Art reflects creativity, and it is a mirror to the character of the artist. Some consider it as the reflection of feelings, others say it is the reflection of belief, ideology, or society.

Qatar Living speaks to the blogger, artist, and designer, Alftoon Al-Janahi, the founder of Alftoon Marketing and The Agenda in Qatar, to learn more about the way she uses art to reflect her Qatari identity.

Alftoon is a Qatari artist, designer, and the founder of Alftoon Marketing Company in Doha who also happens to be one of the top 50 influencers in Qatar.

She holds a bachelor’s in art education and a master’s in EMBA (Executive Master of Business Administration).

Alftoon joined social media back in 2015 as an artist and later moved toward blogging.

In the beginning, she would blog on Snapchat and Instagram, after turning both of her accounts public in 2015. But now she’s become more active on Tik Tok. Additionally, she involved herself more in marketing and advertising.

“In my first two years on social media, I was not so active enough, then I started to involve myself more with social media, the advertisement, and blogging,” Alftoon said.

“I remember, I was so shy to share or to blog anything on social media when I started. Now, I changed a lot. I got used to it and it became a big part of my life. But whenever I see the huge numbers on my live streams, I realize there is a huge number behind the screens watching me,” she said.

After joining social media, she started her project (Agenda) from 2016 until 2020. She designed the Agenda (planner) herself, then it started to go viral and it was online on many websites and as well as in stores in Qatar.

“I was super happy to see my Agenda go viral, in its first two years it was published in Virgin Mega Store branches in Doha. After that many stores in Qatar began asking me to sell it to them and a lot of applications until now are asking me to sell them my Agenda. But now the Agenda has become exclusive for my own website,” Alftoon said.

Talking about her journey with art, she said her inspiration came from her late father who was the first one to support her. She recalled how he encouraged her to be more involved in art and improve her talent.

“My father was a famous artist in the area. He used to own an art studio and he is the one who painted most of the schools' wallpapers. He was very well known in the schools' area, and he would get a lot of orders for his work,” Alftoon recalled.

As an 8-year-old girl, Alftoon would often go directly from school to her father’s studio to watch him painting, she said.

Although Alftoon’s Agenda project started in 2016, the story behind it begins from when she was in school.

She mentioned she would buy an agenda every year to organize all her plans.

“I’ve always been very organized, and I love to have my to-do list always,” she said adding, “I was always interested to have my own agenda. I tried to find a special agenda in 2016. However, I found nothing close to my style. So, I decided to design my own.”

She highlighted how she did not want to waste time looking for an agenda to reflect her mood, instead she decided to design one herself.

The uniqueness of the agenda lies in how its design reflects Qatari identity. It has a character on the front page, with descriptions in the Arabic language inside.

Alftoon’s designs capture the essence of her Qatari identity and echo her love for her country.

“Being a Qatari has affected me, my art and even my businesses. The agenda reflects the Qatari identity, and I used the Qatari accent, even the character in my agenda is Qatari,” she said.

Alftoon modifies the Agenda’s design every year. This year she added the map, as she mentioned that every time she travels she check the place off her bucket list.

She also includes one hand-written paper of her story in each version of the Agenda every year.

Her plan for the Agenda of 2021 is to include something about COVID-19 and this period. “I am planning to design something new for 2021, especially that we had a tough year with corona. I will try to add some jokes about this period of quarantine,” she mentioned.

Her love for designing is also seen in her interest in designing most of her clothes. “I design my own clothes every time I want to travel, but I am planning to start my new project with fashion designing,” she said.

“I designed many suites for myself as I did not find a suit for my own style. I really love to see my identity in everything I have and this is why I design,” she said.

Alftoon’s art highlights Realism. One of her art pieces went viral after the blockade, as she drew His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

“One of the pieces that I drew after the blockade went viral because of the glasses. I did not plan to draw it but it was straight from my heart,” she described.

Alftoon has her office at Burj Doha in Qatar and she also has other branches, with one in Kuwait. Her company has worked with several designers and business owners, and offers many services to manage social media businesses, whether it is advertisements, campaigns, or meetings. The company also designs applications and websites.

They also work with brands by using art and drawing to give them more ideas about the right way to do the marketing plans from one to four years.

“Now we are planning to add the service to know how to utilize the space,” she added.

Alftoon has also been organizing drawing workshops for children since 2019 to teach them how to draw and to build their confidence in their talent.

“The reason why I started with kids is that I have my own techniques to help kids learn how to draw. When I was a child I always used to get full marks in the painting class. The main reason for those workshops is to make the kids more confident about their art, and to teach them how to be proud of what they are doing,” she explained.

COVID-19 was a break regarding Alftoon’s vision, as she said that this period gave her some space for herself to spend more time with her family, to be healthier and to heal her mind and thoughts as well.

Additionally, She used her platform to host many people on her live stream to focus more on lifestyle.

“COVID-19 gave us a lesson to know more the value of life and work, especially the social life,” she commented.

Alftoon advised all the young artists to keep on going with their dreams and talents.

“Drawing is therapy for me. I never compared myself with anyone,” she said, adding that “My advice for all the artists is: do not use your art only to entertain people but also to enjoy your talent and heal yourself by this talent.”

You can find Alftoon on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

---

Make sure to check out our social media to keep track of the latest content.

Instagram - @qatarliving

Twitter - @qatarliving

Facebook - Qatar Living

YouTube - qatarlivingofficial