Omuus was contacted to source and validate into production biobased material by Finnish family company Weiste to serve their pioneering Eco Christmas Collection. Weiste history with innovation is extensive with 100 years anniversary in 2024.

The challenge for the project was to serve very different product materiality in the Weiste portfolio, ranging from glass like transparency to more ornamental decorations. The material needed to be suitable for the existing production capabilities, and testing requirements for long lasting product quality.

Omuus material engineer Anne Taitto started the work with Weiste professionals, to analyze the technical requirements and locate the most potential supplier network for the task. The challenge worldwide is that there is much need and interest towards biomaterials, but certain biomaterials are unavailable due to the increase of demand. This was one of the main concerns, to be able to identify material that has longevity and capacity for the future.

The end result: Omuus connected with worldwide supplier network during the few weeks project to identify different material options for test trials. Weiste trials successfully selected a biobased material that met the technical requirements and was visually meeting the product portfolio needs. We are excited for the Weiste for their world’s first biobased Christmas decorations!

Do you want to know more about sustainable materials? Contact us and let’s discuss more of your needs!

Annina Verkkomäki +358 40 7680127

annina.verkkomaki@omuus.com

Elaine examining eggshell quality in the lab.

“We approach circular design not only by optimising the waste material during the production phase but also by optimising the knowledge, technology and skillset.” – Elaine Yan Ling Ng 

OMUUS interviewed Elaine Yan Ling Ng the founder of The Fabrick Lab and also Chief Material Innovator at Nature Squared. In the interview Elaine will talk about alternative waste material, how it can be reused and applied in material design, what is essential in reusing such materials and how Nature Squared plays its part in it.

Sneak peek of Nature Squared marking kit,
Elaine has designed a range of palette that provide pre design tile combination for interior designers to choose from.

The future of material technology has to look towards the type of waste people are producing. Consumption and production inevitably link with each other therefore the focus needs to go into what kind of products we create. It becomes the brands responsibility to produce in a more responsible way. 

For Nature Squared circular design is not only about optimizing the waste material during production but also about understanding the social aspect of using the material. Their factories are located in Cebu, Philippines and for that surrounding eggshell was the obvious material that there is a stable supply off and therefore has a direct impact to its surroundings. Using the eggshell waste benefits the locals through the picking and cleaning process and also improves their environment because the eggshells create both social and health problems when left in landfills.

Go to Omuus IGTV to view the interview.

Moodboard of chlorophyllin tiles.

Do you want to know more about sustainable materials? Contact us and let’s discuss more of your needs!

Annina Verkkomäki +358 40 7680127

annina.verkkomaki@omuus.com

‘Consumers would naturally build a more sustainable futurebecause they would have comfortable options available.’

OMUUS interviewed Elena Amato the founder of Ponto Biodesign “when biology and design meet”. In this article we will talk about Circular Design, why it’s so important, what is happening in the field of Circular Design and what Ponto Biodesign got to do with it.

Can you introduce yourself and your company Ponto Biodesign?

My name is Elena Amato, I’m a Guatemalan designer currently living in Brazil. I’m passionate about circular design, material development using biofabrication and thinking about creative applications for those new materials. I’m the founder of Ponto Biodesign, which is an experimental lab and design studio based on the concept of “when biology and design meet”. Currently I’m researching bacterial cellulose growth using agricultural waste as nutrients for the bacteria. I’m using the bacterial cellulose to make natural, compostable materials for applications in consumer products. Ponto biodesign is still on its early stages but I have a lot of positive engagement from people.

I’m studying for a master’s degree in Design focused on materials and sustainability at the University of the State of Minas Gerais, so I decided to merge Ponto Biodesign with my master’s research for the next year and a half. The aim of the master’s project is to grow bacterial cellulose using banana peel and develop two kinds of materials for fresh fruits and vegetables packaging. The idea is to develop a natural and compostable alternative for plastic trays and PVC films currently used for these types of fresh products.

What is the story behind Ponto?

I started learning about circular economy and biofabrication in 2018 for my graduation project. I designed a more sustainable packaging system for handmade personal care products, manufactured locally with natural ingredients. In order to the packaging’s components flow in integrated and regenerative loops, I decided to use compostable materials. While researching, I started reading about bacterial cellulose and how it was being used in fashion as an experimental alternative for leather. Since the first day I started working with bacterial cellulose I was fascinated by the material and its possibilities. After a lot of experiments, I finally got a great natural, compostable, colorful material that could be used as packaging.

