"Green designers Contexture Design have set their sights on naptime, creating a stylish hanging mobile for babies, hip parents and anyone who appreciates good design in their nest.
“"As The Crow Flies", depicts a family of crows returning to a rookery, or communal nesting place. Employing eye-catching colours, shapes and moving parts, the mobiles are handmade from recycled travel maps and paper, wire and thread.
While pop culture and mythology have often associated crows with dark themes, Contexture co-founder Nathan Lee says crows create a surprisingly emotional family portrait.
“Crows are very family oriented animals,” says Lee. “They mate for life, live in family groups, and even though their offspring may travel the country and live in other cities, they often return to visit.”
“That said, crows do look pretty bad ass,” Lee adds. “We wanted to create something for people looking for alternatives to the super-cute, Disney-type of children’s product – that’s why we rendered the crows realistically.”
The mobiles are constructed from recycled black paper (30 per cent post-consumer waste, the highest percentage available) and outdated roadmaps salvaged from travel companies’ recycling bins. Seven two-sided hanging pieces are laser-cut to depict 14 crows and a large hand-folded tree. Babies are known to see contrast best, so the crows are rendered in black while the flipside reveals the colourful travel maps.
Inspiration for the mobile comes from the daily flights of crows over Contexture’s design studio in Vancouver, BC, says Contexture partner Trevor Coghill. “Every evening, in cities all over North America, you can see hundreds of crows flying home,” he says. “We used maps from across the continent to reflect the universality of this phenomenon and the distances these birds travel.”
“As The Crow Flies” are available online for $49 with free shipping for any online sales. The mobiles have been designed to fit in recycled envelopes for shipping, reducing the need for further packaging and related environmental impacts."