Success Stories From @DesignDaysDubai

Article in brief: The author searched deep into Design Days Dubai to find three inspiring participants of the exhibition with inspiring stories to share.

Dubai Art Season is one of the most exciting seasons for not only artists and designers but also people with an eye that loves to see beauty. Design Days Dubai was a pleasant event that made every lover of art and design well-fed with beauty.

Different design studios and individual designers from all over the world showcased their art with an aim to share a little bit of themselves with the world of art in Dubai. As all art pieces have a story behind them, the designers’ success stories were exceptionally inspiring.

Shamsa Al Abbar, Designer of Shamsa Al Abbar Jewelry

Shamsa Al Abbar is a young lover of Arabic calligraphy, who started her career by simply experimenting with words and letters. Shamsa’s first project consisted of her playing around with Arabic letters with the aim of creating a sentimental gift for one of her friends. After posting the picture of the final product Shamsa created, a necklace with the name Alia on it, she was surprised to see how much positive response her design got.

This response encouraged her to actually consider jewelry designing as a business and with the support of her loved ones her dream came true. Shamsa believes that the key to success is confidence, and that experimenting and exploring are how one’s true talents reflect. At Design Days Dubai she showcased her beautiful pieces of jewelry that were designed with love and meaningfulness.

Hessa Al Ghazal and Afra Al Ghurair, Designers and founders of Kadi Flower Boutique

Hessa and Afra’s vision started with a common love for flowers; they believe that flowers have the power to add beauty to anything. After graduating with a degree in Marketing, they realized that they wanted to do something different and something creative enough to reflect their inner beauty. Before Kadi boutique, Hessa and Afra used to spend hours in flower shops just to make sure that the flower arrangement they’re sending out to their loved ones is exactly how they want it to be. From that point on, they realized that Dubai needs more creativity when it comes to flowers, they wanted to be something that would be creative and artistic. Kadi boutique was born with the potential of spreading beauty through flowers. Metal By Kadi was a symbol of delicacy that definitely stood out among other designs at Design Days Dubai.

D04 STUDIO, Design studio based in Dubai and designers behind Dubai Culture booth at Design Days Dubai 

Fresh university graduates joined forces together to create D04 design studio through their passion for designing. After working together multiple times at university, the two Sudanese ladies and two Emirati ladies became familiar with working with one another and open communication and constructive criticism is what drove them up the ladder of success. Noora, one of the designers at D04, believes that there’s always an opportunity to take and that by putting yourself out there while still preserving your identity as a designer you’ll most defiantly succeed. At Design Days Dubai, they were selected to create the Dubai Culture booth. They were inspired by the craft of basket weaving to create a design that mirrored Dubai Culture’s three pillars; Culture, Heritage and Art.

Finally, I took this event as a chance to meet new, talented people that thrive towards success. It was a rather inspiring experience to meet all those incredible people and hear their stories. The people I met made me realize that the strangest things could lead you towards success and that one should embrace their talents and abilities and wear them as a badge of pride.