Making the film in Dubai showed me a culture that felt timeless — until you realize the world it represents is being reshaped every day.
All in Observations
Making the film in Dubai showed me a culture that felt timeless — until you realize the world it represents is being reshaped every day.
Two months into conceiving, scripting, shooting, editing and publishing a first glimpse of my documentary, I wondered how I even got this far.
Storytelling for the UAE space program this week from the Space Station has been a humble reminder of the power of storytelling, we spent eight years in the making.
Podcast interview
How stories and tech have shaped the future of Dubai and its government since 1961
Interview
Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs on resilience, cultural context and and purpose.
Podcast interview
The difference between passion and purpose, and why you need to build both.
Keynote address
On fear, culture of taboo, and building stories to overcome failure.
Podcast interview
On the culture within government to transform at scale with tech like blockchain and a bold mission.
TIME Magazine
“Design is the articulation of a hope; and technology is the means to achieve. Dubai has both.”
Special Feature
Brothers, investors and entrepreneurs Danish and Wisam have created a new market for design-centric strategy and innovation firms in UAE.
It’s not every day that an agency is commissioned to craft a universally recognisable symbol for a modern-day visionary like His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum — UAE’s Vice President and Dubai’s Ruler . Here's how we crafted a brand to tell his story.
I spotted that expression in a recent interview with branding luminary Michael Beirut of Pentagram. I have never quite paused to acknowledge 'design thinking' in words like that before.
It is easy to criticise the industry in the Middle East, but the time to pelt stones at the industry is long gone. Empires have been built on the foundation of the 15% commission. What can change that?
How could an agency compete with factories offering off-the-shelf solutions that are cheaper, standardised and quicker than anything we could put together? We decided to game the system.
My lessons from the alarmingly inspiring Designyatra -- bridging the divide between the irrelevance of design as a concept, and it's real global impact.
This city called Dubai has gone from being an incubator of 'small ideas' that can grow 'big' to one that supports 'big ideas' that can grow even 'bigger.' But there is hope.
