What is Creatables?
Creatables is a company and network of engineers and designers that map and negotiate prices for industrial surplus materials. That is the materials left over from production av other products. From our database of materials we and our fellow designers develop nice consumer products to be applied in recurring surplus materials. When you buy a Creatables product you reduce the effects from over consumption and cast an important vote towards a sustainable development.
Who are we?
Creatables was started as a joint venture between the design studios AKKA and KAAV and initially focused on reducing materials from packaging production. Springtime 2008 the company got its name, Creatables and the first collaborations with the industry was established. Since then the number of partners have steadily increased and the goal has been to generate attractive and functional consumer products from industrial waste. One of the iniators and great inspirations for this project is the merited industrial designer Kenneth Bringzén, whose long experience in the field of industrial design has been an important part of establishing our network.
Today most of the product development is done inhouse, but we are looking forward to incorporating many skilled and interesting designers from around the globe. Our first collaborative design effort of this kind was together with inudstrial designer Jonas Forsman in the project Old News. During spring 2009 we launched our first test series and established distribution and sales outlets.
Creatables and waste?
The earths resources are being depleted in a way to high pace and we have to find sustainable alternatives and consume less or at least more sensible. A large part of this problem is not the aste we as consumers generate but has been generated earlier through, extraction, production and distribution. Check out the brilliant page www.storyof stuff.com for more info on this and how it affects us. www.storyofstuff.com.
In short waste is genereted for every component in a product, each with a separate development- and production chain. A lot of this material is incinerated or hopefully recycled with without to much transportation inbetween. Its always good to recycle, but even better to re-use. Processes where a lot of waste is generated are for example die-cutting and laser cutting where products are cut out from sheets or rolls of material. But even the suppliers of materials generate waste before the material has been shipped to the producing companies. All this waste is interesting for Creatables and it is this material we turn into our fantastic products.
We try in as great extent as possible to develop our products in collaboration with the companies where waste is generated. This way we create opportunities for our partners to increase their efficiency and reduce their negative effects on the environment. Further we aim to develop products that can be produced at the factory where the waste is generated and early on adapt our products and ideas to the material limitations and production equipment at hand. This way we can avoid unnecessary transportation from one factory to another. In some projects our products are even integrated in the same process as the ordinary production. This is even better as no separate energy is used to produce our products, and our products directly reduce waste from that process.
Where can you find us?
Creatables has its exciting and small head office in Gothenburg, but is actually largely on the road constantly coneecting neww partners and materials around hte country. In a year or two we belive we will have Creatables partners in every major city in Sweden and hopefully have started collaborative efforts internationally. All our products are going to be available for international sales through our online store. We are currently negotiating with several retailers throughout Sweden and hopefully you will soon be able to find us in your favorite interior design store.
Creatables create possibilties where others see problems and take pride in being a part of a sustainable development. Support us an support sustainability, reduce, reuse and recycle!
Click the pictures below to learn more about our process:
Creatables Plant
Ol'dirty Bastard