on the subject. Anyone can go buy rifles from those shops with no license. (they''re even proposing for you to try it before buying it !!! Catastrophic !).How can we change that ?

Here are a few links on the subject
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=66282
http://www.lebanonhunt.com/
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Migratory_birds_face_peril_in_Lebanon_sanctuary_999.html

PS: An action against Mike Sport anyone ?

Cadavre Exquis I

2011-10-17T08:13:00.005+02:00

This is a first in a series of exquisite corpse games from the streets.
This one was collected from a walk from Gouraud Street (Gemmayzé) to Charles Malek Avenue (Sofil).

Beirut Cement Gardens

2011-04-04T23:37:00.024+02:00

I was walking in downtown Beirut the other day, and I noticed the building site next to Virgin megastore: Beirut Gardens.

My face only lit up for half a second before i looked again and saw the large photographs of gym equipment and quickly realized that it was yet another luxurious residential complex in the city.

In the next two days, I started looking around and noted a trend: Noor Gardens in downtown as well , Eva gardens in Sofil area, Woodhill residence and Hamra gardens; all of them luxurious residential complexes.

The copywriters for these projects specifically chose names that revolve around greenery and gardens because they know that they are addressing a society deprived from public green spaces. They're using the lack of the urban green as a selling point to attract possibles investors and buyers to be wowed by the concept.

What horrifies me the most isn't just the way these towers are popping up like mushrooms with no control or urban planning (that's without even mentioning the number of beautiful old buildings getting erased on the way), but it's mostly the ironic way the've been tagged with green names. A portion of these spaces should be allocated to parks instead of being buildings. Well, at least they got the names right.

Beirut, Hamra and Eva Gardens, how about some real gardens ?

Woodhills residence, how about some real hills ?

On the Ministry of Environment website, their monthly poll question is: [Are you for the increase of forest spaces in Lebanon? yes. no. I don't know]

Well, i really don't know anymore. Usually, it would be ridiculous to even ask that question, but seeing how things are evolving in Beirut, maybe the ministry truly wants to know the answer ! It seems that not everybody understands the must to have green spaces in a city. It affects stress level and mental health and is a great way to relax in town in a public space ! Public green spaces are a right for us as citizens, not a privilege !

There should be a law that protects certain spaces, allocating them for public good.

If all spaces are being sold for more profit making buildings and complexes, where will we end up ?

I ask you now, where is our public space in Beirut today ?

So I'm inviting you now to join me on Saturday June 4th 2011, the weekend of World Environment Day, for a public street intervention: Green the Grey. We need public green spaces in Beirut.

We are going to take over Sassine Square at 4:30pm and make it our public green space for the day, to protest the lack of green and public spaces in Beirut. We will bring real grass, and other typical features of a park.

So come and enjoy the afternoon in our pop-up park, to voice that public green spaces are our right !

More details here. Hope to see you there !

No parking here Range !

2011-04-04T23:21:00.003+02:00

aha ! These two cannot exist together !

The bulky metal structures on the sidewalks scream: do-not-park-here.

Yet, these Range Rovers didn't seem to understand what they were, and totally disregarded them on Tabaris Square this afternoon by parking there. Perhaps authorities should seek alternative additional signage and write : NO PARKING on them just like this person who wrote on the One way street sign ?

Save me a seat !

2011-02-08T10:36:00.008+01:00

This "save-a-parking-spot" is a common phenomenon in very crowded Beiruti areas, where parking spots have become rare and precious. People save each spots by placing whatever they have in front of their shops: chairs, cardboard boxes, etc... But today was too funny not to document: three spots saved in a row, on Chouf street.

Sometimes it lasts 5mn, sometimes more than half an hour.. Until the shop owner arrives and parks right in front of his shop. Red stool saves a parking spot for the red car.

Anger brings redundancy: A funny Beiruti street intervention

2011-01-26T10:33:00.008+01:00

I would really like to know who wrote this !
This sign on Sassine square in Beirut, has Arabic written on it: "one way street".
This person hilariously thought that people must be more familiar with words than with road signs, or he might be simply expressing his anger by redundantly underlining the obvious to make people respect it more !

