A successful start to the Original Talks series.

As part of Downtown Design's ongoing commitment to supporting original design, the first of our Original Talks took place on the 28th May at A4 Space in Alserkal Avenue. Hosted by Richard Dean with an impressive panel comprised of Khalid Shafar, Vadim Horna, Firas Alsalih and Cyril Zammit, who passionately discussed the importance of original design. A full house of design enthusiasts ensured a very lively Q&A session!

From left to right: Vadim Horna, Firas Alsalih, Richard Dean, Khalid Shafar and Cyril Zammit.

Khalid: I think for me personally as an individual designer who is having himself as a brand or having my own brand, originality comes with the story of the objects we create.  It is the creation of attachment that we do or we create between the viewer and the piece itself and this is what I consider as original.  I am sure we are touching different areas when it comes to originality and one of them is being authentic, or lets say not fake, lets keep it in simple terms. But I think for me as a designer, as a creator, it goes beyond that. It goes beyond the story behind the piece, the material, the people involved in creating or building this piece that is what creates that originality to it. 

Cyril: Original is important because when we [Downtown Design] bring great brands for example Lasvit who is here today with Vadim, there is a huge tradition of brining the very best of quality, the very best of production, and this is important because often, and this is probably one of the questions we will follow on, there is a lot of déjà vu and copies in the market and we want to bring the opportunity for the people visiting to understand that the best of the brands are here and the best of the brands bring.

Firas: Before Wilson Associates I was with Poltrona Frau for most of my life, the last 15 years, so I brought Poltrona Frau to the region back in 2000, and we as PF, Cassina and the main brands that most of you recognise have suffered a great deal commercially from the issue of fake furniture. One of the things about fake furniture is it tends to be called reproductions or replicas, but of course if it was a Louis Vuitton it would be called a fake. So the way the industry the way the companies view the play on words is instead of saying designed by they will say inspired by ultimately what it means is that it is fake.