UAE Chronicled; A street's Tale {St. 24}

One of the other projects that I was working on before the summer back in May, was a graphically designed set of notebooks aimed to revisualise the country's urban sprawls. That's right, going to back my design roots, I collaborated with my colleague Bushra on creating a collection of products under the series 'UAE Chronicled'.

As I designer, I found that urban spaces and their experiences are an interesting and yet practical subject matter to represent. The project's first phase is dedicated to documenting Al Satwa, Dubai. One of the bustling areas of Dubai, Al Satwa is a far cry from Dubai's glitzy lifestyle, a community comprising of high density retail outlets; of fabric stores, tailors, cafeteria's and furniture shops.

The process of it all, hours under the scorching sun taking snapshots of every single detail in and around Satwa.

Intricately designed doors in bursting colors around Satwa

Blaring neon signs from every shop and store

Rundown sofa's on the sidewalk of houses

created an icon to use as a pattern for 'Satwa'. Our inspiration; the doors

Satwa is a very convenient area in Dubai, it hosts a large array of products and services. There is actually very little that you wouldn't be able to find in Satwa, yet there are no directories or maps of the area. A Street's Tale; Street 24 is a range of notebook designs depicting a visual narrative of Al Satwa, and most importantly incorporates a colour coded directory of the retail spaces. Al Satwa is basically one long curved street (Street 24) with rows of narrow buildings on either side, small shops and stores tucked around every corner.

So anyone in Dubai looking for some polka dot fabrics or hidden gems, head on to The Ara Gallery, email or comment to purchase a notebook for yourself. Believe me, once your in Satwa, the chaotic of it all can really get to you (so will our Sun), so having a directory will do wonders in getting you around. Here's a few pictures from the launch and the notebooks at The Ara Gallery.

 

 

Check out our blog www.tumblr.com/uaechronicled and follow @UAEChronicled for updates on the project and upcoming products. Would love to hear your comments or any thoughts you have.

Have a great day, and Ramadan Kareem to all. 

Bits & Bobs

It's been a week now and there are still traces of my holiday scattered across the room. I tend to get a bit distracted when it comes to unpacking, rearranging and cleaning out my whole wardrobe. Most of the time I do it in steps; create huge piles on the floor, take a break, sift through one of the piles for a few minutes, take another break, stare at the mountain of things accumulating ontop of the bed and magically wish they would disappear to their right places.  It's pretty exhausting I tell you, my system that is, but I've come to terms with it.
Though I'm sure if I had these pretty items from Present & Correct to organise my random collections and my day.

 

for all things small and button-y

Office in a jar; I wish I could fit everything I need inside a jar as compact as this

The travel envelope; the perfect accessory to carry all your loose papers

If only all the random objects lying around would magically compose itself to this beautiful artpiece

images via; Present & Correct