ISLAND — Summer Festival 2024
Creative Direction, Concept & Experience Design
Ha’il, Saudi arabia
Project overview
A destination-scale summer festival conceived to redefine Ha’il’s cultural landscape. Set within the desert and rocky mountains, ISLAND merges contemporary art, spatial design, performance, and commerce into a visually iconic experience—positioning the city as an emerging cultural destination on an international stage.
Context & Vision
As part of Ha’il’s broader transformation into an international tourism and cultural destination, ISLAND was developed to elevate the standard of public events hosted in the region. Created in collaboration with Bedayet Fekra and supported by the Ha’il Region Municipality, the project aimed to introduce a new benchmark for large-scale cultural programming—one capable of standing alongside globally recognized festivals.
The vision was to design an experience that could shift perception: transforming Ha’il into a destination associated with contemporary culture, artistic ambition, and visually powerful public experiences.
Creative concept
The creative direction centered on designing a festival environment built for impact, symbolism, and virality. At the core of the visual language were custom-designed cactus installations—abstracted desert symbols reimagined as contemporary sculptural artworks.
Constructed from intersecting translucent acrylic planes and illuminated from below, each cactus functioned as a standalone art piece. Engineered to interact with natural and artificial light, the installations transformed throughout the day, shifting in color, shadow, and intensity from sunrise to night. This temporal design encouraged visitors to return at different times, turning the festival into a living, evolving environment rather than a static event.
The cactus forms served both as cultural reference and futuristic reinterpretation—rooted in the desert while presenting a new visual language designed to be instantly recognizable and globally shareable.
The sculptural language
The sculptural language of ISLAND was developed as a system of contemporary art objects rooted in desert symbolism. Custom-designed cactus forms were constructed from intersecting translucent acrylic planes, transforming a familiar natural element into an abstract, architectural presence within the landscape.
Illuminated from below, each installation functioned simultaneously as sculpture and light instrument. Designed to respond to changing conditions, the forms shifted in tone and intensity throughout the day—engaging with sunlight, shadow, and artificial illumination. This temporal quality allowed the environment to continuously evolve, positioning the festival as a living landscape rather than a fixed installation.
Experience
design & Programming
Beyond its sculptural identity, ISLAND was conceived as a fully curated cultural ecosystem. The festival brought together large-scale installations, international and regional artists, interactive workshops, live performances, fashion activations, and food and beverage concepts—each selected to coexist within a cohesive spatial and narrative framework.
Programming was designed to move seamlessly through the site, encouraging exploration and discovery. Art, performance, and commerce were intentionally interwoven, creating an environment where culture was experienced, consumed, and shared organically within the desert landscape.
role & responsibilities
As Creative Director, I led the project from initial vision through concept development, spatial design, and experience strategy. My role encompassed both creative leadership and hands-on direction across disciplines, including:
Defining the overarching creative vision and narrative
Designing the festival’s sculptural and spatial language
Directing and supervising 3D designers and visual artists
Curating participating fashion, food, and cultural brands
Collaborating with entertainment agencies on stage programming
Developing presentations, brand assets, and concept imagery
This role required aligning artistic ambition with large-scale experiential planning to deliver a cohesive, internationally relevant festival concept.
Selected visuals from the creative development of ISLAND, including concept imagery, spatial studies, and brand elements developed under creative direction.
Project Assets
ISLAND was designed as an experiment in scale, symbolism, and cultural ambition—proposing a new visual language for public events in the region.
project status
The project reached advanced stages of creative development, with all visual systems, spatial concepts, and experience frameworks fully designed. Execution was postponed due to budgetary constraints; however, the complete creative direction, designs, and production-ready assets remain finalized.
