The Dwell 24: Noka Design

Noémie Vanoli and Karima Weber launched Noka and its line of sculptural candles in Bali, but the duo’s shared Italian roots inspired their first collection—think earthy pink and olive hues in fragrances such as neroli.

Vanoli, who studied psychology and dance, and Weber, who has a background in hospitality, met at a dinner party in Bali during the pandemic and connected over their shared ambition to start a creative business.

"We wanted to take an everyday object, like candles—everyone has a candle—and then find a way to rethink it," says Vanoli. "We realized how much we could do with wax," adds Weber. Fresh off a debut at Milan Design Week this past June, the brand has expanded its market from Bali to Australia, the USA, and Europe just a year after launching.

What’s next? Candleholders, of course, among other things, and maybe one day a brick-and-mortar store. 

Read the full Q&A with Noémie Vanoli and Karima Weber below.

Hometown: Bali, Indonesia

Describe what you make in 140 characters. We redesign candles as hand-sculpted melting art pieces. Once lit, the candle morphs into a different version creating an ephemeral performance.

What’s the last thing you designed? Sculptured candles are special in the way that, throughout its life, it continues to evolve. Our inspiration is based on reminiscing back to simpler times from one’s upbringing, surroundings and travels. Everything that we create has to evoke an emotion. Our first collection, "The Love That Remains," is an eclectic mix of objects and designs within our surroundings that had inspired us. Our two latest creations are "Pillars of Light" and "Why Blooms Don’t Speak."

Do you have a daily creative ritual? We tend to let ourselves live through the day and see where we can find our creativity in that flow. We are still at the very beginning of our designer journey which makes our days very diverse and exciting.

How do you procrastinate? Like every team, we have our little traditions. We have to admit that our Thursday margarita nights play a big role in our procrastination time. As well as the fact that we are close friends, so any "work" time can easily lead to just a fun lunch out. But these procrastinations are essential to maintaining connection and creativity together.

What everyday object would you like to redesign? Why? Although we do take inspiration from the shapes of objects around us, we have not yet mimicked anything in a candle yet. At the moment we are playing with height and are excited to see just how exaggerated our candles can get and what everyday object or emotion will inspire us to get there. We also have the ambition to bring sculptural shapes to new everyday objects.

Who are your heroes (in design, in life, in both)? Our heroes are all our creative friends that have supported us in this project since day one. We are so lucky and will be forever grateful.

What skill would you most like to learn? Working with clay is definitely a skill we would love to get into. There’s so much you can do with pottery that would go hand in hand with our candles.

What is your most treasured possession? I think it’s easy to say that our dogs are our most valued possessions. We always laugh about maybe creating a design object that expresses the love we have for them.

What’s your earliest memory of an encounter with design? We can definitely say that we both have certain upbringings with design. Karima grew up with parents that were in the furniture and interior world. Noémie’s creativity is a broad spectrum that started with contemporary dance and scenography to eventually channeling her energy into 3D designed art. We both connect in creativity in the sense that we can dream big and we are not scared to challenge the status quo.

What contemporary design trend do you despise? This is a hard question to answer because design is so subjective. But we love seeing the mixing of materials and design styles and how they come together into unique pieces.

Finish this statement: All design should... add aestheticism and beauty to unique products that allow individuality and differences in each of them.

What’s in your dream house? We would absolutely love to have a nice atelier in our future house. One that has beautiful natural light with floor to ceiling windows. During our Noka Design journey so far, we have had to create in the most unexpected spaces and we can’t wait for our brand to be established enough to be able to work in a studio that matches our passion to create.

How can the design world be more inclusive? So far we are pleasantly surprised with the support we have found in the design world. Whether it comes from online communities in 3D designs to these amazing yearly exhibitions in Milan and Paris to celebrate and unite designers in one space.

What do you wish non-designers understood about the design industry? That there is still so much thing to create and discover in the design field. We can't wait to have the opportunity to unleash our creativity on future projects.

You can learn more about Noka Design on their Instagram.

View the 2022 Dwell 24!