email: hello@youssef.works
instagram: @juice_bassil
are.na: link
I am a product / industrial designer based in Beirut, Lebanon, and a graduate of ECAL in Switzerland.
My approach is drawn from my observations of contextual realities (manufacturing, cultural, societal, archetypical…) because I strive for my projects to embody a sense of self-evidence through their form and materiality.
To me, essentiality should not be an aesthetical pursuit, but rather a tool for efficiency and narrative clarity. I aim for this approach to carry through the entirety of my practice –in artisanal, industrial, spatial, curatorial, and academic endeavours.
– Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) – 2019
MA in Product design
– École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ÉCAL) – 2024
– Dubai Design Week – 2021
Etat de Siège
– Galerie Tanit – 2022
Moments of Strength
– Downtown Design, Dubai – 2022
Beirut. The Eras of Design
– MUDAC, Lausanne – 2023
Creative Liaisons
– Life Lebanon UK – 2023
Under Design Lebanon
– Fuorisalone, Milan – 2023
ÉCAL x Horgenglarus x senior-lab
– Design Days Lausanne – 2024
We Will Survive
– MUDAC, Lausanne – 2024
Design ‘in’ Conflict
– We Design Beirut, Beirut – 2025
(with Exil Collective)
– Architectural Digest Middle-East – 2021
AD50 Honorees
(with Exil Collective)
– Architectural Digest Middle-East – 2022
Last Updated August 2025
écal (2023)
Society has developed a strong reliance on smartphones for many everyday things like navigation, transport, music, banking and payment… And while these tools have streamlined parts of our lives, we pay for them with our attention and data – the average adult spending a total of around 24 hours staring at their phones every week.
This project draws the best features from multiple familiar typologies to “dumb down” the modern device: giving us access to essential smartphone features that make our lives more convenient without the need to pay for them with our attention and well-being.
With Kim Colin (Industrial Facility).
All applications that can run on Android are available on this device, but are rendered on a crisp black and white e-ink display.
Physical keys give a sense of tactility while a lock switch makes the act of unlocking the device more intentional.
Controls on the back grant access to functions even when the device is placed face-down on a surface – reducing the need to navigate via the screen.