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Brunner Design SystemRheinau, 2023–2026

Tone by Tone: Material and Colour Canon for Brunner

Expertises

Colours, Materials & Finishes Brand Communication

Topics

Colour Material Finish (CMF Design)Colours

Brunner Design System

The new Brunner Design System was developed collaboratively by the materials experts at Ippolito Fleitz Group and the development team at Brunner over three years.

The objective was to bring the colours, surfaces and materials of Brunner’s furniture and design objects into a coherent, collection-spanning taxonomy that enables optimum combination of their diverse range of products.

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Facts & Figures

The timing was ideal to subject the collection to fundamental reappraisal. Rising sustainability requirements in manufacturing had already made transition to water-based wood stain and a higher percentage of recycled plastic both possible and compelling. At the same time, it allowed the design team to respond to the market’s growing appetite for homely atmospheres, inviting hospitality concepts and a desire for natural materials. The colour palette is therefore rooted in harmonious, natural shades into which surprising colour accents are woven.

At the heart of the colour world development was a six square-metre mood board – a universe of inspiration, dense with colour and material samples. Individual colours were calibrated against contextual materials such as wooden and natural stone flooring, wall paint colours, carpets and curtains, and their effect was tested across a range of lighting conditions.

Over two years, every material and surface was repeatedly assessed, refined and re-examined; combinations were scrutinised, processes optimised. Intensive working sessions filled the largest conference room in the Brunner Innovation Factory with numerous original material samples, testing their combinatory logic and spatial presence in real life.

Based on these findings, new colours were created exclusively for Brunner and assigned to nine overarching colour worlds. Each contains a range of nuances that differ in intensity and luminosity. A further six neutral tones, Brunner classics that the manufacturer has used for many years, complete the spectrum.

Particular attention was devoted to colour breadth within the timber species beech and oak, finished in environmentally friendly wood stain and water-based lacquer. All other colours of plastic, paint, lacquer, powder coating, leather and textile take their cue from these.

For each of the colour worlds, we also developed a naming concept: memorable names that conjure up immediate sensory images. waterfall, deer, midnight, tourmaline, olive, straw, earth and vineyard all reference the natural world, whilst simultaneously evoking the landscape of Brunner’s home territory between the German Black Forest and the French border. They affirm the brand’s rootedness, its tradition and its commitment to quality.

The central idea of the Brunner Design System is that individual tones do not just harmonise within their own colour world – they can be combined with every other tone across the entire system to produce a consistently coherent and considered result.

These carefully curated combinations are designed to provoke curiosity, inspiring planners and consumers to become creative themselves and to explore the full range of possibilities on offer. All furniture surfaces are available in the full palette of colours – from paint to powder coating.

With the new colour and material system, Brunner’s broad portfolio demonstrates its versatility across a wide variety of spatial atmospheres and its adaptability for a range of applications: from office through to hospitality and residential to healthcare. All derived from a single, unifying logic; simultaneously flexible and inspiring.