Over a decade ago, Rikaro added Allen Designs brand to its portfolio so it could bring the quirky designs to retailers in Australia and New Zealand.
Rikaro started with a range of pendulum wall clocks and its customers loved the bright colours and quirky designs.
“I have never found anything completely flawless in this life and yet there is beauty everywhere I turn,” says Allen Designs owner, US artist Michelle Allen.
“I love the imperfect, slightly eccentric, witty quality of the world I see around me. It’s the unpredictability of even the most mundane things that I try to recreate in my art. Often, if something seems too perfect, I will skew it towards the unrealistic to capture the essence of a whim.
“Although the pieces I design are practical, my hope is that my art will never become so serious that I betray the uniqueness that inspires me.”
Following the huge popularity of the clocks range, Rikaro has worked very closely with Allen to introduce new ranges including practical shopper bags, coasters and placemats, aprons, tea towels, compact mirrors, water bottles, glasses cases, glass plates and more.
In 2017, the first five designs of face planters were introduced at the Melbourne August gift fair and the popularity of this range just keeps growing. Currently, Rikaro has over 120 designs of polyresin planters and vases in various sizes with new shapes and colours being introduced all the time.