DESIGNING WITH A NATURAL INSPIRATION AND A MINDFUL APPROACH
This month’s theme explores nature, calling on emerging talent to discover and dissect the intricacies of design through nature and how our world around us can act as a stimulus for creating.
Carry on reading to discover what our designers think about patterns in nature and how we can recognise the fragility of our natural habitat.
INTRODUCING THE DESIGNER
Giles Fearon is a Three Dimensional Designer with a fond interest in all materials primarily focussing on glass blowing. Giles bases his designs on natural inspiration, with a mindful approach to how his designs could positively impact the viewer/user.
How did you become interested in design?
We had a fantastic workshop at my secondary school with great teachers to help us with all our endeavours, it was there I found my love of working with all types of materials. My father is also a lighting designer and so I think this influenced me from a young age.
How important do you think looking after our natural habitat is?
I wrote my dissertation on how nature positively impacts people’s mental health and how it can even heighten your creativity. It should be a must to look after our habitat to survive, but it should also be stated that it will benefit us in a multitude of other ways in doing so.
What inspires you most on a day to day basis?
I am always keen to learn new skills because this seems to open new creative pathways for me.
What’s your go to stimulus when you start to create work?
Still being relatively new to the glass making process, I think it’s important for me to have lots of time of play whilst developing new ideas. Glass is such a versatile material and I still have lots to learn about it therefor this ‘play’ helps me learn more whilst not feeling pressure to get things right straight away.
What intrigues you about the patterns and designs you can find in nature?
It always amazes me how nature can surprise you, whether this be like comparing tree roots and the insides of a lung, or how the fractals of bacteria are like that of an eye.
It intrigues me how infrequently we use these designs and patterns found in nature in our own creations. I’d like to push a more organic way of design thinking as I believe it would benefit the users: a bird does not make a square nest.
Do you think people’s attitude to nature has shifted over the past 18 months?
It seems to me that the issues of climate change and sustainability passed a kind of tipping point only relatively a few years ago, and that the challenges of the last 18 months have only accelerated this.