Powered by

Nature comes home


As we become increasingly distanced from Earth's magnificent creatures, we contrive to hold them closer

Nature comes home

Resin coral from Restoration Hardware.

Photograph by: Handout photo , Restoration Hardware

To many of us, trends can appear to be random, engineered phenomena that come on quickly, and seemingly out of nowhere - or at least nowhere more meaningful than a marketing meeting. One day life is as it has always been, and the next, there's a plague of owls. All it takes is one influential designer to indulge a fetish, and, if the conceit is seen on someone important, in the right place, or even just often enough, a trend is born.

It's this - the way a seemingly meaningless trope suddenly takes hold - that makes it easy to discount all trends as nothing more profound than a ripple caused by the pontification of some design god. But that would be a mistake; there are weightier forces at play.

The best designers are artists. They keep their antennae up, always sensitive to the mood of the people and to world events. They react the way any artist reacts to what they experience, by creating an ode to, a comment on, or critique of said mood. In art and design, it has always been thus. Paleolithic artists used mineral pigments to sketch aurochs and hunting scenes onto cave walls. British haberdasher Aquascutum created the trench coat for soldiers in the cold wet trenches of the mid-19th-century Crimean war. In 1937, a Spanish village was bombed, and Picasso painted Guernica.

Primitive cave paintings, a revered work of modern art and an iconic fashion item surely occupy different places on the creative spectrum, yet they are all born of the same phenomenon: the artist responding to his world. Today's artists have many influences. Even while technology is our obsession, our fascination with outer space is as limitless as the universe the roving cameras explore. Earth's honey bees and monarchs are threatened with extinction, and the oceans are in big trouble. Through war, we've become better acquainted with the Middle East, its traditions influencing decorators, designers, musicians and chefs.

Toronto designer Miles Keller of Dystil Design believes designers are not only influenced by their worlds, but that they have an obligation to speak out. "I feel pretty strongly that what we do as designers has to stay relevant and responsible to the world at large. Artists and designers are more finely tuned to their surroundings, so we have a responsibility to talk about what we see." In the seas, a dive in number of apex predators - sharks, tuna, sea turtles, whales and dolphins - has brought an explosion in the jellyfish population, and as their numbers rise, so does their stock as muse. It's the threat of their overabundance, and what that indicates about the oceans, that captures the imagination.

California designer Roxy Russell's Medusae Collection of pendant lamps are styled after jellyfish; that's not something we would have found hanging over a dining table a few short years ago. For Ms. Russell, it was a natural choice: "Jellyfish are otherworldly, luminous, diaphanous creatures that hint at the fear and fluidity of human consciousness." But the creative psyche is affected not just by what exists in large numbers, but also by what is rare and becoming rarer. Along with those jellyfish and octopi that grace cushions and dinner plates, and dangle from ceilings and earlobes, designers are celebrating other sea creatures we're losing. So many creatures are in rapid decline, but in our homes, they're doing better than ever, as stylish memento mori.

Like Mr. Keller, Ms. Russell believes designers are obliged to do more than make nice things. "I think the artist's role is to be a conduit and communicate what moves us; it's what resonates with us on a deep level that has the power to inspire change."

Mr. Keller and artistic partner Michele Woodey looked to space and to the 1962 Canadian satellite Alouette 1 for inspiration for their 2011 Nuit Blanche installation, Je T'aime Alouette. The duo transformed the Design Exchange into a glowing soundand light-scape - their interpretation of outer, and inner, space - and eventually, from this lofty concept emerged Mr. Keller's much more approachable and accessible Alouette pendant lamp. Kirsten Korhani of Korhani Home also looked to the heavens, with her Starlet rug bearing a striking resemblance to those magnificent images captured by the Hubble telescope.

Tokyo-born, London-based Nahoko Koyama of Noa Design is firmly in the designer-as-steward-of-the-environment camp. With a degree in eco design from the University of London, the interior and fashion accessories designer hand-makes whimsical pieces from wool, felt and recycled plastics. Her Delight line of felt butterfly lampshades repurposes the classic hat form while presenting the fragile and fleeting butterfly in a beautiful light.

As for those Harry Potter-inspired owls, well, their glory is fading - they could, after all, be a tad dour and didactic - and even the most socially responsible artist needs a break from bad news. Maybe it's a case of disaster-fatigue or just the oh-so-human desire to find hope in a bleak situation, but there are two new feathered design darlings about to take flight - the cheerful budgie and showy peacock - perhaps foretelling of a brighter, more colourful future.


More on This Story


Story Tools

Nature decor

Resin coral from Restoration Hardware.

Photograph by: Handout photo, Restoration Hardware

Nature decor
Nature decor
Nature decor

More Stories
