A bedouin feather in her cap

For two weeks, Lina Al Amoudi, a graphic designer from Sharjah, propped herself up in front of YouTube, curiously watching and learning the secrets of good stitching and embroidering. Why? She had participated in the New Era Introducing exhibition.

New Era Introducing is a creative project undertaken by the sports cap company New Era in which they give every participant their signature 59Fifty cap to serve as a canvas for their new hat designs.

The project was opened to eight participating countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA): the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, South Africa and the UAE. "We wanted to give unique talent an opportunity to make their own statement using a blank New Era 59Fifty cap as their canvas, and then take these works of art on a touring exhibition across EMEA as a platform to showcase their profiles," said Wayne Best, global director of consumer marketing at New Era.

Judges shortlisted 79 works of art out of 450 or so and chose Lina as the winner of a £10,000 (Dh59,065) bursary. She was one of ten contestants participating from the UAE.

Best said that designs submitted used matchsticks, resins, disused typewriters, and that they had also asked each artist to capture the creative process behind their cap design, detailing its birth, creation, experience and influences.

Meanwhile, Lina had worried that she would be disqualified as her hat was "extremely heavy and not wearable".

"When they told me on Skype, I was quite confused. I thought I had been disqualified because the hat I designed was very heavy for normal wear. It took a while for me to realise that I had actually won the project," she said. "I wanted to represent my culture in a unique way on a global platform. I wanted to shed a different light on the region that is often portrayed quite negatively. So I decided to design a hat which is a first for me, given that I have never really held a needle before this," Lina said. "But I treated it as a form of art."

Lina drew inspiration for her detailing from folklore. "I have always been intrigued by folklore and fairytales. My father would often sit beside me while I was designing the hat and narrate folktales to me.

"One that was particularly inspirational in my design was the one about King Solomon and his Hoopoe bird. I wanted to use the ethnic materials worn by Bedouins once upon a time and tried to recreate the effect as professionally as I could.

"You just need to have one solid concept like I had for calligraphy. The rest just falls into place."

The exhibition, which started last November in London, has been on tour to Berlin, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, Stockholm and Cape Town and seven EMEA cities, including the display at Al Serkal Avenue in Dubai , on show until today.

For Lina, who also attended the first exhibition in London, it was an overwhelming experience. "It was a different culture for them and my hat looked quite outlandish there. But they were all in awe and were admiring the details of the hat I had designed.

"My family has supported me despite all the madness I have put them through. And I am very excited about the award money. I plan to invest half of it in my masters degree and the rest in setting up a design studio with my brother which will cater to local artists and designers.

"It is always nice to pave the way for someone else, just as it has been laid out for you," she said.