The Nature of Design...and design in nature!

  Everywhere we look in nature we are greeted with a myriad of shapes, colours and images which inspire us all; from gardeners and chefs, to artists and designers.


While wandering through a roadside market in Mumbai, India I was struck by the natural beauty of the goods on display. It was not just the fruit and vegetables as items for sale, more the way they worked together to create an image or picture that would inspired the passer-bye to make a purchase, or just stop and look! This is visual merchandising at it's simplest!

As the old song says...."I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts".


Who would have thought that these stringy, strange looking drupes would have such visual appeal! This picture shows what is the mesocarp, or middle layers of the coconut and I love it's fibrous texture and blend of neutral colours. 

At the next stall a completely different image.                           
But once again a combination of colour and texture at has inspired artists and designers throughout the ages. 


The pineapple is an image that appears in 
paintings, fabric design and in home-wares....
Who doesn't love a pineapple-based table lamp?


Pineapples are actually the edible fruit of a Bromeliad, their botanical name is Ananas comosus
and it is not a single fruit, but a mass of coalesced berries, named for it's resemblance to a pine cone!


In the Philippines pineapple leaves are used to make a fabric called 'pina' and are also a component of wall-paper!


     Next, a bowl of dried chillies .....something to fire up the imagination!

And there we have it....colours, shapes and textures that appear in nature that inspire someone like me to stop...to smell, to touch and feel.......

     

So next time your wandering through the roadside market stalls of Mumbai,

.....or maybe it's the fruit and veg section of your local supermarket....

STOP    ...smell....touch....and feel....  and admire the incredible beauty of the simplest things we sometimes take for granted.


                         Nature;  the worlds greatest designer!