Ilse Crawford

Ilse Crawford (b. 1962 in London) is a British designer, editor, and academic whose work over three decades places human needs, physical, emotional, and sensory, at the centre of every space and object she creates. She began her career in design journalism, and in 1989, at twenty-seven, founded the UK edition of Elle Decoration, which she edited for several years. She later launched the wellbeing magazine BARE and led the home division of Donna Karan in New York.

In 2003 she founded the multidisciplinary practice Studioilse in London, completing over a hundred projects in hospitality, commercial, public, and residential sectors worldwide. For more than two decades Crawford led the Man and Wellbeing department at Design Academy Eindhoven, shaping successive generations of designers. She was appointed MBE for services to interior design in 2014 and CBE in 2021.

Her collaboration with IKEA produced the SINNERLIG collection, launched in 2015, the first collection in IKEA’s history developed with an external designer acting as curator. The thirty-piece collection spanned furniture, lighting, and tableware made from cork, ceramics, glass, seagrass, and bamboo. Crawford’s guiding conviction was that as life becomes more virtual, tactile engagement with natural materials shifts from luxury to necessity. The SINNERLIG pendant lamp remains in the IKEA range and is considered one of the collection’s enduring pieces.