Six designers on your wrist. Introducing the FCKLCK Anti Charm.

The Anti Charm is a six-letter charm bracelet which spells FCKLCK – the name of the Antwerp-based branding and creative studio that made it. Charms are thought to have begun as amulets worn to ward off bad luck, which is the tradition this one is written against. From the start, the FCKLCK team has wanted an even split between client projects and experiments of its own, using those experiments to explore areas they know nothing about and materials they barely understand. The Anti Charm had sat on the studio's list of ideas for years, parked because a bootstrapped, self-funded start-up counts every cent, and it was taken on in the end at a riskier moment than it would once have been, after the price of silver and gold had climbed. Six designers and artists each created a letter for the bracelet, working from six cities across five countries. “So far, the biggest learning curve was being OK with letting go,” Co-founder & Creative Director James Krüger tells us. “We designed none of the letters and told none of the collaborators how to design theirs.” A seventh charm hangs on the Anti Charm alongside the six letters – a three-leaf clover, which is the only piece on it that FCKLCK Studio drew itself. “The three-leaf clover has been a symbol of FCKLCK since day one. If you choose to, you can find them everywhere. Four-leaf ones require luck to spot. We believe you make your own luck,” Partner & Brand Strategist Aäron Windels explains. “The brief was simple,” Krüger adds, “we wanted to make an unlucky lucky charm out of type. Here are the six letters of FCKLCK – first come, first served. Do whatever you like, and we’ll make it an eclectic collision of styles in one object.” The studio approached 16 parties and went ahead with the first six who showed interest. “We work with type every day in our branding projects, so we reached out to foundries, type designers and graphic designers whose work inspires us and has an element of experimentation,” Krüger notes.