When I finished my graduation project, I just couldn’t stop testing new ideas, so I kept researching and creating new materials. In April 2019 I had the opportunity to be featured in a Design magazine and I was very happy to see that a lot of people were interested in the materials and wanted to buy them for their products. It was then, that I decided to found Ponto Biodesign. I began to work with bacterial cellulose but someday I would like to include fungi biofabrication and grow different kinds of materials.

At the beginning I started with a paper-like material, made purely with cellulose and natural pigments. Then I made biocomposites using food waste like orange peel, eggshell and coffee and after that I began growing the cellulose using food waste as nutrients to feed the bacteria. Every material has its own characteristic some are more flexible, translucent, brittle, smooth and even transparent.

Even though people are interested in buying the materials, we are still on a prototype stage and we still have a long way to go in order to be commercially viable. In the future, we hope they can be used for wallcovering, lampshades, toys, packaging, etc. Thinking about their application is one of the things I like the most about the process. I can’t wait to see Ponto Biodesign’s materials being produced in a wider scale and available for everyone to use.

I like to use the terminology Growing Design, created by the researchers Camere and Karana, to describe my work’s approach. In Growing Design, the materials are grown by living organisms without changing their genetic structure; designers are actively involved in material production even using DIY processes and the materials developed are intended to be used in products today or in a provable future.

What was the gamechanger in your life that motivated you to specialize in circular design?

Sometimes we blame consumers for not taking an action into building a sustainable future, but I think that if designers create thoughtful solutions, using healthy materials for the environment, building smart services, connecting stakeholders in a wider system, and thinking a lot on their experience, consumers would naturally build a more sustainable future because they would have comfortable options available.

According to research conducted by the Design Council, approximately 80% of a product’s environmental impact is defined at the initial design stage. It’s exciting to think the potential design has to reshape the future. It is very important because it has the ability to make changes from the internal business structure to the services and products that they offer to users. Knowing that, as a designer, I felt like there was no other option than to take responsibility for what I created. I wanted to actively design more sustainable options for consumers, thinking in the entire product’s life cycle starting from the material composition.

A lot of the waste we produce comes from packaging, so I want to create healthy and practical options to people and show that it’s ok to use single-use packaging when they are made with the right material. A lot of materials in nature have a short life cycle. The thing is that those materials are meant to return safety to the biological cycle in a short period of time.

Why do you think circular design is so important today?

We were born in the linear economy system, where we feel it’s natural to extract materials, manufacture products and then throw them away. But where is that “away”? We are just making huge piles of mixed materials, wasting and contaminating the resources of the planet.  The whole universe works with circular flows: our lives, energy, the climate… everything flows and one thing feeds the other. We were trying to force a linear system that obviously isn’t working.

I think that circular design is very important because if we only take resources but don’t feed them back into the system, eventually we won’t have resources anymore. We have a limited amount of resources that are meant to continuously transform into new formats, but those huge piles of mixed materials that we are making are disabling that transformation that we need in order to renew the resources.

I am thrilled to see so many initiatives around the world working to create alternative materials that can help the transition towards a more Circular Economy. For too long, we’ve been ignoring the fact that products are made with elements that are not safe for humans and nature. It’s time to start cleaning our products and processes and start working like nature does, where nothing is waste and materials flow on integrated and regenerative systems, returning safely to nature as nutrients to be a part of the material cycle again. I believe biomaterials are a great tool to promote transparency, local collaboration, fair trade, social and environmental responsibility.  In the near future, biomaterials are going to be everywhere, in medicine, fashion, packaging, toys, furniture, buildings, etc. People are asking for safe and sustainable products.

What are the greatest challenges for circular design?

For me, the greatest challenge for circular design is education and awareness. We as a community need to work together as a system and be conscious about the importance of making the shift towards a more circular economy. The easiest thing to do is to continue doing things the way we’ve been doing them. It’s easier to ignore the problem than to re-organize and re-think about material source, manufacturing process, consumer behavior and how we discard the products we buy.

Specifically, in material development using biofabrication, there are many initiatives with awesome ideas, but it is still a challenge to get the production into a wider scale because a lot of them are still researching, and in early development stages. I find companies like Ecovative, Malai, Make Grow Lab and Boltthreads an inspiration. I hope researchers and startups that are working in this field persevere so biofabricated materials can be available in wider scales and available for more people in the near future.

Another challenge is to change the impression that circular design is a utopic ideal, which only non-profit organizations work on in order to save the planet. Actually, circular design is about financially sustainable solutions. Circular design, besides being necessary in order to continue living in this planet it, has to be lucrative.

