Damla Turgut, founder of Otto Tiles

This is a story of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences, and of female entrepreneurship: Damla Turgut was born in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, into a family of publishers. A dynamic lawyer who always had a passion for London, where she has lived since 2015, and the city she managed to launch her company, and where she has managed to grown Otto Tiles, into an enterprise capable of producing and exporting high quality products all over the world. It could happen to anybody, and even more so to those who come from a mega-city like Istanbul, who want to change their life. She decided to say goodbye to the world of finance and courtrooms in order to focus her energy to the production of an object that is widely marketed but sometimes a bit mundane: tiles. This is how Damla Turgut started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2013 when, after having obtained a master’s degree in financial law in the British capital, she had to return to Turkey for trivial visa issues. At that time Turkey was going through an economic crisis that was sparing very few sectors. As if this were not enough, Damla was not convinced that she had chosen the right course of study; publishing was not as profitable as it once was and so her family had to reinvent itself. Their neighbors produced tiles for the Turkish market, so the Turgut family decided to try their luck by investing in exporting these products. «I stumbled upon my true vocation in 2014 - Damla tells us - a bit by chance, helping my father in his new business adventure, because he was not very familiar with languages. I decided to go with him to a fair in Nairobi. It was then that I realized that I wouldn’t mind pursuing a life of this kind, especially since I was going through a period of great disenchantment with my country, as well as a rather serious period of personal depression». In Turkey they have a saying: «There is some evil in every good and some good in every evil», and so, with these words in her head, Damla allowed herself to be involved in an adventure that, if seen in retrospect, took on a liberating dimension: «For a while I went on like this, then I realized that I could better satisfy my own aesthetic taste and my need for personal fulfillment: making more attractive products than the ones I was selling». Turkey is well known as a paradise for lovers of fine art. From Hereke carpets to Anatolian kilims, from Iznik ceramics to Kütahya ceramics, including that technique of colorful decoration on paper known as «Ebru», the history of the Anatolian peninsula is an inexhaustible source of graphic inspiration. «My affinity with Turkish art led me naturally to design tiles that reinterpret a modern and rustic way with the aesthetic canons that have always surrounded me». Not surprisingly, the production sites of Otto Tiles, now based in London, include factories located in Iznik and Kütahya, centers that for centuries were the Ottoman equivalent of Sèvres, Limoges, Urbino and Capodimonte, the French and Italian «capitals» of ceramics. Floral motifs (tulips in primis), turquoise and cobalt blue tones, white and red are the main leaders on the ceramic tiles produced in these Turkish sites, while the glazed terracotta Zellige tiles produced in Morocco, home to another settlement that collaborates with Otto, are generally plain-colored and pleasantly raw-looking. The mood changes with the encaustic cement tiles made in Beykoz, in the Asian part of Istanbul, which make up the bulk of Otto Tiles production and are its most characteristic product. Square, hexagonal, rhomboidal, or rectangular in shape, these products are a triumph of pastel tones and geometric designs that have the virtue, quite unknown, of sending out good vibrations. The variety of designs available, together with the infinite possibilities of combination, adds value to these products that are easy to come across in trendy clubs and stores in Istanbul or London. Turgut designs the graphic motifs of her tiles herself, relying on a design studio made up largely of women: «I make no secret of the fact that I like working with women because they have an attention to detail». Most of her time is spent marketing products. While she has a dedicated staff, she can always rely on - including Eda Göksahin, showroom manager in Istanbul, four other women in London and an agent in Zurich. Damla responds in person to the dozens of requests that reach her daily. «Before, we used to work with architecture studios and with the hotel and hospitality sector; since things have slowed down a bit, we receive more requests from private individuals who, forced to spend more time at home, feel the need to make their first or second homes welcoming». Everything flows and everything changes, therefore, except for one thing: Damla Turgut’s determination to pursue her dream.