Dreame: The Startup That Sketches Your Dreams Into A Beautiful Reality (Literally)

Freud once famously said, “Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious,” but for most of us, the memories of dreams fade after mere seconds or minutes. In order to capture our dreams and allow us to hold on to them for good, Dreame has come up with a beautiful concept.

The Tel Aviv-based startup connects dreamers with talented artists around the world to create stunning visualizations of your wildest dream. Dreame was only launched four months ago, but is already drawing global attention for its innovative twist on one of the oldest and most mysterious psychological phenomena known to man.

Dream a little Dreame

Dreams are a personal vision that are often so obscure that we ourselves struggle to understand their meaning. In fact, it may even seem daunting to share inside information on our dreams because of what they reveal about our very human subconsciousness. Dreame’s platform takes the raw personality of dreams into account by allowing visitors to select the artist whose art they connect with most.

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The curated gallery of Dreame artists varies from black and white sketching, to full-color digital animation, and even multiple-layered imaging to make dreams look as real as possible, with the illustrations costing between $10-$30 a piece.

For my dream, I picked Ursie Hart, a freelance illustrator based in Wales. Here is the description I sent Ursie, of a particularly vivid I had some time ago:

“I’m in India and the sun is beating down on me as I ride atop a magnificent she-elephant. She is adorned with wonderful fabrics and a jeweled head-dress, and I am dressed in splendid garb as well. My hair is unusually long, and cascades down the back of the elephant, and I hold a gold scepter in my hand. There is a local man leading the elephant by the reins, and suddenly the elephant comes to an abrupt halt. ‘Why have we stopped?’ I ask the man in confusion. He motions to the dark jungle ahead, and says that the elephant must have sensed some danger ahead. Just then, a sleek black panther emerges from the shadows of the jungle vines, and sidles up to the side of the elephant.”

From words to a whimsical work of art

Five days later, I opened my inbox to find the illustration of my dreams, literally. Ursie paid attention to so many of the details that I provided her with and the sketch was true to fact while simultaneously offering new perspectives.

Sharonna Karni Cohen, CEO of Dreame, explains the process of finding artists: “The most important part for us when choosing artists is making sure every Dreame artist is genuinely interested in having artistic access to someone’s subconscious. We’re not looking for people who are just looking to make some quick money,” Cohen clarified. “Each Dreame artist has an interest in using someone else’s dreams and surreal experiences as inspiration for their art.”

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Inspiring dream expression

While you may be thinking that Cohen’s inspiration for creating Dreame came from her undying fascination with Freud’s classic “The Interpretation of Dreams,” it was actually her frustration with the shallow nature of modern social media that drove her to dream up Dreame. Later, in the process of building the Dreame mobile app, she consulted with dream experts like Peretz Lavie, head of the Technion Sleep Laboratory and author of “The Enchanted World of Sleep.”

“Many people think dreaming is for spiritualists or hippies, but everyone dreams. It’s been happening since the beginning of time,” Cohen says. Cohen remarks that when people make the mistake of writing off their dreams as meaningless, they lose a key resource for personal reflection and insight.

While I chose to receive my dream art digitally, dreamers can select to have their dreams displayed in print or even on t-shirts. In addition, the dreamer’s name is always featured alongside the illustrator’s name, which Cohen says emphasizes the collaborative nature of Dreame. The artists set their own prices for their work, retaining 80 percent of the final sale price to ensure that they can maintain some independence.

Dreame is just the ‘app-etizer’

Cohen explains that the Dreame website is just an “app-etizer” for the Dreame mobile app which has been in development for the past year. The app, which will include dream logging and sharing features, is currently in beta and will launch publicly in November. According to Cohen, there are approximately 100 other dream apps already available, but none have leveraged modern technology to replace the traditional notepad and pen dream journal experience, making Dreame the first platform of its kind to merge art and artists with the dream world.

Photos courtesy Dreame by artists: Yoyo The Rice-corpse/ Christian Torres/ Ursie Hart/ Stephanie Spinelli/ Eglė Každailytė/ Dominika Kramerova/ Michal Perlman-Sluk