Where do you see circular design in the next 5 years?

I believe we will be more aware of the responsibility each of us as members of the community and as professionals have. There will be more regulations that benefit companies that are working towards a more circular operation and penalize those that aren’t. We will see a lot more sharing services in consumer products, more reusable and refillable products, more options of energy from renewable sources for the community, more healthy materials available, people demanding less plastic and pesticides and an increase in the demand of locally source products.

I think that in the next few years, circular design will be more a requirement than an extra feature. Circular design will be essential in every level, since the early stages of the conception of products, the materials used, the manufacturing process, how it’s delivered and the services that will help connect the product with the users and with other companies. Transparency will be a must; there will be more brands and products with tracking codes that will give the information of the whole production chain to the consumers.

Of course, I also like to think that the future will be a lot more bio. Our buildings, energy, clothes, nutrition, health, etc. will be more connected with nature and we will operate in a more symbiotic way with our environment. That means that we will have to design our physical surroundings with and for the specific characteristics of our local environment. The intersection of biology, technology and design will be a powerful tool for creating more sustainable solutions. In five years, we will see a more consolidated platform of what will drive the circular bio-economy in the future.

How would you describe your materials to an alien with 4 adjectives?

Natural, microbe-made, colorful, waste-based.

We want to thank Elena Amato for sharing her insights about Circular Design and wish the best of luck with Ponto Biodesign. We recommend to keep an eye on this future proof company here!

Do you want to know more about sustainable packaging materials? Contact us and let’s discuss more of your needs!

Annina Verkkomäki +358 40 7680127

annina.verkkomaki@omuus.com

A good start for a New Decade is an interview with Karen Haller, an international author, speaker and teacher in the field of Applied Color Psychology. Having studied color for over 20 years, she understands how color affects and influences us yet how businesses and designers can use it to influence behavior.

Per Boicel from Omuus interviewed Karen about her new book about Colour that was published in 2019, covering the aspects why color psychology is such an important subject nowadays and what is the future for color psychology.

Karen, your new book ‘The Little Book of Colour’ is doing really well – Congratulations!

Thank you Per, I’m thrilled how well the book has been received in the UK – The Sunday Times named it as one of their Top 10 Design books for 2019.

The book is being translated currently into a further 12 languages so interest in the book is spreading world-wide and it shows that colour is making a comeback which is great news seeing how we have been living in a colour drought for the past decade or so.

Colour psychology is relatively unknown in many countries, could you tell us a bit what your new book is about?

The Little Book of Colour is about how to use the psychology of colour to transform our life. We are surrounded by colour and it influences everything we do. When we connect to colour, we connect to what we feel, and when we connect to what we feel we connect to who we are. Our fascination with colour has been around since the dawn of time with philosophers, physicians, scientists, psychiatrists studying this phenomenon – such as  Empedocles – c.490-c.430 BC, Aristotle 384-322 BC, Newton 1642-1727, Goethe 1749-1832, Jung 1875-1961, Bauhaus 1919-33, Wright 1939- and many more. This book explains the evolution and theories of the science of colour and my studies under the tutelage of the well-known expert in the field, Angela Wright and how the reader can then apply this to their everyday life.

What was the real gamechanger in your life that motivated you to specialise in colour psychology and work with colour science?

The epiphany moment that I described in my book was when I was studying Millinery in my twenties back in my native country Australia. I was sewing chocolate brown feathers on a teal blue hat and seeing the impact of the colours together stopped me in my tracks. I found myself saying out loud “Oh my God it’s colour”. I had no idea what it meant; I just knew I had to find out more. I was completed obsessed with why did I liked one colour and not another one? Why does some colour make us happy and some anxious? Why did I want to wear a colour one day and not the next? Why does the colour in one café want me to come in and sit for a coffee and another not?

So, I studied everything I could but there were so many questions left unanswered. It wasn’t until I was in the UK and I took a course run by the colour psychologist Angela Wright.  Angela could answer all my questions with deep understanding of why and how colour affect our mind, emotions and influences our behaviours. This is when I had my eureka moment – what I had been searching for was called Applied Colour Psychology. I stayed with Angela for a year and I think I drove her nuts by asking her so many questions until it all came together which has led me to doing the work I do today.

Why do you think a book about colour psychology is so important today?

This book is putting the knowledge of how to use colour in a positive way in the hands of everyone. It shows how you can use colour as a form of self-expression no matter who you are to express the authentic you by combining your own intuition with logic and rationale. This book takes the fear out of making the wrong colour choices or getting it wrong. It shows how you can be in control of your own colour choices without the need to slavishly follow trend or copy others.

