I’ve been FÖRNİ’s creative director since the brand was founded. Together with the founder İbrahim Kılıç, we are working on a brand that brings the wood and production experience of Salkım Orman Ürünleri together with the original points of view of independent designers. This process, from the forming of the brand identity and the design language to the selection of designers, and from the development of collaborations to the shaping of the collections, is an important part of my design management work.
Thinking and making together lie at the foundation of FÖRNİ. I care that each product carries a designer’s signature, and that different design approaches keep their own character as they meet in one shared collection. The collaborations we have built with ABRA ID, Bilge Kalfa, demirden | ilio, Erdem Akan, Form&Seek, GOA Design Factory / Ozan Tığlıoğlu, Marvin Kasper, Nazar Şigaher, Rüya Akyol Studio and Şule Koç take shape from this understanding.
In our first collection, “Kökler”, we started from Istranca oak and from the production knowledge of this geography. We aimed to develop furniture that brings local material together with contemporary design, that becomes part of daily life, and that will be used for many years. With FÖRNİ, we continue to work on new collaborations that will carry the design and production experience in Türkiye to the international field.
The Elle Decoration interview: A Modernist Touch to Wood.