Crazy electric chairs

2010-10-13T07:57:00.008+02:00

I was recently browsing the internet for electric chairs and capital punishment imagery for the posterfortomorrow competition. The theme was death is not justice, you can view my entry below.

To my surprise, the electric chair became so common it entered fashion and is reproduced in toys! Capital punishment violates the most basic human right. How will the kids understand this concept if they play with a lego executioner ?

Politics-free shop in Bekfayah

2010-08-18T08:32:00.005+02:00

The sign reads: Dearest customers, please don't talk about politics in the shop.

It seems like this shop owner in Bekfayah knows exactly how long Lebanese people will argue in politics, and chose his peace of mind by asking his customers to leave their political views at the door !

Squeeze it in !

2010-08-09T20:17:00.002+02:00

What do you do when you have a big car and can't find parking space ?

Plagiarism.org

2010-08-09T19:58:00.005+02:00

Librairie Sayah in Batroun (North Lebanon) found it appropriate to steal the logo of the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar" and make it its own !

No two ways about it !

2010-07-26T20:11:00.004+02:00

This minute-long video resumes a 15mn long scene I was lucky to witness: a one way street, two stubborn drivers, only one of them for a good cause.

Refusing to let the car go the wrong way down this street, the driver didn't move until everything was back in order !

He/or she even got a round of applause when the goal was accomplished !

Enjoy your green space

2010-06-04T13:24:00.018+02:00

One of the things i feel most frustrated about in Beirut is the lack of green spaces. The urban planning of the city includes very little accommodation of public green spaces where you can relax and chill.

I especially felt this lack after living in Paris for a while. So when the time came, Nadine Feghaly and I collaborated on this public intervention to express our disagreement with the lack of the "urban-green" !

The public intervention was up since 6am this morning, on friday june 4th 2010, for World's Environment Day. In 9 spots around Beirut, the installations shout our call for change.

Check it out for yourself ! Here's a map of the 9 spots in Beirut.

The insides are outside: Etapes and Wad

2010-06-01T19:52:00.004+02:00

It's interesting to note that both spring issues of the french magazines Etapes and Wad chose to display the inside of a human body on their covers!

While one is a painting of a female and the other is a photograph of a male body; still in spring, the insides are outside !

Lebanese elections v/s Traffic rules

2010-05-25T14:55:00.006+02:00

The elections are apparently more important than traffic rules !

It's fair, more than 50% of the sign is still visible !

Lebanese Laique Pride

2010-04-28T22:56:00.002+02:00

She might be little aware of the importance of the message she's holding at the moment, but she will grow into it and learn how to embrace it and fight for it.

At the Laique Pride march on sunday April 25th 2010, this little girl represented hope !

Digital Love

2010-04-20T23:28:00.005+02:00

He chose to tell Nady he loved her in a very secret and coded way.

The "<" sign and the "3" next to it, are used online, especially on facebook or blogs to illustrate the heart sign (as seen below).

While this romantic person could have drawn a real heart shape, he chose to give his emotions virtual codes !!

Scientifically accurate bathroom sign

2010-03-25T17:00:00.003+01:00

Statistically**, men are taller than women, and the bathroom sign at GLION university in Switzerland decided to portray that exactly !

** as seen on this website. (one of many )

Behind that green background

2010-03-10T22:57:00.009+01:00

When walking in downtown Beirut the other day, i stumbled upon a road sign mounted on a green square background. I walked along and noticed that all the road signs have that same green background.
It was something i may have noticed quickly in the past, but never actually stopped and thought about. Most importantly, i've never realized the statement that these road signs make, and what they symbolize.

To outsiders, downtown Beirut is also known as Solidere area. Solidere, according to their website is "The Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut Central District, that was incorporated as a Lebanese joint-stock company on May 5, 1994. Its business is the reconstruction and development of the Beirut city center. Providing a broad range of quality land and real estate development activities and services, it combines the business independence and acumen of a private company with global vision and a sense of public service." * (as quoted directly from their website )

So, in other words, Beirut central district has a name, the name of a private company that bought it.
It no longer belongs to the Lebanese people, but to a company that reconstructed it, and privatized it.

