Nilay Erol Sen

Nilay Erol Sen is an Istanbul-based industrial product designer whose artistic practice grew from a deep curiosity for traditional, hand-crafted and editioned techniques. Trained at METU Industrial Design and later at Domus Academy in Milan — where she studied Accessories Design — she became increasingly drawn to the tactile intimacy of traditional printmaking: a world where mistakes leave marks and marks leave meaning.
Nilol Print emerged from her travels and the handmade papers she collects along the way. Each journey brings new textures, colors, and stories that eventually find their way into the studio. Working with the linocut technique, Nilay hand-carves each plate individually — a slow, deliberate process that makes every print a direct extension of her hands and decisions. No two editions are identical; each carries its own subtle variations, marks, and character.
Yet her practice does not stop at the plate. Nilay also works in digital illustration — not as a departure from craft, but as an extension of it. The same sensitivity to paper, texture, and surface that guides her linocuts informs her digital work: each piece begins with the memory of a material, and ends with something that still feels made by hand. It is a hybri...