What do industrial design and fashion design have as a common ground? Akanksha Deo, a NIFT student, now working in Ikea, answers that it’s textiles that bring the two industries together. Akanksha Deo Sharma, born in New Delhi, India and a student of commerce before finding her calling in the creative field of design, is an Industrial designer, textile innovator and a visual artist who combines Indian textile history into modern contemporary outcomes.
IKEA’s first Indian designer:
While searching up Akanksha Deo, the first thing that comes up is that she is the first Indian to work in IKEA. This opportunity that Deo got while she was a student in NIFT came first with her involvement in SVÄRTAN Ikea Collection by Martin Bergström and twenty-four other classmates. The collection featured a collection of decors inspired by India but in monochrome.
She later joined the IKEA in-house design team in 2017. In 2017, she designed BRÖNDEN rug, a rug collection created to “almost scream ‘handmade’ and the value of it” (IKEA, n.d.) and TÄNKVÄRD, a collection of glassware and furniture designed to celebrate craftmanship. In 2019, Akanksha also designed textiles and IKEA’s first Kimono, an Indigo daily wear “that is also connected to home, especially the bed and bathroom.” (IKEA, n.d.)
Designs within IKEA:
In 2019, Akanksha created a textile collection ÄNGLATÅRAR with designer Paulin Machado. The collection features textiles all massively in Indigo, a colour which Akanksha believes to be Indian at heart. Ikea oftentimes pairs designers from different cultures together to bring diversity in designs and this was Akanksha’s chance to learn traditional signs, letters, and alphabets of Sweden and overall, Sweden’s culture.
In 2021, Akanksha along with Lina Vuorivirta, designed FÖRÄNDRING, a collection of lamp shades and containers, all made from residue of rice harvesting that are burnt. Seeing the extent of environmental concerns that are raised due to burning of these residuals, their team made an initiative to use it for a functionality cause and a sustainable one.
Akanksha, in her own word says “Growing up in India, I have never been able to take clean air for granted, heavy pollution is part of my and many other people’s everyday lives. The idea of doing something that contributes to improving the current situation has given me a lot of energy. We wanted to reflect this important topic in this collection.” (IKEA, n.d.) The blue and grey contrast of the collection is there to reflect this reality of pollution in Northern India.
Also in 2021, Akanksha along with a collaboration of contemporary local designers from Amman, Delhi, and Bangkok was a part of LOKALT, a collection of handmade textiles and ceramics. The collection features all traditional handicraft and their blend into contemporary designs, every cushion cover, rug, basket, and bowl representing the livelihoods of their respective regions. Indian heritage gets its tribute in the form of cushion cover and rugs.
The next design, the same year was of LERGRYN lamp shades. Hand-knitted and made entirely with recycled materials, the lamp shades are designed to give a warm and calm feeling with lights sprinkling through its holes.
In 2022, along with designer Sarah Fager, and in collaboration with social business suppliers across Asia, Akanksha created VÅRDANDE collection, a home and self-care collection “made for those seeking mindfulness, meditation, or just a moment to pause.” (IKEA, n.d.) The collection includes accessories made from cotton and jute like hand-embroidered textiles and soft towels and baskets and wall organizers for these accessories.
Design techniques:
Akanksha Deo in Ikea collaborated with designers and local artisans alike. In fact, the most cultural appropriative outcomes have been through the integration of local communities in design. In 2020, she collaborated with craftswomen in Bikaner in Northwest India in developing cushion covers which helped in creating jobs for the marginalized people of the region. In LOKALT series, she combined ‘Punja’ loom technique which is a dense weaving technique in rugs and carpets creating an exaggerated 3D effect with different scales and colours.
Design Insights:
Having collaborated with local designers and artisans worldwide, Akanksha has worked into integrating local identity of a region in all her designs. Often adding in the regional touch and using materials that would instead be marked as pollutants, she works to bring in the idea of a sustainable design.
