Globally recognized skincare and fragrance brand Aesop is no stranger to audacious design innovation, often taking bold leaps into uncharted territory. This April, the Australian company launched Aposē, its first foray into furniture product development. The limited-edition lighting series was inspired by the formal vocabulary of the aluminum tubes used to develop new scent and cream concoctions. This unexpected yet deftly realized deviation was presented in an immersive Milan Design Week display: a sloped field of upcycled 50ml fragrance vials.
Aesop carried that dynamic spirit of sustainability to this month’s 3daysofdesign Copenhagen. Rather than mount an ambiguous activation simply for the purpose of being present at the increasingly influential event, the brand used the occasion to unveil the latest iteration of its Enduring Forms initiative. Whereas the former project centered on reuse, the latter demonstrates the potential of bio-based material alternatives. Together, these strategies represent two important sides of sustainability today: circularity and biodegradability.
Developed by Jessie French—founder of Melbourne-based research practice Other Matter—the latter is a leather-like bioplastic alternative to conventional signage and window decals. Perfectly suited to help launch the new Parsley Seed Skin Care range, a collection of formulations tailored to city skin, the flexible sheet material is made using algae and takes on a green ombré tone.
Within Aesop’s Nyhavn, Copenhagen storefront, the material appeared as oversized product silhouettes. At its Kronprinsensgade shop across town, it became a window layer with peel-off cutout profiles of the product packaging. Visitors could pull one away and take it home, demonstrating the new bioplastic’s durability and versatility.
French focuses much of her practice on engineering renewable, non-petrochemical polymers. In this case, the new material aligns with both ideas of sustainability: circularity and biodegradability. Whereas the former methodology tends to focus on finding ways to repurpose materials that may not have been responsibly produced from the outset, the latter begins with a more considered material base. This naturally formulated and hardened substance can, in fact, be reused time and again, but can also be left to biodegrade when appropriate.
It is a potential game changer when considering the incredible amount of waste conventional — and especially temporary — street and retail-window signage can create. The persistent critique of newer, greener solutions is that they are cost-prohibitive. Given this alternative’s dual capability, that now-clichéd argument begins to lose some of its merit. It also opens the door to entirely new possibilities, moving beyond small letter-pressed elements and icons. Retailers could experiment with different scales of visual application and even explore the potential of temperature-absorbing window fritting — another sustainable, energy-efficient benefit.
To discover the brand’s skin care innovations, visit aesop.com.
Photography by Armin Tehrani.
