Living Art That Breathes

Printing Herbarium

Designer Paula Molina's "Printing Herbarium" project reimagines traditional printing by replacing synthetic dyes, chemical binders, and petroleum-based materials with living alternatives.

Molina works at the vital intersection where design meets ecology—precisely the space where we believe the most meaningful innovation happens.

Her investigation begins with moss—an organism celebrated for its resilience, beauty, and regenerative abilities. Unlike conventional printing materials that remain static and eventually become waste, moss continues to evolve, responding to its environment while naturally purifying the air around it.

In her process, Molina substitutes synthetic materials with carefully selected moss species, each chosen for their unique textures and ability to thrive indoors. Instead of chemical adhesives, she's developed a natural growing medium that supports life while sticking to various surfaces. The result is a printing technique that doesn't just imitate nature but actually incorporates living systems as its core material.

This commitment to working with nature led Molina to transform her workspace to nurture her living materials. She installed temperature and humidity controls calibrated for ideal moss growing conditions. 

Just as we've always questioned industry standards in our work, "Printing Herbarium" required Molina to reinvent traditional tools and methods. She modified standard screen printing frames to work with living materials and developed custom tools that distribute moss spores with precision.

The surfaces Molina creates exist in a state of continual change—never completely finished, always responding to their surroundings. A print receiving more light might develop richer greens and fuller growth, while another in shadier spots might stretch toward light in beautiful, unexpected ways.

These living textures offer sensory experiences impossible with conventional materials. They transform visually over time, provide subtle natural scents, clean the air, and offer tactile connections to the natural world. 

"Printing Herbarium" represents a commitment to regenerative design that actively improves ecological health rather than simply reducing harm. Each living print literally breathes, exchanging oxygen and capturing carbon. At the end of its useful life, it doesn't become trash but returns to the soil, completing a natural cycle—a perfect example of the circular economy we're working toward.

This shift from taking from nature to collaborating with it represents exactly the kind of genuine value we've always believed—not just in design, but in all our relationships with the living world around us.

References: Paula Molina