Arash Nourinejad finished his masters from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, “KADK” in 2007. His final project was a combination of buildings and city planning. Even though he majored in architecture, his main passion is product design. However, when he was admitted to the architecture school, he felt that architecture seemed like a bigger challenge. He believed that if he was able to master architecture, product design would come easy.
Eventually he came back to small scale interior projects and from there to product design.
“Running a lighting business is far more complex than I thought, so my perception has changed about design and entrepreneurship since my early years.” says Arash.
Read our interview with him here:
How did you come up with the idea to Anour?
The name is derived from my own name. Nour means light in Farsi, an interesting coincidence that was not intentional. I just liked the sound of the name, and fortunately the domain name was available. Originally Anour was intended to be a website for my portfolio, but I have to admit I’ve always had big dreams about running my own business.
When I was twenty, I attended a drawing course, to prepare myself for architecture school admission test. We had to draw a picture of our future self. I remember clearly drawing a success version of myself in front of an interior store. Sometimes life goes in circles it seems.
What is it about running your own business that has amazed you?
I’ve been quite fortunate with Anour. When I decided to commit myself fully to my products, I’ve found that things are developing in the direction I set out for the company.
There’s a great responsibility running your own business and occasionally it can be quite hard. But when I succeed, it’s rewarding, and that’s perhaps one of the best aspects of running your own business.
To set a goal and have it implemented is great. I’m constantly being challenged and that makes it exciting also.
Where do you get your inspiration?
My work with lighting has evolved me as a designer, and my focus has changed over the course of my career.
I’ve been working with light prior to Anour, and have a method of working that combines production with aesthetics.
How does your way of working combine production and aesthetics?
When I see an object that somehow relates to my sense of aesthetics, it inspires me.
Some on a subconscious level that re-emerges in a different shape or use when I design.
But inspiration for me can also come from past projects. For Instance, by working continuously on my pendant lights, I have perfected some aspects of the light.
Aesthetics for me is also about solving a problem that functionally works as well as being beautiful in form. I hate to call it a holistic design, but I guess it’s the best description of what inspires me.
What does design and ethics mean to you?
I feel a great responsibility as a manufacturer. I do not want to create more unnecessary products. The world is being killed by our desire for more.
Paradoxically I feel compelled to create and invent new things. So in order to justify my work, I have decided to only make design that will last the test of time.
Because sustainability for me, is also a matter of quality. To minimize your possessions, by only surrounding oneself with the absolute best design in terms of function and shape.
In many ways I’m quite fortunate to run a design brand. Because my clients help me perfect our product, by constantly adapting to their needs and learning from our mistakes.
We are not a static company and have gradually evolve our products to suit the demands of our clients.
Great design is a reflection of its surroundings, and should interpret and adapt to the needs of society, just like a good government. But that’s another story.
You say that you have perfected some aspects of the light, what do you mean by that?
When I originally designed the first light series, I knew very little about product design. I had to adapt my design to what was possible at the time for me. For instance, my first lights required special tools to disassemble for service. This was quite impractical, and made it difficult to service the light on site without specialist knowledge. As we have gradually grown as a business and in terms of experience, I have been able to implement small modifications in the design, that has made the lights better and the production leaner. Now you can disassemble the light with simple tools.
I’m held responsible for my product by the consumer and take great pride in my work. My goal is to perfect the light in terms of production, quality and service. And in some regards, we are very close to have perfected the design. But we are always aiming to do it better, so my work will never be done I think.
How would you describe the series of lights that you have made so far?
I’m fascinated by minimalism in general and craftsmanship specifically. I aim to design products that have a simple design but with the beauty in the details.
I think our current series are a good example of this approach. I’ve managed, in an elegant way I think, to merge traditional craftsmanship with a new lighting technology.
What’s in the future for Anour?
I think that Anour will essentially keep growing as a lighting company.
My goal is to maintain a high standard of quality with all future products and keep pushing our design towards innovation with good craftsmanship in mind.
We will reveal a new cordless lamp in the near future, so please follow our work on http://anour.dk/, Instagram or Facebook.
