Brand story
What if you could actually play with the Dubai skyline?
How we transformed Dubai's iconic skyline into a functional executive piece designed to live beyond the gifting moment.
Material & focus info
Create a premium executive gift that could represent Dubai without relying on the usual landmarks printed on another conventional souvenir. It needed to feel sophisticated, collectible and unmistakably connected to the city. Our starting question was: what if you could actually play with the Dubai skyline?
Dubai is a city shaped by ambition. Every tower begins as an idea. Every development requires vision. Every major achievement involves decisions made several moves ahead. There was a natural connection with chess — a game built around vision, strategy and possibility. So rather than simply engraving Dubai's skyline onto a chessboard, we decided to make the skyline the chess set itself.
We studied the forms that make Dubai's architecture instantly recognizable — towers, curves, spires, domes and geometric silhouettes. Those architectural characteristics were then reinterpreted as individual chess pieces. The king becomes a commanding skyscraper. The queen takes inspiration from one of the skyline's most expressive forms. Bishops, knights, rooks and pawns each become miniature pieces of architecture. Together, the 32 pieces create two opposing miniature skylines across the board.
Clear and smoked acrylic were chosen to give each side its own identity while keeping the entire object visually connected. Light passes through the pieces, revealing edges, architectural details and reflections across the board. During the day, it feels almost sculptural. Under evening lighting, the miniature skyline comes alive.
Look at the piece from across the room and you see a premium chess set. Come closer and you begin recognizing buildings. Start playing, and suddenly you're moving a miniature city across the board. That moment of discovery is exactly what we wanted to create.
What began as an executive gift became something between architecture, art and strategy. A functional chess set. A miniature interpretation of Dubai. A conversation piece designed to remain on a desk, boardroom table or in a home long after the gifting moment has passed.
Dubai wasn't printed on the chess set. Dubai became the chess set.