Interview and photos by Elif Kahveci
More photos can be accessed here.
How did you decide on founding DAY Studio after receiving your MFA degree at ECAL? We would like to hear more about the story of how the studio was initiated.
Even if the name was undecided at the time DAY Studio was on our minds from when we met at our undergraduate education at Istanbul Technical University’s Department of Industrial Design. The idea of setting up our own office solidified after we started to somewhat experience professional life during the master’s programme. We decided on founding DAY when we got back to Turkey and started off with Avlu, our own collection.
How is working as a duo different than working alone? What are the aspects on which you agree and disagree?
We have quite different approaches as designers, which provides a diversity for our products and helps us give better feedbacks to one another. It’s rather easy to become somewhat blind towards your own work. We keep each other up to date in that regard, creating an environment of exchange and debate at all times. We believe a correct approach towards design springs out of such a negotiation. Naturally it’s also important to have a partner that you can trust in every sense, in addition to the professional work you do together.
Avlu provides a fresh take on the crafts culture and design tradition of Istanbul. Would you be able to explain how Avlu, a project that forms a dialogue between designers and craftspeople, has developed, and its plans for the future?
Avlu started in 2013 as Yeşim’s master’s project at ECAL. It has developed as a passion project of ours ever since. When we founded DAY Studio, we decided to commercialise Avlu as our breakthrough project since we thought it would constitute an ideal platform for us to express ourselves.
The main discourse of Avlu has always been to reinterpret the legacy of objects in Istanbul and Turkey through the production methods of craftspeople, and to turn them into contemporary design objects. The collection consists of Kubbe service products, which is based on the architecture of and is produced in the Grand Bazaar, the Istanbul boxes which are created in collaboration with lathe masters in Kuledibi as abstractions of Galata Tower, Hagia Sophia, and Ortaköy Mosque, and the Esnaf service plates which are inspired by the carts of street vendors.
The biggest plan is turning Avlu into a brand and opening up a shop or space in which we can exhibit a selection of our products after extending our collection. Another goal is to turn the crafts culture, which we hold dear, into an economic value and make it sustainable through the use of design.
Can you tell us about the language of design which you seek to form by tracing the crafts culture in Turkey? How do you formulate a common language while using this many spaces and materials?
This is actually related with our design process. In our projects, especially in Avlu, design as form plays a rather small part in our work. Our working method, which shapes our process and language, constitutes of thorough research about material and product extract. The qualities of products within Avlu are determined by the object culture around Istanbul and Turkey, and the abilities of craftspeople we work with. Our work here resembles that of an editor in the sense that we use details such as colours and patterns to enable the materials in the collection achieve a consistent language. Idea goes along with material and method as we design. We turn these notions, which all have unique languages, into objects with a collaborative way of thinking. We prefer to formulate our design language as an approach, rather than a form.
There are also several things that influence us and the stories behind our collections such as architectural elements, production details, and tools that artisans use. Our design languages consists of personal approaches and the interpretations we bring to this world, taking into account all this visual memory. This is naturally reflected onto the work we do, and is more apparent in our own studio series such as Avlu.
We would also like to talk about Atlas Harran, of which you are a part. Are you still working with ceramics? How have you benefited from this in your practice?
atlas was a unique experience for us. We worked with different design teams in addition to craftspeople from different cultures and refugee women. The best part of the project in our opinion was this collaboration. It is exciting to form a community with the designers we collaborate and create value in the society through design.
Ceramics was a material with which we were familiar but never had the chance to work. We had the opportunity to try it out many times throughout the project. Materials and production are always topics that excite us, and we are also planning to reinterpret ceramics with a different approach for the new Avlu collection we are planning to release soon.
With DAY Studio you also do works for other brands, in addition to your own collections. How can the producer create more room for the designer, and how can a balance between the two can be formed?
We believe in long-term relationships between brands and designers. Successful designs are usually born out of processes as such. The designer needs to get acquainted with the brand and internalise its needs, not limit themselves with the briefs and step beyond them, and this takes time. Companies need to be bold and patient, trusting the designer and providing them with a flexible working environment. Designers, on the other hand, need to be assertive, do a thorough research on the commercial side of the work, and demand the ideal working conditions. There needs to be a reciprocal process of learning between the designer and the company, which can hopefully create a culture of collaborative working.
We have had the opportunity to work with many brands such as Habitat, Frette, and Flormar in various fields. Working with companies is as exciting as creating our own collections, since we get the chance to step into a whole another field of expertise. We are able to use materials and techniques we do not usually find a chance to try out, and learn many things as we design and produce.
Are there any projects you’re currently working on? Would you share your upcoming projects with us?
For some time we have been working on and excited about the new Avlu collection, which we have not had the chance to release yet. The only advantage of the pandemic can be its way of creating a convenient, quiet working space to create new designs. In this period which has enabled us to make better sense of the world, we have also realised that both consumption and production needs to slow down. In addition to the use of natural, recyclable materials, we were also able to observe that a visual need for sustainability has arisen. We would like to reflect these notions onto new designs. With houses currently resembling shells, we will feature rituals, as well as furniture and table accessories that reference communion in our new collection. We hope to share the products shortly.
We are also working with a new company for an extensive office furniture collection. Our collaboration with Flormar is ongoing, and we have started the package design of a brand to be launched soon.
Click here for DAY Studio's website.
