Award-winning industrial design and innovation studio Morrama is launching Morrama Lab – a speculative thinking arm of the consultancy. Combining years of experience in product strategy and development with research and future thinking, Morrama Lab is a platform for ‘designing the products of tomorrow, today’.

Morrama began developing speculative design solutions in 2019 with Smarter Phones – three concepts created as part of a study to balance consumers’ desire for premium, high-performing smartphones with a growing need to switch off from the digital and be ‘in the moment’. Since then, the team has been inspired to look at cultural and consumer behavioural shifts and envision possible design solutions.

Jo Barnard, founder and Creative Director at Morrama, who is also an Associate Lecturer in Design Futures at the Royal College of Art, said: “This has always been something we’ve been advocating for within the team. Even if it’s just for internal projects, we need to keep ourselves on top of what’s coming next to be better designers for our clients, our users and the planet.”

The majority of businesses tend to focus on their immediate challenges like new business pipeline, product development and global economic downturns, but they need a positive step forward to propel ahead of the competition. Morrama Lab can support organisations by exploring what’s next in emerging sectors – from beauty and cosmetics to technology, sustainability and personal health and wellbeing.

In the past two years, Morrama has developed several speculative products that resolve ongoing issues in their respective industries:
‘Future Skincare’ range: three unique, technology-inspired treatment concepts, which aim to showcase how skincare products and habits will evolve in a post-coronavirus landscape.
‘Prenatal Care’ concept range designed to help expecting parents manage pain, monitor their baby’s health, and build positive relationships with their unborn children during pregnancy.
ECO-FLO: a concept biodegradable test for Covid-19 designed to improve accessibility and eliminate the tonnes of plastic waste generated by the pandemic. Released in April 2022, Morrama has patented and registered the design and is seeking funding to further develop the project and reach the manufacturing stage.

Andy Trewin Hutt, Associate Director at Morrama added: “We are constantly seeking to push boundaries with our agency work, designing innovative products for clients. However, systemic issues in health and wellbeing or sustainability cannot be addressed by incremental improvement. We need to jump forward five to ten years, think about what might be achieved in the future and work out how we can use design to accelerate a move in the right direction.”