We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Youssef Abdel Zaher ("YAZ").

Youssef Abdel Zaher is an Egyptian banker who had graduated in 2005 from faculty of commerce , English section at Ainshams university at Egypt , he began his banking career in August , 2006 as credit Analyst trainee at Bnp Paribas Bank at Egypt , after that he worked as customer service officer then as Local letter of guarantee officer at the same bank , he resigned from bank at October , 2007 , then he began working in December , 2008 as customer service officer at Qatar Islamic bank till he resigned from bank at may , 2013 He began working at Qnb Al Ahly bank at Egypt from december , 2014 till now and he is currently working as Trade finance relationship Executive at a corporate branch

Youssef Abdel Zaher Designs

We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Youssef Abdel Zaher.

Designer Interview of Youssef Abdel Zaher:

DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?

YAZ : I went through different phases until I discover in myself the passion and ability to design new banking products and services , it began when i was working as a customer service officer in one of banks in Qatar , I used to get feedback from bank customers about new banking products or services they need , so I was trying to make brain storming and try to figure out new product and services ideas , when i came up with new idea , i was writing it right way on a paper and began thinking about its features based upon my customer service experience and what they will want from this product , to give them more financial benefits , or provide savings for them or make their transactions more easier or saving their time , after that it becomes a hobby and a passion for me to the extent that it takes most of my thinking time , then i began thinking about turning this hobby to professional work , so i presented my first banking product or design idea to the bank to be turned to a bank project but it was not executed as i missed the projects pipeline deadline , then i made different trials with different institutions but in vein , then i discovered by coincidence the A design competition , so I decided to win in this design competion , after one year working on my project which is the " co brand bank card credit hours rights loyalty program " or shortly " education currency " project , i present it to the competition and then , thanks to God , i won the award at banking and financial instrument category , after winning , I decided to design revolutionary innovative banking products and services to be sold and used around the world and this became my dream , so I worked on designing many banking product and services ideas and I am trying to turn it to real projects through finding an institution that have interest to turn these product or services ideas to real project

DI: What is "design" for you?

YAZ : For me , Any design begins with identifying customer needs , so the product or service will be "designed" by formulating its features and process based upon their expected use of it to cover their needs .

DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?

YAZ : I like designing innovative banking products or services , that is useful to people in their lives and that was not made before at any place in the world .

DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?

YAZ : As my winning project is my first design experience , so it will be my favourite one as it will remind me with my success , my winning design is named " co brand bank card credit hours rights loyalty program " or shortly " education currency" , it is co brand bank card loyalty program sponsored between partner issuing bank and partner education institution that rewards cardholders for their card transactions either at that partner education institution or other non partner commercial institutions , this reward will be in the form of education loyalty currencies ," learning hours rights" or LHRs and " credit hours rights"or CRHRs , the smaller loyalty currency LHRs will be accumulated to the bigger one CRHR which will be accumulated to the required ones to be redeemed for an education product taken at partner education institution premise , In return for the rewards given by that education institution , the partner issuing bank will make an agreement with that partner education institution to share interchange fees " profit " of every bank card transaction at a specified percentage . Example Bank X issue a co branded bank card with loyalty program named "credit hours rights loyalty program " sponsored between bank X and education institution Y , the reward structure according to the loyalty program : Earning rates : for Partner education institution card transactions , earning rate 7 dollars =1 LHR For non partner institution card transactions , earning rate 10 dollars = 1 LHR Accumulion and redemption rate 30 LHRs = 1 CRHR 60 CRHRs = 1 education year right 4 year Business studies course right at Education institution Y ( Required CRHRs ) = 4 education years course right = 4× 60 CRHRs=240 CRHRs This project is filed for international patent application no. PCT/ IB2015/052766 Dated 16/04/2015 This project is published under name " credit hours rights loyalty program system and method of bank card with profit share scheme no.WO/2016/166573 dated 20/10/2016 at WIPO or World intellectual propert right website

DI: When do you feel the most creative?