In sixteen years, Solidere has reconstructed downtown and made it one of the most beautiful, one of the cleanest and one of the most touristic attractions in the country. With the Lebanese Government lacking the resources and funds to restore the "centre-ville" Solidere is solely responsible for the renovation of Downtown Beirut and had it not been for the private funds the company provided, the area would have remained in ruins up until today; 19 years after the Civil War has ended.
However, a very important factor would have been kept in tact: The people. Much more was wiped out with reconstruction than the ruins. ‪If the area was in need of an intervention, it should have been oriented towards the public good rather than earning sky-high profits.‬

The downtown area became more of a showy touristic area, lacking traditional saje bakeries, old fool and hommous restaurants and other vital cultural aspects that characterized the city. ‪Instead you often find yourself window shopping in front of expensive shops and sighing at virtually empty luxurious residential buildings.‬

Although this is a political topic, I'm going to refrain from making any political judgement, as this is in no way my argument. ‪I cannot accept, nor can I absorb the fact that my own city's city-center, its sidewalks and its walls, have been privatized to such an extent that the road signs need to differ from the rest of the country's signage.

This is a s‬mall detail, with a big meaning.

Please don't make her cry

2010-03-07T23:33:00.004+01:00

It was a hilarious surprise to walk by this toy shop in Saida (Lebanon) and find this doll package !
Great photo shoot session Loryne ! ;)

S, M, XXL

2010-02-20T14:08:00.006+01:00

The municipality must have noticed that multiplying road signs or even writing SPEED LIMIT on them didn't make Lebanese drivers more sensitive and aware on the road.

So they decided on the highway before Dora (Lebanon) to blow the signs up and make them almost twice larger!!! ((new size on the right in the picture).
The signs desperately scream: Hey you blind driver ! notice me ! I'm in your face now !

Will size matter now?

Font from the streets

2010-01-25T19:05:00.004+01:00

On the streets.
I went looking for the whole alphabet. Found letters in the pavement, on shop signs, on doors, until i made my collection and vectorized it !
This is my fun font from my day on the streets !
( don't forget to click on the images to view them larger !)

To panic or not to panic

2009-12-22T14:32:00.003+01:00

The first thing one should know about emergency evacuation situations is not to panic, and not to run. We have always been taught to locate the nearest emergency exit, and walk calmly to it.

But when one looks at the signs of the emergency exits, very few of them actually send that message.

At first glance, these four different signs all send the same message: the recognizable green color of the sign, the figure, the door and the arrow, all give directions to the closest exit.

But when you look closely at the elements that compose these signs (the distance between the man and the door, the inclination of his body, the presence or not of fire..etc), you can find four degrees of panic ! ( increasing from 1 to 4) (click on the image to view it in a bigger format).

The first sign conforms to the recommendations of walking to the door. The man is calmly going towards the exit while in the the second sign, he is beginning to run. In the third one, he is further from the door, is running real fast, and is already burning in flames! And finally, in the last one, the door isn't even portrayed, he is two steps away from falling down (notice both his legs off the floor, and the difference of angles of inclination between 1 and 4 !) and he is already burning in red flames !

Single dads go to Geneva !

2009-12-17T12:10:00.007+01:00

Remember my post about men and women's bathroom signs concerning changing babies earlier this year ?
http://dimaboulad.blogspot.com/2009/08/single-dads.html

well.. i found it !

In Geneva airport, the baby sign is on both sides! So men and women have equal possibilities to change their children.

Look around you and see where this is the case as well !

Play on words II !

2009-11-17T00:25:00.002+01:00

Easy one !
To the Parisians, where can you find this bar ? On which avenue ?

Balconies in town

2009-11-14T11:14:00.005+01:00

Some already have the decorative balcony while others get the curtains or even draw it !

(don't forget that you can always click on the images to see them bigger)

Happy Graffiti

2009-11-01T09:47:00.003+01:00

Last time i checked, Graffitis were more violent and less festive about life and love !
It was refreshing to find these messages on the wall and pavement while walking !

Croissant

2009-10-07T10:02:00.004+02:00

After a long day of fasting, you long to have a delicious croissant !
In the heart of the 2nd district, la rue des jeuneurs ( the Fasters ) is right next to rue du croissant!
Is the origin of the name related to the pastry or the crescent ?

Business pedestrians

2009-09-30T00:24:00.004+02:00

Notice the difference between the pedestrian signs in the residential 15th district (no pictogram) and the busy business area in the 9th district !

