Abbas Mteirek
Details
Department: School of Communication & Design
Campus: Saigon South Campus Vietnam
abbas.mteirek@rmit.edu.vn
Open to
- Collaborative projects
- Career advice
- Industry Projects
- Join a web conference as a panellist or speaker
- Teaching provision
About
A design academic and creative practitioner based in Vietnam, I currently serve as Interim Senior Program Manager for RMIT University's Bachelor of Design Studies program across Saigon South and Hanoi. With 15 years in design and design education, my work moves between institutional leadership and hands-on practice - branding, typography, UX, and cross-cultural design. I'm a Google UX Design Professional and founder of the Lebanese Korean Design Days, a Beirut Design Week initiative that drew over 27,000 visitors, and I'm currently a PhD candidate researching the intersection of Hangul and Lebanese Arabic dialect.
Research fields
- 330316 Visual communication design (incl. graphic design)
UN sustainable development goals
- 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Academic positions
- Interim Senior Program Manager
- RMIT Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
- 1 Mar 2026 – Present
- Associate Program Manager
- RMIT Vietnam
- Design Studies
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- 1 May 2024 – Present
- Associate Lecturer
- RMIT Vietnam
- Design Studies
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- 1 Nov 2021 – Present
- Department Coordinator
- Lebanese International University
- Arts & Desisn
- Beirut, Lebanon
- 1 Oct 2015 – 15 Feb 2020
- Associate Lecturer
- Lebanese International University
- Beirut, Lebanon
- 1 Oct 2012 – 15 Feb 2020
Teaching interests
I teach across UX, Graphic Design, Typography, Branding, and Visual Communication. My teaching integrates practice-based learning with industry perspectives, emphasizing hands-on project development over purely theoretical instruction.
Beyond the classroom, I mentor student work toward international recognition including a WPO WorldStar Student Awards and multiple distinctions at the Best Brand Awards across 2023-2026 and I've held academic leadership roles coordinating teams of 17 to 31 staff, shaping curriculum direction, quality assurance, and program-wide teaching standards.
Research interests
My primary research investigates the relationship between Hangul and Lebanese Arabic dialect, using practice-led research, autoethnography, and participatory methods to explore alternative approaches to language representation and writing-system development. This work sits at the intersection of typography, cross-cultural design, and semiotics - treating type design as a form of linguistic and cultural inquiry rather than purely visual output.
More broadly, I'm interested in autoethnographic and practice-led methodologies as tools for reflective research and knowledge production across design disciplines, and in how design education itself can integrate emerging technologies like AI without losing critical, culturally grounded practice.