#biomimicry

#biomimicry

The design team at Znamy Się introduces a glass installation with a ridged, biconvex profile that references the form of the eye's lens. Positioned to interact with natural daylight, the element refracts and distorts incoming sunlight, echoing the optical function of focusing light onto the retina. Through this intervention, light operates not only as illumination but as a shaping device within the space.

Using Voronoi polygon modelling, the design team mapped how pressure from a sleeping head distributes across the pillow's surface, then engineered protrusions and recesses to respond to that data. The front face features raised cellular structures that increase the contact area between pillow and skin, improving comfort while simultaneously channelling airflow to keep things cool. The back face offers four distinct tactile zones depending on orientation, giving users a degree of customisation that is rare in camping gear. Also, a little warning but: trypophobia alert.

In Indra's Net of pearls and jewels, every gem reflects every other, a shimmering image of interdependence. This ancient Vedic metaphor for connection across the cosmos also illuminates what the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht first proposed in 2014as 'theSymbiocene': the era after the Anthropocene, in which human technologies take their cues from living systems and work in partnership rather than through dominance.

The design inspiration for this project stems from the image of a flower. The most beautiful parts of a flowerits bud and its petalsevoke softness, splendor, and refined aesthetics. Yet behind that beauty lies the slender stem, quietly bearing the entire weight of the structure.

Ever since I first read Janine Benyus's Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, I've descended into a rabbit hole in search of what " intelligence " really means (and who has it). Perhaps that's why I love the name of this newsletter so much. [It's a worm, after all. A humble, indispensable critter buried beneath the soil.] Benyus's central argument is that the "smartest" solutions to human problems already exist in nature. We just need to know where, and how, to look for them. (For instance: wind turbines inspired by humpback whales.)

Nature is often the go-to inspiration for design, but award-winning French designer and De La Espada Atelier take that idea and make it strikingly literal. Their limited-edition Ensemble collection doesn't just nod to the outdoors but borrows directly from its forms and silhouettes, reinterpreting them in wood, stone, and textiles. The result is the next best thing to being in the forest, only brought indoors.

"Inspired by nature's microstructures, this project journeys from the microscopic to the monumental. Structured into three chapters, the narrative explores a design methodology grounded in research, experimentation, and applied imagination."

A report by McKinsey backs this up. Companies that invest in brand evolution grow 20%-30% faster than those that don't. This isn't about having Coca-Cola-level budgets.