| sabiramanek@gmail.com |
A talented interior designer who started her profession in London.
Born in Uganda, I grew up in London after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda. I studied interior design and soon after set up my own business working mainly with property developers in some of London's most prestigious residential locations. My work was based on turnkey projects which involved all aspects of designing for interiors, bathroom and kitchen planning and working drawings, colour specifications, finishes and co-ordinations right through to site supervision.
This spun Sabira's commercial talents and combined with my artistic flair I launched my own collection of bedlinen which were an immediate success with leading London stores such as John Lewis, Selfridges and Liberty as well as Bijenkorf in Holland. Eager to create my own brand and image I opened my first Designer shop in London's fashionable Fulham Road with my collection combined with other imported brands related to bed and bathroom products.
Being a designer and as well as artistic I found that there was now a very fine dividing line and that became my breakthrough to follow nobody's style but my own. I was soon commissioned to licence my designs and works of art for commercial products such as table napkins for Duni, greeting cards for Unicef, Woodmansterne UK, Charity Cards UK, Bridgeman Art Library, etc. SCA in Holland and De Bijenkorf also licensed my designs for Christmas giftboxes. Other usage also included magazine illustrations, designer giftwrap, ceramics, fabrics and much more.
Sabira Manek also made two television appearances once on BBC1's Asian Magazine programme and the other on Channel 4's "This Morning", where the focus was on my style of work and achievements.
Moving to Holland played a pivotal role in awakening my artistic expressions and has also taken me on a soul-searching journey. It has inspired me to create my own paintings depicting the mystical and cosmic symbols in bold and passionate colours.