The Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts in the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik hosted the Swiss graphic designer Ruedi Baur on the 6th of May 2010 to give a lecture including a workshop about the visual expression of peace and a conference about narrative typography organized by the faculty in cooperation with the Students’ Affairs’ Office and held in the auditorium. The workshop was multidisciplinary and comprised many types of design such as photography, films and others. After a thorough discussion with Baur, the students set forth their own vision of peace: Lebanon knew short periods of peace, there were some periods of peace during war and peace is a psychological state. The workshop organized by Baur was axed around three exercises: the students’ personal personification of peace, their experiences and impressions, an outline of Lebanon’s history, symbols and periods of peace in addition to the picture that students have in mind about peace.

Bauer concentrated in the first part of his lecture on the way to represent diversity, express the minorities’ opinion, express various opinions and live together despite this diversity. He reviewed as well geometrical symbols representing society such as circles, squares and rectangles and talked about the different needs and desires of individuals. He moved then to the second part in which he talked about the narrative typography and how to design a symbol or motto for a certain city.

Baur noted that writing is becoming more and more theoretical and gave the example of the way signs in public places such airports and highways affect people, adding that 90% of mobile text messages do not include sentences but certain words to seduce the public.

He finally concluded that graphic design expresses the place and gives the sense of direction, signs and explanations.