Anna Herrmann one of this year's IKEA scholarship recipients
The scholarship is awarded in fierce competition with other graduate students from design schools and gives Anna a place in the design team for 5 months.
Growing up in Germany with a Swedish mother, IKEA furniture was a natural part of the home. She appreciated the company's solutions and ideas early on, even before she even knew she wanted to be a designer.
"It was only later when I started studying that I dared to dream of actually having the opportunity to work at IKEA – to be involved in developing products that so many people will have at home is amazing," says Anna.
Learned to dream big at Beckmans
The way there was through two years of product design in Germany before she got into Beckmans.
"The training in Germany was very broad but also technical oriented. After a while, it felt like something was missing. That's when I applied to Beckmans for the second time. The first time I applied was when I graduated from high school. But I'm very glad I didn't get in then. I don't think I would have become the designer I am today without the background of these two, very different educations," says Anna.
"It was super exciting when I first came to Beckmans. I was confronted with a much freer way of thinking and working. I started to question how I had worked before and it was only here that I really found my personal way of working. Beckmans has probably also taught me to dream big, otherwise I probably would never have dared to dream of ending up at IKEA one day.
Award-won degree project with artistic design
As a graduate project, she created the Joan wall luminaire, which combines a flexible and functional solution with an artistic and unique design. For the project, she received the Swedish Tenns Design Scholarship.
The idea for the luminaire came when she redrawn her mother's apartment and was looking for a wall-mounted fixture for the kitchen. "Everything that was on the market was very similar. But it has always been a struggle within me to justify the creation of new products in a world where everything already exists. In order to create a product that is relevant, it was therefore especially important for me to base my work on solid research and external analysis.
She was inspired by the artists Miró and Calder, and just as they created sketches and lines in three-dimensional objects, Anna wanted the shadow from the luminaire to give the illusion of an undulating line drawing on the wall.
I wanted to create added value with a wall luminaire that differs both in function and product design.
This autumn Svenskt Tenn will show the project in an exhibition in the store on Strandvägen in Stockholm.