YAZ : I feel most creative while driving my car as many scenes coming across my eyes so one of these scenes could give me inspiration for new product or service idea

DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?

YAZ : I focus on aspects that makes the product or design more easy to use , useful to customers and innovative while designing it .

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?

YAZ : Excitement , refreshment and challenge

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?

YAZ : happiness , proud and self achievement

DI: What makes a design successful?

YAZ : successfull product must be useful to customers , easy to use and innovative

DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?

YAZ : it must be useful to people life and easy to use .

DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?

YAZ : The designer must design products that is useful to society and environment -friendly

DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?

YAZ : I think any product or service design in every field will depend heavily on technology in the future to the extent that human intervention will be decreased to the minimal level as we hear nowadays about technologies that will prevail our lives in the future like Artificial intelligence , virtual reality VR , Augmented Reality AR and 3D printing .

DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?

YAZ : The inspiration for my work come as a result of 3 things : my previous banking experience , follow up of innovative products around the world not just in banking sector but in other sectors and follow up of latest technology used in different fields

DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?

YAZ : I use a mix of 2 design approaches as follows : customer needs -centered approach" which is designing new banking products or services that cover customer needs a new financial products design approach I developed myself which is named “ financial intersection point" design approach “ which is designing new banking products or services by making mix between two sectors through finding financial aspects intersection point between the two sectors , that is to mean the possible common financial aspects used in both sectors example I designed my winning project “ co brand bank card credit hours rights loyalty program” or “ education currency “ shortly by using a mix of : " customer needs – centered" design approach through designing the loyalty program based upon the customers needs to save to cover future education expenses through redeeming accumulated credit hours rights ( earned by doing bank card transactions ) for education course taken at partner education institution . " financial intersection point" design approach through finding the financial intersection point or possible common financial aspects between the banking and education sector which are “ the learning and credit hours units used in Education sector “ which will be turned to the “ learning and credit hours rights “ That will used in the co brand bank card loyalty program sponsored between partner issuing bank and education institution .

DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?

YAZ : Be very ambitious and make your dream big because you will reach it at the End , even if you achieved part of it , you still achieved big one .

DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?

YAZ : a good and successful design must be useful to people , easy to use and innovative .

DI: What skills are most important for a designer?

YAZ : As for financial products or services designer , he must have analytical and creativity skills

DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?

YAZ : . As my winning project is still in the concept stage , so no applied technologies are used until now to turn concept to final product form , but As for presenting my product or design in its concept stage , I used my laptop beside couple of software for writing and documentation like Word , PDF and Photoshop for the design drawings beside using google and youtube for researching and collecting required information and data

DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?

YAZ : As I designed my winning project during searching for a job so I have free of time and I did not experience time limits problems to the extent I try to manage it .

DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?

YAZ : I enjoy mostly the ideation or concept stage in the design work as it is the most challenging and entertaining stage in the design work .

DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?

YAZ : I have a number of banking and non banking new product and service ideas that I want to turn it to real projects , so I am searching for an institution that have interest in these ones like : Banking projects : Touristic Bank branch Vehicle Banking Smart Banking umbrella banking Football Banking hidden words Loyalty program co brand bank card Electricity rationalization program Recycle bin ATM Financial Camera service Resident Building financial services International fixed Deposit system Bank Mobile E-check card Time Card Fraction bank Account Stock Exchange projects Resident-Investor home equity plan silver-gold-platinum stocks program social network projects : Online Rosca Life Experiences social Network Investment social network Readers social network Talents Social network Touristic projects : Touristic bank branch Interactive Tourism Touristic Railway Touristic cafe Other projects : World Language Car Mall Business Mall Delivery box system

DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?

YAZ : As for my winning project I design it myself but I get the assistance of two people , Mr.Shady Bahaa ( freelancer ) who made the product Advertising brochure and Mr.Amir Saqr who represents the Advertising agency which made the product Advertising video clip for me

DI: How can people contact you?

YAZ : Any one are welcomed to contact me by : Call me : 002-01018010193 Email me : youazaher@gmail.com

DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?

YAZ : No , thanks