Our story
Seedling Designs is a design and production company driven by a strong environmentally friendly ethos, tackling the product design industry by offering sustainable, environmental friendly hand-made alternatives.
Using a human-based approach, Seedling Designs adopts technology and local knowledge in each of its creative processes.
In a world suffocated by plastic and non biodegradable products, we look at nature as a source of inspiration for our designs and as a source of raw materials ready to be up-cycled and reshaped to fit unexpected new purposes.
Today there are more than twenty people involved in the process of the “Baobab Pod Journey”. Our workshop houses the work of many artisans, who assemble different pieces into our lampshades. The process starts with the unique perfection, or imperfection, of every ancient Baobab tree, which gives us the dry fruit pods ready to be shaped to continue the magical journey of nature.
Owners & Designers
Fabiana and Roberto both graduated in Architecture & Urbanism with Masters degrees from the University of Italy and Argentina. They founded Seedling Designs in 2015 after they volunteered in a small orphanage near HomaBay, where they helped develop some eco-friendly structures for the local school.
“Our adventure with Seedling started one night of five years ago, when we were cuddling the little one in his room. We noticed that the naked bulb on the floor was so bright…. We looked around and pulled a cracked baobab shell out of the treasure basket, placing it over the bright bulb. The light was just perfect!”
The next day they set out on their Seedling Design journey without even realizing it. Lampshades were the first mission and the baobab pod gave a natural solution providing a soft, ambient light. They received many compliments and focused their energy on lamp design.
Friends, families and local business started to order Seedling lamps and they developed their products.
