We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer about their original and creative design work. is an award-winning creative designer, that makes our world a better place with their original works.
("") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work . Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
: Due to a linear consumerist model of take-make-use-dispose, every year, the fashion industry produces 53 million tons of fibers, of which 87% end in landfill (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017), becoming waste that eliminates methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.
: OMDANNE is the world’s first circular and multifunctional fashion collection. It aims to produce 0 waste while discouraging consumption trough co-creation alongside the user. The capsule collection consists of three pieces of clothing (T, R and E) that can each transform into over 10 different styles. Its multifunctional design discourages consumption as one piece can transform from jumpsuits and dresses, to trousers and jackets, creating also long-term emotional attachment from the user. All three pieces are 100% biodegradable and compostable; thus, they become nutrients to the soil instead of polluting textile waste. We have made use of natural, renewable resources and product life cycle traceability to ensure a clean closed-loop fashion system.
: OMDANNE was created as a proof of concept to showcase our design studio's idea of implementing a closed-loop systems in fashion companies around the world. We continuously offer design consultancy but also the possibility of scaling up the OMDANNE collection.
: One year and a half.
: We create products that we wish existed, explore new territories and dedicate our work to imagination with a human-centered approach, as we believe that design has an added value to the world, apart from aesthetics. Omdanne is one of our signature design projects, to showcase our mindset, values and the extensive possibilities that design offers for humans to be in sync with nature.
: Our plan is to sell or lease the production rights of Omdanne.
: It was a personal journey at the beginning. It started in 2014, I wanted to show that we can create responsible clothing that is in sync with nature. I was told that that is not possible, and I enjoy a good challenge. It took over 1.5 years to make it happen, and it was so worth it. It forever changed the way I design.
: As we use biomimicry as one of the tools when we design, nature was our inspiration, and we believe it to be the most astute designer of all, given its 3.8 billion years of expertise.
: Early adopters, women who look to experiment and discover new more exciting ways to address the way they dress. That is also because we look to involve the user/customer in the design phase, in order to create attachment between them so that they keep the garment for a longer period of time.
: OMDANNE is the world’s first circular and multifunctional fashion collection.
: "Omdanne" means "to convert" in Danish, which is exactly what our clothes do.
: We made use of the tools that our design studio regularly uses: design thinking, circular economy principles, biomimicry and new technology.
: That it is convertible (3 garment turn into over 30 styles) and 100% biodegradable or compostable.
: Innovation can only occur trough a multi-disciplinary approach to problems. We are a multi-disciplinary team over at SOLVE and for this project we also discussed with materials science engineers about our chosen fabric and its processes.
: By using high tech machinery such as digital microscopes to observe different fiber selections and how they behave or a martindale machine for pilling tendency tests, we could test and select the right fabrics out of which to create the garments. Then, the fabric itself is created by utilizing the latest technology by the manufacturer we chose to work with.
: We create a user&nature-centered design. We use design thinking as a guideline and infuse it with biomimicry and circular principles. Thus our research was more in these areas. We look to empathize with the user, learn from natural processes and look at closed-loop system.
: We faced two major challenges: of designing pieces of clothing that were extremely functional, easily incorporated into any existing wardrobe and truly versatile; the second challenge was to obtain information about the processes, chemical reactions and solvents used for the production of the fiber and later on the textile. We needed to make sure that the fabric was safe, with no toxic chemicals involved so that it could be composted at the end.
: We wanted to showcase to the word how a combination of unconventional design tools (such as circular economy or biomimicry) can aid to create innovative sustainable solutions. Our work continuously builds on a new design paradigm. We hope to inspire more designers to aim to create sustainable circular solutions.
: Simply working together with people from other fields it such an immense gain. We all learned that patience, fast prototyping and a lot of iteration will bring us to an elegant solution. We use design thinking with every project we work with so we empathize a lot with the user; we asked them to show us their wardrobes, and explain what is important to them. You can discover so much from your user, as a designer you always have to listen, that's how you grow, that's how you create meaningful design.
