ANEKKA
Understated, functional and quite simply beautiful. This is ANEKKA, a relatively new yet highly sophisticated designer homewares label headed by multi-disciplinary artist Evi O who – thankfully – decided to follow a ‘natural’ urge to progress her “creative pursuit and curiosity into some kind of object form”.
After working most recently in illustration and design at Penguin Books, having a Visual Communications degree behind her, Evi chose to try her hand at homewares, coming up with the idea of ANEKKA with three best friends over a ‘happy lunch’. As well as being drawn to the idea of adding “some niceness to peoples’ homes,” it’s “the endless creative challenges in homewares design that completely” lures her in.
Attracted to minimal design – “something that looks like it can be done in 5-minutes, while in reality it’s hours and hours of perfecting”, quality products that last, and items that are highly functional, Evi has her set of challenges and opportunities cut out. And for the past year-plus, she’s been doing just that – exploring with artisans and craftsmen from all over the world “the possibilities and limitations of shape and shades”.
Working together, on what Evi calls her biggest collaboration yet, the ANEKKA team has achieved pretty well what she set out to. The line of four products, including the iconic Melk bottle/vase, available in five different shades and finishes, are all completely functional and utterly elegant – something only possible when such dedication to experimentation is involved. “I didn’t realise it before someone pointed out,” she says, “that it’s fascinating to see the messy process we went through to produce very minimal end products.”
But what else is special about ANEKKA – as well as having aesthetically appealing products that work particularly well under its name – is that it’s based on some very admirable values that Australian design can only benefit from: that every product is “well-made, functional and timeless”. With their objects designed in Australia and handcrafted in Indonesia, made from materials sourced from Japan, we’re quite confident in the longevity of the brand – which is as Evi O says at “only the beginning of a lifetime exploration in global craftsmanship and object design.” ANEKKA may be young, but it’s full of integrity and that is something to truly behold.
Credits: ANEKKA