Per: The famous saxophone player Charlie Parker learned at very young age after failing at his first public performance, that is something called Key Signature – the set notes are played in order to create a piece of music. Is this the same with colours? Is that why some colours clash and feel completely out of tune, because they are not in the right key?

Yes, that’s right, intuition can just take you up to a certain point.  It’s not able to answer why, just what and then it’s up to the client or student to blindly trust the one with the intuition. To know the logic and innate relationship between colours is crucial if we aspire to have a much deeper understanding of the science of colour to create consistent, repeatable results. Using a colour out of harmony is like blaring a saxophone out of key, it’s just painful to listen to. Using colour out of harmony is just as painful for our senses and creates a dis-comfort and a dis-ease which is why I would feel comfortable in one café and not another.

In what way is your new book different from others?

This book is for the everyday person explaining in a very conversational way what colour actually is and why it has the impact it does and influences us how we think, feel and behave in so many different ways. The book also shows how you can bring colour into your everyday life from the clothes you wear and relationships, the colours in your home to your workplace. The book guides you in how you can connect back to your authentic self so that you can express who you really are no matter what the occasion or situation.

In what areas do you see colour is used without the structural knowledge and ‘just’ by intuition?

I find working with different companies that often the colours are arbitrary chosen for products and branding without there being any logic or rationale to back up their choices. Often colour choices are simply based on copying what everyone else is doing in the market, going against the norm or following the latest trend without fully understanding the impact the colours are having on their brand or the message it’s conveying to their ideal customers.

What are the greatest challenges for colour psychology?

Initially I was looking to write a book about Applied Colour Psychology for the designer industry however the response was “We use our intuition”. I found it interesting that design professionals are willingly to attend courses in lighting, materials etc but not when it came to building on their existing colour knowledge which typically was the colour wheel. From my many conversations it seemed there is a belief that “colour is something we already know”. Intuition is definitely one part. Having the science, logic and rationale is the other. So, I decided to change the audience I was writing for – if the designers didn’t want the book then I’ll share the knowledge with the everyday person so that they could use it.

So even though I wrote the book for the everyday person, I’ve been really surprised that the biggest uptake of the book has been the design industry. The response has been really positive with many saying it’s clarified many concepts for them, and they are now able to add the logic and rationale behind their colour decisions when speaking to their clients.

The former president of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID), Susie Rumbold said, “This book is a fascinating introduction to the science of colour psychology and how to apply it. The power of colour to influence human behaviour is only just beginning to be fully understood and this book provides a wealth of information on how to improve lives by changing environments. A great tool for design professionals and interested amateurs as well.”

Where do you see (or want to see) colour psychology move in the next 10 years?

I want to create a colour revolution, a world-wide paradigm shift. To show that colours isn’t something we should be scared of or worried we are getting it wrong or feel we the need to follow trends or fashion. Instead how we can all use colour in a positive, conscious way to authentically express who we are and create spaces that we love, support and nurture us. That’s why I wrote this book.

 Thank you, Karen, for your time and work. As partners of Angela Wright’s teaching, we at Omuus also want to promote the same understanding of why and how colour affect our mind, emotions and influences our behaviours.

Download FREE first chapter
If you would like to download the first chapter of The Little Book of Colour for free then head over to The Little Book of Colour Free Chapter.

Buy The Little Book of Colour
If you would like to buy The Little Book of Colour – How to Use the Psychology of Colour to Transform your life then head over to The Little Book of Colour website.

This time Per Boicel from Omuus, contacted Zina Kranck, Design Director for the Graphic Design Team at LEGO, for an interview. They talked about Zina’s journey to LEGO, what inspires her and has she changed as designer while working for LEGO. Also covering the aspect of how it differs to design products for kids from adults. Enjoy!

Can you tell us about your journey to LEGO?

Zina:

30 years ago, I worked for the Swedish sports fashion designer Eliza. I assisted her in designing for Hang Ten, Progress (Reima), Gulins, etc. This was the time when we formulated a color-combinationthat was more colorful than others, brighter neon than anything else. Eliza taught me that coloris the first aspect of a product that your brain recognizes as you enter a shop. After color, the shape, the quality and eventually the price come into consideration. This instruction stuck with me.

In March 1995 I began my job as a product manager at Nokia for mobilephones in Salo, Finland. I was about to use all previous knowledge on color, design, marketing and even on plastics and paints that I had never heard of since the day I was born. This turned out to be the time, when color really changed my world – and you could argue perhaps even with the rest of the world (in terms of mobile phones).

