When we talk about the challenge and overcoming the unknown there is a certain brand that always pops into my mind — Qaaf Gallery. Their motto is resistance. It was a long journey to reach where they are now which makes it even more interesting. Sara Aziz, the co-founder of Qaaf, was kind enough to agree to be interviewed.
The story of this gallery starts from way back, even before the idea of it even sparked.
"I always loved music; my father introduced me to Pink Floyd way younger than when you would usually be introduced. Since I was young, I always wished to find merch that had my favorite bands with good designs but that was very hard."
The love for music was always there, the idea of Qaaf was there all along, it only needed a catalyst, a friend that will help in the creation of such a project. Miraculously that friend came along, in what would be a great partnership.
"I was at a concert for an underground artist and made friends with this group of people. We were all in different majors but what bonded us all was the music and our interests. After a while of hanging out and spending all our money on cafés in downtown Cairo, a friend suggested that we create a space for us that will foster to our needs and that's when Ahmed Tarek and I started the idea of a gallery.”
Though the first gallery they started wasn’t Qaaf, it paved the way for what will be one of the leading independent brands in Egypt. The struggle of starting something new with virtually no experience from a young age can't be easy at all.
"The hardest thing that we encountered while starting Qaaf was the responsibility, we were both in our early 20's and now we have people who we must give paychecks to; we also needed to pay our rent plus finding the suitable material for our products."
However, what they did with Qaaf was quite different than what was present in the scene at the time, Qaaf was from the young adults to them. They cared to bring to them what they didn't find when they were growing up, that is what made Qaaf stand out, its uniqueness, and tenderness to what needs to be presented to their clients.
For this to be executed correctly their needs to be well-round market research done to find out how to market the project correctly, and where. That's also a part that Qaaf excels in, they have an outstanding marketing manager and social media team that helps them in targeting the right audience and reach the highest engagement possible. Without a good marketing team, the products won't come to the light, why? Because it won't even reach the right audience, therefore not sold which means the project will fail.
Qaaf has endured a long journey to be this stable though, it went through major turn points throughout the years that helped create the space we all love now.
"There have been several turn points in our journey, firstly it was when some influencers started reaching out to us asking for our products. At this point we didn't think that it will transform us this much but after these figures started sharing our products we were surprised. Then when we introduced our all-round printed t-shirts. Previously, they were only sold in foreign countries and it was hard to buy them.
Therefore, we started a campaign to support Egyptian products, with this campaign we were able to introduce our first edition of all-round printing. These campaigns helped us bloom."
If you want to create a project and reach the same heights that have been reached by Qaaf what should you do? Well, that's easy I asked Sara to tell us tips and mistakes that you should avoid to create the next Qaaf gallery.
"The most important thing is to be unique, no matter what you are going to sell, you must always ask yourself, Am I presenting something new to the market or am I just copying other people? Because right now with social media we are creating brands and each one presents something new. Then you need to have a good marketer there is no use to have a friend working with you just because he is your friend, this will do you more harm than good. You can, also, enter groups on Facebook where people share their stories and what companies they deal with because that will always help you in your journey. Lastly, you need to take care of copyright infringements, especially if you are selling designs because some places require that you own your copyrights to sell the products in their venues."
In loving memory of a great human being, Ahmed Tarek, who we lost this year.
Interviewer: Abdelrahman
Editor: Nagla Aly Khalifa
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