Pamono, Farrow & Ball, Bocci, and Bergamotte celebrate design inspired by nature

Last week, we had a great time opening Elegant Specimens: Design Inspired by Nature, a pop-up exhibition presented by Pamono, Farrow & Ball, Bocci, and Bergamotte. The opening turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to spend time with the vibrant Berlin design community.

For our part, we curated a selection of vintage and contemporary design objects, drawing inspiration from legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who once said, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” The aim was to spotlight nature as a boundless force of creativity and to bring a bit of the outdoors inside through organic forms, natural materials, and ecological thinking.

Paint and wallpaper company Farrow & Ball launched its new paint collection entitled Colour By Nature, which was developed in collaboration with London’s renowned Natural History Museum. This 16-hue palette was inspired by Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, a colour guide held in the Natural History Museum’s rare book library, first published in 1814 and used by Charles Darwin on his seminal voyage on the HMS Beagle.

For this occasion, we invited the fabulous Berlin designer Milena Kling to create a site specific installation, which she called Cabinets of Color Curiosities. Milena worked with Farrow & Ball’s new paint collection in her two color-driven environments embellished by botanical installations from Berlin atelier Wishbone.

Elegant Specimens was installed in the stunning Bocci 79 showroom in Berlin with an array of lush greenery from boutique online plant retailer Bergamotte. The exhibition’s other beyond-the-ordinary design works came from the studios of Atelier Crestani , Bazar Noir, Coroto, Domenico Orefice , Élitis, Felix Bachmann, Flatwig Studio , Galerie Philia, Isaac Monté, Jan Garncarek , Joa Herrenknecht, Johannes Hemann, Jojo Corväiá , Jörg Pietschmann , Laurent Peacock, Michal Fargo, Milena Kling, Naama Agassi , , Philipp Aduatz , Philipp Weber, Piloh, Rive Roshan, Studio B Severin, Studio Berg , Studio Gutedort, Studio Nienke Hoogvliet, and —all in conversation with the organic forms of Bocci’s blown-glass lighting design.

Special thanks to Berlin designers Naama Hofman for the exhibition design and Anna Härlin for the graphic design. We'd also like to give a hardy shout out to KL Transporte and Planty Rings for their fabulous contributions to the show's success.

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    Anna Carnick

    Anna is Pamono’s Managing Editor. Her writing has appeared in several arts and culture publications, and she's edited over 20 books. Anna loves celebrating great artists, and seriously enjoys a good picnic.

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    Wava Carpenter

    After studying Design History, Wava has worn many hats in support of design culture: teaching design studies, curating exhibitions, overseeing commissions, organizing talks, writing articles—all of which informs her work now as Pamono’s Editor-in-Chief.