Coalesse: How Nature’s Shapes & Patterns Have Inspired Our Product Designs
People love patterns. Our brains recognize and resonate with geometric designs in the world around us. Our eyes look for naturally repeating patterns, called fractals, without even realizing we’re doing it.
We find visual patterns everywhere: in flowers, trees, snowflakes, coastlines, spider webs, mountain ranges — wherever we look. Whether they’re in the form of spots, stripes, spirals or countless other patterns, nature’s designs appeal to our sense of beauty, order and wholeness. In fact, researchers have found that exposure to fractals can reduce stress levels.
Drawing inspiration from the natural world plays a key role in the Coalesse product design process. For one thing, we’ve intentionally pulled the colors in our palette from nature. We’ve also applied abstract patterns and geometric designs from the natural world to our fabrics and surface materials — and in some cases, to the shapes of our products themselves.
Take a look at a few examples.
Geometric Shapes in Fabrics & Surface Materials
Foreground and background colors — to glass-top tables in our SW_1 Collection and our Potrero415 Tables, as pictured below.
Potrero415 Table with rectangular glass top in Pattern 3 (background in ACM Moonlight, foreground in ACG Goldenrod)
Designers can also use the Coalesse Customizer to visualize how geometric patterns would look if applied to the LessThanFive Chair, below. Choose from nine Coalesse patterns, all inspired by nature — or upload a pattern of your own. Color options are endless. LessThanFive is part of the Coalesse Pattern program.
LessThanFive Chair with Pattern 4 applied to seat and inner back
Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola collaborated with Coalesse to create our versatile Hosu Lounge Seating. To complement this welcoming lounge chair, she designed the distinctive Hexa fabric with its honeycomb motif, shown here in yellow. The comfort of Hosu meets the calming effect of a fractal pattern.
Hosu Lounge Seating upholstered in Hexa Yellow
In collaboration with Designtex, Coalesse has developed biophilic patterns and applied them to a beautiful new fabric collection — the Designtex + Coalesse Collection. Pictured here are prototypes of Bixby Micro 3894.
Bixby Micro 3894 fabric prototypes.
Geometric Patterns in Product Silhouettes
Not all natural objects are symmetrical, and neither is the Sebastopol Table, which takes the form of an irregular polygon. Whether used individually or in groupings, Sebastopol offers multiple options: Choose from two shapes, two heights, two wood veneer types, five interior laminate colors and endless geometric configurations.
Sebastopol Tables in oak veneer with Smoky White interior.
Designed in Italy for indoor/outdoor use, the EMU Terramare Series includes a whimsical trio of teardrop-shaped coffee tables. These unique tables — in small, medium and large — are as appealing for their porcelain stoneware tops, in three color options, as for their free-form silhouettes.
EMU Terramare Tables with Emperador ST03 tops
The EMU Pattern Table and EMU Pattern Seating collection integrates a charming honeycomb pattern into the structure of each piece. This imaginative metal series includes a stackable chair, backless bench and three tables (not pictured), all with distinctive hexagonal cutouts. Contemporary design meets nature-inspired beauty.
EMU Pattern Seating in 7271 Emu White
