Although design as a discipline has expanded way beyond the craft, it remains a field burdened with subjectivity and is misleadingly labeled as “aesthetics” with disregard to its potential as a result driven and evidence based investment. What happens when design as an artefact is no longer the objective? What happens when designers embrace their capacity as creative problem solvers and integrate into the remaining phases of creation which can include business, strategy, and other functions.

In the age of messenger bots and an incoming wave of zero UI what will we be designing if not process? And how can we secure buy-in from the businesses that employ or invest in design? This discussion, featuring guest speaker Lilian Abou Zeki and eyen founders Yousef Abedrabbo & Omar Al-Zo'bi, addresses the binary that exists between design and business.

Bilingual / Free

Liliane Abou Zeki is an Interdisciplinary designer focused on using design as a medium to drive business innovation. Allergic to labels and silos, she is recovering from years in luxury fashion marketing and corporate. She believes that design as a discipline is naturally geared towards diversity and accordingly should not be isolated to the realm of aesthetics. For the past couple of years, Lilian has been on board a startup, delivered multiple workshops and training on user-centered design and collaborated on projects in wearable tech, venture philanthropy, and education. She also teaches "design thinking and innovation" at the Lebanese American University.

eyen, is a Jordanian design house and collective with the core team of design fanatics Yousef Abedrabbo and Omar Al-Zo'bi. eyen aims to congregate a great network of agile working designers and creative thinkers from different disciplines. As of today, eyen primarily functions in graphic design with work in branding & brand architecture, visual and corporate identities, spatial narratives, arabic typography, illustrations, publication design and user experiences. All aforementioned are backed with thorough strategic understanding to match the variety of projects at hand whether commercial, cultural or self-initiated.