It isn’t often that people look to bugs for inspiration, especially for home decor and color themes, but Alberto Sánchez and Mut Design Studio are paving the way for a new kind of biomimicry in design. The Beetle Acoustic Panels, rather simply named, explore unique acoustic panel shapes and colors that take inspiration from the vast world of arthropods. Teeming with variety, the world of beetles offers a lot of flexibility for how these panels can be shaped, and the patterns and color palette options are practically endless. Moreover, this effectively takes something utilitarian as a sound-absorbing panel and turns it into an artistic wall-mounted accent piece that’s sure to add a pop of vibrancy to any space!
Designers: Alberto Sánchez & Mut Design Studio
The Beetle Acoustic Panels come in a variety of shapes and sizes, paying a fine tribute to beetles that can range from tiny and vibrant to large and dull. The beetle’s rounded exoskeleton was the inspiration for the acoustic panel’s pill-shaped design, with the various sub-surfaces inspired by the different parts of a beetle’s body. A central spine connects all the panels together, although beetles don’t really have spines. In a way, however, it does reinforce the bilateral symmetry of the panels and their invertebrate inspiration.
The real takeaway from this design experiment is that inspiration can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and can be found pretty much anywhere if you look with the right mindset. The Beetle Acoustic Panels just spark joy with their quirky shapes and eye-catching color palettes. They can be used in singular formats or you could alternatively turn your entire wall into a sound-absorbing ode to beetles. I’d personally have just four of them and name them John, Paul, George, and Ringo…
