Syrian-Russian Vasily Kassab is busy transforming Arabic script to artisanal designs

Vasily Kassab is sipping coffee in Moscow’s trendy Double B coffee shop. Sitting in deep red velvet trousers and a crisp white shirt, he looks like he’s just stepped out of the pages of Vogue.  

It has been five years since he returned to Moscow, the city where he was born.

 The 28-year-old grew up in the Syrian port city of Latakia, studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut, then went on to pursue a Master’s degree in design research and art direction at Milan’s Instituto Marangoni, whose notable alumni include former Trussardi creative director Umit Benan and Julie de Libran, currently Artistic Director at Sonia Rykiel Paris.  

Since August 2012, Kassab has been head creative director of the Moscow office of international branding agency Mildberry whose clients include global giants Danone, Nestle, Pfizer, and Unilever.

In the same year he co-founded the Arabic Calligraphy Center in Moscow and started teaching calligraphy.

“Calligraphy was a part of my design education, and a friend asked me to teach this type of unique visual art. At first, I was skeptical. Nobody was teaching Arabic calligraphy in Moscow, and I did not know if there was any proven interest for it,” Kassab told Salaam Gateway.

His first class attracted nine students and the course now attracts up to 54 a year.

The center’s lectures and events to increase awareness of Arabic calligraphy has resulted in its popularity outside of Moscow as well, leading it to develop online courses that it hopes to launch in Russian, English and Italian this month.

Moscow’s Arabic Calligraphy Center, said Kassab, wants to encourage students to experiment and transform classical calligraphy into contemporary modernized versions.

The teacher leads by example. In 2014, on top of his professional commitments with Mildberry and the Center, Kassab launched a line of ceramics inspired by Arabic calligraphy.

In this Q&A Kassab shares his creative journey and business challenges from idea and concept to the manufacturing of a series of kitchen ware.

Q: How did the idea for your ceramics line come about?

Vasily Kassab: Probably White, the name of the line, embodies my three passions: coffee, calligraphy and product design. I was so in love with coffee that I ended up collecting 70 different cups from all over the world. Luckily, I had a student in my center who was a ceramic artisan. In one of our conversations, I asked her how I could combine my passions to use calligraphy in functional objects of everyday life – like coffee cups. This is how the first ceramics set was born.

Did you do any market research before embarking on your ceramic line?

Firstly, I designed four blueprints of coffee cups with the handles made from Arabic letters to spell “qahwa”, the Arabic word for coffee. My student produced it. I wrote a small introduction of this concept in my blog and posted the pictures. I didn't advertise. The next day I received calls, facebook and WhatsApp messages from people who wanted to place orders.

This was my market research that showed strong interest instantly. People started transferring money to my company's bank account without me even knowing about it. This was where the problems started.

I did not have the product on stock, and we failed to produce all of our first orders because we did not have a reliable and tested manufacturing process. I had to write an apology letter and return money to some of my customers.

How do you manage the production cycle?

Managing the whole production process without sacrificing quality was a hard task.  I focus meticulously on quality and so I spent around one year testing four companies to find the right manufacturers.

Another task was to create safe packaging for international shipments. I found a company that took responsibility for all of the packaging and customs paperwork. After solving all these issues, the customers I had to turn away in the first round came back asking after the products, and I could finally sell them the sets they had ordered.

I decided that Probably White would not go to mass production. I want to keep the product unique and with the artisanal touch. I would want a hundred people to love me more than a thousand people to like me! Even though mass production promises money, there is still a matter of brand value.

How big is your team?

I have two partners. A friend from Milan is working on product development and ergonomics, my wife is in charge of operations and I am responsible for the creative part of the business. We keep the production in Moscow in a manufacturing facility of seven people who fulfill our orders.

Who are your clients? Where is your target audience from?

We have private clients in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. We collaborate with an interior design boutique in Oman. We have event agencies that use our product during dinners or wedding celebrations. We attract clientele mostly from Facebook and Instagram. We do not invest in advertising. It is all about word of mouth.

How do you develop your product?

We develop our products by adding new colors in quilting, customizing to customers’ needs and increasing the range. Now we produce 11 models of tea sets and other kitchen hardware in four different colors. Our current line is a classical set of four cups selling at $230. We invest a lot of time and effort in R&D and monitoring the latest design trends.

What are your business challenges?

Keeping the quality high and launching new collections are top challenges for Probably White. We need to stay authentic to our artisan methods and to challenge products already in the market, from the design point of view.

How do you plan to promote Probably White in the Russian market?

Now, I see the potential in Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region. We plan to be placed in Depst – the interior design store in Tsvetnoy Central Market (a prominent shopping mall in Moscow city center).

What is the difference between doing business in Russia and doing business in Arab countries?

Arabs are very fond of negotiations of any kind. In the Russian culture, negotiations are considered as the process where someone is going to lose.

What is your advice to young Muslim entrepreneurs?

To be confident and overcome the fear of failure. Don’t be shy about your cultural background and bring the uniqueness of your culture into the spotlight in a more modern way.  

What is your projection of global trends in retail?

The millennials are an interesting group to target when you have a product that is authentic, unique, attractive and functional. The future global trend is production of niche products. The target audience wants the product to define them, and what defines the masses does not define individuals. Therefore, international companies need to adapt to aspirations of uniqueness and self-identity. 

[This article was first published in Salaam Gateway.]