Dated steps

2009-09-23T12:17:00.005+02:00

When walking on the sidewalks, for once take a look down instead of looking in front of you. You will be amazed at the huge number of dates inscribed in the pavement ! We could make a whole map tracing time and space on the streets !

(always click on the pictures to view them bigger and better ! )

Welcome point

2009-09-14T09:31:00.006+02:00

" Au départ ou à l'arrivée de la gare, vous êtes les bienvenus à la place Montparnasse ! "

If you're going or coming (arrivée and départ, the names of the two streets surrounding the train station ), you are always welcome at place Montparnasse Bienvenüe (which literally means welcome in french, and also the name of the french engineer who this place was named after).

Play on words

2009-09-02T11:30:00.002+02:00

To all parisians, where do you think you can find "le sans lezard" ?

Unique individuals

2009-08-20T09:15:00.004+02:00

The little guy is different in Deauville and Paris !

Single dads ?

2009-08-03T17:25:00.003+02:00

It's not the first time that I see toilet signs for women that include changing a child while the men's sign is the single Helvetica man. In the airport of Milano (up) and the Air France toilets (below) they do it as well.
What would men do if they had their baby in this case ?
I don't even know if men's bathrooms are equipped for that. In case they are, and they should be, maybe the sign should be changed in order to include both the man and the woman in the process of changing a child !

Place de l'Europe

2009-07-31T17:16:00.009+02:00

Place de l'Europe is situated in the 8th district of Paris, and where most of the streets are named after big european cities. Mostly; yes ! because one of the streets intrigued me.

I walked around in the area; from Stockholm to London.. (Amsterdam, Londres, Liège, Dublin, Athènes, Rome, Turin, Milan, Moscou, Budapest, Stockholm, Berne,Vienne,Saint Petersbourg, Madrid, Bucarest..).. and rue de Constantinople (Istambul now, capital of turkey) ! A street name that doesn't fit (yet?) in place de l'Europe ?

The negotiations are open, let's see what happens in 2015 and if Turkey will enter the European Union.
Anyway, rue de Constantinople will stay in Europe, in Paris !

One day in type

2009-07-28T22:11:00.005+02:00

What would my day be without type ? I documented every encounter with a typographic element in the course of one day.
Music by Marc Ernest (Duende)- extract from Tal Omr Al Layl Aan'di

Link to Video: http://www.vimeo.com/5630224

Water and Wine

2009-07-16T09:05:00.005+02:00

It's funny to see that the museum of wine is on the street of "les eaux" meaning "water" ! Was it made on purpose to hint at another story where water was turned into wine ?

26, 68, 70 ?

2009-07-14T13:04:00.003+02:00

When I took that picture on a street in the 2nd district, i was just thinking how is that possible !!!
It's only when I looked at it on my screen that i noticed the x sign on the 68 and the 70 !
Pretty confusing but funny !

Don't buy this !

2009-07-10T17:14:00.002+02:00

My flatmate and I were so angry when we got this cereal box :they seriously only fill it up with this much cereals !
So i decided to photograph it and make this awareness poster.
Next step is printing it and sticking it on the cereal boxes in that supermarket !

Bonjour Madame, Bonjour Monsieur

2009-07-03T20:15:00.006+02:00

Monsieur is in the 7th district, Madame is in the 6th, and Mademoiselle is in the 15th.

RATP at home

2009-07-02T11:12:00.006+02:00

A few months ago, the RATP ( transit in Paris) launched a new awarness campaign ( made out of these colourful stickers on all the subway lines) to alert the passengers to be quick , not to block doors.. etc..
These are two examples of these stickers, used in context (on the subway) and used out of context
[ 1) my doorstep 2) my friend's bathroom ]

Zoom in and Crop

2009-06-29T01:44:00.006+02:00

Take random zoomed in pictures, you never know how you might use them later.
Crop them to create a library of abstract pictures.
Like when i crop this "C" from the pharmacy sign, i get this result (below) which could work as a background for a music festival poster!

Support at all ages

2009-06-28T15:09:00.007+02:00

Being that old (left) or that young (right) and attending the gay pride is very cool and refreshing !!

