Slash

Slash is a multidisciplinary design studio founded in 1995 and based in Abu Dhabi, where the city itself forms both the home and the testing ground for its work. The studio operates across research, strategy, visual design, spatial design, product, and logistics, approaching every project with a strong sense of purpose and impact. Slash is driven by brave ideas, but equally by the discipline of making them real. With a team representing around 25 nationalities, all living in Abu Dhabi, the studio brings together diverse perspectives grounded in a shared, lived understanding of the UAE.

Slash works primarily within Abu Dhabi and across the wider UAE, collaborating closely with international partners in design, architecture, landscape, and digital fields to ensure that every project is deeply rooted in local culture, identity, and context.

At the core of Slash’s practice is a belief in constant evolution. The studio describes itself as a living project – curious, adaptive, and committed to learning through making. Research and content play a central role, with an ongoing effort to understand and interpret the world through the lens of UAE culture, design, and craft.

Slash actively shapes its own identity through publishing, exhibitions, events, and conversations, including Small Talk, their podcast-that’s-not-a-podcast, featuring informal design discussions with creatives passing through the Abu Dhabi studio. Strategy and narrative underpin every project, ensuring that ideas are supported by context and intention, while visual and spatial design bring concepts to life through coherent, thoughtful execution.

Ripple Collective is the wider creative ecosystem that surrounds and supports Slash. Based entirely in Abu Dhabi, it is a community of interconnected projects, businesses, and creative ventures that continuously inspire and feed into one another. The Collective is home to Slash alongside Fabrica, Fount, Oxalá, and Central – each with its own focus yet united by shared values and collaboration.

Fabrica functions as a makers platform where custom designs become physical objects; Fount is a curated concept store celebrating form and function; Oxalá is a product design brand inspired by life in the UAE; and Central specializes in exhibitions and logistics, mastering the art of moving ideas and objects through space. Together, the Ripple Collective represents a holistic approach to design, production, and culture – one rooted in place, people, and the belief that meaningful work emerges through collaboration.