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Born in India and now based in London, Kangan's work explores bold colour, geometry, abstraction and playful pattern application; with a specific interest in traditional and contemporary colour languages and processes. With a signature style that takes assimilated shapes and unexpected juxtapositions, she brings them to life through screen-printing, weaving and digital applications.

Kangan has a real explorative approach to design and colour, which has seen her designs work span across large scale to small format. You’ll see her graphical designs in spaces like her ceiling to floor tapestries in Exchange House as well as homeware and product collaborations for TATE, IKEA and REN. Our rug collaboration introduces Kangan’s designs woven into large scale hand made rugs to enjoy within the home, providing an effortless contemporary feeling to a space.

Kangan was in fact our first ever rug collaborator back in 2014 where we launched the Circus hand knotted rug. The sheer boldness in the rug designs pathed the way in introducing a left field approach to rug-making with a more graphic and contemporary aesthetic. Since launching our first collaborative rug, Kangan has designed over 20 rugs with us with many colour iterations to choose from.

Colour is an integral part of Kangan’s design process, this being a very tactile process of research and discovery. A Dictionary of Colour Combinations by artist and designer Sanzo Wada guided Kangan throughout a trip to Japan which she later used to curate the palettes seen in our rug collaboration.

We talk to Kangan about her approach to materiality and colour:

What strikes you most about Sanzo Wada’s Dictionary?

‘The dictionary is how I experienced colour when travelling in Japan - it was put together in the 1930’s but I was finding the same colours in today’s urban environment as I went around. The post office for example, was painted in the exact same palette that I discovered in the book - 90 years on. I was there running a design workshop and subsequently made some work inspired by old Chirimen fabric archives. What struck me was the links I found between India and Japan, from their fascination of Madras checks in the Edo period to their patronage of Indian village textiles today.

How do you approach balancing colour palettes?

I am always building my library of colour - through photography, drawing and collecting objects. Colour is also a very physical material to me, it’s not something I can digitally apply at the end of the design process. It’s often the starting point. We need to stay in touch with our material cultures, to see and touch - as designers and as human beings - digital materials and techniques although practical, lose a lot of the magic!

What exhibition has most inspired you in your adult life?

Bridget Riley at the Hayward, because I was slightly in shock at what it did to my senses. I had to sit down every five minutes as the works were moving in front of my eyes! How she applies colour has had a huge impact on me as a designer, as I’m always thinking about what I can make colour do, not what it can do for me

Cosmic Check by Kangan Arora

We're delighted to launch Cosmic Check as the first of a two-part collection by textile designer Kangan Arora. The meticulously thought-out patterns and colour combinations seen across the 10 new rugs are borne from what Kangan describes as ‘often mathematical’ processes and were designed during lockdown.