DESIGN AND CRAFTMENTS

Since 2003, Özlem Tuna has been designing jewelry and household desktop objects for ÖZLEM TUNA brand, which she founded herself. Her collections mainly use combination of materials such as porcelain, copper, brass, and steel to bring her designs to life.

While the porcelain products are manufactured in the company's own workshop in Istanbul, copper and brass designs are manufactured in various small and traditional artisan shops in the Historic Peninsula and Grand Bazaar neighborhood.

Özlem Tuna creates her products cooperating with metal craftsmen who have been working for years and utilizing the city’s historic center’s traditional production methods. ÖZLEM TUNA brand has made creating designs that own their geography’s culture, use local materials and production capabilities, and respect the people and the nature its priority.

‘’I had my undergraduate degree on ceramic and design in the early 90s in İstanbul, the city where the continents meet. Then, when I started working on jewelry in the traditional manufacturing culture of the historic peninsula, I began to gather many memories that showed me that I was working with people of a different country who didn’t speak the same language.

I believe the survival experience I gathered in the traditional production environment with the master-apprentice relationship as a university educated designer woman in the late ‘90s played a great role in my ability to absorb the cultural dynamics of the geography that I live in.

I also experienced better over time that the combination of different cultures within the production network enriches the design. It is a great wealth to be able to create my designs using all kinds of production facilities in the center of the city I live in.

On my brand design journey, I observe that the totality of the stories where I combine the cultural dynamics of the city I live in and the production possibilities become more distinct and interesting for the users. In my journey to produce my designs, I strive to design production processes that respect the people and the nature by using local materials and production facilities. Through the story created by the design and production processes; I want to touch my user's life.

Over the years, in addition to shaping materials the way I want, design has been my method of finding solutions to many topics. But now, I’m more interested in asking qestions by design instead of finding solutions by design.

I'm interested in how design touches me and my user emotionally through the story created by the design and production processes.’’

Özlem Tuna