MERAL ARISOY
Meral Arısoy, who was born in Kirkuk in 1981 and has many different cultures and ethnicities, graduated from the department of Architecture at Erciyes University in 2004 with a degree after completing her secondary and high school education in Ankara. Throughout her education life; she had an opportunity to take lessons from very valuable architects in Turkey such as Ercan Çoban, Yakup Hazan, Yurdanur Sepkin, Orhan Genç and Öner Olcay.
This opportunity offered her the chance to combine the “passion for design”, which she felt inside since her childhood, with the discipline of architecture. These lucky experiences have formed a strong infrastructure in the formation of the Umadina brand after years.
After graduating from university, Meral Arısoy spent many years working in a variety of private and public organizations. However, in this process, she has always been in a search and continued on her way with this search. She has been able to work in a variety of sectors thanks to this search, which has also helped her gain valuable experience. However, being aware that her potential belongs to a different field, her passion for design was the main factor that made her take action. She actually had a dream, and in order to make this dream come real, she decided to change her path. Besides, she decided to take the “Design” Department Master’s courses at TOBB University Fine Arts Faculty. In addition to this, she also took lessons that are “Design Thinking” at Koç University and “Showcase Design” at Mimar Sinan University.
Meral Arısoy, who is married and has a son, combined her experiences gained from both education and working life with the traces of different cultures and experiences in her soul, and named her passion for design “Umadina”. “Madina” is actually the name of her grandmother who was her guide in her life. “Uma” means gift. By bringing these two words together, she decided to open the doors of a dream in Ankara under the name of “Umadina design studio”.
Meral Arısoy continues her designs in the fields of furniture, textiles, accessories and architecture. In addition to realizing the designs of the Umadina brand, she also undertakes the duties of the founder, chief designer, curator, and art director of the formations of the brand.
We hope that as well as being a valuable guide and a valuable gift to the founder of Madina, Umadina will be a valuable guide and a valuable gift for its users on the way to making their dreams come true…