Designer Anna Wallin Irinarchos has fused the passion of her Mediterranean heritage with a pared-back Nordic design sensibility to help create two key pieces for Ikea.
She and her business partner Lisa W?den, whom she met at the Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm in 2003, are among 19 Swedish designers invited to contribute to the PS 2012 collection. Shorthand for post scriptum but more a full-fledged addition than an afterthought, it is created every three years and draws on inspiration from 60 years of Ikea design.
Described as limited edition, the PS 2012 collection was introduced last Friday and will be on sale for an unspecified period of time into 2013, according to Ikea, which declined to provide production numbers.
'Instead of simply looking back,'' says an Ikea spokeswoman, 'we challenged [the designers] to take the design forward by updating and innovating forms, functions, materials and sustainability.'
Many of the results, comprising more than 30 homeware products, are recognisable as being quintessentially Ikea; others are imbued with an individual quirkiness.
In keeping with the furnishing giant's philosophy of affordability and value for money, there's also a range of price points, from the simple, yet visually pleasing spotted stoneware (bowl: HK$15.90; side plate HK$12.90) to an eye-catching sofa (HK$6,990) inspired by 1970s tubular- steel living room furniture.