With an international outlook and passion for his Emirati heritage, Dubai’s forefather of design, Khalid Shafar, is combining creativity with a head for business to build a successful international design brand.
With an international outlook and passion for his Emirati heritage, Dubai’s forefather of design, Khalid Shafar, is combining creativity with a head for business to build a successful international design brand.
As Shafar, who worked in marketing prior to moving into design full-time, prepares to reveal exciting plans for his city’s inaugural design week, Dubai Design Week considers the designers’ influential career and how he is helping to shape the city’s designers of the future.
Coming late to the design-field, the designer is an inspiration to the UAE’s burgeoning creatives, as they pursue their passions and realise their innate talents. He completed a business management degree, and more latterly, a fine arts interior design degree, both from the American University in Dubai. He went on to specialise in furniture and objects design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the UK, completing his studies at the Centre for Fine Woodworking in New Zealand.
The Dubai-born design entrepreneur established his eponymous brand in 2010 and later launched his first showcase space, ‘Kasa’ in Dubai’s Ras Al Khor in 2012. His THE PALM series, launched the same year, garnered international recognition. The line has become a signature for the KHALID SHAFAR brand: an original design that reflects his mission of defining the UAE design aesthetic.
Of his aesthetic, Shafar comments: “Simple lines, mixed with rich details and fine materials are the hallmarks of a KHALID SHAFAR object. It’s a revival of the 50s, 60s and 70s avant-garde and sleek styling re-interpreted with today’s furnishing trends.
“Culturally inspired yet contemporary presented, my design approach revolves around defining a UAE design aesthetic and attributes. For my creations, I believe it’s the ‘tale’ that is the aesthetic side of each object and what creates the attachment with my pieces. Whether you belong to the tale or not, you still react towards it when you read or listen to it.”
With a considered approach, draws inspiration from his lifestyle, the surrounding city in which he grew up (Dubai) and his life memories.
“Yet a designer is always sensitive to the beauty of things around him and for me I find inspiration in many things, including architecture, crafts, art and people. In other words, I take the beautiful side of things around me.”
While considered a stalwart of Dubai design, Shafar’s design journey has almost just begun, entering exciting new territory having recently become a regional brand ambassador for Kiehl’s and participated this summer in the third edition of Shubbak, London’s biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture and art festival. The designer’s first public-space installation, ‘The Nomad’, which was inspired by Arish palm tree architecture, occupied prime position at the Chelsea College of Arts.
And yet, despite his at-capacity schedule, Khalid Shafar remains focused on offering his time and experience to Dubai’s designers of the future, participating in mentoring at Tashkeel and Dubai Design Week.
Of the October 26-31 festival, Shafar says; “As is the case with all design weeks around the globe, it’s a citywide initiative rather than focused on one location, and we want to spread the word and the reach of design across the city of Dubai and beyond in the country. It’s our mission as pioneering designers in our own fields to lead this journey across our nation and encourage more to join forces.”
And what of the future for his city’s design community?
“I am confident and optimistic about how the infrastructure and set up for a design industry is being laid across the city, and for a design community that will evolve over time,” he says.
As Shafar, who worked in marketing prior to moving into design full-time, prepares to reveal exciting plans for his city’s inaugural design week, Dubai Design Week considers the designers’ influential career and how he is helping to shape the city’s designers of the future.
Coming late to the design-field, the designer is an inspiration to the UAE’s burgeoning creatives, as they pursue their passions and realise their innate talents. He completed a business management degree, and more latterly, a fine arts interior design degree, both from the American University in Dubai. He went on to specialise in furniture and objects design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the UK, completing his studies at the Centre for Fine Woodworking in New Zealand.
The Dubai-born design entrepreneur established his eponymous brand in 2010 and later launched his first showcase space, ‘Kasa’ in Dubai’s Ras Al Khor in 2012. His THE PALM series, launched the same year, garnered international recognition. The line has become a signature for the KHALID SHAFAR brand: an original design that reflects his mission of defining the UAE design aesthetic.
Of his aesthetic, Shafar comments: “Simple lines, mixed with rich details and fine materials are the hallmarks of a KHALID SHAFAR object. It’s a revival of the 50s, 60s and 70s avant-garde and sleek styling re-interpreted with today’s furnishing trends.
“Culturally inspired yet contemporary presented, my design approach revolves around defining a UAE design aesthetic and attributes. For my creations, I believe it’s the ‘tale’ that is the aesthetic side of each object and what creates the attachment with my pieces. Whether you belong to the tale or not, you still react towards it when you read or listen to it.”
With a considered approach, draws inspiration from his lifestyle, the surrounding city in which he grew up (Dubai) and his life memories.
“Yet a designer is always sensitive to the beauty of things around him and for me I find inspiration in many things, including architecture, crafts, art and people. In other words, I take the beautiful side of things around me.”
While considered a stalwart of Dubai design, Shafar’s design journey has almost just begun, entering exciting new territory having recently become a regional brand ambassador for Kiehl’s and participated this summer in the third edition of Shubbak, London’s biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture and art festival. The designer’s first public-space installation, ‘The Nomad’, which was inspired by Arish palm tree architecture, occupied prime position at the Chelsea College of Arts.
And yet, despite his at-capacity schedule, Khalid Shafar remains focused on offering his time and experience to Dubai’s designers of the future, participating in mentoring at Tashkeel and Dubai Design Week.
Of the October 26-31 festival, Shafar says; “As is the case with all design weeks around the globe, it’s a citywide initiative rather than focused on one location, and we want to spread the word and the reach of design across the city of Dubai and beyond in the country. It’s our mission as pioneering designers in our own fields to lead this journey across our nation and encourage more to join forces.”
And what of the future for his city’s design community?
“I am confident and optimistic about how the infrastructure and set up for a design industry is being laid across the city, and for a design community that will evolve over time,” he says.