Inspired By Nature
IDEAS, CONVERSATIONS, CULTURE
The natural world around us shapes our experience and our character. When a brand is immersed and connected to locality, the design process is similarly infused - or it should be! It’s the sensorial details that can turn a brand from one dimensional to one that is multifaceted, layered and powerful.
Living, feeling brands is an expression of our values and our design philosophy. It’s the premise of our work to create a brand that lives beyond the moment and the page, a brand you can feel across all layers of design - communications, product, space and experience. Taking it one step further, it’s about creating a holistic design language that brings to life the meaning behind a business, one that is culturally curious, connected, consciously crafted and that elevates the every day. In practice, this means bringing design back from the conceptual to the grounded by looking at the world around us and the vivid sensory elements that infuse the layers, depths and textures that we are part of.
Australia is a land of extremes. It’s a cliche, but like all cliches there’s an elemental force that makes it indisputable. The sheer scale of Western Australia alone is breathtaking - even the sky here feels super-sized. We’re surrounded by jaw dropping natural landscapes that conversely feel otherworldly. There are inland and coastal rock formations straight out of the imagination of Dr Seuss, pink lakes that must be seen to be believed, ancient giant forests, burnt orange sand dunes meeting the ocean in a shade of turquoise you’d swear have been photoshopped. That’s just the visual elements. There’s the bird song, the smell of the lemon scented gums on a scorching hot night, the sound of the waves in the early morning of a king tide, the abrasion of sand against tender skin.
How can a designer be anything but inspired by such an iconic graphic, environmental and sensorial assault? When we consider design holistically, we’re looking beyond a logo, way, way beyond, to balance, shape, contrast, colour, form and feel. We’re talking multi-sensorial, so in the context of a hospitality, travel or lifestyle brand context this considers everything that permeates a brand from the visual to the verbal; tone of voice, photography, pattern, materiality, art and even the sound. It’s even the way people articulate brand into service style and procedures to turn brand into a lived experience.
Moving to a new country is quite literally life changing in so many ways. Moving from London in to Perth in the south west corner of Australia takes it to a whole new level. The sensorial elements alone are extreme, shaping our experiences and in turn our identity, reminding us that we are not one-dimensional beings, and nor are brands.
One of our favourite projects we're working on right now is to create a memorable guest moment. In this case it's an essential oil infused guest welcome. We can't wait to share more on this as things progress over the coming months, so watch this space!
Other powerful examples of living, feeling brands come from our friends at Esperance Distillery Co – their first release of gin was distilled with foliage from the founders’ home garden, the perfect embodiment of a brand inspired, in-fact made by nature. Edyn Group's ambition to 'Create Sanctuaries for Free-thinkers to Belong' inspired a series of 'living landscapes' illustrated by hand and digitally animated to the accompanying sounds of nature. A brand here at Abound, that we're particularly proud to have helped shape and nurture.
Back in the Southern Hemisphere, we love the bean to bar ethos of Melbourne's Birdsnake. A craft chocolate company raising the bar (sorry we couldn't help our selves), ensuring everyone from farm to your face, get's a fair go, make sure to check them out. These are just a handful of brands that are inspired by nature and their surrounds, creating a multifaceted and multilayered experience, as evocative as it is grounded.
The natural landscape can provide a never-ending pool of inspiration to transform a brand from one dimensional to one that is brought to life through design you can feel.
Want to know more about working with us to create a living, feeling brand? Let’s talk!
Acknowledgement of Country.
AboundStudio acknowledge this country's First Nations peoples and their ongoing strength in practising the world's oldest living culture. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters on which we live and work, and pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.