Colour Composer: Interior designer Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer
This year marks two decades since Danish-Ghanaian designer Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer made a decisive career shift that changed everything. At 28, she turned her focus from music to interior design. Today, she’s regarded as a composer of colour; her unparalleled use of painterly shades – both bright and muted, in material and pattern – breathes life into every space she touches.
“‘The future is not so much created by our past, but by our imagination’”
It’s been a whirlwind week for Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer, founder and creative director of Copenhagen-based design studio File Under Pop. Her brand has just launched Color Lab, a paint shop that illustrates how certain colours work together. She’s undoubtedly grateful for the attention, but being this busy is not quite her style. In fact, her design process relies on taking things slow, a crucial element in her approach.
This morning, we catch her over Zoom, all smiles and with a warm, honey-filled voice streaming through the speakers. The team is in the midst of 3 Days of Design, having just returned from Salone del Mobile in Milan. 'In this field, it’s like a carousel, going up and down. I usually make a point of slowing down, to be conscious, present, and aware of everything I do,' she tells me. 'At File Under Pop, we treasure products—tiles, paints, wallpapers, fabrics—that have been produced over time, crafted by individuals. It’s about honoring the materials, putting in your humanity, your love, because I believe everything we interact with, whether people or objects, should have a soul. In the end, I want this sense of honoring our time to inspire how I believe we should all live.'
Her daily routine, therefore, includes transcendental meditation. 'I’m the boss of my life, so I need to allow myself those twenty minutes in the morning and evening to be still and not be anything to anyone.'
Her journey into the art of tiles was catapulted by a visit to the ancient volcano Mount Etna in Sicily while living in Italy. ‘I fell completely in love with lava stone, this massive soil, just lying there for thousands of years. It vibrates with tremendous power! And when transmuting into carefully glazed wall and floor stones, you include all the elements: fire, water, soil, air. That makes it a very emotionally charged material,’ she explains. Back then, the tile industry was rather bland. ‘Just white tiles used for practical purposes in the bathroom.’
Consequently, it was relatively easy for her to explore a different avenue and make a name for herself. Twenty years on, she has clad multiple spaces in hand-made tiles and dyes: from Hermès stores to private apartments worldwide, from entire living rooms, floor to ceiling, to baseboards. In turn, she gave up a career as a musician, having studied music in New York. Fun fact: many of her paint colours are named after popular songs like Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze and Prince’s Raspberry Beret. Not to mention, her daughter Alba has recently entered composition at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory.
Here’s a refined version that maintains the original tone while enhancing clarity and flow:
Steeped in Danish design heritage while growing up in Copenhagen, Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer has been unconsciously yet undeniably influenced by it. ‘Yes, I feel very much grounded in the tradition of carpenter-architects like Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, and Hans J. Wegner, who greatly inspire me.’ Simplicity, functionality, authenticity—Josephine proudly carries on the torch in a long lineage of iconic Danish design, emanating a still beauty as her way of ‘staying close to my own truth.’
Yet it was only recently that she discovered how much of her aesthetic and philosophy were additionally informed by Ghana, the land of her father’s birth. Just a year and a half ago, she visited the country for the first time. It was quite the revelation. ‘Most of all, it was a recognition of a part of myself that throughout my childhood I couldn’t quite fathom. I finally saw this piece of my identity mirrored in the surroundings, the people, the crafts,’ she explains. She references the wildness and vast openness of the landscape, the infinite universe of rich colours, and the generosity of the locals. During her trip, she stumbled upon phenomenal, age-old craftsmanship and learned more about her ancestry: her roots lie with the royal Ashanti tribe. ‘Moreover, in most of Ghana, I found that they use patterns as a way of communicating.’ These patterns transcend the decorative, instead becoming a language integral to the different communities.
As soon as she returned from Africa, she began experimenting with hand-painting curtains as works of art. ‘It’s an interesting interplay between a certain stiffness where the fabric is painted and parts left unpainted so the daylight can filter through. I’m very much into creating spaces that extend your self-awareness and heighten your well-being.’
Despite all her vivid memories, she doesn’t like to be led by nostalgia. ‘I recently attended a talk by Indian architect Anupama Kundoo, who said, “The future is not so much created by our past, but by our imagination.” That’s very much how I work—always leaning into the trust it requires to let your fantasy flow freely.’
