How It All Started: The F2o Designs Origin Story

Pretty dramatic title, isn't it?

Well, F2o Designs almost didn't happen.

You see, back in 2004, Villa Moda (a big luxury store in Kuwait) held a t-shirt designing competition. My sister and I were in Kuwait in between the Spring and Summer semesters, and she and my cousin both decided to submit t-shirts for the competition. For days, they were cutting, glueing, sewing, and painting on plain t-shirts purchased from Zara.

I, on the other hand, was not interested in entering the competition. Two days before the submission deadline, however, I finally succumbed to my sister and cousin's request to create something. So, I went ahead and purchased two t-shirts and started painting a character on each one - one guy character with an afro and a female character, also with an afro. I actually didn't take much time to think it through; I just decided to draw what I love - cartoon characters.

Long story short, I won 3rd place in that competition. One guy stood right next to me, complaining that if he knew he would've drawn a character with big hair instead of his 'masterpiece;' for context, his submission was an intricate, busy, unidentifiable design created out of chocolate.

After going back to college for the summer semester, I started painting on t-shirts and gave them away to my sisters and friends. Starting 2005, in the AUS Global Day, I started custom-painting and selling t-shirts for customers, who were mostly college students in the UAE. And the rest is history!

Quick tidbit: I came up with the name "F2o" for my brand in a physics class. And yes, I was more interested in drawing in class than absorbing any physics in the process.