“Meet d3” hailed as major success as Dubai’s new home of design officially opens

Diana Bell-Heather   |   09-08-2015

The UAE’s community of both residents and tourists were treated to a three day celebration of design and creativity to mark the official opening of Dubai Design District (d3).

More than 30,000 design enthusiasts, foodies, music fans, followers of fashion, tourists and families visited d3 throughout the weekend. They enjoyed the very best of UAE-based and international creative talent.

The “Meet d3” event was specifically commissioned and curated to feature a 100 strong creative mix of UAE-based, regional and international designers, artists, musicians, concept retailers and unique dining experiences. Amongst the participants on display over the weekend, the Meet d3 programme included a significant number of d3’s business partners including: local designers through multi retail platform “Resid3nt”, Not Just a Label, Faux Consultancy, Lasvit, Silsal Design, S*uce, Tahir Sultan, Penguin Cube, Amongst Few, Wanders Wagner Architects, and Sole DXB. The programming was further enhanced with the participation of Emirati creative talent such as Khaled Shafar, Bint Thani, Jalal Luqman, Hamdan International Photography Award(HIPA), Cinema Akil & Gazette, Anthropology of Design and Dr. Reem El Mutwalli , artists represented under Brand Dubai as well international talents featuring world renowned British singer-songwriter John Newman and industry trends forecaster and presenter, Li Edelkoort, to name a few.

Hailing the success of the Meet d3 event, Dr Amina Al Rustamani, Group CEO, TECOM Investments, commented: “Meet d3” marks the official opening of The Dubai Design District to the world. Through the culmination of teamwork, community spirit, creative innovation and love for all elements of design, it has been a tremendous success. The feedback from the wider UAE community, who showed their support through an overall attendance of more than 30,000, has been incredibly positive and demonstrates a keen appetite for many more such events at d3 in the future”.

The atmosphere of “Meet d3” throughout the three-day community event saw creatives, families, officials, food lovers, music enthusiasts and fashion decision-makers interacting and experiencing all elements of the design landscape within the newly-created d3 destination.

“Apart from thanking our business and creative community partners for their participation, we would also like to thank all of our Government Authority partners in working closely with us in delivering this milestone event.

“With more than 220 business partners signed up in Phase 1, d3 is looking forward to growing its partner base and the business interest just from this event has been extremely positive. We are very excited to commence the second phase of our master plan development, which is the delivery of the Creative Community scheduled for completion in 2017. This will cover around 1,000,000 square feet within d3, and will act as an incubator for emerging UAE-based designers and artists, as well as providing a natural home for art galleries and studios looking to engage directly with the region.”

Response from the wider community has been overwhelming. As part of d3’s efforts to capture real time feedback from its visitors, digital surveys were carried out throughout the event and the general response has been overwhelmingly positive. “We did not know what to expect from the ‘Meet d3’ event and were curious to find out. My family truly had an incredible time and there was something for everyone to experience and discover.   We look forward to seeing this hopefully as a yearly event,” said a family of visitors.

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