Estelle Yomeda is an artist designer of Franco-Togolese origin, who began her career in the Studio Chaussure of Yves Saint-Laurent after studying visual arts at the University of Strasbourg, and artistic crafts within from the Costume Workshops of the Opéra du Rhin. In 2017, Yomeda created Kente Project ArtLab, a nomadic design studio that she sees as a “know-how laboratory”. Its name comes from its discovery of Kente, a traditional weaving that has spanned the centuries to establish itself as the identity and symbolic fabric of Togo and Ghana. Fully handmade, Yomeda’s signature works are sculptural furniture pieces, made of solid Togolese wood of extraordinary beauty, characterized by their tactile quality and sensual silhouettes, reflecting the expertise of Togolese craftspeople. Afropean, Yomeda has the desire to combine know-how and takes a transversal and generous look at design and freely combines traditions and innovations, materials and colors. Kente Project is the fruit of this passion for the crossing of know-how and inter-cultural exchanges, interweaving trans-generational memories and ancestral techniques, to transform pieces of furniture into contemporary relics.
Setting out to meet the artisans of Lomé, Estelle Yomeda is in search of answers, intertwining personal and universal history to give life to solid wood pieces. The assembly of Mélina, Neem or Cassia species – chosen for their interest in a sustainable environmental approach – offers the design a natural polychromy, whichhighlights the shapes of its series of Ekko Totem stools.
The Sokodé tables, also presented during the Private Choice 2023 edition, are like sculptures. Their sensual shape is amplified by their tactile dimension: a velvety exterior surface blends with a raised interior wall, scored with a wood knife.