Over the years, the Bouroullec brothers have varied this cloud shape and repeatedly incorporated it in their graphic work. For the Nuage vase, the designers created the cloud motif in extruded aluminium profiles of varying lengths. The cavities are now positioned upright, dividing the vase into eight individual tubes that can be used for the artful arrangement of flowers and grasses. The undulating surfaces, with an anodised finish in various colours, produce an attractive interplay of light and shadow. Thanks to their precise outer contours, the vases can be fitted together to create entire 'cloud formations'.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the Breton-born brothers, are the stars of European design and the most promising industrial designers to have emerged from France since Philippe Starck in the 1980s.
A combination of romanticism and functionality runs throughout both brothers’ work. Like all truly talented designers, the Bouroullecs have defined a distinctive visual style, which Jasper Morrison (one of the designers they most admire) described as “thoughtful and disciplined, with a real spirit and poetry”.