In todays’ eco conscious world, designers are tapping nature’s imagery more than ever. In our latest article for Luxury Briefing Magazine we explore why the energy, power and excitement - violence even - of the natural world continues to be designers’ go-to Muse in the luxury brand playbook.  Full text below.

Van Cleef & Arpels’ and Graff’s butterflies, Cartier’s Panther, Boodles’ Raindance, Faberge’s eggs, Jaguar’s cars, Mulberry’s tree, Dolce & Gabbana’s leopard prints, Lacoste’s crocodile, Hermès’ horse, Chaumet’s flowers, Lamborghini’s bull, Ralph Lauren’s polo horse. Le Coq Sportif’s rooster, Porsche’s stallion, LVMH’s Cloudy Bay, innumerable fashion collections … the list is endless.

Nature, as a source of creative inspiration, sounds old news, a cliché, but it isn’t. Why is it so enduringly, if not profoundly, part of luxury brand DNA and why is it so important this continues?

To feel the real energy, power and excitement - violence even - of the natural world takes a certain design sensibility, a kind of grace, an understanding. So, here’s to the luxury brand designer, and the creative director and their constant, vital, Muse: plant life, jungle life, flowers of life, trees of life, aqua life, animal life… superior aesthetics, beauty in its purest form. Breathtakingly intricate designs that span majesty and delicacy in the eternal cycle from bud to bloom, youth to old age, opening to closing.

What source material!  What sources of energy and struggle!

Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” Surely advice today, that’s as good as it's ever been for any budding luxury brand designer.

When luxury designers focus on the sights and symmetries of nature, they can show the life-giving qualities of the world at its best. That is brand depth.

I admire Jacqueline Karachi, Cartier’s creative director; she once told the FT how her respect for nature underlined her work: she talked about her search for natural proportion, detail and timelessness. Designs always began with natural stone which must be approached with humility, because the stone is perfect. She wanted to be at the level of the stone, to enhance it, to be of service to it and to find its right harmony.

Van Gogh, famously, also got the power.

‘Blazing light, red earth, blue sea, mauve twilight, the flake of gold buried in the black depths of the cypress, archaic tastes of wine and olive, ancient smells of dust, goat dung and thyme, immemorial sounds of cicadas and flute. A current of energy where the moon comes out of eclipse, the stars fire the sky, the ocean heaves, and the cypresses move. A richness of surface as though the life of the landscape is bursting.'

(Source: R. Hughes. Shock of the New).

Now I see an even greater need for luxury designers to turn to nature for inspiration as technology reshapes the world. Luxury needs the deeper perspectives of nature and more awareness of the environment’s fragility. As we all know, it’s under threat. With eco – consciousness at the heart of every brand’s purpose, the use of nature in its offer and design will be more about necessity than aesthetics. Since Nature is at the centre of the ecological/cultural/political conversation there is a greater need for design and imagery to celebrate it.

Maybe the fact that we talk about nature so much is revealing. It shows how far we have removed ourselves from it. Maybe tech has done terrible damage by unbalancing the relationship between Man and Nature.

Maybe the fact our world is now in so many ways unattractive, we crave more reminders of the natural world.

Natural being the operative word: one of the other reasons Nature is such an inspiration is the sheer emotional range and creative flexibility that comes from it.  It can be so much. From quiet tenacity to primitive vibrancy.

From sadness to joy. Chaos to order.  Slow to fast. Simple to complex. Dark to light. Change, always change.

I think of Turner’s or Constable’s clouds. Paintings of nature's most fleeting element, these are attempts to capture transitory energy, light, atmosphere, and movement; nothing is ever fixed, or in one place. As in life…

Nature has also one huge practical asset: an enduring design principle at its core, where proportion meets perfection: The Golden Ratio. A mathematical model when used in design creates a balanced, harmonious, aesthetically pleasing image.

It comes from the Fibonacci sequence, a naturally occurring number sequence found everywhere from the number of leaves on a tree to the shape of a seashell.

The Golden Ratio was used for the Pyramids, the Parthenon, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and many more.

Nature is such an obvious inspiration to draw upon you’d think there was nothing new to say about it.

Easy to stick a flower on a dress, a tree on a wine label. Harder to really make it meaningful. Nature’s imagery has been so debased over time with sunset n’ dawn cheesy chocolate box dreck. The real past masters kept the faith though.

A few weeks before his death Cezanne said he was becoming more clear-sighted before nature; although he did not have the long-lasting colouring he still wanted, the idea that Nature itself was endless suggested that it was paradise, and that comforted him.

Well, I know animal logos sure ain’t paradise.  But, amidst the ugly visual chaos and confusion of everyday life, where nature is rapidly receding, any nature-inspired design thinking that joyfully reminds us of the human world is surely welcome.

Read more from our Brand Matters series:

  • The enduring importance of craftsmanship here
  • Why craftsmanship's vulnerability will win in the tech world here.
  • Creativity: From Origins to AI here
  • Luxury is ageing gracefully here
  • Thinking luxuriously here
  • How distance creates desire here
  • Why the pursuit of authenticity is paramount for luxury brands here
  • Exploring the symbolism of colour for luxury brands here
  • Why beauty, elegance, timeless high quality, durability and a little self-indulgence can be good for you here

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