Interview with Mona Hussein Design House

I began with lighting design and I had my own lighting store- Temple of Light – it was my very first business endeavor after 5 years of working as a client’s relations manager at Tarek Nour Advertising. I had then my first interior design project - El Khan Restaurant at El Gouna.

Harmony and Function, everything becomes in harmony when blended together, I’m not that person who choose the most beautiful and expensive piece of furniture to add in my work, I believe beauty comes from harmony, and I believe less is more. My interior designs offer a comfortable space, and I like to go for naturals materials.

I feel happy, excited and rejuvenated when I am designing in general, because to me designing isn't just a career, it's a lifestyle.

I studied 'Management' and 'Art' at the American University in Cairo. Because of my love and passion for design, I decided to be a designer, however, I haven't always wanted to be a designer until working for years in different fields that I found my aspiration to be a designer.

My biggest dream comes with Mahally product design, I’m looking for Mahally to become an international brand, and that it helps in giving a value-added product design in Egypt.

The most important thing is to love and feel passion about what you do, be honest and dedicated to work, always work hard and try to make things happen.

Share your experience, so people get inspired by your stories, and try to teach people something, because I believe, education can make everything better.

A typical day in my life shortly is waking up at 7:00 Am, eat & finish my breakfast by 8:00 AM, usually, I walk for one hour just before I arrive at my office at 9:30 AM and start meetings with clients, suppliers, staff, and have site visits sometimes.

I keep reading and searching for new things, always updated with websites and magazines, and we regularly invite many suppliers in our design house to present their products and show us the latest technologies they have in the field of design, that helps the team always to stay updated.

I tend to consider certain factors such as the trends, creativity and the sustainability of the design itself.

In order for a design to be successful, it has to fulfill a need, fulfill a dream or desire, and create a bond between the people and the designer, or just even a bond between the people themselves.

The "Cove hotel" in the United Arab Emirates is my biggest design work,
I custom made and designed every single piece in the interior, from lighting, ceiling, flooring to furniture and products. My design inspiration for the hotel came from Egyptian culture.

Philips stark

I live in Cairo, and I feel that the cultural heritage of Egypt affects my design greatly. The pros during designing as a result of living in Egypt is that there are lots of opportunities to design and the cons would be that many people look down upon 100% made Egyptian products.

I believe each one should have his own life portfolio, a balanced portfolio, you work, and you play, so when you are committed and reliable at work, you’ll achieve so much in the addressed time and you’ll be able to have the rest of the time for your play, whether it’s a family time or friends or other. The point is that you should concentrate, be fast and fulfill anything you do first, the whole secret is how to be condensed and fast and how you set your priorities. The more you feed your talent and keep the hard work, the more you become sharper and precise.

In 2013 I started Mona Hussein Interior Design Academy, an educational program that gives a full design course in everything related to interior design, following that, we wanted to expand the idea, so we are currently working on the Landscape Academy and the Product Design Academy. The Academy is a platform for us to share our real-life experience with the students, teaching them the whole process of design, starting from meeting client all the way to a full tendering and site supervision package. Also, we launched Mahally Design Award in 2015, a freestyle Egyptian Product Design competition tends to invite talented designers to create individually new local furniture, lighting & accessories inspired from Egyptian culture.

I remember when I first attended the A’ Design Award with the Positive & Negative Paravent in 2013, I liked the idea and thought, why not launch our competition, to encourage young Egyptian designers to come up with locally designed and manufactured products in Egypt. And it was the time when I decided to launch Mahally Design Award.

I had this idea that I want to do something on my own, something I always have a passion for, and that was product design, specifically lighting units, and that’s how I started.

Yes, I choose to become a designer, although my mind is business oriented, but I think I have the balance between both art and business.

I began with designing lighting units, then interior design, product design, landscape and architecture. I love product design and I still want to bring out more of it.

The first and most important thing is to love and feel passion about what they do, be honest and dedicated to work, always work hard and try to make things happen.

A good designer, is someone that keep things safe, but great designers would push the boundaries of design, they are not afraid to try something new and they will keep at it till it happens. They always think out of the box.

Generally, a good design should be aesthetically pleasing, innovative, and Avant-garde, for product design, it should be useful, derived from a need, accessible and timeless.

Good design takes people to a higher level, it takes the product from being a product to a fine designed product, good design elevate you’re mood. Whether you are using it or not, it feeds your soul and imagination and makes you think.

I would love to design a compound for the Elderly alongside one for the youth. Its purpose is to benefit both from each other.

I’m working hard to realize Mahally as an international brand.

You need to be a task oriented, set your priorities and organize everything so you can move forward and achieve what you really want.
Talent alone is not enough, you just have to feed it by constantly seeing historical sites, traveling, attending exhibits and surfing the net for inspiration from nature and others.

