Ilona Ács - designer
Receiving her degree in 1980 at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, on Leather Specialization. In the first seven years of her career she was working at MOME as an assistant lecturer, was a designer for Sabaria shoe manufactory and in her own workshop she created uniquely-elaborated leather pieces.
In 1989 together with Gábor Pápai she founded her design studio, the ÁP Ltd. Since 1998, they issue their products under the name LAONI – an anagram of Ilona. She was into exciting and unusual fabrication and form shaping when she started to create design mindset bags and midget pieces.
In recognition of her work, in 2017, she received a prestigious applied arts award, the Noémi Ferenczy award.
“Bags are articles for personal use, and beside good design and special or simple forms, it is also inheres that they come in useful and practical formation. I like to create sporty and elegant pieces at the same time for everyday use which can be a part of our wardrobe for several years as a useful and fancied accessory. However, it is a great challenge to create such pieces, which will function as a “jewellery” with smoother, low-key garments, as a determining piece with their extravagant shape or bold colour- and material combination. I also create pieces, which are unique or made in small quantity, but in different colour varieties, so that our customers won’t bump into a similar while walking in the street.”