For many years, we felt the absence of a gift unique to Ankara, images that adequately depict it, and objects that make visible the connections formed with this city. But it's not easy to describe Ankara. Because Ankara is often a city that doesn't reveal itself at first glance.
Its beauty lies not in grand gestures, postcards, or easily recognizable images; it is hidden in the bonds formed by those who live there. It manifests itself in the call of the Republic's capital, in the journeys made for university, in career paths, in the memories moved from districts to the center, in bus stops waited at in the frost, in campuses, bookstores, parks, and in testimonies spanning many years. Iconic Ankara set out for precisely this reason. This platform, brought to life by Impact Hub Ankara, brings together Ankara's hidden stories with contemporary design, local production, and the social economy. It reinterprets Ankara's nature, history, production culture, craftsmanship, and the deep connection Ankarans have with this city through design objects, collections, and stories.
This journey is a continuation of Impact Hub Ankara's long-standing work with social entrepreneurs, local producers, women's cooperatives, artisans, and creative professionals. This accumulated experience, focused on strengthening social supply and making local producers' products more visible and accessible through initiatives such as 10 Numara Dükkan and SEPET, meets our love for the city in Iconic Ankara. For us, Iconic Ankara is not just a brand that develops Ankara-themed products. It is a way to rediscover what belongs to this city, to describe it accurately, and to build this narrative together with local producers.
Why Iconic Ankara?
Because Ankara’s true icons are often not its most visible images.
That which is iconic carries the soul of a city and has the power to say many things about that city at once. Ankara’s soul is often hidden in its less visible layers. In the rock layers of Nallıhan, in the vineyard culture living on both banks of the Kızılırmak, in the horizon line of the Gordion tumuli, in the waters of Mogan, in the story of Kalecik Karası clinging to the soil and water, in the traces left by covered streams in neighborhood names, and in the daily lives of Ankarans...
These layers are not disconnected. Nature, culture, and memory silently nourish each other in Ankara. The memory of an ancient city is revitalized by the waters of the rivers surrounding it, by the fertility of its soil, by the labor of local producers, and by today's design language.
Iconic Ankara aims to reveal these distilled meanings. It brings Ankara's untold stories to the present through design, craft, and production. It works not just to represent a city, but to reconnect with it.
For us, iconic is not just a place, a building, or a symbol. Iconic are the people who carry Ankara. They are the Ankarans who love this city, form silent bonds with it, and know and sustain its invisible beauty.
How do we work?
At İkonik Ankara, every collection arises from an effort to listen to Ankara anew.
We lend an ear to the memory behind a district's name, the time carried by a natural formation, how a craft has endured to the present day, and the relationship a color, scent, or form establishes with the city. We strive to rethink the hidden stories of Ankara, which don't reveal themselves at first glance, using contemporary design language.
In this process, design is not merely a way for us to create beautiful objects. It is a means of conveying a story, making an emotion visible, and adding value to local production. The color transition on a scarf, the form of a ceramic piece, the scent of a soap, or the arrangement inside a box; all speak of Ankara's nature, memory, and cultural layers.
As products come into being, different hands, knowledge, and experiences converge. Artisans, women's cooperatives, local producers, social entrepreneurs, and creative professionals all become part of this process. For us, who makes a product, with what knowledge it is produced, and the kind of relationship in which it emerges are as valuable as the product itself.
Therefore, at İkonik Ankara, every product is both a narrative and an encounter. While carrying a story belonging to Ankara, it also highlights the production relationships that make that story possible.
Social economy and local production
İkonik Ankara is a design and production model operating on the principles of social economy.
For us, the value of a product is not solely measured by how it looks. Who produced it, whose labor it represents, what knowledge it enables to be shared, and where the income generated returns are equally important.
When developing our collections, fair and timely payment, knowledge sharing, collaborative experimentation, and long-term cooperation are our core principles. The relationship established with the producer is not seen merely as a commercial exchange; it is treated as a process of co-learning and co-development across different stages such as design, R&D, production, packaging, communication, and sales.
The income generated from the collections returns to the producers, social enterprises, and Impact Hub Ankara's human- and planet-first initiatives. Thus, a product does not remain solely between the buyer and seller. It strengthens a production chain, contributes to the continuation of a craft, and enables a story to reach other hands.
İkonik Ankara is a model that combines social procurement advocacy with our love for Ankara. Because every purchasing decision is a decision about who will grow, what knowledge will be transferred, and which community will thrive.
A Bond Forged Together / Thank You
The iconic Ankara Vine Collection came to life with the contributions of many individuals who listened to the stories of Ankara, sharing their knowledge, ideas, efforts, and experiences.
We sincerely thank everyone who thought with us, guided us, and contributed to the creation of the collection throughout this process, from research to design, and from development to production.
Duygu Vatan, İrem Sanoğlu, Berivan Eliş, Hülya Özer, Zehra Düzgün
Caner Çiftçi, Ersan Ocak, Hande Güventürk, İdil Akın, Jüliet Demircioğlu, Öykü Şahin, Serhat Şatır, Tolga Yüksel, Taner Turna, Yusif Aghayusifli, Zeynep Eliş Demircan, Başak Yalvaç Özçağdaş, Kenan Doğan, and Sabiha Apaydın Gönenli.
Every bond formed in this collection became a part of Ankara’s shared story.
Let's create new stories together
Iconic Ankara works with organizations that want to develop a production process full of good stories, good design, and impact. Through custom orders and thematic collections for organizations, we aim to strengthen social supply models established with local producers, artisans, women's cooperatives, and social enterprises.
If you would like to develop meaningful collections for your organization, your team, or a special project, strengthened by local production and creating social impact, you can contact us using the form below.