Orgreen’s Realistic Colourist

Friday, June 22 2018 | 08 h 26 min | News

It’s a testament to just how seriously Copenhagen-based eyewear company Ørgreen takes the subject of colour that not only is Sahra one of the longest serving members of staff but she is a central and indispensable part of the whole design team.

Flashback a couple of decades and Ørgreen were establishing themselves as Scandinavia’s fist sunglasses and opticals brand. Run by a bunch of friends with little experience in the fild but a huge amount of enthusiasm and style, Ørgreen realised that their USP was to offer coloured frames for men. At the time, most eyewear for guys was very classic. Or totally crazy. Sensing that there was a customer out there who wanted something a bit more interesting than a pair of tortoiseshell specs but wasn’t quite willing to go the whole Elton John, Ørgreen started experimenting with colour.

So, what exactly does a Colour Designer do? “Colour for me is emotion” she says “I don’t deal well with routine so I approach it differently every time.’ Taking inspiration from anything from a walk past a row of painted houses in Copenhagen or a fim, to a photograph of a Mexican graveyard or even a musical playlist, Sahra gradually focuses in on colours – and very importantly – combinations of colours that she thinks will work. Longevity is crucial, especially considering the high quality and cost of Ørgreen spectacles, so she is careful not to get too involved in fashion trends, relying more on instinct and her deep knowledge of the company and market.

“Design and colour have to be part of society” thinks Sahra. “There are huge cultural differences between what people want in one part of the world to another.” This is very important in Ørgreen where their market is truly international. She cites the metallics used for the temples: the Chinese market prefers a hint of red in their gold – a reference to Chinese imperial history – whilst Scandinavians like a whiter gold. It’s also important that skin tones are considered – after all spectacles lie directly on the face and frame the eyes.

Of course, all this theory has to become reality and for Sahra, the next, more technological part is one of the most exciting. Ørgreen titanium frames are individually hand-painted and it’s crucial that the paints used are durable against the skin and comply with multiple legal and environmental regulations as well as being exactly the shade Sahra has envisioned. Luckily she works very closely with her factories and the collaboration has brought them closer over the years. Ørgreen uses factories in Japan as they are the very best in the world at titanium frames.

So what does the future hold in Ørgreen’s colour story? Sahra is clearly excited to be faced with a whole set of new materials to play with. The company’s success has very much been based on titanium frames but in the immediate future they are moving into more classic acetate which has opened up a whole world of new possibilities for colour combinations, involving more graphic sectional work and sandwiching together different colours.

More futuristic is the use of 3D printing in the Ørgreen’s Quantum collection with cutting edge technology being used to make polyamide frames supported by titanium temples. The manufacturing of this material is so new that Sahra fids herself on the very front line of development as she works with factories to produce colours and techniques they have never tried before. Seems like that unusual job has quite a few more years in it yet.

Click HERE to read the full interview.