BIOGRAPHY

Rena has a Ba (Hons) in Graphic design from Middlesex University in London, an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. Rena has over 30 years of professional practice, and 25 years of teaching in various graphic design and illustration departments.

Her design experiences have exposed her to a wide spectrum of design fields, including TV graphics, NGOs, publications, private companies, UN institutions and commercial enterprises.

Beirut is the location that has inspired most of her research, whether for my MFA or PhD. It is the city that inspires me through its urban vernacular, its public spaces, its oral histories – all of these have repeatedly instilled their way into for research interests or personal works. Her PhD encompasses how Beirut’s urban public spaces are helping to unite a divided city and what are the sites perpetuating the segregation and cleavages, through inhabitants’ narratives. She researches people’s place memories and how they are associated with certain recollections, histories, longings, and feelings. Rena’s research interests are qualitative explorations of everyday life in Beirut, utilizing a multiple method approach with interviews, surveys, maps, participatory observation, personal illustrations and photographs, in conjunction with a variety of archival material and historical photographs.

CV

RENA KARANOUH

Graphic Designer | Illustrator | Educator | Researcher

Education

PHD Cultural Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

LAST OUT OF BEIRUT TURN OFF THE LIGHT - A Chronicle of Beirut Through its Public Spaces
I research public space in relations to citizenship, politics, democracy, identity, and rights and see how public space can either foster cohesion or is exclusionary to reconciliation between the divided societies that reside in the city. I investigate how urban space has been used both to continue the hegemony of the ruling regime, and to become the site of protest and contestation where public space is re-appropriated. Through inhabitants' narratives and oral histories, I research people's place memories and how they are associated with certain recollections, histories, longings, and feelings - pre-war, and post-war. This study utilises a multiple method approach with interviews, surveys, maps, participatory observation, personal illustrations and photographs, with varied archival material and historical photographs.

Winner of the Queen’s University ‘Humanities Outstanding Thesis Award’.

MFA in Illustration as a Visual Essay, School of Visual Arts, New York City, USA

BA (Hons) Graphic Design, Middlesex University, London, UK

Foundation Diploma, Wimbledon School of Art, London, UK

MSc in Geology, American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut, Lebanon

Teaching

ST. LAWRENCE COLLEGE

Instructor in the Graphic Design Program

Class given: Typography 5

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

Teaching Fellow - Fine Arts Department

Class given: Introduction to Printmaking

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT

Instructor - Graphic Design Program

Classes given: Illustration, Silkscreen

LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Instructor - Graphic Design Program

Classes given: Illustration, Packaging Design, Advanced Typography, Graphic Design 2, Advanced Graphic Design 3, Silkscreen with Bookbinding.

USEK

Instructor - Graphic Design Program

Classes given: Illustration 2, Exhibition Design

HARIRI CANADIAN UNIVERSITY

Instructor - Graphic Design Program

Classes given: Illustration, Design 1, Type 2 and Drawing 1 & 2, 3D design

Academic and Professional Awards

International

Doodles’ (Kharbachat) has won the New Horizons Mention at the prestigious Bologna Children's Book Fair - a first for Lebanon and a second for the Arab world.

Academic Awards

  • R. Samuel McLaughlin Fellow - Queen’s University

  • SGS Travel Scholarship - Queen’s University

  • OGS Scholarship - Queen’s University (declined)

  • Project and Portfolio PhD award - Queen’s University

  • Helen Bracken Anderson Bursary - Queen’s University

  • Dean's Award - Queen’s University

Exhibitions

  • Works in Flux - Rena Karanouh, Rawaa Bakhsh, Sylvat Aziz, Art and Media Lab, Isabel Bader Centre, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

  • HANEEN book launch and exhibition

  • A Collective Work of Lebanese and Syrian Artists on the Impact of War on Childhood, Beir Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Beirut Silkscreens – Epreuve d’Artiste Gallery, Collective exhibition

  • We Tell Stories, alumni exhibition - SVA Chelsea Gallery, NYC

  • Group exhibition, silkscreen print - Plan Bey, Beirut

  • 28th International Exhibition of Illustrations for Children

  • Bafile Cultural Center, Caorle (Venice) Italy

  • Pavla Lunačka Gallery, Slovenia - To the Rhythm of Enchantment - Tales from Brazil

  • Book exhibition - The Future of Tradition - The Tradition of Future ‘100 years after the exhibition’ - Haus der Kundst, Munich, Germany

  • Children’s Book Exhibition - Fondazione Mostra Internazionale d'Illustrazione per l'Infanzia, Italy

  • Doodles - Mediatheque, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Lebanon’s Many Faces - AIGA, Group book exhibition, New York City, USA

Scholarly Activities and Publications

Book Chapter

Hidden Space: The Jewish cemetery and how it reflects the ruptures in the urban fabric of Beirut Book Chapter in Boundaries and Restricted Places, the Immured Space, Elgar Studies in Planning Theory, Policy and Practice. Edited by Balkiz Yapicioglu and Konstantinos Lalenis, Publication Date: 2022.

Books

Caves of Lebanon - Rena Karanouh & Issam Bou Jaoude (2011). Author, photographer, editor, and designer. Self-published.

The Beckoning Darkness of Jeita Cave - Rena Karanouh, Bou Jaoude, Issam & Wael Karanouh (2018). Author, photographer, editor, and designer. Self-published.

Professional Practice

Graphic Designer Consultant, Self Employed

Clients include:

  • Institutional: UNDP; UNESCO; IOM (International Organization for Migration); Trans-parency International; Nahnoo NGO; Haneen; Network for Integrity and

  • Reconstruction NGO; Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs, LAU.

  • Publishing: Librarie Antoine Publishing; World Book Publishing; Dar Onboz; Al Jazeera Television; Hana Allameddine; SCL Magazine; Beyond Magazine; Onboz Magazine.

  • Theatre Design: Caracalla Dance Company; LAU; Masrah el Madina.

  • Branding and Design: Lebanese Fulbright Association; Earthtime; Lemonts Montessori School; Simple Life; Insurance; Disaster Risk Management Centre; Docudays; Beirut Documentary Festival; MedGulf, Transparency International (Lebanon); Al Ahli Bank; IOM; Nahnoo NGO; AUB Healthy Basket.

  • Children’s Books: The Aquarium; World Book Publishing Books; The New Baby; Tala Publishing; Little Moslems; Meena Bakkar Publishing; Kharbashat; Dar Onboz, Tale of a house? Hana Allameddine.

  • Corporate Reports: Issam Fares Institute; Tiri NGO; International Institute for Sustaina-ble Development; Middle-East water report.

  • Environmental Campaigns: Greenpeace; Greenline NGO; UNDP; EUNIC; Nahnoo NGO.

Future Television

Head of the Creative Department

  • In charge of all on-air graphics, branding, and marketing designs for Future Television and Future News.

  • Management and supervision of a team of 7 designers

  • Handling and following up on all TV graphics, from concept to final broadcast quality clips

  • In charges of yearly budget for the department

  • Coordinated with other departments on their needs and directed and produced all filmed requirements.

  • Attended fairs and selected all technical equipment for the department

  • Interviewed and recruited all personnel for the department

  • Reported directly to the General Manager of the TV station