Muuto’s Scandinavian Aesthetic

Muuto’s style focuses on clean silhouettes, sweeping curves, and soft geometric bodies. Muted, earthy color tones dominate their color palettes, and craftsmanship and natural materials play a major role in determining design directions.

Competing Brands

The mid-range Scandinavian furniture industry is saturated with brands which deliver visually similar products. Muuto’s limited product selection of interior furniture, lighting, and accessories is surpassed by competitors who have already expanded into bath, kitchen, and outdoor categories.

Competitive Strategy

Since other Scandinavian brands have already expanded into more obvious areas of the home, Muuto could gain a competitive advantage by diversifying and exploring a product category which is not currently addressed by its competitors.

SWOT Intersections

To identify potential areas of expansion for Muuto, brand strengths and external market opportunities have been plotted together. A growing influence of technology in the modern home, and a lack of it in mid-range Scandinavian interiors, highlight an acute potential for innovation into uniquely Scandinavian technology.

Partnership with Nendo

Nendo is renowned for their “!” moments and for concepts which subvert traditional understandings of the world and how we interact with it. Nendo will work well with Muuto because their designs share a similar attraction to simplicity, natural materials, and technologically sparse interiors.

Visual Exploration

Final Concept

With Nendo’s “!” moments in mind, the idea of a seemingly magic technology without buttons, screens, or cords subverts our idea of what technology should look like, while also making the technology invisible when not in use, aligned with Muuto’s tendency to minimize technology in their interiors.

Internal Components

As shown in the video above, responsive robotic branches initiate a rustling movement to alert listeners of a message. The listener can then activate the motion sensor within the vase to record their response. The leaves themselves, made of a flexible, clear polyamide-imide and coated with a smart glass film which can electrically alter its own opacity, will reveal selectable locations for the recorded message to go.

Concept Product Listing

Below is an example of how the Værsgo Vase might be featured on Muuto’s website, which can be visited here.