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‘The beautiful El Flutter butterfly nightlights creates warm atmosphere with its glow. Soner Ozenc and John Wischhusen design the glowing lights that create an interactive touch to your living space. It is made from electroluminescent fabric that lets the wings of the butterfly glow. The soft light is pretty safe and energy efficient to be used in any part of your house.’ HOMEQN

‘My favorite is definitely Soner Ozenc’s Tetris Mirror, but I have to admit they’re all really cool.  As for the Tetris mirror, it’s awesome because it’s in 13 separate pieces, which you can put together to form any Tetris shape you like!  It’s the perfect decoration for, say, a game room or a video gamer’s lair.  Or even a bedroom, since they’re gorgeous and not overtly nerdy!’ SHAKTRONICS.COM

‘An exhibition that showcases a range of work from across all of Central Saint Martins’ disciplines…

Film making and acting, fashion and textiles, fine art and photography, costume and theatre design, graphic and product design, jewellery and ceramics, architecture and environment.

11 January to 26 March
10am – 7pm Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm Saturdays

Lethaby Gallery
Central Saint Martins
Southampton Row
London WC1B 4AP

Admission is free

We show the extraordinary talent to have come out of Central Saint Martins in the last two decades. Much of the work belongs to the Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection, which has been proactively collecting work by staff, students and alumni throughout this period of expansion and change. We are also grateful to the many artists and designers who generously loaned items for display.’ CSM website

Gadgets and gizmos become a bore – find refreshing gift ideas for ‘him’ by Soner Ozenc. Based at Cockpit Arts Holborn, Soner is an award winning product designer who continuously generates innovative ideas and, with the help of Cockpit Arts, turns them into marketable products. His product range includes Sajjadah 1426, an illuminating prayer mat which glows brighter in the direction of Mecca and his UK mirrors series in the shape of flags, coins and postage stamps. Cockpit Arts

Please click here for the press release.

EL Sajjadah has been invited to be exhibited in the International Invention Fair, Kuwait. The invitation directly came from the Kuwait Science Club under the patronage of His Highness the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

This unique convention in the Middle East was received with great importance locally, regionally, and internationally. It highlighted the inventions, innovations and creativity of youths. The convention also promoted Kuwait’s modernity and its role in encouraging and supporting the inventors and participants in this public service.

Soner Ozenc has been invited to take part in ‘40 Stations’ project by Muammer Yanmaz -recently exhibited at Space Gallery.

‘40 Stations centers on the debate surrounding immigration and borders in Europe by looking at the role of migration and the phenomenon of individuals crossing borders and contributing to the mixing and enriching of cultures. A unique photographic project by Turkish artist Muammer Yanmaz the project follows on from previous 40 Stations exhibitions in Paris and New York developing the themes of identity, migration and assimilation. Through a series of 40 black and white portraits of Turkish individuals taken at stations of their choice in London Muammer provides a revealing insight into the creativity that stems from the migration and movement of people from Turkish origins who are contributing to the busy, metropolitan landscape of London.

Projects in the series have been shown at Mavi Jeans Art Gallery/İstanbul, Marmara Manhattan Art Gallery/New York, French Cultural Center/İstanbul, Bureau de la Culture et de l’Information de Turquie/Paris and the London project will shortly travel to Istanbul.

To complement the London exhibition the British Council has commissioned British photographer Annabel Elston to create a series of portraits in response to Yanmaz’s London settings. Annabel’s photographs present 40 members of the British community in Turkey.’ Space Gallery website

Read the British Council article here.

‘I like this interesting laser cut acrylic cmyk shade from london-based designer soner ozenc. it is both flexible and intelligent, due to its flatpack design and option of mixing and matching any two of the four colors cmyk stands for: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. it comes in single colors or double combinations, and requires self-assembly.

I appreciate the minimal amounts of wasted material and space in the manufacture and packaging of these shades and enjoy the idea of changing the color of the shade to suit my mood.

Find it right here, and see more intriguing designs on soner’s website.’ Roadside Scholar

‘Sajjadah 1426 prayer mat by Soner Ozenc

Selected by Rory Dodd, founder of Designersblock

“This electro-luminescent prayer mat contains a compass so its design glows more brightly as it points towards Mecca,” says Dodd. “Simultaneously modern and deeply historical, it mixes technology and tradition to enhance everyday usefulness.” Turkish-born, British-based designer Ozenc, 27, creates products that combine tradition with contemporary materials and technology. Though not a Muslim, he became interested in rugs and prayer mats while studying at Central St Martins. (“Sajjadah” is a Persian-Turkish word meaning prayer rug; 1426 stands for 2005 in the Islamic calendar.)’ Independent

Here is the online link for the same article.

‘Illuminated furniture is quite a rage these days so, why not get yourself a lighted prayer rug. Britain-based Turkish designer Soner Özenç has created a lighted sajjadah or prayer rug. Hmmm…Technology intervened in the world of the spiritual too! Built on intricate technology, the Sajjadah 1426 (signifying 2005, which is 1426 according to the Islamic calendar), combines the best of Muslim culture, ingenuous art and electroluminescent phosphor printing technology. If you think all that the wonderful piece of art does is glow, think again. It not only creates a divine aura while a devotee is deep into his namaz, it actually guides him to determine the right direction towards the sacred Mecca. And how does it achieve this end? The lighted motifs of the rug turn brighter the closer the rug is turned toward the direction of Mecca! Though we might be tempted to believe so, this is not due to any divine intervention. The embedded compass module works surreptitiously behind this phenomenon. I would say it’s a beautiful idea. It looks pretty stunning in the dark.’ Bornrich.org