P1000242-IGNORED

MEC | Bringing Doha’s history to life

… And a story about mangroves. Msheireb Enrichment Center was a place largely ignored.

An old boat anchored just outside Doha’s corniche, turned into a museum and a presentation center for Msheireb Properties’ newest development, was an interesting place, but due to lack of introduction to the public it was hardly visited, although beeing free of charge and located in a busy, popular place.
The guard at the gate did not help either, but rather intimidated the few curious people daring to venture in their direction.

What we did:
Brand Awareness Campaign, Space Design, Outdoor Furniture, Event Campaign, Packaging, Promotional Materials

MEC was acting as both a museum for the old city and a center for promoting their new developments. But, despite their amazing location, along the Corniche Promenade, nobody seemed to be interested to venture in. The place looked like a ghost town. Msheireb knew they needed a big change in order to become more visible.

Part of Msheireb’s existing identity was this hardly used but meaningful and complex pattern inspired from the mangroves habitats growing around the peninsula, a pattern not enough explioted in their identity. We decided to bring it into the spotlight using it in a metal die-cut structure providing a shaded area on top of the existing concrete entrance.

There were other problems to be tackled. The entrance was intimidating, no proper signage for the people to understand that they are more than welcome, entrance being free, and that what they might discover inside was, indeed, worth of their time.

Doha is unbearably hot for more than 6 months of the year, making it difficult for anybody to walk outdoors without taking shelter in shaded spots frequently. So, we created the perfect spot on the Corniche, where people could have a sit in the shade and, in the same time, learn about what MC Center has to offer, and inviting them in.

Qatar, has a pretty amazing history in the sense that it suddenly grew enormously in no time. Just 50-60 years ago, it’s main city, Doha, was only of the size of a village, while today, it features impressive steel and glass high-rise buildings, newest technologies in many fields, and a strong desire to be present on the world map as a modern nation. We decided to look into that geographical growth and turn it into a brand experience.

Based on old maps found in MEC’s archives, we managed to trace that super-fast geographical growth of the city and turn it into graphic patterns to be used in their future packaging materials.

We went on photographing some of their old artefacts and used them to illustrate their marketing materials.

Traditions are to be cherished, but we should also learn from them in order to bring a positive vibe towards the future.

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