I didn’t invent the coloredcover as a concept, but I did take part in making it relevant and fashionable. I volunteered to make a range that we could commercialize.I went to Premiere Vision, the textile fair in Paris, as I had done during my fashion career. I listened to the trend gurus, gathered the colors of the next season and delivered them back to the team. We updated first range, then we put color on a few actual phones, then on many. It became coloring millions and millions of phones.

Color really was what drew the needed attention to the product in the very competitive landscape. The fashion-industry also saw us. I made countless interviews and appearances on TV-shows and conferences.I could even see that the trend gurus now featured our phones in their predictions. Of course, Nokia was known to make the best and easiest phones on the market at the time, but color is still what the human brain recognizes first. On a global scale, where millions of people have a mobile phone in their hands, business became easier.

In the meantime, Nokia Design and CMG (Colors, Materials, Graphics) as part of it was founded while Nokia grew to be the third most valuable brand in the world, we had the run of our lives!

2016, I took the job as Design Director for the Graphic Design Team at Lego in Billund, Denmark. Two years later the textile team was added to my group, expanding us to Graphic and Material Design (GMD). We are about 40 people, mostly designers, from 14 different countries. This dream-job puts me, and us, right in the center of design at LEGO. Me and my four teams work cross-functional, meaning across all projects from Duplo and Disney Princesses to Star Wars and LEGO Mindstorms. We say we are ‘putting the smile on the face’, as we actually design all graphics printed on LEGO-bricks and stickers.

The power of play and inspiration

When designing for children what is the major difference compared to designing for grown-ups?

Zina:

Designing is answering questions and finding new ways, inspiring people to see different things and give experiences. At Lego we say: ‘Designing for children is us inspiring builders for tomorrow’.

It’s inspiring small people to do remarkable things, we are not giving them solutions we are giving them tools create something big for themselves. We present them (the children) with a lot of suggestions of course, we have fantastic building instructions and hope they build the set at least once and perhaps rebuild again many more times.

What inspires you?

Zina:

At LEGO we take inspiration from the way children play, children under 12 years old are always welcome to visit us in the office and we play together at work, and thats how we get inspired.

Think of how children are playing at the playground, they don’t think ‘its dinner at 6pm’, they are so into their play and they want to play with someone. They are fully immersed in their story, 100% focused on what they do. I believe children should inspire us in many ways and they already do. Children see monsters and they see elves under stones, they see a lot of things we don’t see. We adults are horrible for telling them its ”just” imaginations when imagination is a good thing, its not only ”just Imaginations”, its the most important thing we have.

Since the children don’t pay for the products, the parents do, what impact does it have on the design and how the product is presented?

Zina:

For the design it doesn’t have that much impact in the fact that the parents are paying for it per se except in the communication and in the packaging, we definitely take it into the account that the parents or the grandparents are the shoppers. But in the end it has to revolve around what the child needs and how we want the child to grow in creativity and confidence.

Have you changed as person and designer after some time at LEGO?

Zina:

I think so, I think I have become much kinder, if you ask my team they might not agree but my family think so. I actually see things with a different lens, I begin to see much more like a child. My family would say I always had a child in me but I pretended like I did not for a long time, but now I feel like it’s ok to be childlike.

We want to Thank Zina Kranck for this interview! For our readers, stay tuned – this was just part 1 with Zina…

At the beginning of April Omuus participated in Colour Alchimia workshop in Barcelona, held by Laura Daza, a designer and color alchemist. The workshop introduced the methodologies of color creation during the Egyptian era. We were making different pigments of non-organic origins such as ochre, carbon, and saffron. The principles for creating pigments with these methodologies is to find the source of color, a binding material and start experimenting.

During the workshop, we were able to learn about five different sources of colors and test how these reacted with different binders to create the pigment. Depending on the color source we used one of the two different binders egg yolk or gum arabic. The intensity depended on the ratio of the color and binder as well as water, by adding more water the color scale would change from dark to light.

The Five Sources of Color

The first color we tested was yellow this was extracted from saffron by grinding the dried extract of the flower. The scent was strong and the intensity of the color even stronger. The experience was reminiscent of cooking due to the potent scent of the extract. However, after adding the binder, egg yolk, the color truly revealed itself and provided a various scale from dark orange to a light yellow.

