| Dubai Metro |
 This past June I worked on a advertising campaign with Saatchi and Saatchi for the new Dubai Metro. Dubai is a city in the U.A.E. and until recently has been flush with cash. You may recognize it– they are known for manufacturing the shapes of their islands into mini-countries like the U.S. and Thailand. Recently, Dubai's landscape is setting world records with Burj, the world's tallest building and the metro, the wold's longest unmanned subway. The trains were built in Japan and shipped to the Middle East- it's pretty crazy stuff.  With the metro's grand opening fast aproaching (September 9th, 2009) Hussain Moloobhoy and Andy Johns Art Directors at Saatchi tasked me with the job to educate the people of Dubai with the various amenities the new trains would provide: women and children only cabins! 100% electric! Zero carbon emissions! Complete wifi coverage! We started with the basic concept of using the train route's shape to illustrate the features of the metro. The process of my drawings reflected the construction of the new transportation: the first ad included only a train and tracks- and gradually grew more complex to include people, activities, and economic growth. The final outcome was the launch of an extensive ad campaign that was plastered throughout the city. Life sized drawings displayed along the inside a station, street banners, newspaper ads, freeway overpasses, etc.  This was a pretty huge job for me. I was told that the Middle East has never seen a major illustrated ad campaign like this one (compared to all the illustrated campaigns we see in the western world). In a city where business is king the metro seemed like a significant catalyst to change and create business, real estate, and new jobs. Some cultural sensitivites were interesting. For instance: 1. NO DOGS. I like to draw my dog Porkchop once in a while, but apparently dogs are considered unclean in the Arabic culture. 2. NO SHIRT NO SHOES NO SERVICE. No women in shorts or skirts higher than their knees and of course no bikinis or swimsuits. 3. NO HAMBURGERS.The Ramadan ad was really great to research for. Just all the different types of food and the tradition of smoking the sheesha pipe and telling stories were really great. Overall, I thought I would be rather inhibited to draw weird things but I think the art directors had a great sense to let me include these details. The irony of this post is all the crazy things going on in Dubai right now. Abandoned, dusty Mercedes at the airport, the city asking debtors to hold off for 6 months, Abu Dhabi lending $10 billion to Dubai, basically the collapse of the financial market. Weird right? Real estate bubble bursting? Banks forfeiting on loans...it's all quite familiar these days. Anyways, as someone that takes public transit every day, I'm quite proud to have helped in the launch of a structure in Dubai that is more than the glitzy, foreigner, businessy, touristy hotels the city has been known for. Hopefully the metro will be around for a long time.                   
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