The Cedar Tree
Designer / Illustrator Personal Project Year: 2020
On 4th August 2020, an explosion tore Beirut apart.
For a country already on its knees from the ongoing crisis, the blast could not have been more ill-timed.
With the damage estimated to be worth billions, there was an increasing need to act quickly. Charities and NGOs mobilised as many resources as possible to meet the growing requirements on the ground as they became more evident.
Heartbroken by the situation, my sister and I wanted to show our support and stand in solidarity with the Lebanese people.
We looked to the Cedar tree, a symbol of great importance to Lebanon, representing strength, resilience, and longevity, characteristics we know must be hard to emulate in these times, and created a smiling, hopeful Cedar tree pin.
Through 100% of the profits from the sale of the pin, we hope to help raise money for Impact Lebanon, an initiative incubator.
We chose Impact Lebanon due to its responsible and solid fund approval programme that hand selects and vets NGOs working on various projects that aim to rebuild the city, and support its citizens.
Not wanting to go down the obvious route of a Lebanese flag for the pins backing…
…we looked to vintage Lebanese postage stamps that often featured the Cedar tree standing tall on a hill.
For our stamp influenced design, we placed our tree within the Lebanese mountains, the sun starting to rise above them, symbolising what we hope are new beginnings for Beirut, and Lebanon, as the people work to take back their country from a government that wasn’t working in their best interests.
At W23.7mm H22mm, our pin was crafted from green hard enamel, encased in metal gold, with a locking pin back. Our initial run of pins was 100 pieces.
The pin was launched exactly 3 months after the devastating explosion.
With the situation in Beirut no longer headline news, and only a relatively small following on our social media pages, we looked to create engaging assets that could easily be shared by our friends and family in the hopes of restarting discussions around the blast, and gain some traction to raise as much money as we could.
Within the first few days of release, the pin was picked up by PinLord, Tom Ross, and The Meem Shop, to name a few.
In addition to stories and posts, we created an Instagram filter using Spark AR that gave people the opportunity to wear a Cedar tree face mask and move around within the stamp scene, promoting the pin whilst having a bit of fun.
