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We are still recovering from the busiest weekend of this summer and we still haven’t had the chance to check out the fab sales in the city. We have heard there is an underground Vivienne Westwood sale with discounts of up to 50 per cent going on somewhere in the city. Our moles are hard at work trying to find the exact location, but if any of you readers would like to share this classified information, then just leave a message for us.

In the meantime, here’re some images from Saturday’s event– the traffic design competition award presentation ceremony attended by star designer Konstantin Grcic, design expert, editor and curator Shumon Basar and Dubai’s very own hero architect Khalid Al Najjar. Karim Rashid, one of the four judges, was conspicuous by his absence. Months of hard work and sleepless nights paid off for three nominees who went home with the prize and loads of accolades. Rami Farook, founder of the Middle East’s only design gallery, presided over the ceremony and revealed how the competition had been in the works since 2007 April to promote design talent in the Middle East/North Africa.

The competition, the first of its kind in the region received an overwhelming response with entries coming in from 16 cities in the Middle East/North Africa as well as from designers of Middle Eastern origin based out of Los Angeles and London. Besides the awards itself, certain relevant points were also discussed such as the lack of design schools in the region and especially UAE, at which, Shumon Basar rightly pointed out that to fill this void, Dubai should not look at importing foreign design institutions that have become the epicenter of the design world, naming such colleges as the Royal College of Arts and Design Academy Eindhoven. Basar further said that these institutes have grown over time and Dubai should establish something that understands the needs of the local culture and that would contribute to an organic growth of design in the region.

Another issue was the lack of prototypes by some of the nominees who for various reasons could not present them. On this, well-known German industrial designer and one of the jury members Konstantin Grcic said that it is one of the most important elements of designing. Designers need to think ahead to see whether a certain type of design can be produced easily. If producing a prototype itself is an issue, then it needs to be addressed first before moving further.

Khalid Al Najjar, who has been chosen to design one of the biennale pavilions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the founder of dxb LAB, agreed with Grcic. A man of few words, Al Najjar usually lets his work, that has generated some rave reviews in the international press, do all the talk.

Here’re some snapshots of the event.

From left: Shumon Basar, Konstantin Grcic, Khalid Al Najjar

Rami Farook, founder of traffic design gallery

Kiera Purdue, co-founder of Sticky Ginger PR company that counts traffic as one of its clients

Sachin DSouza (far left) and Vinay Premachandran (far right) with two of the nominees

Basar’s funky red shoes got loads of attention (we’ve seen him in something similar if not the same pair at last year’s design forum and we have a thing for red shoes.They rock!

Beirut-based designer Rita Nader, winner of the decorative object category for her design Flashbeam

Lighting designer Sergio Padula…Boccia flaunts his cool accessories

One of the hot favourite contenders Katrin Greiling (left) who won in the interior design category. She was nominated in all three categories with six designs.

Khalid Al Najjar and his lovely wife Solimar Miller, a textile designer chatting to Bidoun editor Antonia Carver.

We couldn’t keep our eyes off those gorgeous wedges!

Blackwool design team who were nominated four times in the interior design category. She’s the same lovely gal with the orange shoes.

It’s obvious that we are smitten with the fluorescent shoes and the sexy pins

One of the nominees, Francois Papastefanou from the lounge chair category

A nominated design in the lounge chair category. The winner in the lounge chair category was Fadi Sariedinne for his chair Dubai Syndrome that turned the Dubai’s construction site cliché into a lounge chair with a concrete block for the seat and iron rods for the back rest.