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

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

Bio Design or Synthetic biology, also called bio-engineering, is an expanding market. It is expected to exceed $13.4 billion by 2019.

This field is increasingly relevant to designers and everyone working in the field of design today should at least be aware of what it is.

Bio design is an emerging design movement involving scientists, artists, and designers that integrate organic processes and materials into the creation of buildings, products, as well as clothing.

The integration of design with biological systems incorporates or imitates living organisms into design as material sources. In this sense biologists become a new type of designer, working with a very powerful substrate: life.

Image Omuus from BIO-ID

The integration of design with biological systems can mean usage of living materia, such as fungi, algae, yeast and bacteria. This can mean for example; growing a chair out of mycelium, the mushroom fungus that makes for a surprisingly durable material for furniture.

Images by Eric Klarenbeek and Omuus from Chemarts and Biohm.

The idea is to create a product whose natural functions are enhanced as a result of the use of (these) living materials.

For centuries, people have been designing, controlling, and altering microorganisms—think pasteurization, selective breeding, and the history of Penicillin is a great example.

WHAT IS NOT BIO-DESIGN?

Biomimicry looks to nature as a source of inspiration for engineering but design without nature integration. To give a clearer example: Imitating a design from nature but not using environmentally friendly material in its production.

First Image Omuus: Jun Kamei Amphibio Gill Garment Biomimmicry. Second image Jun Kamei Amphibio.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR DESIGNERS?

The rise of bio design puts designers in a unique position. Industrial designers will be swapping plastic, metal and other materials that take energy to produce with living materials, like fungi or bacteria.

Artists and designers need the scientific know-how of biologists, while biologists benefit from the big-picture thinking and outside perspective of artists and designers.

WHO ARE SOME OF THE BIG PLAYERS?

The Biofabricate conference is coming up with pioneering companies like Nike and Microsoft getting involved.

Ginkgo Bioworks working with French perfumer Robertet to make a rose-scented perfume from genetically modified baker’s yeast.

New Harvest pioneers in the cultured meat movement, the company is best known for growing a hamburger in a petri dish.

Modern Meadow grows leather in a lab.

Suzanne Lee is the chief creative officer for Modern Meadow and a fashion designer by training. She is best known for making clothing out of a kombucha-like bacterium.

Terreform One: Terreform is a leader in building with living, self-generating, and sustainable materials.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS?

At this point, we haven’t seen bio-designed materials make a significant impact on buildings or industrial design so far – we believe that will change in the next 10 years.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES AND CONCERNS?

Growing meat in a lab brings up its own set of moral dilemmas, like the ethics of eating it as a vegetarian. Biological weapons are also another concern that shouldn’t be overlooked.

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

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.

Delusion #1 CMF DESIGNER IS ONLY TO CREATE COLOR FOR PRODUCT DESIGN.

The tasks of a CMF designer begin from industry research to the creative process, strategic portfolio design, eventually to the execution and finally to design quality supervising. CMF designers need to be aware of the upcoming consumer and design trends, but also the new innovations in processes and materials. They need to be capable to supervise the production and application of the techniques. Understanding production processes enable creation of the most functional and beautiful product.

As we have mentioned before, CMF is strongly based on science and psychology. CMF designers gather data and summarise it to crucial business insights with the knowledge from color psychology and cognitive psychology. This bridges the gap between different branches of science and enables the creation of unique experiences.

Since every product that CMF design is used on will be sold commercially, it is crucial for CMF designers to understand the business side of designing a product. Which requires strategic and marketing planning and their application into product and market opportunities. To create a CMF design strategy, it requires knowledge of consumer insights and a skill to look five years to the future to gain a competitive edge in the rapidly changing market.

Delusion #2 COLORS AND MATERIALS AS AN AFTERTHOUGH.

Sure, CMF design can be applied last in the process, but then you are not utilizing the full power of the discipline. To create differentiation for a product to be competitive – or even disruptive – CMF design is vital in the early stages. As a CMF designers, research is the key to understand WHAT problem are we finding a solution for. Our business is to create the next generation product propositions and creating tangible solutions.

As said, CMF can be applied as an afterthought. But in so many cases there is a request from clients, even in the business to business category is for variation. Think for example operator variants. In order to create variation through CMF, the material and manufacturing technology need to be selected to be a platform for variability. If that is not the case, demanding variability in the latter part of the process actually can become rather expensive or even impossible.

Delusion #3 CMF DESIGNERS WORK ALONE OR SEPARATE TEAM.

In the best scenario, CMF designers and Industrial designers work as a team with multidisciplinary specialists varying from audio, mechanics, connectivity, marketing, user experience and interfaces, suppliers, etc. When the concepting starts, CMF and industrial design also begins. This creates the most ideal situation for the proper research and development to happen. Working as a designer is changing. Materials, in our case, define the design work to guarantee the productization. Outstanding results are delivered, when the knowledge of market trends, consumer drivers and different material are the base for ID work.

Delusion #4 TREND FORECASTING AND RESEARCH IS BASED ON INSPIRATION AND SHORT-TERM VIEWS.

The process of trend forecasting is directly linked with commercial sense, science, analytical thinking and awareness of brands and audiences – and next level – artificial intelligence. In order to keep up with trends, one need to observe consumer behaviour by focusing on the changes in lifestyles and consumption habits. The information can be collected from different industries and sources can be found almost anywhere. Going through the substantial amount of material from different industries and sources, common nominators can be found. These nominators need to be critically analysed to understand what they really mean and where it stands on the ‘trend curve’ – as how relevant it is to your business, are we talking relatively small number or mass market. It also important to find out why the trend even exists and the phenomena behind it – by whom it is adapted and where, how it is affecting the consumers’ behaviour and what it means in terms of services and products. Trend forecasting and research is always based on analytical thinking and commercial sense, not only on inspiration.

Reduce the risk of market failures.

Satisfy all your target consumers senses.

Optimize your sales and avoid the amount of waste from unsold products.

In all its simplicity that is what colors, materials and finishes design is all about. CMF design is a familiar term in the design industry but otherwise relatively unknown part of design. This field of design is mainly used by trend orientated companies, but it is constantly evolving and searching its place in every company’s design process. Therefore, we want to spread the knowledge of the benefits of CMF design even more eagerly, so that we could enjoy better designed products and a healthier environment in the future.

Many brands are seeking competitiveness through CMF, to differentiate their products. Colors, materials and finishes are not just something to add after the design process is finished, it is more than differentiating products. It is learning how to experience design for senses. The special stimulation to senses is becoming even more important due the growing influence of digitalization, where the physical relation is often blurred.

The challenge of spreading the knowledge about CMF design is the lack of CMF designers. Even though companies would have interest in CMF design it is challenging to find suitable designers or agencies for the job. The lack of professionals in the industry is due the lack of education. Car and technology industry have been a pioneer of this field of design. In Asia they have understood the value of CMF design and they have become the driving force of the field.

This series of CMF articles will be your quick guide to the field quite unknown. This is our way to spread the word besides the dedication to our work.

Stay tuned for more #aboutcmf.

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.