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Case Study

Matter Forms

Matter Forms turns oyster shell waste into an alternative to concrete. We gave the material a brand and a website.

Client
Matter Forms
Industry
Furniture & Object Design
Stage
Launch
Location
London, United Kingdom
Years
2024
Built
Brand · Website
Website
[ Visit Website → ]
Oyster shells set into a sandy, porous surface, in orange, cream and brown tones.
  • Rounded black shapes with soft edges on a pale yellow field, with a thin circle outline.
  • Blurred black and pale green modular shapes on a pale yellow field.
  • A clay vase behind a small ceramic cup printed with the Matter Forms wordmark, on a dark teal ground.

01 · What They Asked For

A Design Collective,A New Material.

Matter Forms is a material-led, interdisciplinary design collective in London. It works on circular alternatives for the built environment. Its first material, Oyster[Crete], turns oyster shell waste into a bio-alternative to traditional concrete.
Oyster[Crete] suits small design pieces and large architectural applications. They asked for a brand and a website for it. We built the identity and the site.
  • A white Matter Forms envelope resting on a bed of oyster shells, in black and white.
  • Two dark forged knives and a fork lying across a pale, rough shell-like form.

02 · What We Found

A Waste Stream Became A Material.The Brand Had To Show Both.

Oyster[Crete] starts as shell waste and ends as a stand-in for concrete. The identity needed to carry the process and the potential in one system.

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03 · What We Built, In Order

A Brand For The ProcessAnd The Potential.

An identity that gives the material a face, and a website that presents it.

  1. 01

    Brand Identity

    A poster with the Matter Forms wordmark in cream at the top over a dark teal image of a shell, with small labels around it.

    The Matter Forms wordmark, set large over a teal-and-cream image of the material.

  2. 02

    Print

    A small printed card showing the Matter Forms wordmark and a teal image, on a blue-grey field.

    A printed piece that carries the same forms and the same elemental palette.

  3. 03

    The Material

    A grey slab with rounded holes and short legs, photographed on a blue-grey field.

    Oyster[Crete], a bio-alternative to traditional concrete for small pieces and large architecture.

A grid of small material samples in pale stone and grey tones on a near-black ground.

04 · The One Decision

Forms LikeShell Erosion.

Modular forms, reminiscent of shell erosion and mineral formations, flow across the surfaces. A restrained, elemental palette ties the brand to earth and sea.

05 · What This Taught Us

Let The MaterialSet The Look.

The story here is the material: shell waste turned into something that stands in for concrete. The brand borrows its forms and its palette from that story.
When a product starts as a process, show the process. Erosion, mineral and sea: the identity says where the material comes from before it says what it does.

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