In 2010, a colleague convinced Mojca Sfeir, then a graphic designer and technical editor at Finance, to take a vacation in Lebanon. “As soon as we landed, I loved Beirut. Despite the chaos, I felt at home, which had never happened before on my travels. In Ljubljana, I couldn’t get this place out of my head and I soon decided to move,” she recalls.
“The Lebanese are positive, friendly and you can quickly make a contact. There is always something going on in Beirut, people go out a lot. They live for the moment,” says Mojca Sfeir, who, after almost a decade in Lebanon and Germany, now living in Great Britain.
In Beirut, people live for the moment, but tomorrow is sometime in the future
In Lebanon, she liked the people the most. “I was really well welcomed. They are positive, friendly, and open and you can quickly establish contact. Of course, it takes time to create the right friendship, but this is similar to other places. The people of Beirut are elegant and tidy, which is also evident in the design of the premises – bars, restaurants, clubs, even the toilets are beautifully designed and arranged.”
There is always something going on in the Lebanese capital, explains. “People go out a lot, young and old. Even now, with 200% inflation. They live for the moment, and if they spend a lot of money on a good dinner today, they will already be. Families are very close, so they take care of each other if something goes wrong. Family is very important there and no one will miss Sunday lunch at home – it’s a tradition.”
But the move was also a culture shock, she admits. “In the beginning, it was really hard, I felt like I was doing everything wrong. If people told me to meet on Friday, for example, I naturally took it for granted. But no one showed up on Friday. And this has happened to me many times. Then I realized that with them, tomorrow really means sometime in the future. They also won’t walk out of a meeting or lunch if they’re having a good time, even though they’re dating someone else. Once you understand that, it’s a lot easier.”
The same thing that happened to her in Beirut happened to her husband in Berlin
Sfeir got her first job in Beirut at the advertising agency M & C Saatchi, whose owner, Quantum, also owned the online newspaper Now Lebanon. “The redesign of this newspaper was my first project. Then we also developed applications, so I got a lot of digital experience. Eventually, I started working more in the field of advertising for Saatchi, designing digital solutions for advertising campaigns. We worked, for example, for Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi, for the American University there, for large companies in Lebanon and the region.”
At work, she met her now-husband Michel, also a designer. “When we visited Berlin, a similar click happened to him as it did to me in Beirut. He moved to Germany and shortly I filled the position as an art director at the Interesting Times agency, where we worked for big clients like Microsoft, Red Bull, and L’Oreal, mostly for Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. Nine months later, I went to see Michel in Berlin.”
At that time, she says, the situation in Lebanon had already begun to deteriorate. “It started with garbage and then it just went downhill until that horrible explosion in Beirut two years ago. Today, many people are going abroad because of the crisis, last summer we ran out of petrol, there is not enough water and electricity. And it doesn’t look like anything is going to get better.” Nevertheless, she says that the five years she spent in Beirut were the best in her life.
From a startup back to an advertising agency
In the German capital, she got a job in user experience development at the startup Somuchmore, which established a single platform for access to fitness centres, yoga and pilates studios, and spas. Because she and her husband wanted to continue their careers in advertising, they moved to Hamburg, where many media and advertising agencies are based, including Serviceplan, where she got a job.
“But after a year and a half, we realized that if we want to grow, progress and work with the best in the world, we have to go to London or New York. These cities lead trends, the best ideas are born there and there is no copying,” he explains. They chose the British capital, and since the end of 2018, Sfeir has been working as an art director at the McCann agency.
I would also take up the design of exhibitions
The family is very happy living in London. “I want to progress and work for another London agency, but after becoming a mother, things have changed a bit for me. That’s why I’m thinking about whether I should stay in advertising. I am also interested in exhibition design. In Lebanon, I collaborated with my friend Miha Vipotnik, who is a pioneer of Slovenian video art, and we prepared two exhibitions. I really liked this job, and there is a lot of those in London because the world’s biggest exhibitions come here.”
Source: Anja Zaletel, Finance. Photo: Aleš Beno. The complete article in Slovene is available here.