About Kleine Welten

Hi there!

My name is Alëna and I am a biologically informed designer and a co-founder of Ecotonos Design + Manufacturing in the process of writing a book on the subject of knowledge transfer between biology and design. I am already experiencing an abundance of writer’s blocks and look forward to endless rejection letters and caffeine-related anxiety episodes.

To remedy those, I make science inspired jewellery to make sense of the world we live in and hope you will find biology as exciting as I do. Brian Burns has taught me that a key to good design is responsibility. As long as the actions of the designer are not frivolous endeavours, but rather a means to create something that is good; something that heals, inspires, and serves its purpose – then design is capable of positively redefining and enhancing the quality of our lives and the lives of all other organisms we share the planet with.

All my jewellery is made with 100% bio-degradable polylactic acid and carries a piece of knowledge about the world of biology.

Who is Kleine Welten?

Kleine Welten ('Small Worlds' in German) is Wassily Kandinsky’s most important portfolio consisting of 12 graphics in colour and black-and-white. It was published in 1922, shortly after Kandinsky began teaching at the Bauhaus. As the artist explains in the portfolio's introduction, each technique was chosen for its unique character: etching is characterized by its precision and appropriateness to the study of lines; woodcut is marked by the interplay of foreground and background, and the richness of textures; lithography combines a range of markings and colours to produce an image that most closely approximates a painting.

Each Kleine Welten print represents an autonomous microcosm, a reflection of Kandinsky's view of the world as a self-contained cosmic entity consisting of innumerable independent, hermetic units of life.

What inspires me to design?

I am continually inspired by the world of nature – be it natural or synthetic – and its connection to human systems through Biologically Informed Design [BID]. BID – a synthesis of biological and design approaches – offers systems solutions to design problems and is a critical tool that can help address the complexity of the challenges we face.

Yours truly,