Akanksha Deo

Akanksha Deo is an Indian designer and visual artist born in New Delhi in 1993 and trained in knitwear design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology. She joined IKEA’s in-house design team in 2017, after meeting the company as a student in the SVÄRTAN workshop led by Martin Bergström, and now works from Malmö on textiles, accessories and objects that combine Indian craft techniques with Scandinavian production.

Her collections include ÄNGLATÅRAR (2019) with Paulin Machado, an indigo tribute to India; LOKALT (2021), developed with social businesses in India, Jordan and Thailand around the punja loom; and cushion covers made with craftswomen in Bikaner through Rangsutra. For KONSTRUNDA, IKEA’s 2026 collectible range, she contributed a figure assembled from stacked blocks that sets function aside in favour of character and play.