ANTOINE ABI AAD

Head of Department of Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the Lebanese University (Lebanon)

Antoine Abi Aad (Ph.D. and MA University of Tsukuba i Japan, DES Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Lebanon), is a designer, Assistant Professor, Head of Department of Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the Lebanese University (Lebanon). He is also a frequent guest lecturer and has given talks and workshops at numerous institutions, including the Universida de de Brasilia (Brazil), International Design School (Jakarta), Institute of Business and Design (Moscow), Hong Kong Design Institute, IIT Bombay, Greenside Design Center College of Design (Johannesburg), Nara University of Education (Japan), and Yale University (New Haven).

Having taught 1600 students since 2004, Antoine’s true dedicating is for research and experimentations. His passion is for letters: typography, calligraphy and handwriting. The different scripts he writes (Arabic, Latin and Japanese) led him to have special interests in the directions of writing, leftward, rightward and downward, and how these directions affect visual communication and advertising, or even more, motion graphics and animation.

Antoine is the Chairperson of Typoday Amman 2020, and he also served as a vice president of i-cod (formerly Icograda) from 2015 to 2017.

Antoine received his DES in Advertising from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Lebanon in 2000. Shortly thereafter, he moved for seven years to Japan, where he completed both his Masters of Arts (2004) and his Ph.D. (2007) in Visual Communication Design at the University of Tsukuba. After a year of postdoctoral research, he returned to Lebanon to take up his duties as Assistant Professor and coordinator of international cultural events and exchange programs between universities at his Alma Mater, ALBA. 10 years later, he joined the Lebanese University as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture, and he is currently Head of Department of Graphic Design and Visual Communication, Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture.

Having Phoenician blood in his veins, Antoine loves traveling. He worked, exhibited, taught or lectured in Bolivia (La Paz), Belgium (Eupen), Brazil (Brasilia, Maranhão, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo), Chile (Santiago), China (Beijing, Shenzen), Cyprus (Nicosia), Dubai, Germany (Berlin, Ostrale), Greece (Patras, Thessaloniki), Hong Kong, India (Bangalore, Guwahati, Mumbai), Indonesia (Jakarta), Japan (Kanazawa, Mito, Nara, Tokyo, Tsukuba), Kenya (Nairobi), Korea (Incheon, Gwangju, Seoul), Lebanon (Baalbeck, Beirut, Tripoli, Zahleh), Mexico (Mexico City, Xalapa), Morocco (Marrakesh), Peru (Lima), Poland (Warsaw), South Africa (Johannesburg), Switzerland (Basel), Sri Lanka (Colombo), Taiwan (Tainan, Taipei), Thailand (Bangkok, Hua Mak), Tunisia (Tunis) and USA (Boston, Connecticut).