Twenty years ago it was the must-have decoration to hang on the wall of your UAE villa or apartment. An illustrated map of the city whose title perfectly summed up the mood: Life in sunny Dubai.
Today, copies of the original poster are both collectors items and a treasured memory of time in the Emirates. And the good news is that there is still more life in sunny Dubai.
The 3D illustration is the work of Russ North, who arrived in the country in 1979 at the age of 22 with a job offer from an advertising agency in Sharjah.
After moving on to the listing's magazine What's On as art director, Mr North, from Essex, a county east of London, eventually decided to go freelance with an idea for a souvenir poster for residents and the growing tourist market.
There was no Google, no Street View. I was literally driving around and drawing block by block, section by section
Creating the first Dubai poster was no easy task in the 1990s. He worked on it for six months. “There was no Google, no Street View. I was literally driving around and drawing block by block, section by section,” he remembers.
News of his work reached Dubai Municipality, who officially commissioned the poster in 1999 with a print run of 30,000 in English and 20,000 in Arabic.
Shrewdly, Mr North then reached a deal with Dubai to handle the sales and distribution rights the following year, with a company he set up in Media City.
Originally hand drawn, the poster went through at least three changes before Mr North left the UAE in 2015. “They were building quicker than I could draw,” he says.
Today he lives in Thailand, in countryside outside the coastal city of Pattaya, but continues to work on his illustrations, which now include London, and shortly, Paris.
Advances in technology mean these new posters can viewed on his website, CityViewMaps, and are fully interactive.
But Mr North has not forgotten Dubai, and has created new editions from Thailand, even though he is now 5,000 kilometres away.
For those who want to remember their time in the Emirate, there is what he calls a “nostalgia” version, highlighting the 36 years he spent in the UAE and what he calls “the 75 leading places to remember and colourful characters.”
The original map has also been completely reworked to the city as it is now.
He is also working on a third map with a different perspective, viewing the city from Jebel Ali towards Deira, taking in new landmarks like Expo 2020, Al Maktoum International Airport and the cluster of theme parks along the Sheikh Zayed Road.
Like Dubai, the updated version of the 1999 original is also changed almost beyond recognition. It includes the Burj Khalifa, of course, but also the Eye of Dubai on Bluewaters Island and the Dubai Canal, both of which opened after he left.
The illustrations are also highly detailed, down to a tiny QE2, now a floating hotel moored in Mina Rashid.
Mr North describes his style as “larger than life” meaning that while all the landmarks are included, it is not possible to draw every villa and apartment block.
“My work is as accurate as possible but with artistic licence,” he says. “With today's technology I can work from anywhere as long as I get a good internet line.”
Sadly, he currently has no plans to update or republish a similar illustration he made of Abu Dhabi, feeling that he is just not familiar enough with the capital to do it properly.
The new maps are printed on high quality paper in London, with a new option to have then personalised for small extra charge, a refinement made possible thanks to computer technology that makes it easy to insert a workplace, home address or favourite nightspot.
He is currently updating his website to include them, but says anyone interested can place an order through his email, contact@cityviewmaps.com.
The appeal of the posters, he says, is simple. “It brings back memories and puts a smile on your face," he said.
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
Expert advice
“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”
Stewart Howison, co-founder of Cycle Safe Dubai and owner of Revolution Cycles
“When you sweat a lot, you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes from your body. If your electrolytes drop enough, you will be at risk of cramping. To prevent salt deficiency, simply add an electrolyte mix to your water.”
Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ride as fast or as far during the summer as you do in cooler weather. The heat will make you expend more energy to maintain a speed that might normally be comfortable, so pace yourself when riding during the hotter parts of the day.”
Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
