Emma Dafnäs

Emma Dafnäs is a Swedish designer who has spent her career within IKEA of Sweden’s in-house design team, based in Älmhult. She holds the title of Range and Product Design Manager, a role that, within IKEA’s structure, combines hands-on product creation with responsibility for shaping the global range strategy.

Dafnäs is associated primarily with glassware. Among her documented designs is the SUPERFIN vase from 2008, a slender, coloured glass form 29 cm tall with a narrow 3 cm opening, as well as a series of smaller glass vases and bottles from the 1990s and 2000s manufactured in Poland and Russia, recognisable by their textured surfaces of raised dots or shallow relief patterns.

In 2020, Dafnäs spoke publicly about IKEA’s decision to double its in-house design team: “At IKEA, we want to offer desirable and affordable design to customers around the world. But people’s demands and expectations change with time, and we need to develop too, to stay relevant in our offer continuously.” The remark reflects the quiet ambition behind her own output, objects modest in presence but considered in form, designed to fit unobtrusively into everyday life.