Reimagining contemporary web design for Dubai and Saudi VC firm Outliers

In the era of somewhat airless, scheduled digital meetings, it’s easy to forget that a chance personal connection can lead to a great collaboration.

Last November I was back in Dubai and a longtime collaborator suggested that I meet Kenzie Falcoz and Sarah AlSaleh at a coffee shop in the Al Serkal arts district. We fell into easy conversation and it turned out that we each had a curious, enjoyable approach to our work. Perhaps occasionally thinking around corners to try and solve problems was something we all had in common.

Now, I’m telling the unexpected story of what happened next – an incredible project creating web design for their Dubai and Saudi VC firm Outliers VC.

Why Outliers VC needed a distinctive digital presence in the GCC

To understand any VC design brief, it’s important to get under the skin of not only the business but also their collaborators, founders and backers. In the case of Outliers, it meant embracing their core vision of diverse thinking in teams leading to bold decision making. That’s a narrative we can really get behind, and I think working alongside such an interesting and inspiring business vision shaped the visual direction we pursued next.

But first, the design work we’ve done is interesting in a wider context. We’ve completed a lot of design work for clients in the Middle East so are familiar with the principles of innovation behind both Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s concurrent bold digital initiatives. So I think this sense of broad ambition and novelty definitely informed a sense of playfulness that subverted expectations of Middle East venture capital web design.

The creative direction we’ve built for Outliers begins by thinking about their original mission, and I quote, to work with ‘founders who build differently – those who see patterns others miss, take on bold challenges, and create category-defining companies.’ Inspired by this we started by creating ‘visual abstraction’ from the Outliers logo (the design of which pre-dated our involvement with the company). We then built on these design elements, creating another very Outliers mood: disruption.

An innovation story told with graphic animation

With a new visual brand concept created, we began to consider how it could tell a story inspired by their VC marketing strategy.

In our creative research, we’d been attracted by the way that risograph printing, a lo-fi, analogue style defined by rich spot colours and stencils, creates a sense of depth. In risographs, each colour is printed separately, requiring a different stencil and drum. This in turn creates multiple layers of colour, and even texture, by re-running the paper through the machine.

These creative concepts then evolved from concept to storytelling. Each page on the site uses our newly created risograph style with animation to ‘reveal the outlier.’ This relatively simple notion (and the enjoyment of watching these graphics unfold) belies the weeks of work creating not just the design concept but a very particular manner of movement.

I’d also love to draw attention to the level of detail we’ve applied at every stage and element. Every animation was created by hand, from scratch – zero template components throughout the entire build. The unusual bottom-screen navigation feels fresh on a desktop browser and works so intuitively from a UX perspective on mobile. Small touches like our rollover effects send out trickles of graphic cubes and lines offer a sense of charm and humour and are highly unusual for a VC digital presence. I really hope users get lost in the site, the deeper they travel into it, especially within the investments and stories section, which launch with a huge number of pieces covering Outliers’ achievements as a business in the last couple of years.

Thinking both creatively and strategically, it’s my opinion that our risograph-inspired animations achieve something really striking, namely a blend of visual storytelling, memorability and dare I say it, differentiation in what can be a conservative sector. More broadly, we’re creating new visual language for Middle Eastern tech entrepreneurship, one that honors regional innovation culture while speaking to global investors.

Flipping left to right, across languages

All the creativity and original thinking is fundamental to the Outliers project. However, there’s something else at its heart that could almost go unnoticed. That’s the fact that the website works perfectly in both English and Arabic.

While it’s not a legal obligation to have both languages in the UAE and Riyadh, it seems to me that within the context of web design for Dubai and Saudi VC to ignore the native tongue just because we’re designing the site from London is to approach a project the wrong way around.

Given that every creative aspect of the work had been so carefully considered, some sort of halfway-house where Arabic was shoe-horned into a ‘western-reading’ layout was never going to work for Outliers. So, we went for the full approach of the entire site working right-to-left for Arabic. We also were keen to ensure that stylistic symmetry continued with our choice of typeface, so we selected Tajawal, a smooth and elegant Arabic typeface that echoes the feel of Outliers’ identity and brand guidelines.

Digital design for investor and founder confidence

Certainly the Outliers project stands out from any other financial services design project we’ve completed. However during this highly tailored design process we’ve come to understand that any bespoke web design for Dubai and Saudi VC firms requires a level of both innovation and alignment with their audience.

I appreciate that the style we’ve created for Outliers won’t work for any other VC – and nor should it. My hope is that this project is evidence of social proof of capability and market positioning, even if our specific creative approach wouldn’t suit every firm’s needs. Outliers are blazing their own trail in a highly specific way. To me that’s the point. Given we’re creating a custom website for a VC firm, the creative spark and point of difference defines this work.

As I review the project, it’s a point of pride that the site not only reflects Outliers’ bold identity, but also supports their core marketing goals: building investor trust, differentiating from regional competitors, and attracting the next generation of founders. Built entirely from scratch with hand-crafted animations, I believe the site represents a notable benchmark for VC digital presence in the GCC.

As Operating Partner Kenzie Falcoz told us: “I really enjoyed collaborating with Richard and his team. Our brief was complex; we wanted to stand out just enough to be distinctive, while still staying true to our values and remaining relevant to our ecosystem. Richard delivered thoughtful, creative concepts that struck the perfect balance. The entire process was seamless, with both Richard and Kris staying hands on and supportive throughout.”

Going back to the beginning, it’s remarkable to think that these long months of work are the result of that chance initial encounter, and it will be fascinating to see what comes next as we continue our work on this fantastic project.

Let us create web design for your Dubai and Saudi VC firm

Answering a brief to design a site that’s highly unusual was the beginning of this piece of work and I believe we’ve achieved that. It’s my great hope that we can bring this same level of design thinking to other VC firms across the GCC and Saudi Arabia – each with their own distinct identity, goals, and investor audience.

Whether you’re in the UK or work across EMEA and beyond, we can work on designs from the creative to the corporate, depending on your brief and budget.

Call us on +44 20 7351 4083 or email us direct.

More about this project

Our portfolio page about the Outliers project

Visit the Outliers website

A portfolio of our work for clients in the Middle East

More of our branding and website design work for financial services firms