In the age of depleting resources and easy accessibility, many fields—especially design industries—suffer from the lack of freedom in experimentation while staying innovative. Rather than looking at the issue as a set back to creativity, Relvãokellermann turns it into an opportunity to push themselves as they look for new solutions to design thinkings.

Based in Munich, the interdisciplinary studio is composed of Ana Relvão and Gerhardt Kellermann. Together for this particular project named FRAME, they question the properties of glasses frames and how to elevate them in the current market of infinite shapes and materials. The answer is direct: to minimise materials and to simplify the mechanics. While it’s theoretically simple, it’s fairly complex to execute. With laser technology, the studio aims to produce metal bands and shape them using one of the oldest techniques to create forms: bending and joining without neither screw nor weld. It’s in the reductive mindset toward materials and recycled methodologies through available technology that the designers are able to revolutionise a mass-consumed object in a saturated market.

While FRAME is still a concept, it’s one that’s worth waiting for. Not compromising aesthetics for a stance in sustainability, Relvãokellermann created a desirable product that I can see as a metaphor for the rapid pace of consumption. Truly one of the pioneers in contemporary minimalism.

Note: The hinge represented is a patented solution by MYKITA.