Zeid Jaouni: Moving Football Culture Forward All With Extra Time

Founder of Extra Time, both the magazine and the multidisciplinary media company, Zeid Jaouni is shaping contemporary culture through storytelling and creative production. Fascinated with how meaning is built through shared experience and with a broader goal of using creativity to build bridges among cultural worlds, the multidisciplinary designer turned to what is arguably the most universal language of all: football. 

What inspired you to start doing what you do?

It all started with culture and community. I’ve always been fascinated by how people express who they are, how they create belonging, and how meaning is built through shared experiences. Football, for me, is one of the clearest examples of that. It’s not just a sport; it’s a global language that connects people across borders. Over time, that curiosity grew into something bigger, a desire to explore culture as a whole, how it evolves and ties people together. That’s really what led to the magazine and, later, Extra Time Studios.

Who are your influences and inspirations?

I get a lot of energy from artists, athletes, and thinkers who blur the lines between disciplines—people who don’t see boundaries, just possibilities. Their work constantly pushes me to rethink what creativity can do and how it can move culture forward.

What change are you hoping to drive with your work?

I want to challenge how people view football culture, to go beyond the pitch and explore its artistic, emotional, and cultural sides. Football has so many layers; it’s a mirror of society in a lot of ways. Beyond that, I want to keep testing the boundaries of culture itself, finding new ways to tell stories, design experiences, and connect ideas that don’t usually intersect. My work is about building bridges between different worlds and showing how creativity can bring them into conversation.

How does your work engage with the local culture or community in the SWANA region?

After spending seven years in New York City, I moved back to Dubai in 2025 with a goal to connect the global creative scene with the energy and talent coming out of the region. With Extra Time magazine, that means telling stories that celebrate local voices while placing them in a wider cultural dialogue. And with Extra Time Studios, it’s about expanding that mission into design and production, working with the artists and entities actively shaping the region’s creative identity and pushing it forward.

What fuels your creative process?

My best ideas usually come from unexpected moments—a random conversation, a detail in someone’s story, or even something I notice walking down the street.

How do you hope to see the region’s creative scene evolve in the coming years?
I’d love to see more independent platforms, spaces where creatives can experiment freely and tell authentic stories that reflect their realities. There’s a powerful new generation here, and it’s redefining design, film, fashion, and art. What’s exciting is how interconnected they are, how global and local influences blend naturally. I think the next big step is deeper collaboration across borders.

What upcoming projects are you working on?

Right now, as part of Extra Time Studios, I’m working on a limited-edition photobook with Under Armour and Mansory for its 2025 collaborative campaign. It’s a great intersection of performance and luxury, merging custom football boots with car design. I’m also producing a short film with Adidas that’s set to launch in the US during the 2026 World Cup. It explores football’s emotional and cultural dimensions through a modern cinematic lens—it’s about the feeling behind the game as much as the game itself.