About

Kwaku Boateng

Kwaku is a British furniture and lighting designer whose work draws on both his British and West Indian heritage. Born in London, he spent formative years of his childhood in Trinidad, where the fretwork of Port of Spain's gingerbread houses, wooden buildings shaped by French and British rule, left a lasting impression. Those patterns later became the foundation of the Fretwork collection, including the LP1F pendant.

Much of that time was spent with his grandfather, a lawyer who became an artist in retirement, with a deep interest in politics, literature, the performing arts and African history. Together they painted, debated and learned. His aunt, a local television presenter, used her platform to champion those without a voice, and hosted arts festivals where Kwaku took part, sometimes exhibiting his own work as a child.

These early years taught him that objects and images can carry ideas, histories and stories, a belief that runs through his work today. His designs explore hard metals alongside environmentally conscious casting processes, and include the Lorraine table lamp, a Darc Magazine Editor's Choice.

Beginnings

Triqis began as a partnership between Kwaku and Erwan Le Bozec. Erwan was born in Quimperlé, a coastal town in Brittany, to a fisherman father and a Parisian painter mother, and grew up among Celtic traditions, coastal labour and rural craft. When his family moved to Iceland, a landscape where ancient tradition sits alongside ultra-modern architecture, he developed a lasting interest in how heritage and innovation meet.

The two met while studying in the UK, and Erwan later refined his technical approach at Viabizzuno, one of Italy's leading lighting manufacturers. His influence helped shape the studio's early design language and its commitment to precision, and his designs, including the Snua lamp and the Planar tea light, remain part of the collection.