Organic Design: Video Reflection

Ross Lovegrove has a strong passion for organic design, and though he may be somewhat stubborn in his dismissal of other influences in design, it is easy to see why he has such a passion. Firstly, organic design looks good. One can see that Lovegrove shares author Stephen Fry’s belief that nature is intrinsically beautiful. Lovegrove’s design is a kind of mimesis, which is Greek for imitation, but more specifically refers to the imitation of nature.

Organic design has its other advantages also. In a similar way to how engineers would have studied bird’s wings to find structurally efficient shapes for plane wings, Lovegrove has learnt from the aptitude of nature for his furniture or other products. This largely translates to holistic and essential pieces, where the extraneous parts have been removed and the form stripped down in its entirety. In nature this is done for many reasons, for example increase surface area or improve aerodynamics; similarly in the case of his supernatural chair he refers to the ability to breathe through the holes, the added flexure it creates and also the smaller amount of material needed. It could be said that the laws that govern nature are just as applicable to our modern era as they were millions of years ago.

I found this video incredibly influential because it is striking to see how successful this type of design is. As a philiosophy it really works, and it is clear to see that there is so much to learn from nature, and further, nature never gets it wrong! An interesting example is the comment Lovegrove makes about the form of his chair. He mentions that the form of the backrest “goes with the flow of the polymer”. Perhaps nature is really the most successful guideline to follow and by using inspiration from nature, humans will have the most success because we have evolved as part of nature, as have all the elements we utilize and interact with.

The challenge then presented to me as a designer is how to take this inspiration to the next step, as Lovegrove does. It is about using nature as an inspiration for a product or the inspiration for solving a problem and then utilizing other elements; new materials or a new way of thinking, or adapting to a particular style to make something that works, looks good and is successful.