So when I moved to the UAE some 5-odd years ago (yikes!) my first gig was with a boutique branding agency. The owner of the agency was very specific about the type of projects pitched for – not your mainstream, run-of-the-mill kinda client projects but ones that geared towards the arts & culture scene and family businesses. For one such project which in hindsight was a rare opportunity to learn about the origins & evolution of these United Arab Emirates; I was the copywriter for a coffee table book developed to chronicle five decades of operations of a respected family business house in Dubai. Storytelling in Arabian societies is part of history itself; passing on wisdom and experience from one generation to the next, so it was quite interesting to be part of that process. A long project that may or may not have led to some hair thinning issues (thank God for coconut oil & shea butter mix)…the end product was a coffee table book that offered a beautifully designed multi-sensorial timeline of one of the UAE’s most dynamic family business groups (shoutout to the creative director Dejana). It definitely goes down for me as a career highlight during my time here in the Middle East. | p.s. Prettiness aside, I now have a firm appreciation for the content development efforts that go into making coffee table books! xo
Leave a Reply