I’m a designer,
podcaster, and
community builder
in-the-making.

Arrow pointing right

Let me tell you a little bit about me:

Background: I’m Brazilian-Egyptian, born in France, and grew up juggling four different cultures. From a young age I spoke French, Portuguese, Arabic and English. Today I comfortably code-switch between different contexts.

Work: I’ve worked in 3 countries so far: France, Egypt, and the UAE, in both homogenous work environments as well as multicultural environments.

As a designer: I like to tackle problems, and provide out-of-the-box solutions. Although I can work solo, I much prefer a collaborative team environment. I think two minds are always better than one.

Outlining my journey in the design world:

I started my design career in 2014 as a window-display assistant designer in the French boutique Dalloyau, where we traveled across Paris to festively decorate boutiques around various occasions: New Years, Valentines Day, Easter, etc. In France we take window-display very seriously as it’s part of the joie de vivre; seeing beautiful things in your day-to-day.

Tech Start-Up

Next I joined the French tech startup Dataiku as a UI/UX Visual Designer. I was the first designer and first female employee to join the team. I revamped their Data Science Studio (DSS), their flagship platform in which the foundations I lay are still in place for this product today.

At the time I took a platform designed by data-scientists to a user-friendly platform developed for complex data analysis, machine learning, and automation. Dataiku went on to become a unicorn tech start-up with a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Boutique
Design
Studio

In 2017, I moved to Dubai to be a 3D product designer for the boutique design studio: Aljoud Lootah Design Studio (ALDS). For Dubai Design Week, I designed our stand where we displayed our coveted Al Areesh collection in which I designed the stool that was displayed in Milan Design Week the following year.

Throughout my time with the studio I was exposed to many aspects of Emirati culture as I worked closely with Emiratis, had Emirati interns, and designed products for many government entities across the UAE.

With ALDS I designed custom corporate gifts, luxury products, statement furniture, and everyday products such as the Sheikh Zayed journal.

Retail Industry

After this niche experience, I wanted to expand to a different environment so I joined the retail conglomerate Landmark Group (LMG). Within LMG I joined the HomeCentre team of designers and specifically worked on designing products for their children’s furniture department.

During this time, I designed over 150 furniture pieces and traveled the world to meet our suppliers and develop our products in Turkey, Vietnam, China, and Malaysia. I collaborated with the children home furnishing designer and department to ensure cohesion between our collections.

Working in the retail industry as an industrial designer during the pandemic was very interesting as unlike many other sectors, we witnessed immense growth.

Freelance
Design

Throughout all these experiences I have been freelancing on various design projects from design consultation, luxury product development, interior design and more.

I love tapping into transferable skills between design sectors and using my knowledge from one area and applying it to the next. For me design is evolution so I strive to continue to learn, evolve, grow and deliver through my creative journey.

Clients: Kawasaki, Abjad Design, Dubai Culture, Spanish Cooperation, Egyptian Streets, Private Clients, Insijam

And last but not least:
inbetweenish

bridges across cultures

a podcast where we talk about belonging

  • Season 2 launched in October and I’m excited to be sharing more stories on living across cultures, and questions around finding home and a sense of belonging.

  • Through my podcasting journey I have worked with various collaborators and interviewed guests across the world. It truly takes a village to share nuanced stories of belonging.

  • Since launching I co-created a workshop ‘Weave Your Cross Cultural Tapestry’, and had two collaborations ‘At A Loss for Worlds’ and ‘Cultural Mosaics’.

  • The inbetweenish pod was featured in The Guardian’s Best Podcast of the Week; this was a big pinch-me moment and it still is! At some point it also topped the charts in its category in the UAE, Ireland, Chile, Great Britain, New Zealand, Egypt, Sweden and Finland. I have a listenership in 65 countries and counting!