Chinese balcony

2009-06-26T17:28:00.003+02:00

Notice the resemblance between the chinese letter and the balcony above it !

Primary Seine

2009-06-24T10:57:00.004+02:00

Yellow, Red and Blue dans la Seine !

Please don't die

2009-06-22T00:57:00.004+02:00

It's funny to note that this french insurance company's name is "Matmut" which directly translates into : "Don't die" in arabic !

Blood bath ?

2009-06-22T00:45:00.003+02:00

Massacre at the airport ? Or simply people coming back from lebanon with good wine in their hand luggage..

Home

2009-06-18T08:39:00.006+02:00

After "six billion others"
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x794ar_6-milliards-dautres-teaser_creation ,
a project that showed filmed interviews of hundreds of people from all around the world, and which was presented at Le Grand Palais in Paris offering the viewer the choice to make the same filmed interview in a studio there http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x84wv1_entrevues-realisees-au-grand-palais_creation, Yann Arthus Bertrand teamed up with Luc Besson to make: Home.

Home is an ode to the world, seen through Yann's lense, with beautiful landscapes from more than 54 countries in the world, delivering a more direct way to understand the planet on which we live.

Home is out in movie theaters at a symbolic price, the dvd is much cheaper than any others, and you can watch it online for free too.
http://www.home-2009.com/

Arabic shop signs

2009-06-16T23:48:00.004+02:00

After spending a couple of days in Jordan ( where most of the shop signs are in Arabic ), i came back to Lebanon and noticed that this is becoming less and less the case. Some shops have the English (or french) word along with the Arabic one, but in a lot of cases, the shop has an Arabic name, but it's written only in Latin letters ( like Tezkar, which means souvenirs in arabic).
Even more shocking is the second example, of the word mashrou7a (a specific way to make the traditional Lebanese mankoucheh sandwich), using the number "7" (mostly used in chatting online) to indicate this letter proper to the Arabic language !

Plastic surgery anyone ?

2009-06-16T23:24:00.005+02:00

Cedar miles is the official MEA ( Middle East Airlines) magazine that you can find on board.
While going through it, I found three advertisements for plastic surgery ! I think that ratio says a lot about the Lebanese society !

Thumbs up !

2009-06-09T23:54:00.002+02:00

On June 7th 2009 and the few days that followed, it was funny to walk around town and look at people's thumbs, trying to find out who voted.
In order to limit corruption, everyone who voted had to cover their thumbs with semi-permanent ink!
Every lebanese has an excuse to have a dirty thumb this week !

Digital Temple Magazine: Offf article

2009-06-02T19:11:00.008+02:00

Digital Temple Magazine, a free online magazine with themes such as art, photography, design, motion, film, fashion... very interesting discoveries in there ! http://www.digital-temple.com/

Go through it and flip to page 13 and page 92 to read the article i wrote about the festival i recently attended in Lisboa, Offf !!!!

http://www.digital-temple.com/issues/6_issue/intro.htm

Non smoking flight ?

2009-06-01T08:38:00.003+02:00

While on the lookout for my earlier post about no smoking signs, i came across this bathroom door on the Air France plane. Puzzling ! On the top you can see a no smoking sign, and on the bottom a sign that indicates where to put off your cigarettes !Can we choose which one to follow if both of them are valid ?

Universal civilization ?

2009-05-28T12:30:00.007+02:00

" Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have to understand its fragility"
Kofi Annan

No smoking signs

2009-05-27T08:25:00.006+02:00

It's only recently that i noticed the huge variety of no smoking signs !
Since the message was conveyed quickly from the sign, i didn't stop to look at each detail : the form of the cigarette,its position and direction, the representation of flames...

So, even if the cigarette is represented by a simple rectangle, hollow or filed, red or black, thin or thick, a cylinder pointed to the left or the right, the flames being represented through two lines or three or even in curves, even if the red circles isn't always used, the message is always there.

"Things I have learned in life so far"

2009-05-27T00:15:00.002+02:00

Welcome to my blog !
Yes, inspiration is everywhere. That's the reason behind this blog.
I like to observe the world around me, and some thoughts are worth sharing.
So .. here goes !
You can find this post on Stefan Sagmeister's "Things i have learned in life so far" project

http://www.thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com/sentence/photography/you-can-find-inspiration-everything