Room VIII
Formed in 2021 in Johannesburg, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Two skill sets, two generations, one obsession: telling y(our) story with he(art).
Daastaan is a merge of two individual skill sets: the perfect calibration of left and right brain strengths. It's also a merge of two generations, millennial and Gen Z, so we understand a wide variety of people and what they need.
Where business and pleasure merge, the dream team is created.
1/2 of a CEO
Moulded from the finest sands of KwaZulu-Natal in 1995 and raised in a picturesque Eastern Cape farm town, Ibrahim matriculated at Radley Private High School and went on to study chemical engineering at Wits. In 2016 he stumbled onto photography by accident and decided the traditional path was not for him. A self-taught photographer, videographer and editor, he makes visuals that force people to feel.
The other 1/2
Born in Johannesburg at the turn of the century and forged under the desert sun of Jeddah and Riyadh from 2008 to 2013, Mahdiya found art through her father, who spent his life in fashion and growing brands. She is completing her degree in Fashion Media at the Stadio School of Design, and her great passion is creative and artistic direction, held to the highest standard.
Real stories. Real emotion. No excess. No facade.
Original thinking, always. We don't rely on trends; we use them when they make sense.
We create with context. Work that reflects culture, without losing edge.
Everything we create is built to last. Not just to be seen, but remembered.
Five years, five chapters.
2021
In the chaos of a locked-down world, two creatives met. Not to make content, but to tell y(our) story with he(art).
2022
Trial. Error. Obsession. We learned that chaos isn't messy. It's alive.
2023
While the world chased trends, we chose intention. Strategy met instinct. That's where our stories changed.
2024
Daastaan became more than an agency. Storytelling rooted in culture, emotion, and meaning.
2025/6
Still evolving. Still curious. Still driven by he(art). Because y(our) story is never finished, only refined.
Artists. Storytellers. Chaos engineers. Thinkers. Feelers. Doers. And of course, every business's MVP: the personality hire.
Aaqil Sarlie
Ibrahim Khan
Seren Kokermoer
Mahdiya Ahmed
Tameez Motara
TamSYN ZETA
Terell Jermain Reddy
111 4th Ave, Linden, Johannesburg, 2194. Pop in, or book a shoot in our space.
