Stop wondering! Abdullah Kurdi, the mind behind what is now the only prominent outlet offering customization to the hilt, talked to Arab News about his brainchild — Photopia.
He said he realized the absence of a simple idea and thus felt driven to establish Photopia to fill in the void. With the competition yet to arrive, he feels confident about his adventure of the new business.
Abdullah is a proud Jeddawi, born and raised in Saudi. He completed his degree in Graphic Designing in Cyprus and later worked at an advertising agency as an art director.
“That is basically where I got my experience. It all came while working. I loved printing from the beginning, making posters and designing.”
He said he realized he was passionate about it while he was studying but when he started working the idea of Photopia started developing further.
“I started a Facebook page and I got a lot of support. Alhamdulillah.” He says he deals with people at an industrial level but wanted to bridge the gap and bring more to the table. “Everything is customized. I cannot pinpoint my customers. Everyone is a customer.”
Gifts, apparel and decoration are the three main categories he works with. “We have so many techniques of production, there are various themes I can work with. For instance decoration you can customize a chair, or a set of sofas. For gifts we can customize mugs to posters, anything.”
He admits the job is not an easy one. The hardest thing is that you have to be good in all departments. “One day I can be the delivery guy, one day I can be the manager,” he admits, and he has to be on top of the game. When asked about what drove him towards this venture, he said the only way one could focus on business is if you own the passion for it.
“If you don’t like your business don’t do it. If it doesn’t wake you up in the morning, it’s not meant for you.” He admits he never gets bored of it and is extremely excited to know where the business will take him.
“Everything inspires me. When I travel, I take inspiration from everything. Even if it is a wallpaper or piece of furniture. I want to create it differently and add my touch to it.”
The customer service is the most gratifying aspect of Photopia. You walk into a room and fall into a zone full of distinguished, ultra cool decorum by huge plastered wallpapers and funky pieces of art. There is a king-size customized chair and flight of stairs to his mysterious office upstairs, and immediately you start thinking your room feels jaded.
Abdullah has designed Arabic calligraphy on free size tops and abbeys recently. He says the technique and process of design is lengthy. But once that is discussed with the customer, it is a simple production process.
Photopia finally offers us that convenient passage to relieve us of the stress of conformity. Not only can you customize your t-shirts, hoodies, key chains, phone or laptop skins, you can practically be your own interior decorator by designing everything from flooring to what your roof complies with.
So take a moment and think of all those things you have wanted to do; sketch, articulate in words to print on t-shirts, create a bean-bag logo of your favorite football team, or posters of your beloved music idols. You can have David Guetta t-shirt, a Drake hoodie customized, floor graphics for your mother's bedroom, or any "out of the box" ideas.
If you’re looking for the perfect gift, you have total choice to make it personal.
Make it better, make it special. Add a touch of Photopia. Abdullah tries to merge the space between a photo in your mind and physical reality by transforming that image from the insubstantial to the actual.
All in all you learn a lesson from it. You can walk in with hopes of expressing the aspirations of the artist within you and walk out fulfilling that prophesy. Double whammy.
Al-Kayyal Street in Jeddah,
For more information call 0503695662
or email [email protected]