Philip Starck, Paula Lenti, Kelly Wearstler and Zaha Hadid.

Product Design by Patricia Urquiola

The Cove hotel in UAE, I custom designed and produced every single piece in the hotel.

Find their inspirations, be courageous and try something new, read and research, work hard and concentrate, organize their priorities and give each task a specific time to achieve.

I would have been a Developer or a Chef.

Design is the culture. Design just like poetry, music and art, they is part of the culture, when you see it, you are taken to a higher emotional level that makes your soul and mind pleased.

My Team and we earned the clients trust.

I have a clear vision, I see things clearly most of the time, when I have something in my head that I want to do, I go for it and make it happen. This comes along with persistence and hard work.

I don’t see obstacles, I would rather say I had challenges that I faced to become a designer. All those challenges were my learning curve. Every obstacle made me better.

They should present their work by making use of all the latest technology available at hand.

Fouka Bay Beach Landscape Design as well as the Architecture, Interior design and Landscape for Hyde Park Club House in Cairo.

I dream one day for Egypt to become strong in product design.

Quality, efficiency and excellence, and it’s always good to surprise people with innovated designs.

Triggering the emotions of designers.
Pleasing the user.
Supporting the manufacture.
Setting the standards.

I’m preparing for the Landscape Academy as well as Product Design Academy, also, I’m currently working on the Westown Mock up, a big event to celebrate 25 years of Mona Hussein Design House in collaboration with Egypt’s finest suppliers who have been teaming up with us throughout our journey. I also have Mahally outdoor collection in progress, and I’m excited about them all.
In another direction, I started my own blog which I call “ Follow Me with Mona Hussein “ it’s about telling the stories of interesting places I visit in Egypt, where I get my inspirations.

Many projects, basically the one’s that has no interference from the client, few of them were Na3na3, Cilantro, Tatweer Misr mockups, Alessi, Sultan Bey Hotel and Rihana Hotel.

Increase and cultivate artisanal crafts and Take the sources into consideration.

Design will be crucial and will be very important part of everyone’s life, I think we will live in a very competitive scene, were innovative ideas are spreading everywhere and technology will lead.

The length of time to design a project from beginning to end depends on the project itself, and the size or space that you're having to work with.

I start with the typical design process, first, I meet the client and understand their needs, and then we go back and forth in the design stages that includes pre-concept, concept design, schematic design and design development. Once we have the approval on everything, we move to the next stages, which is tendering, preparing construction drawings and be ready for several site visits and furnishing stages.

I feel the most creative when I find a challenging task to work on.

Designers set the trends, they have the imagination and creativity to start an idea out of nowhere, they have the ability to share innovative ideas and when it succeeds it becomes a trend and later everyone would follow.

It helps improve the quality of our work and support our ideas.

AutoCAD, 3D Max, Corona, Sketch-up, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Lumion.

They are the whole design package, each one of them adds to the total design, if one of them fails, or comes short, the design becomes not balanced, I believe they are equally important, they are a team, each one is equally important.

Our inspiration, and how it developed throughout the whole design process.

Overwhelmed, and impressed, and curious how the designer reached that design, I would love to know the story behind, what makes him specifically do that design and sometimes I wish I was the one who designed it.

My Team and of course I believe in co-design.

I’ve met so many people in my life, from simple handicraft to a billionaire, I believe they’ve all enriched the way I think, manage and design.

Motifs and Pattern Styles Books.

I always think of new ideas to present. I also feed my mind and stay updated with the latest trends and designs and what’s new, I read, research and the most importantly I get involved in all aspects of the whole design process in the office.

I would love to meet, talk and discuss with Philippe Starck.

Definitely, it is very pleasing for me and the whole team, it just shows the level of our creativity, which we think is above average, it motivates us to design the next project even better. Being famous humbles us more.

Blue and Orange. El Gouna is my favorite place and I love salad and spring, and I would say MOOOI is my favorite brand.

Well, calling my team with wrong names and discussing the wrong project names.

I find balance in my life, where I enjoy my work, my passion and I’m good at it. I enjoy my team and at the same time, I enjoy my family and my friends.

Since I was very small at nursery my drawings were very impressive for my teachers and throughout the years my art grades were always “A”.

Technology will lead.

I’ll keep saying that talent alone doesn’t bring you anywhere, you have to work hard, feed your knowledge and experiences. It is an ongoing process of hard work and achievements.

Mona Hussein Design House was founded in 1993 where I first specialized in interior design, and then later on the company grew and expanded to architecture, branding where I then later developed "Mahally" and was able to specialize not only in interior design, but also product design.

Design to me consists of many things;it consists of expressing your feelings, and your personality. My life in general is about design. Design surrounds me in my every day schedule whether in my house, work, food and even the presentation in which it comes. Design is in my daily life, and design for me is life itself.

