Stardust stories

The Swarovski Designers of the Future 2015 Award is given annually to three individual designers or studios that are selected to create innovative concepts inspired by the qualities and manufacturing process of crystal. When visiting the Swarovski factories, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves, co-founders of Studio Swine, were drawn to the stardust qualities of Xero crystals, the world’s smallest precision-cut gems, and decided to highlight their beauty through a fictional narrative charting the discovery of a crystal-based planet.

The project title, Terraforming, is a playful reference to low-budget sci-fi films. The narrative of the film was developed alongside the objects, resulting in a balanced relationship between the two mediums, as Murakami explains: ‘We designed the film and the objects in tandem. They informed each other.’

The objects, based on the minuscule Xero crystals, include a digital hourglass and a table that creates dynamic crystal patterns using different sound frequencies. The narrative behind the project may be fictional, but the story and aesthetic reflect the aspirational and imaginative character of the Swarovski brand.

The Big Picture: LS:N Global is reporting live from Design Basel 2015. For more stories, keep an eye on our Seed and Shows sections.