GTN SPOTLIGHT
Roudha Obaid Aljuraishi stood beside her own work on a gallery wall one night, and something quietly settled. People could finally see not just what she had made, but who she is — which, for an artist who had spent years mostly on a screen, was the whole point.
She is an Emirati graphic designer and mixed-media artist whose work refuses to sit still in a single medium. Design, painting and more — she treats them as one language rather than separate careers, always exploring and blending ideas until the work is distinctly hers.
Where it started
It began at home. Roudha Aljuraishi grew up surrounded by art and culture, and discovered early how visual expression could carry a story. That pulled her towards design as a deliberate choice, not a fallback — a field that let her combine creativity, storytelling and cultural identity in one place.
Her method took shape through university projects at Zayed University and freelance work, where she pushed herself to fold graphic design, painting and pure experimentation into the same pieces. The lesson she kept was to trust her own creative voice and to experiment without limits, embracing whatever medium the idea needed until the work felt genuinely like hers.
Beyond the screen
Exhibiting that work became a milestone precisely because it revealed her identity beyond digital design. On the wall, the mixed media and painting said what a screen never quite could: this is who she is, and this is what her art means.
“I trust my creative voice, experiment fearlessly, and let different mediums make work that feels genuinely unique.”
Now she is developing projects that braid graphic design, mixed media and painting into a single, recognisable visual identity — often reaching past digital work into something you can stand in front of, rooted in the culture she comes from.
Two businesses alongside the art
Design is not her only venture. Alongside her graphic-design career, Roudha Aljuraishi creates handmade beaded accessories under her own name and runs a traditional henna brand, by.teela, with a modern twist. Both businesses feed her creativity and push her to keep making.
She is registered as an ADBWC Mubdi’ah licensee — the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council programme that supports Emirati women running home-based creative and craft businesses. It is a route several Emirati designers and makers in Abu Dhabi have used to formalise a side practice without the overhead of a full commercial licence.
She is part of a wider circle of Abu Dhabi creatives building visual careers on their own terms, alongside photographers like Shoayb Khattab and fashion labels such as independent UAE entrepreneurs building their own brands from scratch.
Abu Dhabi’s growing creative economy
Roudha’s dual path — a design career alongside a craft-based small business — reflects a pattern showing up across Abu Dhabi’s creative and maker economy. The emirate has been actively building support structures for exactly this kind of hybrid career, from co-working studios to licensing routes aimed at creatives who want to formalise a side venture without becoming a full company overnight.
That matters beyond her own story. Emirati creatives choosing to build visible, named businesses rather than staying anonymous freelancers is part of how a local creative industry becomes an economic sector rather than a collection of individual side hustles. Roudha’s Mubdi’ah licence for by.teela is one small, concrete example of the same infrastructure that supports Abu Dhabi’s wider business licensing system for founders at every scale.
What she would tell her younger self
If she could tell her younger self one thing, it would be to keep trusting every idea, never hesitate, and never stop creating. Our hands, she believes, can make more than we expect them to. Hers already have — and she is only getting started.
As an Emirati woman who wants to inspire others, she carries a simple conviction: nothing is ever too hard to make.
What is the short version?
Roudha Obaid Aljuraishi is an Emirati graphic designer and mixed-media artist from Abu Dhabi who trained at Zayed University and now works across design, painting and photography as one practice rather than separate careers. Alongside her art, she runs a beaded-accessories line and a henna brand, by.teela, registered through the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council’s Mubdi’ah programme for home-based creative businesses.
GTN Spotlight
Features marked GTN Spotlight are published under a commercial partnership with the featured business.
