Mihir Sanganee, Designsmith’s creative lead, is dedicated to providing exceptional value to clients while also growing the firm’s design and projects divisions. While the studio does not have a specific design style due to the wide range of projects we work on, Designsmith does have design ideologies and core principles that define the outcome of each project.

Their designs are deeply researched, allowing the firm to deliver contextual solutions that are specific in nature, culturally relevant, and go beyond our clients’ basic briefs. Much of this stems from our technical expertise and inquisitiveness as designers, who ask the right questions and write the right briefs to define our clients’ requirements. As a result, Designsmith never knows the outcome of any project until the brief has been reworked from various perspectives and experiences. The user eventually takes centre stage, and the story lines are built around that experience.

Sanganee explains: “We’d like to think of ourselves as a 34-year- old start-up redefining the industry landscape with out-of-the-box designs backed by experience and technical support. Our studio has been expanding year after year for several years, and we now have a team of over 30 designers. Our design innovations are primarily the result of a collaboration between our senior lead designers and junior designers. The younger designers bring a tech and software flair that allows for extensive experimentation, whereas the senior designers constantly innovate while keeping our design philosophies in mind. To be honest, this is a beautiful blend that allows for great innovation and understanding of space. With seven nationalities on the design team, it is the cultural diversity that distinguishes each project.

Technology and smart solutions will be the future of stakeholder management. “We’ve made great strides in our app development, creating a portal for clients and us to stay on the same page, from the inquiry stage to sample approvals, project plans, and delivery deadlines. This will change the game in terms of key stakeholder relationships, allowing all information to be accessed at a glance. As our trials are nearing completion, we hope to have this up and running by the end of the year. Technology and smart solutions will be the future of key stakeholder management,” he adds.

Designsmith is currently working on a few innovative F&B and wellness concepts. Winter is typically a busy time for businesses across the country, and with a thriving real estate market, the firm has landed some fantastic hotel renovations, luxury homes, and commercial projects.

Sanganee comments: “The diversity of our projects in our design portfolio has been critical to our ongoing growth; we are still doing very well in the luxury residential industry, where our success has been based on our design and build model. We’ve seen a great boom here considering the trends in the real estate industry, with over 500+ artisans across industry trades and our production facilities spanning 70,000sqft.”

We’ve seen a lot of movement from our clients in the UAE now taking us to other countries, from a flagship retail outlet in India to a luxury residential development in Africa, and key relationships built over the last few decades have helped us grow alongside our clients. That is what makes this industry so amazing; with each project successfully completed, your credentials continue to grow,” shares Sanganee.