Say Hello to the Middle East’s New Design Platform for Non-Designers
And goodbye to awkward stock photos that don’t fit your audience, culture, or environment. We speak to Egyptian entrepreneur Fady Salah about DomDom - a much-needed product for the whole Middle East.
95% of a Middle East-based designer’s time is spent scrolling through stock photos of the same three models’ photoshoots. We made that statistic up, but only because we know it actually does feel like wasting forever in search of photos that match the wishlist: look believably Arab, can at least moderately reflect the audience, don’t fall into racist tropes, and still somehow communicate brand messaging.
DomDom’s library of original stock photos, all shot in and relevant to the MENA region, was born out of this very need. It’s also the MENA region’s first intuitive graphic editor, enabling people with no design experience to take matters into their hands.
Fady Salah, founder and CEO, saw a gap of underserved entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford the top-tier agencies or to hire an in-house graphic designer, but also couldn’t continue to depend on freelancers for every social media post and announcement.
DomDom also addresses a pain point left by other online editors such as the Australia-based Canva. “Because their audience is global, they don’t make room for regional and local cultures,” says Salah. “What they offer isn’t relevant to us, our streets and lives and faces and business, and small brands don’t have the option of staging special photoshoots like big agencies can.”
“It’s the same issue with templates,” continues Salah. “You might find Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak, but you can’t find things for national holidays like 6th of October for example, or different countries’ independence days, or even region-specific social media trends, which is what we’re offering.”
DomDom will set subscription fees of EGP 150-200, but for now is offering the first three months for free.
