Working with House of Gul to develop the creative for Unseen Futures

The creative for Unseen Futures, our inaugural fellowship programme, was created by House of Gül. The design was spearheaded by Ali Godil, serving as creative director and designer, and Vama Gupta as a designer. 

Based in Portland, Oregon, USA, House of Gül is the globally conscious creative studio, artistic practice and design shop of Ali Godil.

A quick trip to their website  soon makes you realise that you’re working with highly talented, original thinkers who weave an authentic, spiritual element into their work.  The finished product is vibrant and fresh, and reflects House of Gül’s belief that true beauty is when ethics meets aesthetics. 

We sat down with Ali and Vama to find out more about their creative processess, and how the design for Unseen Futures developed.

What is the creative ethos that underpins House of Gül?  

Our studio is rooted in the idea of beauty as a means of changing the world. We see beauty as the bridge between the world of formless and form. We don’t want to create things that just look good, but something that has a conscious essence and idea behind them that is beautiful.

Beauty as the necessary manifestation of creative ideas in order to truly impact the spirit and hearts of people.

If you’ve ever stopped and stared at a flower, watched a beautiful sunset, stared in the eyes of your loving dog, or walked along the beach without a care in the world you’ve been absorbed and intoxicated with beauty. That’s what we want to capture and bring to the world with our work, art, designs, and films.

Tell us more about your name. Is it Turkish?

Gül is a Turkish, Urdu AND Farsi word. It means flower or rose. This sacred symbol of eternal beauty has inspired poets, painters and writers over the centuries, and perfectly sums up our creative approach. As we want to give something beautiful and inspiring to culture with our design and creative work. Almost like a gift from another dimension that manifests physically. 

We live for the beauty of life, and we want to share our unique talent with the world. We believe true beauty is when ethics matches aesthetics, and that’s what we bring to life with our work. 

The creative for Unseen Futures is unlike anything we’ve seen produced by a UK design agency before. We love it!
Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to generate such a unique look?

We were really inspired by the transfer of energy. Art and creative work is about manifesting and shifting energies with the creator and the audience and is a really primal process, so we were thinking how do we communicate that in a fun and bold way. Since the work is about supporting artists we thought it would work well. 

We also wanted to develop a creative that resonated with a global audience, due to the international nature of the fellowship. We also just naturally apply that thinking to all of our work. Getting away from Western ideals and styles of design and thinking more universally.

Western design principles in its essence is about getting to the point, communicating information, and systematising for mass production what used to be a creative experience into rules and grids.

Although there is benefit to this ideal, in its extreme it has caused everything to look the same and lose any individuality and soul. We’ve been reduced to mere consumers and blind participants of the desires of corporations.

‍Eastern and Islamic design tradition in its essence is rooted in celebrating and honouring the spirit within the human being, the world, and nature in all its wonder. Intended to awaken and revitalise the senses to see the beauty in life and the joy within their being. 

Humans are not reduced to passive consumers, but are active participants in the dance of life. Art and design as a means to uplift and inspire love within, as a reflection of divine love and universal love within all.

What’s next for House of Gül? 

We’re just continuing to sharpen our design work and art projects. We really feel like our work has the power to shift culture and change the way people think about design and placing a different emphasis on eastern worldviews and how we think about art and work. So we want to continue doing that in any capacity. Either with our commercial projects or many of the fun internal art projects we’re working on.

We’re making a journal on art, creativity and consciousness called BLISS. It’ll feature artists and writers around the world sharing how they find their bliss and overcome mental health, corporate world, or individual practices to make amazing work.

So we’re really excited about shifting the creative conversation and broadening perspectives while giving platform and agency to other underrepresented artists.