Design, A field that has a silent impact in everyday life didn’t come to Akanksha as her true field of passion until she went out to experience different lives and cultures. True inspiration for design comes from the designers’ way of acquainting to things. When asked where she gets her inspiration from, she says, “A very good conversation with someone is for me one of the most inspiring things.” (Deo, 2026) While working with FÖRÄNDRING , a project that used rice harvest pollutants in creating mesmerizingly functional objects, she remembers her responsibility as a young designer of using design for making a change in the world, a responsibility that she finds both intimidating and fantastic to be a part of.
Recent projects:
On September 1st, 2026, Ikea brought out a collection of home art decors “KONSTRUNDA” imagined by seven creators from different countries among whom Akanksha was also one of the collaborators. In the collection, she has designed an indigo hanging tapestry affectionately nicknamed “Confetti Carol” and a piece “Melting pot”. The hanging piece is a textile tapestry made 100% of recycled polyester designed “to bring a little optimism into a room”. (IKEA, n.d.) Not just an eyesore, the tapestry is created as an invitation to touch it and feel the depth of the polyester in it.
Another design piece “Melting pot” is a table decor cast in stainless steel with a high polish finish. A decorative bowl for a home, it stands out with its folded form and the way it reflects light. Akanksha explains that the inspiration of this piece was the idea of gathering. “I wanted an object that felt like it was mid-gesture, caught in the act of pulling everyone closer.” (IKEA, n.d.) says Akanksha. It is this very same inspirational sculptural form that makes this piece stand out in its quietude design making it a heart of the family of pieces in KONSTRUNDA.
Awards and accomplishments:
In 2019, Akanksha Deo along with Lina Vourivirta won the “Elle Decor India Best Designer Award” in the tabletop category for the FÖRÄNDRING.
In 2020, Akanksha Deo was listed under “Forbes India 30 Under 30 list”. Marcus Engman, creative director, SKEWED Productions, and former global head of design at Ikea says, “Akanksha combines new artistic fashion design thinking with reinvented, old, artisan production techniques to make her very own version of democratic design.” (Routh, 2020)
Perspective on future of design:
Akanksha found the gateway for her passion in design after a series of career choices. Finding herself to be a designer who designs minimal pieces inspired from heavy ornamented life in India, she believes design to be an outcome of cultures. All her design represents life and culture of everyone who collaborates in the process.
Along with that, she advocates clean design and a sustainable one in a sense that materials used in her designs are mostly all recycled or are the products that would otherwise be thrown out as pollutants. She strongly believes that design is the most important tools in shaping our future and this is only possible through collaborating, idea-sharing, and listening to stories from different people and regions. The most important thing in designing is just listening and learning good things from each other thus shaping the world to be a better place.
Works cited
Deo, A. (2026, October 18). Akanksha Deo Sharma on Designing Beyond the Algorithm. (K. Mirani, Interviewer)
IKEA. (n.d.). Akanksha deo Artist and Designer. Retrieved from Ikeamuseum: https://ikeamuseum.com/en/explore/designer-portraits/akanksha-deo/
IKEA. (n.d.). FÖRÄNDRING collection. Retrieved from Ikea.com: https://www.ikea.com/es/en/new/coleccion-forandring-pub39de7de0/
IKEA. (n.d.). Konstrunda. Retrieved from Ikea.com: https://www.ikea.com/global/en/stories/design/konstrunda-art-collection-260813/
IKEA. (n.d.). Konstrunda Decoration. Retrieved from Ikea.com: https://www.ikea.com/global/en/stories/design/konstrunda-art-collection-260813/
IKEA. (n.d.). The VÅRDANDE collection! Taking care over the details. Retrieved from Ikea.com: https://www.ikea.com/om/en/new/the-vardande-collection-pubc41ad940/
Routh, B. J. (2020, February 10). Akanksha Deo Sharma: The only Indian designer at IKEA. Retrieved from forbesindia.com: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/30-under-30-2020/akanksha-deo-sharma-the-only-indian-designer-at-ikea/57617/1
