Nature is omnipotent and its celebration is currently a rite of passage for most designers. Taking the green route is no longer seen as a roadblock or veering towards the abstruse. Accordingly, I’d like to point everyone’s attention towards the Botanist Series by Orange 22, a collection that epitomizes this new eco-conscious artistic trajectory. It signifies how designers are acknowledging this new design ethos and exhibiting a new perspective that is truly unique to the 21st century design world.

Botanist Series. Designed and manufactured by Orange 22.

The Botanist Series is a strong contender at the Cooper Hewitt People's Design Awards … I am not surprised at all. The collection not only eschews long-established design conventions but also touches on the realm of environmental consciousness without disentangling itself from its primordial properties.

Envisioned by Antonioni and designer Brandon Lynne, the Botanist series includes of a cocktail table, a nesting end table, and a bench. What distinguishes the series from the rest of the clique are its botanical graphic patterns, which are etched by using waterjet technology. Antonioni and Lynne  refer to the pieces in the collection as "blank canvases" that are "adapted with color, finish, and graphics to capture emerging trends in design."

Manufactured from recyclable aluminum, the collection is currently available in four powder-coated colors for which waterjet patterns are available and two real wood veneers. By utilizing the creative juices of established designers like Margo Chase, Milton Glaser, Kahi Lee, Brandon Lynne, Karim Rashid, Joseph Ricchio, Massimo and Claude Zellweger, this collection alludes to vibrant inspirations and styles that range from art deco to fluid flows, from the abstract to the ornamental.

The Botanist Series exhibits a predilection towards the current urban design process and its veritable effort to make a dramatic statement that reverberates with individualism and flamboyance.  "The Botanist Series takes on the energy of fashion," says Lynne, "evolving and reincarnating itself from season to season."