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This Egyptian designer is making cool sh*t out of your trash

Dina Amin is turning everyday gadgets into whimsical art.

 

Lyz Lenz

IRL

Posted on Aug 3, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 8:32 am CDT

Like most 26 year olds, Dina Amin is a little bit of everything. She’s worked in industrial design and social media. She’s been a graphic designer and a blogger. She’s also a CrossFit enthusiast and takes pole dancing lessons.

“I have my own pole,” Amin, who lives in Egypt, told the Daily Dot. “I bet you never saw a hijabi who poles.”

But like Amin’s cultural-recreational juxtaposition, Amin’s latest endeavor is a little different. She’s taking apart trash and reimagining it through stop-motion videos that she posts to Instagram. 

The series is called Tinker Friday, a name she said she crowd-sourced. The videos are quirky and fun, full of Amin’s creative personality and sense of humor. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHFV73_hIT5/

Amin might not see herself as an artist (“I’m a designer, because design is more practical”), but she acknowledges that “the more I make [the characters], I think maybe making someone smile is just as good as making something that works. Everything here in Egypt is going wrong, and people are walking around all depressed. It’s nice to make people smile.”

Because Amin’s against making waste, you can currently find all her creations living together in a dollhouse. (Pics coming soon.) 

“Every product was designed by a person,” Amin says. “But I feel so bad that we throw all of this away… I want people to actually look at what they have in their hands and think about it.”

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*First Published: Aug 3, 2016, 8:30 am CDT