Last week I visited Egypt Waste & Recycling Expo, it was organised by the Egyptian ministry of environment and other public entities, and it was held for three consecutive days. It was interesting to see how the government presented the whole recycling scene, especially that people here roll their eyes whenever the word recycling and Egypt are said in the same sentence. Of course, it is not a common practice here, but we do have a lot of recycling industries. I was told over and over whenever the conversation arises that we don’t recycle in Egypt, but always argued, simply because there is a lot of cash in trash, and trash is something we have in abundance! A treasure, really.
Read MoreAt a point in time, I was a freelance writer at G Mag
I am starting this series of posts sharing what I’ve been doing in the last few years; what I've learned and how I screwed up. Hopefully, it will all add up in the end and show me a direction.
Why should you read this? A. See if you can relate to it B. Learn something new C. Maybe it’ll encourage you to dive into an unusual opportunity and D. Learn from my F*cking mistakes bec. am not gonna publicly embarrass myself for nothing!
At a point in time, I was a freelance writer at G Mag.
Read MoreAt A Point In Time: I Wanted To Document Made In Egypt Products
I am starting this series of posts sharing what I’ve been doing in the last few years; what I've learned and how I screwed up. Hopefully, it will all add up in the end and show me a direction.
Why should you read this? A. See if you can relate to it B. Learn something new C. Maybe it’ll encourage you to dive into an unusual opportunity and D. Learn from my F*cking mistakes bec. am not gonna publicly embarrass myself for nothing!
At a point in time, I wanted to document Made In Egypt products
Read MoreAt A Point In Time: I Was A Secret Shopper!
I am starting this series of posts sharing what I’ve been doing in the last few years; what I've learned and how I screwed up. Hopefully, it will all add up in the end and show me a direction.
Why should you read this? A. See if you can relate to it B. Learn something new C. Maybe it’ll encourage you to dive into an unusual opportunity and D. Learn from my F*cking mistakes bec. am not gonna publicly embarrass myself for nothing!
At a point in time, I was a Secret Shopper!
Read MoreHow To Find Great Craftsmen In Egypt And Get The Job Done! - Part Two
In part one of how to find great craftsmen in Egypt and Get the job done, we’ve gone over the basis of your design quest and that was the time-consuming part. Once you set your priorities and get to know the nits and grits of the process you’re after, it will all fall into place. The next two –or maybe three- steps are for designers who are trying to implement new designs or have a bit more complicated designs.
Read MoreHow To Find Great Craftsmen In Egypt And Get The Job Done! - Part One
New year, new beginnings! Early January marked the end of my experience at Reform Studio where I worked as a product designer for the last year. Reform is a design studio in Cairo that designs furniture products from an interwoven plastic textile-like material made out of plastic bags.
In this post I’ll share one of the major takeaways from my experience in Reform Studio. Using my experience as a case study, I came up with a set of steps on how to find great craftsmen in Egypt and get the job done!
Read MoreBook Review | The Art Of Asking By Amanda Palmer
After launching an extremely successful kickstarter campaign and became the first indie singer to pass the million dollar mark, Amanda wrote 'The Art Of Asking' to share how it all happened.
The more pages I turned the more it seemed that asking was really about trusting. The more you trust people; you believe that they can help, that they care, that they are 'good' humans, and that it's ok to sometimes be vulnerable around them, the more you'll ask for and accept their help.
Read MoreIncomplete Thoughts: On Giving And Taking
Incomplete thoughts are thoughts that are seriously lacking necessary segments, and would have otherwise turned into complete polished theories. I invite you all to think about them, swirl them in your mind, mix it up and make your own incomplete thoughts ooor shake your heads and tell me 'dina. You've got it all wrong'
I am currently reading Amanda Palmer's book "The Art Of Asking". In this book she shares her insights on asking for help after launching a kickstarter campaign that was so successful that she became the first indie singer to pass the million dollar mark. She shares really interesting points about asking for and accepting help. I'll do a whole review on the book in another post.
Read More6 Extremely Useful Chrome Extensions
You'd be surprised how these can make your life much easier! Today I'll share my favourite chrome extensions that I personally use all the time, it saves me a lot of time and nerves!
I am starting with my number one favourite! I can't live in Egypt without this, seriously.
Read MoreVlog | What's Inside A Hair Straightener?
I always loved opening products to see how they work, I usually do this for my projects or just for the sake of curiosity, mainly curiosity! I love watching such videos on youtube and I didn't find any video showing what's inside a hair straightener, so I decided to make one!
Check out the video:
The Problem With Being The First
In my previous post I talked about how you would probably be the first at founding a new, fill in the blank, in Egypt and how awesome that is. But as you might have guessed from the title, being the first or having those 'don't count' competitors also has its drawbacks. If they were not avoided, being the first would become your weakness rather than your strength. Did you think life was that simple!
This applies to startups in general; it's not specifically just in Egypt but pretty much everywhere. I've had the chance to work in several startups that are all leaders in one thing or another, and from my work experience I've noticed two main drawbacks.
Read MoreProduct Design In Egypt
Being a product designer is really awesome, being a product designer in Egypt is even better! Let me tell you why.
But first a quick disclaimer: this is not advice by any means, if you want to start your design career somewhere else it would be an incredible opportunity, this is my thoughts for designers who want to start in Egypt, but staying here just makes them want to blow their brains out.
Now that this is out of the way, why is being a product designer in Egypt a blessing in disguise?
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