Carte Blanche: Annebet Philips Turns Cardboard Dreams into Design Icons
Alessandro
It starts with scissors, cardboard, and a spark of irreverence. For Dutch designer Annebet Philips, that’s not the beginning of a process — it’s the heart of it. With her debut collection for Serax, she transforms quick, rough prototypes into porcelain pieces that celebrate imperfection. This is Carte Blanche — a coffee and tea set where the first cut is also the final cut.
Annebet is no stranger to playful design. Her signature hand-drawn lines and cartoon-like forms have already left their mark on brands like Seletti, Tonone, Mogg, and even Tommy Hilfiger. Her work has been shown at Salone del Mobile in Milan and London’s Mint Gallery. And yes, Barack Obama once sat on one of her chairs. But with Carte Blanche, Annebet takes her rebellious precision to a new level.
The collection reimagines classic teacups, saucers, and teapots as if cut out by a child — uneven, spontaneous, gloriously naïve. The fold lines, the asymmetries, the rough edges? They’re not polished away; they’re celebrated. Each piece is hand-painted with deliberately imperfect contour lines, preserving the energy of the designer’s very first idea. It’s porcelain that feels alive, full of motion, full of story.
Underneath the playfulness lies a rigorous foundation. Annebet’s cum laude degree in Industrial Design Engineering from TU Delft ensures that every piece, however whimsical, is engineered to function perfectly. It’s this balance of artistic freedom and technical mastery that gives Carte Blanche its edge.
In an era where design often feels over-processed, Annebet’s approach feels refreshingly raw. Carte Blanche is a manifesto against sterile perfection. It invites you to sip from a prototype, to feel the texture of a first draft, to reconnect with the joy of creation before it gets airbrushed.
For the modern GUS man — cosmopolitan, curious, and tired of objects that feel mass-produced — Annebet’s work hits a nerve. This isn’t luxury that screams. It seduces. Quietly confident, a little subversive, and deeply human. Carte Blanche offers a daily ritual that’s as much about tactile pleasure as it is about visual wit.
Annebet Philips is part of a new wave of designers who blur the line between art and object, between process and product. She doesn’t design to impress; she designs to connect. With hands, with minds, with the moment of creation itself.
