LJUV Collection by Nada Debs for IKEA
Nada Debs has teamed up with the Swedish Group to produce a Democratic Design Middle Eastern collection.
If you want to add a new word to “Tak” or “hej då” to your basic command of Swedish, use Ljuv from February 2020. “Delightful” (its direct translation in English) the new collection by Nada Debs brings a contemporary Middle Eastern flavour to the Swedish catalogue.
Nada’s world of patterns, shapes and colours are meeting the Scandinavian design. So after her East Meets East, here is the East meets North for a collaboration with Karin Gustavsson, IKEA Creative Leader.
The collection includes a mix a big and small decorative and functional items like floor cushions, rugs, trays, ceramics and glassware in a pure tradition Arabic hospitality style.
Faithful to her signature design, Nada created a collection that is affordable, light and flat packed. It also fits the five dimensions of IKEA Democratic Design: Form, Function, Quality & Sustainability at a low price.
Nada Debs:
“I usually work with the luxury craft so translating the products to Democratic Design was a big challenge and an inspiring one”
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“My work is inspired by Middle Eastern influences, but the goal is to have a global appeal, hence working with IKEA has been the perfect match. I like to call my work ’emotional design’, and it reflects the emotional nature of the people in the region”
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“In Middle Eastern craft, darker shades of wood with toned-down colours are common, but we wanted to brighten it up and give it a fresh and light modern feel to reflect the identity of the many young people. It is contemporary, but you can still feel the Arab identity in the products”
While trying out different combinations of the signature geometric patterns, Ljuv is also about holiday traditions and celebrating with family and friends.
“In the Middle East, the family is more than just mum, dad and siblings. It’s all about the extended family — grandmothers, aunts, nieces, cousins and beloved friends! People are always inviting each other to evening feasts during Ramadan. For me, this time of the year is about compassion, empathy, and generosity,” says Nada.
Interview express…
I asked Nada few questions about her collaboration with IKEA:
1) How long did you work with IKEA to produce this collection?
“The collection took around a year and a half to create. It takes time because we worked first on the design, then visited different workshops in India to produce prototypes and then finally created the full collection.”
2) What type of brief did you get from the Swedish company?
“They were looking for a contemporary Middle Eastern collection of home accessories and small occasional furniture items. IKEA works with 5 design principles called Democratic Design, which includes great form and function, high quality, built with a high focus on sustainability, and at an affordable price. This played an important role during the whole design process. The collection will be launched at the time where people are preparing for the month of Ramadan, where families & friends get together and feast together.”
3) What are the challenges you faced going from limited edition production to a larger scale?
“We are used to working with luxury craft-that means being very attentive to details in materials and craft techniques so this was quite a challenge to change our way of thinking to looking at practical and functional solutions as well as creating day to day objects such as tea towels and serving platters.”
4) One can really see Nada in this collection: the craft, the colours, the patterns, the lifestyle but most importantly the sharing and caring you have in your daily life. How would you describe the collection in your own words?
“I would say that it is a collection that has emotion because the craft, the colours and the patterns we have used all come from a deep appreciation of the Middle Eastern lifestyle of warmth and generosity.”
5) Do you have a special connection to any of the products you created?
“I personally really like the low table, which allows light to pass through. It creates a really nice shadow and pattern. I also like the unexpected combination of materials, for example, ceramics with brass. This is not so common usually, and our take on it makes it playful and quite contemporary”
Pictures courtesy of IKEA, Shiv Ahuja.
