How a sociologist became a toy maker

Moulay Ahmed Essakalli grew up in a family of artists in the storied Moroccan city of Casablanca. He initially studied sociology, but eventually found his way back to his original passion – design.

In 2003 he founded Zid Zid, a company which creates unusual and imaginative products for children. All of Essakalli’s creations are hand-made in Zid Zid’s Tangier atelier.

“Moroccan handicrafts have a long tradition of exchanges between Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and we felt that we could draw from Moroccan handicrafts and Moroccan tradition, marry that with our aesthetics and bring something new to the market,” he says.