An Emirati designer has been rewarded by the British Council for his work in graphic design.
Salem Al Qassimi, 29, founder of Fikra Design Studio in Sharjah, was awarded the 2014 Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) Culture Award.
Mr Al Qassimi's studio specialises in bilingual design that incorporates Emirati culture and heritage.
"The philosophy of the company is to work within the intersections of heritage here in the U.A.E.,” he said.
"But we take it a step further in that we investigate why this exists and how this can be expressed.”
Mr Al Qassimi also lectures on graphic design at the American University of Sharjah.
"I recently did a project in bilingual scripting where I created 3D letter forms,” he said.
"You can see the Arabic on one side and English on the other, and I looked at the ways you can simultaneously read those languages and interact with the text.”
As a recipient of the award, Mr Al Qassimi was made the U.A.E. ambassador for the YCE programme.
He will travel to London this month to a summit that will look at how culture, technology and entrepreneurship can be linked.
"It is pretty amazing to be able to meet everyone from around the world,” Mr Al Qassimi said.
"But mostly it is important for me to be able to shed light on the type of work that happens in this part of the world.
"It bridges two cultures and introduces my culture in a different way.”
Source: The National