New Look, New Website - Same Lovable GPP!

If you made it to GPP Photo Week this year, chances are you caught a glimpse of our new logo. And if you’ve been by GPP at all in the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed our sleek new signage. Today, we’re excited to officially announce our rebrand of GPP and the launch our new website.

As Dubai’s center for photography, we’ve undergone incredible changes in the last several years that testify to the ongoing growth of the photography community here in Dubai and the MENA region. As our workshops programming, exhibitions, printing services, community events, and GPP Photo Week have continued to expand, we decided it was time for our external look and digital presence to reflect our internal evolution.

We've gone through a lot of iterations since we first opened our doors back in 2004:

So to help us in this process, we reached out to Natasha Agapova of the design collective Arbeitskollektiv. Here’s what she has to say about the design process:

Work on the GPP identity began with the logo. We wanted to avoid direct illustration, so almost immediately we came up with a symbol 'g' resembling a camera. This grapheme makes the logo unique. However, the logo is only a small part of the visual system. Therefore, we further developed the grid system, which helps to bring various materials to a single whole. Color also became an important part of the corporate identity, and we're happy to say that the GPP staff helped us a lot in selecting the palette!

Here's a peek at the process behind creating our new logo:

To help us apply this streamlined new look to our website, we turned to UAE-based designer Samia Kallidis who helped us reimagine gulfphotoplus.com to increase its visual appeal and make it increasingly user-friendly. Now we’re working with Chilean designer Montserrat Monasterio for the fun stuff: stickers, workshop notes - you name it (if you can’t tell, we like to keep it international around here!).

As you navigate the new website, you’ll notice that we’ve said goodbye to some older features like Showcase and Marketplace to clear the way for a renewed focus on our workshops, exhibitions, community events, and the revamped, soon-to-be-released printing page, plus we’ve added a comprehensive search function, live social feed, and easy access to our Blog page and photographer resources - making it easier for you to access relevant photo news and keep up-to-date with everything happening at GPP.

Stay tuned - our updates aren’t done yet. We'll be launching our redesigned printing page later this summer to make your online printing experience even better.