Sahram

Sahram paste

Sahram powder

Sahram powder

Sahram samples

The second color was brown that was extracted from ochre, a natural clay earth pigment. Similar to saffron, ochre provided yet another strong scent but this time it was more reminiscent of the wet and dirty ground, having a rich earthy smell. Ochre as well was bound with egg yolk and its color scale varied from a darker brown to a beige tone.

Brown Ochre Powder

Brown Ochre

The color sources bound with gum arabic were azurite, an ostrich egg, and black smoke. As a solid copper mineral, the azurite color was a deep blue but after the grinding, it changed into a bright blue powder. The scale of the blue changed surprisingly from a lighter blue to a deeper blue with the adding of water.

Asurate powder

Asurate

Asurate paint

Asurate Ochre

The ostrich egg provided the source for white pigment. With this color, there were fewer options to manipulate the scale of the white, by adding more water the color simply became more translucent. The black smoke was created by the use of a candle and a ceramic plate. The color was prepared by burning the candle flame against the plate that resulted as smoke. After which it was collected and used to create the black pigment. The black scale proved to be extremely rich, varying from dusky black to bright grey.

Ostrich egg

Lamp black

Black from the lamp

Creating colors with these methodologies is a fully sensorial experience. Starting from the aromas to the grinding of the sources and lastly applying the rich pigments on the materials. Using natural sources for color evokes creativeness and a hands-on approach to one of the most valuable traits of design -color creation.

Ostrich powder

Malachite

Colors

Workshop end result

This year’s focus of London design week was on materials and colors – more than ever before. Energy producing colors had been used in exhibition locations, to enhance the visitors and the exhibitioners experience. Color elaborations where used to enhance the 3D effect in patterns and perspective. We were looking for these intriguing patterns and exiting collaborations, where designers work closely with the material manufactures. Designers had stepped into the area of waste recycling, to work with recycling waste and turn it into new exiting materials for manufacturing products. Plastic has been the most loathing material and designers accepted the challenge to use plastic waste as a new resource to create renewable products. Design studios have transformed widely to become research labs for new materials – where the human experience is in the center.

Yellow – the color of creativity

Yellow made the whole exhibition come alive. Yellow color was shown as the center piece at 100% of designs. For several years it has moved in very distinct way in fashion and product design. Here in exhibition locations it enhanced the visitors and the exhibitioners experience with an aura of creativity. In Omuus we look at color from different angels, not only trend wise but also through the understanding of colour psychology and how you strategically can use color to manage our mood.

Colors – the way we experience

There is a growing interest in color overall. The way we experience colors was clearly highlighted in this year’s exhibition. At Design Fair the Color 2018 is transformatively projecting scenarios that reflect the perception of design (calzadafox) Carolina Calzada Oliveira and Justine Fox collaboration. Emily Forgot and J.Elbourne had elaborated with color and material to deepen the perspective and increase the 3D effect (using color very strategically). Are we seeing the comeback of Cubism in its expression?

Exiting collaborations

For the second year London design fair exhibited the work of “Wood in Progress Envisions in Collaboration with Finsa” – A continuation from last year’s vision. They have successfully shaken up industry standards for the past two years with their dazzling displays of experimental design research. The creative collective Envisions has soundly validated the importance of a design’s preliminary phases, ascending from the success of last year’s presentation. Envisions and the Spanish wood manufacturer Finsa vividly picked up where they left off by carrying their enriching collaboration to even greater heights this year. Beautiful colour pattern combinations combined with new thinking in the use of 3 dimensional surfaces. The Spanish heritage shines through with a colour palette – cubistic, distinct and bold.

Objects and installations trigger curiosity and interaction

Design studio A+N at the design fair was introducing new materials and new areas of use, trying to evoke emotions among users. Their material research and design studio have a unique interpretation of surface design. Materials seem to float like clouds in the sky after a mist of rain. Combining extensive material experimentation like this with the simple mission to put human experience at the centre of their work, is the way we believe in. Furthermore, objects and installations trigger curiosity and interaction, meaningful to research in human perception. That might create new materials to improve daily life and help us explore what our future environments could look like.

Beyond the Chipper Design fairs exhibition

Material of the Year places the spotlight on a material currently holding precedence in the design world. This exploring this year’s most loathed material: plastic. Truly the material of the modern world, plastic has proved revolutionary to the way in which we live, by allowing for lighter, thinner, more durable and at times more beautiful objects. It’s no secret that single-use plastic forms a real environmental threat, so for the 2018 edition for Material of the Year we have casted an eye on the design industry to see how the material is being re-purposed in imaginative and valuable ways.

