Collaborative design

Refined Rawness

The EMC Core Team working together with a new line of products from Lehner Wolle

From conception and idea, to choice of materials and actual work, floral design can be a common project if the people involved speak the same language of Elements and Principles of design. During our visit to the Lehner Wolle premises in beautiful Austria, the EMC Core Team put together a special decoration for an equally special local restaurant. The design itself was determined by an inspiring line of products that Lehner Wolle is getting ready to launch for 2023, which the company gave us all access to already work with.

Undeniably raw, the textural and color attributes of this STYLIT collection by Lehner Wolle are as permissive to designers as it is inspirational, at the same time. 

The pure, raw colour palette in all its neutral tones is ideal, as it supports and complements any colour combination. It behaves as a starting point and allows the designer to explore so many different options. The brown tones we find in the collection hold a great symbolic feature, inviting ideas to seed and grow just as in nature, everything grows from the brownly tones earth.  

The varieties of products, consisting of different thicknesses or different combinations of all natural materials, is another great feature of this collection. The functional elements of the wool allow florists to easily build structures that already incorporate the decorative within them. The wool is strong, bendable, easy to work with and is already provides a textural base to uplift the botanicals. 

This is a collection that reflects the most common colours in nature, adding shapes and textures to them so as to transform them into inspirational materials. Yet, the carefully preserved feeling of symbiosis with nature is a unique dominant characteristic of the collection. It defines a neutral background through colours and textures. The use of the wool materials from this collection for building decorative construction to support flowers allows for a wide range of botanical usage.

We were all very attracted to this corner of the presentation room and in true EMC spirit, immediately saw the potential in the materials and, more importantly, into the connections that are possible between materials and other mechanics, between the options given by the line of wool products and the uplift that they can attain with the right use of techniques. We desired to showcase those attributes to the best ability and created a floral decorative piece to create an experience for the guests of the restaurant for that weekend. 

Images of the location were provided to us and we quickly decided where we will place the design to create the highest visual impact for the guests who were coming to enjoy the experience, in a unique location, surrounded by the equally unique landscapes of the story-like Austria and its natural beauty. The corner of the location offered visibility from multiple angles, a beautiful source of light and space for us to design.

Grey and brown tones are in fact an ideal starting point for any colour palette. The rough textures and overall feeling of the materials, however, set the tone of botanical choice and naturally lead the designers towards flowers with a more vegetative character, with soft and glossy textures, allowing all the materials to merge into a beautiful complementarity. Flowers and wool become a whole, rather than being separate elements in the design. In fact, the RAW collection is as neutral as it is permissive when it comes to combining it with. Although the theme and concept behind this collection is best showcased with the above recommended types of botanicals, the materials put together by Lehner Wolle in RAW are inviting for any type of design purpose and seem to have been selected with the sole purpose of truly enhancing floral creativity.

The right use of botanicals is key in every design and during this project we were able to truly focus on taking in the experience from the perspective of the EMC curriculum and dive more into the conscious creative aspect of our work. We didn't let the flowers available for usage in mind when we started to conceptualise the design, but we focused on the message we wanted to deliver. We knew that we had sufficient botanical material and trusted our experience as a team to guide us into being able to delivering the idea. Implementing became easy once we went to a whole-seller and looked for materials to complement ands enhance the beauty and decorative attributes of the Lehner Wolle line of products that we were about to use. 

The end result turned out to be more than we expected. The beautifully captured pictures by our very own EMC Coach, Jorge Uribe, are a proof of that. We have designed together one single piece of floral are that needed a few think-a-like minds. Our team is made up of individuals, coming from different backgrounds. having completely different experiences during each of their career, they all hold particularities that make them strong as designers, standing on their own signature style and being able to communicate throgh their work. Yet, the language of Elements and Principles of Design we have all learned during our EMC journey, both as former students and as current coaches, gives us a common ground where we feel comfortable in working together, uplifting each other and the team as a whole. 

It was an amazing experience for all of us, guided by Tomas De Bruyne and Christi Lopez, the two people who truly make EMC possible and who keep inspiring us and pushing us to strive for growth and development. Ultimately, they do with us the same thing we do with our students: create an environment where, through knowledge and hard individual work, with determination and inspiration, each individual succeeds in achieving confidence in their work and work towards best exploring their creative uniqueness.