The Commons is the part of Ripple Collective that belongs to everyone: the gatherings, the program and the Outposts through which design leaves the studio and comes back changed.
Programs and Outposts
Final Draft, Abu Dhabi Sessions, Small Talk
Outposts in Tokyo and Milan
Part of Ripple Collective.
(1)Us, the Commons
Design is more than what we make. It is a way of bringing people together, creating connections and shaping the places we belong to.
The Commons is where that belief becomes a program. Through the season it takes the form of talks, open days, a podcast and a festival, all free, all held in and around our spaces in Abu Dhabi. Nothing here is client work.
The Outposts extend the same idea beyond the city. They are not offices. They exist to bring design knowledge and positive impact to Abu Dhabi through immersion and intentional connections to creative cultures, and to carry outward the perspectives formed here.
(2)Final Draft
Final Draft is our design festival in Abu Dhabi: three days of keynotes, talks, masterclasses, workshops and retail, open to everyone and free, held in and around Erth and in the Mussafah workshops.
It started as a grassroots effort, an informal version of what a design week in Abu Dhabi could be, and has grown edition by edition, with speakers from studios and institutions abroad sitting beside the people who make things here. Four editions so far.
Each edition takes the theme of our season, so the festival and the studio are asking the same question. The last was Good Things Take Time.
(3)Abu Dhabi Sessions
Abu Dhabi Sessions run through the season as the lead-up to Final Draft: an invitation to come and hang out, and to understand good design through the people who practice it.
Sessions take place at the studio at Erth, one guest and one subject at a time.
Small Talk, our podcast that is not a podcast, records the conversations that happen when friends pass through the studio.
(4) Design Outposts
We do not export answers. We exchange questions.
(5)Design Outposts
Design Outposts are spaces for knowledge exchange and cultural connection. Rooted in Abu Dhabi, each Outpost is a bridge between a local design community and the wider Ripple Collective ecosystem.
Each Outpost is shaped by its context. It listens first, learns from its surroundings and builds relevance from within. Rather than exporting a fixed point of view, the Outposts work as translators, bringing local practices and values into conversation with Abu Dhabi’s evolving design culture.
Abu Dhabi stays the center of gravity. What is gathered abroad is brought back into projects, studios and programs, and what is formed here, patient and built from the ground up, is carried outward. The Outposts are not destinations. They are points of contact, designed to endure.
(6)Scrapbook
It’s the stuff that lights up our brains.
- The Great Water Tower HuntA very good reason to look up, and a perfectly acceptable thing to become slightly obsessed with.
- The Zanzibar BagWhy a piece of canvas from sail was worth keeping for years.
- Dialing it backA screenless landline for kids (and maybe the rest of us).
- For the love of HelveticaOne font to rule them all. Let us explain why.
(7)Small Talk
Small Talk
Small Talk is our podcast that’s not a podcast: design conversations crafted with our friends as they pass through our Abu Dhabi studio.
Program
- Abu Dhabi Sessions30 October – 8 November 2026
- Final Draft17–18 April 2026
Join us
We’re always interested in good humans that can bring something fresh to the team and add something new to the Ripple Collective world.
Is that you?(8)Instagram