My favorite design would be the "Cove hotel" in United Arab Emirates.
The Cove hotel is a Five star Rotana hotel and I designed every single interior of it. My main inspiration for this hotel came from the Egyptian culture.

The first thing that I have ever designed is a restaurant in El Gouna, called "El Khan".

My favorite material that I like using are Brass and copper. I also love Corian.

I feel the most creative when I find a challenging task to work on or when I'm challenged.

I tend to focus on the aspects of functionality, aesthetic factors, innovative ideas, and having a design that tells a story.

I feel happy, excited and rejuvenated when I am designing in general, because to me designing isn't just a career; it's a life style.

When one of my designs is realized, I tend to feel ecstatic, but also feel that I can do better than this.

In order for a design to be successful, it has to fulfill a need, fulfill a dream or desire, and create a bond between the people and the designer, or just even a bond between the people themselves.

I tend to consider certain factors such as the trends, creativity and the sustainability of the design itself.

The responsibilities of a designer would be that they have to take into account that they have to maintain the culture, address sustainability and recycling, and educating.

The design field is evolving in a way that has become an important part of everyone life. No one can live without design because it's a key aspect.

We don't participate in any exhibitions yet, and it's undecided when we want to hold our next exhibition.

My design inspiration comes from our Egyptian culture. I feed my creativity by looking at websites, design magazines, and visiting exhibitions to get an inspiration.

My design style would best be described as contemporary, modern and modernizing old styled art that has been forgotten. I decided to explore this style because of it's uniqueness, and because it's an international trend. The main characteristics of my style would be that it creates harmony and gives you a warm feeling to it. Mona Hussein's approach to design is that she has to understand the project clearly, understand the clients needs, and the design itself has to create a story.

I live in Cairo, and I feel that the cultural heritage of Egypt affects my design greatly. The pros during designing as a result of living in Egypt is that there are lots of opportunities to design and the con would be that many people look down upon 100% made Egyptian products.

We work with different types of companies and different sized in harmony to create good relations.

My suggestions to companies for working with a designer is that they should work together and consider them as partners. Companies can select a good designer by look at the companies reputation in the market, looking at the companies profile and their previous work.

To me, the design process consists of a few stages. First stage is the pre-concept, second stage is the concept itself, third is the design development and fourth would be the FF&E (Furniture fixtures and equipment).

Five of my favorite designs at home would be my Sofa long (Sofa I designed myself), my marble coffee table, my guest's bathroom, the architecture of my villa, and the flooring.

A typical day in my life consists of waking up at 7:00 Am, eat & finish my breakfast, and shower by 8:30 AM, I arrive at my office by 9:30 AM and have meetings with clients, supplies, staff, and visits if required.

My wisdom to young designers would be that you should always work with integrity and passion.

A pro for being a designer would be that you're always growing as a person and that being a designer is never a boring career. One Con for being a designer is that you need to compromise crucial elements of your design that your clients insists upon, but it's crucial for the design itself.

My golden rule in designing is that you always think it through until you're 100% sure.

I believe that the skills that are most important for a designer is that they need to be creative, reliable, knowledgeable, and they need to have certain exposures.

The tools that I use in my designs are Auto-cad, Photoshop, and 3D illustrator. My inspiration comes from books, and magazines.

I manage my time by staying organized and managing my meetings with my coordinators.

The length of time for designing an object from beginning to end depends on the project itself, and the size or space that you're having to work with.

The most frequently asked question to me is: "Where do you get your inspiration from?"

My most important job experiences was "The Cove" hotel in UAE. It dealt with doing contemporary Arabic design with a low budget.

Some of our major clients include Sodic, Sama Bay, Cilantro, and TGI Fridays.

I don't have a specific type of work that I enjoys the most; I simply enjoy all work retaining to design.

My future plans include developing our local brand "Mahally", and opening new doors to product design to the middle class people. I also want to use more recycled material goods in my products.

We work as a team, because teamwork is very important to me. Each person has a role, and the people in the office trust and count on each other to finish their roles because in the end, we all need and depend on each other.

One of my work in progress is Fouka Bay Beach Landscape Design as well as the Architecture, Interior design and Landscape for Hyde Park Club House in Cairo.

The Polygon Business Park
Building 03, D2, 4th floor, Sodic West, P.O.Box 12451, Km38m Cairo – Alex Desert Road, Sheikh Zayed City, Giza, Egypt.
T: 002 01227498221, 002 01060687877, 002 02 38653245
The Waterway Compound, W Mall
Building B, BFO4, 1ST Floor, P.O.Box 11835, Al Mostathmereen Al Shamaleya, New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt.
T: 002 01028588004, 002 02 225390097

We are over 40 people that work in design and landscape. One of our accomplishments include Art Symposium. We made two of them in which one pertain an Egyptian 'person' during the revolution and one was about functional art.