Finding Ilse
Finding Ilse
Most people in the design world would readily admit to having a design hero – someone who’s body of work, professional philosophy and attitude are admired, even revered, above all others.
For CMID founder and creative director Charlotte Minty, that hero (heroine, in fact) is London-based British interior designer Ilse Crawford
“Before starting CMID, I would’ve leapt at the chance to work with her”, Charlotte tells The Interior Dispatch.
“She is the interior designer who I look up to the most. I greatly admire both her work and the way she thinks”
Ilse Crawford’s London studio - Studioilse.
“While in London years ago, I was lucky to work for a couple of talented designers. But when I later found out about Ilse Crawford I thought in hindsight it would have been especially wonderful to work with and learn from her in some capacity,” Charlotte says.
“She is the interior designer who I look up to the most. I greatly admire both her work and the way she thinks.”
“Accolades aside, Crawford is a deeply dignified yet passionate figure in our industry. Her bearing and poise is another reason to admire her.”
The former ballroom in Dinder House. Crawford transformed the English Regency-era property in Somerset into a home fit for a young family.
It is indeed hard not to admire Crawford. Regarded as a leader in her field as a practitioner, author and educator, she has carved out an acclaimed career that has taken interior design forward in multiple directions.
She is, after all, among a rare breed of interior designers to be appointed both a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to design.
“Accolades aside, Crawford is a deeply dignified yet passionate figure in our industry. Her bearing and poise is another reason to admire her,” says Charlotte.
Ilse Crawford kitchen.
Crawford’s talents were recognised early. She actually cut her design teeth in journalism, first at Condé Nast’s The World of Interiors magazine in the 1980s, and then – at the tender age of 27 - as the launch editor of interior design magazine, Elle Decoration. Crawford spent a decade piloting Elle Decoration to a point where it was widely considered one of the world’s leading interior design publications.
After departing New York City’s bustling magazine world, Crawford briefly held the role of vice president of Donna Karan Home in the same city. She soon returned to London to establish her eponymous multi-disciplinary design practice Studioilse in 2001.
Around the same time, Crawford starting teaching at the Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) in the Netherlands, one of the most progressive design schools in the world. After nearly 20 years with DAE, Crawford stepped away from her teaching duties in 2019.
Always the educator, however, Crawford has penned a number of books throughout her career that have elevated and expanded the public’s understanding of interior design. This includes the popular Sensual Home: Liberate Your Senses and Change Your Life. Crawford’s latest book, A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse, surveys her collective works.
From its spacious and busy studio in a suitably handsome former paper factory in the south-east London area of Bermondsey, Studioilse has hatched and delivered a vast number of notable interior design projects.
Included is the incredible 12 room-Stockholm boutique hotel, Ett Hem (‘A home’ in Swedish). This project is a particular favourite of Charlotte’s for both its overall charm and stylish individually-appointed rooms, each developed with great care, attention and forethought. Of Swedish heritage herself, it is a goal of Charlotte’s to stay at Ett Hem and soak up its design firsthand [NB: TID editor/husband concurs]
Ett Hem interiors.
Ett Hem exterior.
And if you have ever enjoyed the interiors of an Aesop store, you have Crawford to thank. She designed the company’s first Danish store in Copenhagen, which is used as a template worldwide. Aesop’s trademark outsized on-floor basin is her doing.
Aesop.
Aesop.
Key to Crawford’s organising design principles is that well-designed spaces can improve the health and dignity of the people who occupy it.
With this in mind, three years ago Studioilse was commissioned to design the Anna Freud Centre - a child mental health research and therapy institution in London. In developing the building’s interiors, Crawford aimed to improve the quality of the experience for patients and families alike. She did so by integrating natural materials to enhance comfort and feeling, while providing an important sense of safety and security.
Anna Freud Centre, London.
Charlotte is especially drawn to Crawford’s early ground-breaking philosophy of placing the human element at the centre of the design. Now widely adopted across the industry, the aim of the idea is to improve the individual experience through quality design.
“It gives me great joy when a person says they feel elevated when they enter a room I have designed. Sometimes they cannot quite pinpoint why exactly they feel better – they just do”, says Charlotte.
“That feeling, I think, is a hallmark of good interior design and is something we aim for at CMID”.
“It gives me great joy when a person says they feel elevated when they enter a room I have designed. ”
The same philosophy is at the heart of Crawford’s various forays into product design
Often aided by her industrial designer husband, the Colombian-born Oscar Pena Angarita, Crawford as produced interior items that unite utility with beauty and quality craftsmanship. Such is her eye for good product design, well-known companies have sought to partner with her on various product ranges.
IKEA is one such company. The famous Swedish-founded furniture and homeware giant – which is aiming to open an Auckland store in 2024 – has established a strong relationship with Crawford. In recent years, she has teamed with IKEA on a variety of simple yet beautifully designed home accessories that can transform any space, anywhere.
Sinnerlig products.
IKEA first collaborated with Crawford in 2016 to launch ‘Sinnerlig’, with the limited range’s signature pendant lamp become a product icon with enduring popularity.
Crawford’s use of cork in the Sinnerlig range is another example of her focus on using natural and sustainable resources in her work.
CMID is doing the same. A current apartment project of Charlotte’s is being designed with sustainability front-of-mind and she is also using durable and highly environmentally-friendly cork - being both renewable and biodegradable - as kitchen flooring.
Crawford and her studio also teamed with IKEA to develop the striking ‘Konstfull’ collection of vases. In another sustainability triumph, the products are made from recovered glass and come in a mix of shapes, sizes, colours, and textures. Making the ordinary feel special is the design mantra for the Konstfull range.
Konstfull vases.
To get to know Ilse Crawford better and understand more of why Charlotte is such an avid enthusiast, The Interior Dispatch recommends readers seek out the excellent Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design.
Abstract features intimate profiles of other world’s leading lights in the fields of interior design, architecture, graphic design, typeface design (fonts), costume design and even sneaker design — to name but a few.
The thoroughly captivating and beautifully-produced series is a design achievement in itself.
Words: Craig Greaves