Partners in Design

Words by: Tanya Singh
Photo Credit: ANADA, The BLOMSTRE, ease studio, and SAICHO

 

This Valentine’s Day, we are exploring the journeys of our brand partners who are also partners in life.

 

 

Valentine's Day honors the spirit of love and affection between partners, friends, and family members. To celebrate it this year, we interviewed a few of our brand partners who have chosen to take on both love and work together.

For some, working alongside a significant other can be a dream come true, while for others it can be a source of tension. Regardless, the challenges and rewards of this arrangement are undeniable. It is like putting two pieces of a puzzle together. Read on as we delve into the stories of some designer duos and how they complete each other and their businesses. As a bonus, we also asked them to identify the one product that represents their union so you can see your partnership come to life.

 

ANADA

 

A journey fueled by a shared passion for holistic sustainability, ANADA was founded by husband-wife duo Will and Anysia who first met in Yogyakarta. They started their brand in 2019 to meet a growing demand for quality and good value sustainable Indonesian products. Anysia is the front-runner for ANADA handling the designing, styling, and merchandising, while Will manages operations, partnerships, and staff. The two, who also recently tied the knot, call it “a good mix of their individual strengths”. 

 

 

Will and Anysia chose the Watubella Lounge Chair to represent their relationship. “It is a result of experience (lots of sitting and relaxing together), materials that we love (reclaimed and natural), a mix of ’sleek’ and ‘rough’ (us in a nutshell), and also named after our favourite beach in Sumba,” shared the duo. 

 

The BLOMSTRE

 

A home fragrance brand that is all about serenading the senses with unique scents inspired by their cultural roots, The BLOMSTRE was started by husband-wife duo, Jerwine and Aaron. Aaron manages the operations while the branding ideas come from Jerwine. They both work together to produce inspired home fragrance products in their home studio reflecting on experiences and memories. “We see the company working as a ship, you need a sailor and a navigator. The navigator decides where to go and the sailor gets us there. Without one, the boat would stay stagnant,” shared the brand. 

 

 

Jerwine and Aaron selected the QUE SERA² Soy Wax Candle as an echo of their partnership. “We came up with the scent together. It’s a gentle fragrance that resonates with the feeling of ‘whatever will be, will be’. It’s a representation of how we trust the process and each other,” shared Jerwine.

 

SAICHO

 

Charlie and Natalie, the founders of SAICHO, a sparkling tea brand based in Hong Kong, met while completing their PhDs in Food Science in the UK.​ The brand’s story is very much entwined with their journey as life partners. Natalie turns as red as a tomato with just a single sip of alcohol while Charlie thoroughly enjoys pairing wines with his food. The solution: the birth of SAICHO, a beverage brand focused on creating delicious sparkling teas. Today, they run the business together, with Charlie handling production, logistics, and development, and Natalie taking control of operations and partnerships. “We have a good balance of shared skills as well as complimentary skills,” shares Charlie. “It’s great to be able to sound board product development and innovation ideas off each and be able to discuss this with the intrinsic details needed”. 

 

 

“It’s difficult to choose just one product from our range, as we have worked on all aspects of the products together. We are both really proud of how SAICHO is a celebration of tea and the cultures where the tea comes from. Our packaging and sparkling tea is a marriage of birds and flora of each country as well as the finest tea from that region,” said Charlie.

  

ease studio

 

A Bangkok-based multidisciplinary design studio, ease studio was founded in 2014 by Nichepak and Wanus. The studio is an offshoot of a 30-year-old family-owned embroidery business that blends craft, technology, and design together. Through experimenting with machines down to their coding systems and exploring traditional hand embroidery and craft techniques, the duo creates an array of interior decoration products from furniture to site-specific art installations. What brought them together was the faith that design can change the world for the better. Working harmoniously as a team, Nichepak focuses on conceptualization while Wanus brings his ideas to life.

 

 

The duo chose their Shading series as a representation of their life together. “It was a result of experimentation. It was a project focused on finding the most desirable direction, much like our life together,” shared Wanus.