These designers have moved in to the area of recycling waste plastic and turn it in to new products – natural looking and unique with the ability to reuse it. WEEZ & MERL stand for local recycling and want to make a dent in the amount of plastic that ends up in the wrong places. It is a company designed around the circular economy concept, and they are working on restoration, repair and exchange schemes for all of their products to support this vision of a future without waste. Japanese artist Kodai Iwamoto created beautiful vessels made of recycled plastic.

Are modern designers a part of the waste problem?

At London Design festival color and materials consultant Laura Perryman from Color of Saying, hosted a panel discussion addressing the future of sensitive and conscientious color usage. Featuring designers from the material display participated at Surface Matter Studio. This discussion topic was about the future of sensitive and conscientious color usage and overall thoughts about material usage of the future. How can designers take more responsibility throughout the whole product process avoiding waste material?

Still today many designers think about form first instead of starting with the material and color. Company Mirrl talked about their production with color avoiding waste material. Their products are based on the old lacer techniques from Japan by building up layers using different color opacity’s from opec for transparency.

Panel participant, designer Charlotte Kridger talked about how to color recycled materials from its earlier life. Their starting point is not pure material and that will not be possible to create a pure color. This fact needs to be considered when reuse colors plus other defects may occur. Question is: Are people ready to accept defects and can we change this into something that creates uniqueness when knowing this is recycled material? We must remember waste is expensive to get rid of today, it’s also a matter of pollution and health.

Omuus welcomes the debate of responsibility to become environment friendly and cut the waste as we have long experienced material led design.

Projects that could break the boundaries

An area that is growing rapidly its interest is Bio Design. We visited Open Cell featured 70 experimental studios in shipping containers including the first open access bio-lab & biomaterial-lab in Shepheard’s bush London. We met emerging international designers and start-ups, showcasing cutting-edge ideas that inspire and shape the future. Their projects have the ability to break the boundaries between biology, design, and technology. We believe this is growing area that Omuus will continue to follow carefully. We will have short look in to Bio-design with a deeper explanation in future blogs from Omuus.

Omuus previous blog containing background information in this area, biophilic design.

Here you can find more info from the festival.

#aboutcmf

Once upon a time there was an unknown field of design called Colors, Materials and Finishes (CMF). Before 1990s CMF was not absent in consumer product or fashion design. The importance of colors and materials were not taken under consideration as their own entity. As we already know, materials and techniques should be taken under consideration from the very beginning of product development. Companies save time and money, but more importantly they get the anticipated outcome.

That is what they already figured out at automotive industry in 1920s. We can say that CMF has been a crucial part of design for decades. Harley Earl from General Motors was the first one in automotive industry who convinced that CMF, at the time called Art & Color section, was valuable asset to design process.  After that CMF was better known as color and trim design. They believed and still believe in the power of in depth trend and consumer research appliance to the vehicle design process.

NOKIA LEGACY

The winds of CMF started to change product development, when Nokia brought CMF design to the consumer product design process in the early 1990s. At the time Nokia’s Chief of Design Frank Nuovo saw that the current design methods where deficient. The color, material and finishing decisions were made by marketing executives based on their own assumptions about what would be appealing for consumers. Nuovo had worked before in automotive industry and started to apply these methods to the mobile design process. He created a team for Nokia, that was specialized in colors, materials and trend forecasting. From there on, the color and material choices were made based on consumer and trend research. This new approach to design was soon adopted by the competitors and is nowadays used by all the smartphone manufacturers.

Nokia has been an important advocate for CMF design. Therefore, we emphasize our Nokia background and the legacy from those times. Many of today’s CMF designers are from Nokia due the fact that this field of design is not taught anywhere. We can proudly highlight the fact that we have a great group of CMF designers from Nokia times working seamlessly together. Our ways of working have developed a lot from Nokia times and we are constantly reforming our own path for maximized value creation.

FUTURE

The future of CMF is creating even more unique experience by data being the enabling force. Data has already widened our perceptions of consumer preferences. Before big data, trend forecasting has been more qualitative and about specific user group. In the future CMF design can be based on more meaningful data – qualitative research with more quantitative results. The data united with color psychology and cognitive psychology bridges the gap between different branches of science. Which will be meaningful for business decision making and competitiveness, but more importantly it allows us to make better products for consumers. Ultimately, we can say that CMF will create the guidelines for novel design.

Milan Design Week is so much more than the Salon del Mobile furniture exhibition. We spent a lot of time walking in the city that is full of interesting pop-up events, showrooms and spots to see inspirational set ups along the fair. In this article we will give some highlights from our generic Milan report. You can order the full report here.

