Nature inspires us in many ways. It can jump-start our creative impulses, encourage us to be healthy, and remind us to remain responsible to our environment. Some entrepreneurs even bring that inspiration to their designs, taking elements of the natural world, and turning them into products. However, sometimes designers get a little overzealous, and the results can be…pretty strange. For example, while a bird’s nest seems perfectly normal on a tree branch, it looks a little odd in your living room—especially when it contains a full-grown human playing on an iPad.
The designers of the following products have taken leaps of faith, gambling on the hope that if something works well in nature, it will also work well as, say, an item of clothing. Or a chair. Or a bed. And these gambles, while brave, have not all paid off.
Still, thanks to crowdfunding sites, and the Internet’s general encouragement of all kinds of creativity, odd ideas can get a lot further these days than they once did. Many products that might never have made it past the planning stage are actually available to buy. The following products are the result of human ingenuity under the influence of nature, and as you’ll see, the natural world can look pretty strange when you’re wearing it, or sitting on it, or sleeping in it.
You may never look at a bird’s nest the same way again.
