Ruba Abu-Nimah: The Swiss-Palestinian Creative Director Who Garnered Fame Through Her Tiffany & Co. Campaigns
Ruba Abu-Nimah, Tiffany & Co.’s executive creative director for marketing and communications, has left the jewellery company, as reported by Women’s Wear Daily. Abu-Nimah is a Swiss citizen of Palestinian origin, who was trained in London, Brussels, and Paris, and has lived in New York for 30 years. She first joined the brand back in March 2021, joining forces with Alexandre Arnault who was the executive vice president of product and communications, following Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s (LVMH) takeover in Jan 2021. Abu-Nimah was then tasked with managing the visual creative assets, such as website design and graphics, social media content and commercials, as part of the new creative leadership approach that LVMH implemented.
An article by HypeBeast reported that in the past, Abu-Nimah has had experience in senior and executive roles at esteemed firms like Revlon, Bobbi Brown, and Shiseido in Japan where she reshaped the cosmetics brand. But that’s not all; ever since she became the first female Creative Director of Elle magazine, she has been breaking barriers throughout her career.
Ruba Abu-Nimah’s career projects
Abu-Nimah garnered media attention while working on the “Not Your Mother’s Tiffany” campaign for Tiffany. This campaign was like an announcement of a rebellion against the brand’s past, allowing for its rebirth which was followed by a new line of magnificent pieces that were unlike anything Tiffany had ever produced before. The commercial included billboards with women wearing the newest Tiffany’s creations, along with the hashtag #NotYourMothersTiffany written in a plain yet bold font throughout Los Angeles and New York. This campaign also sparked controversy because its posters enraged many individuals as they believed the jeweller was “dissing” its long-time customers by appealing to Gen Z and alienating their established fanbase.
Additionally, Nike and Abu-Nimah collaborated on a special new Air Force 1 Low model back in 2018. Their collaboration saw the release of the Air Force 1 Low “Love,” inspired by the design of a 1984 postage stamp. The sneaker also represented Abu-Nimah’s dedication to love, acceptance, and equality.
In 2021, Abu-Nimah was part of a campaign that saw the jeweler launching a campaign featuring superstar couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, and the 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond, one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered. Some saw the iconic couple’s appearance in the campaign next to a painting by Basquiat, whose works frequently deal with racism and class conflict according to BOF. However, others saw that the campaign empowered Beyoncé to become the first Black woman and the fourth woman in the world to wear the $30 million Tiffany Diamond.
In an interview with Platform Art, Abu-Nimah identified herself as a reductionist and a minimalist. These two approaches drive Abu-Nimah to think about how can she reduce the message to its most reductionist form. She even expressed the emphasis she has been always putting on the story she’s trying to tell along with high taste and being able to sell the product. As a result, Abu-Nimah’s job focused on how she can put all these ingredients together and make it work.
We don’t yet know what Abu-Nimah’s next chapter will be as neither she nor Tiffany’s spokesperson was available for comment, but we can be sure that she’ll put her magic on any campaign she takes part of.
