IKEA / ANNANSTANS Collection
Design collaboration, collection & creative concept by Martin Bergström for IKEA. Creative producer Andrea Hasselrot. Photographer & director Thomas Klementsson.
“ANNANSTANS is a handcrafted and limited collection which makes every item a bit different but also... special. When the products are sold out, they’re sold out. You can’t just go out and buy a new one. I want people to think of their pieces like new friends in their home. Someone you want to take good care of for a long time.”
– Martin Bergström, ANNANSTANS designer
ANNANSTANS collection is designed to create jobs. It’s also the one-of-a-kind result of IKEA and designer Martin Bergström collaborating with artisans in rural India, Romania and Thailand.
“For me, the big question has been how we can bring our differences together and make them work. We’ve all been pushing our boundaries, mixing my ideas with the artisans’ traditions and handicraft skills until we got just the right feeling to each and every item”
In ANNANSTANS, the contemporary concepts of designer Martin Bergström ranges from scarves and bags, to ceramic bowls, banana-fibre baskets and even beyond, to a pair of wooden mushrooms.
“It’s more like a family than a collection. The items match and they don’t match. That adds some kind of nice layer of unexpectedness to it all.”
Teams of skilled craftspeople developed and refined the product designs with Martin – challenging each other to discover what would be distinctive, attractive and achievable. Handmade touches turn each piece into a one-off that is affordable to own.
The artisans work for one of four social enterprises that are long-term IKEA partners. Industree and Rangsutra in India, Doi Tung in Thailand and Mesteshukar Butiq in Romania all help to create social change for marginalised communities, as well as to support traditional handicrafts.
ANNANSTANS collection stands out for its collaborative, socially-minded values as much as for the quality of its design and hand-finishing.
“I was inspired by silence and remote islands. I wanted to create something you can’t really put into words, like daydreams and memories existing elsewhere... Collages and silent poetry.”
© Photographer Thomas Klementsson
