Tuluğ Özlü, Founder of Tabii Atölye

She makes only one of everything, using her hands. Unique and rare like your reflection on the mirror to the very least. She feeds the Tuluğ dynamic with the tiny forests left in our hands. It would be true to say that she creates it from scratch. The wet tree branch, the leaf that falls by your feet, weed or other pretty looking greens we don’t know the names to look better once looked from T a b i i atelier’s eyes.

Were you in depression when you founded t a b i i atelier instead of doing woodwork, or has it been your dream since your childhood; can you tell us a little about your story?

For example, you go to the forest to breathe or just want to take a walk, you enjoy dancing with the trees or listen to their whispers in the wind. Then one day, you are in between all the trees you love and in that forest you love, starting your story with a piece of wood by escaping from whatever dislikes you have in the world you live in. Playing with the trees, or calling it t a b i i; these were never my dreams. I didn’t know I wanted to do this either, it just happened.

You are also an art director. Where does T a b i i draw inspiration from? From you, or your perspective as an art director?

I try to be an art director. I actually don’t like defining things. I promised myself to do the things I love. If I have to have a title, yes they call it an art director. The main point here is that I get excited when creating new worlds. I put things next to each other and treat every object as a “living” being. When these come all together t a b i i is shaped. I certainly make the space green. Even when I can’t do anything, once I see the shadow of the tree I placed behind the curtain, I am convinced that what I did is a living and breathing thing.

Tree, green, nature; you feed on these. How does the insufficiency of materials due to the conditions we have effect your creative process?

Maybe my whole inspiration point is insufficiency. The tiny green weed coming out of the pavement, the ivy that envelopes the entrance of the building, the parks that are left in minority found in the lucky corners of Istanbul, which is actually a concrete jungle, the green grass at the parks where I can lay on… It’s as though the forest already is filled with t a b i i. However, it seems that the city needs me, needs t a b i i more. That’s why my creative process starts in the city, and the discovery in the forest follows it.

The things I design are comprised of out of use and recyclable trees, branches, and roots. Weeds and succulents are other pieces that complement these designs.

What are you working on now? What’s going to happen at the next stage?

Sometimes when you succeed on looking at something in your life from the outside, you realize how much you love it. T a b i i is always in my life but there are other things that excite me. The work I do for art direction is intensified these days. Besides the art direction I do for advertorial clips and photography, I have the song clip we shot together with director Ali Ata Akel of Jakuzi group’s song “Bir Düşmanım Var” on my plate lately. I am the most excited these days when I think about it because as I do beautiful work, I start doing more beautiful work.

What do you listen to put you in the mood when working?

I listen to the trees in the forest rather than music. It is not possible to listen to music in my studio from all the noise from the sandpaper either. However, my earphones never go silent when I am walking in the city. I am leaving the last three songs I listened to on Spotify here anyways;

Infadels – Murder That Sound

Klaxons – Golden Skans

Edith Piaf – Padam Padam

Have you met someone who inspired you lately?

Whatever I am listening to, whoever I am talking with or smiling at is an inspiration for me. I can experience this with anyone at anyplace.