CMF (colors, materials & finishes) was on every one’s lips this year. CMF is the core of our company and it is enchanting to see the growing awareness. We have been talking a lot about mood management and a common trend around the exhibitions, that we saw was the retrieving of objects narrative value and the ability for objects to live in spaces.

REPORT BITS & PIECES

We looked the whole week through the CMF and overall design lenses. There was a lot of attention towards CMF, material processes and ideas about the more sustainable future of design and manufacturing. ​

A few exciting themes that we saw during the week:

Milan design week 2018 was all about color, color and more color. Warm and earthy colours such as burned orange, burgundy red, turmeric & mustard yellow and papaya orange made their boisterous presence felt amidst.

Sony created the most multisensorial experience by letting their objects to live in spaces. Creating a connection between human behavior and technology. Technology that informs your everyday life – that tells its own story.

If you would like to know everything you need to know from Milan design week, the generic report is still available for order. Order here.

The link to our Instagram to see more inspiration pics.

Image: Per Boicel, Chelsea Flower show.

The word biophilia means love of living things and you’re about to start hearing a lot more of it. Nature design makes us feel good because people are born with the connection to nature. Biophilia is not a trend; it is a fact that makes us feel good. Trends fade over time but the good feeling that nature creates doesn’t. Increasing interest to biophilia and biofilic design makes it juist easier to bring knowledge forward. It creates an illusion of a trend and biophilia is going to have an increasing influence on interior design and architecture.

For this months “We know today what people love tomorrow” -post we interviewed the Horticulturist in Landscape Design Per Boicel with 30 years of experience in the area. As he designed gardens he developed a deeper curiosity in to the relationship between humans, nature and the positive effects of Biophilia. He studied horticulture therapy and the healing effect nature has on human’s physical and mental health. Later he was mentored by the well-known colour psychologist Angela Wright to understand the connection between colours and emotions. In today’s post we will be discussing on Biophilic and Organic Product Design and explain them through pictures.

In nature, you can’t find 90-degree angles and rectangles.

 When observing product designs, I can see its becoming more organic. From mobile phones to automobiles to public buildings, the trend is most evident in the shapes we create.  In nature, you can’t find 90-degree angles and rectangles. Biophilic and organic design is letting go of sharp edges in favor of natural shapes that curve and flow.

Image: Per Boicel

The Italian bath tub in marble in picture below has the natural flow of a rock pool at the sea side. Where the sea waves have created a cavity in a piece of rock. The cobbles at the base give a sense of sea side environment, which evokes the human response to sea and beach.

Image: Per Boicel 100% Design London                                                                            PIXABAY

When choosing colours in biophilic design, options are often taken from natural environments. Using a colour scheme that represents the local natural environment creates a sense of belonging through attachment to place.

Picture from Stoft.

These ceramics are an excellent way of designing the different steps plants have during a growing season.

Organic Design is more than Shape

In nature, there is no such thing as static conditions. Colours and temperature change from hour to hour and season to season. These changes are connected to the condition of the surroundings; spring colours are different to autumn colours. Morning colours differ from evening colours.

Image: Pinterest

This green curtain is using plants to follow the changes in nature. They grow by time and the colours are changing from a brown tone in the winter to light green in the summer. It also produces oxygen and removes carbon oxide from the indoor air.

Image: Adam J Rowe 

The seating that you see in the picture above is designed around the user as an organic being. How ever you sit move or work, the design is made to adjust. This is not typical design where the user must adapt to the seating. It is Biophilic Soft Seating design for BA Furniture and Product Design at Nottingham Trent University.

So, what is Good Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design is the designing for people as a biological organism

Biophilic design must nurture a love of place.

Good biophilic design draws from user experience.

It is vital for a designer to understand a project’s design intent (Read more)

These sitting rings in the picture may not be the most practical example of organic design. However, I choose to present them because they attract the visitors to sit on them (innate connection), which means the biophilia effect in design worked.

           Image: Per Boicel 100% Design London 2017

If Biophilic design is intent to Physiological Health and Well-being it can also be called mood management. To create a healing effect both physical and mental for the user. Good biophilic design is to create spaces that are healthy and restorative, yet integrative with the functionality of the place.

Imagine a world where hospital patients heal faster, schools where children’s test scores are higher, offices where workers are more productive and communities where people are happier and healthier. What if I tell you that this is all possible? Read more from here.

We want to thank Per Boicel for his time and opening the door into the fascinating world of biophilia.