SUMMER DREAM
These photographs were taken five years ago in the pool of my dear friend Janet’s home, nestled in a quiet cove in Yalıkavak, Bodrum. Captured through the lens of Serdar Şamlı, each frame brought a deeper layer of meaning to the CREDO series.
After three days of shooting, it was such a delight to let the CREDO cups float in the pool. Now, as I revisit these images, I find myself attaching new interpretations to them. After photographing my designs in every beautiful corner of Janet’s incredible home, deciding to shoot the CREDO collection in the pool turned out to be a brilliant idea.
Watching the coffee cups gently float on the surface, observing how they gradually sank as the water slowly filled them with each ripple… While I was quietly immersed in the rhythm of their dance with the water, Serdar was fully focused, capturing the moment from different angles with two cameras. The entire process was just as inspiring as the final images. The resulting photographs feel timeless. Every now and then, I look back at them and feel the urge to write stories around them. Lately, I’ve even started to wonder: perhaps one day, these images could turn into a book.
Today, as I reflect on them again, they bring to mind the emotional ups and downs we experience in life. Sometimes, we sink silently—beneath the surface of our own "summer." That moment of sinking often feels overwhelming, and all we want is to quickly rise back up. We feel uneasy. Yet other times, these descents carry us elsewhere, drifting us toward new rivers, new currents. And in that drifting lies the need for patience—to allow space to listen to ourselves.
In recent years, I’ve realized that I've been developing a deeper dialogue with myself through this drifting of life. When I find myself submerged, whether literally or emotionally, I begin to notice different things. In the quiet descent of sorrow, I start to truly see not just my own emotions but the people around me as well.
As I write these lines, I’m suddenly reminded of how similar this is to the process of designing a product. Sometimes, I lose my way—I feel as though I’ve strayed from my original goal. And in design, losing sight of your target can happen so easily. The brain and the excitement of new ideas can quickly pull you in other directions, each with its own convincing reasoning. The key, I believe, is not to forget our core purpose, while also staying open to the unexpected directions the current takes us. Sometimes, surprises greet us along the way. That openness, that sense of embracing whatever comes, is vital—in design, and in life.
These photographs, taken in June 2020, inspired me to write these words today.
To sit quietly at the bottom of the water and truly absorb what is happening around us...
Life keeps offering us new streams, new submersions, and new surfacings.
The act of designing is in our hands.
May we continue to inspire one another.
Özlem