welcome to
ecobe
Creative Eco-design studio and education
about
About ecobe
Hi, I am Ulla, the founder of ecobe.
I am a designer and educator focusing on sustainable design solutions.
I help my clients to develop trend-conscious eco-friendly products and communication media, and I also like to teach others how to do that for themselves.
I love being creative and discovering and sharing the wonders of the world with my work. I am at my happiest when I can delight clients with eco-friendly designs and products, or if I have discovered a new design trick that comes directly from nature.
As for me personally, I’m curious, cheerful and love to learn and discover new things. Travel and exploring new places lights me up!
I am happiest when spending time outside with friends and my little family, or equipped with painting material or a camera in a beautiful landscape.
I love the Mediterranean Sea and coffee.
My Story
After working for years as a designer in various industries, I felt disillusioned. I knew that I did not want to design products that are designed and manufactured to end up in a landfill or pollute the oceans thanks to their short life cycle. I wanted to create sustainable, eco-friendly products that enable and support people to make a change and live a more sustainable lifestyle. I also believed in using beautiful, playful design to achieve this goal.
My goal was to create beautiful designs and products that are climate-friendly. My inspiration was always nature. In nature exist all kinds of amazing colors and patterns and true beauty, and all of nature’s solutions are sustainable too!
So I knew there was plenty of inspiration to draw from and so much to discover.
I decided to study environmental education, researched a lot about sustainable design, began teaching in a variety of educational institutions in 2006. I teach design and sustainability, have developed ecology modules for product designers and also created workbooks about sustainable design. I enjoy supporting the creative projects of the students and having the possibility to share my knowledge.
Inspired by nature
Biomimicry
An important turning point for my design work was when I discovered Biomimicry. I was fascinated from the beginning.
Biomimicry practitioners look at nature for solutions to human challenges. Life has developed a great range of sustainable solutions over more than 3.8 billion years, a long time of research and development. Everything that surrounds us is thus long-time tested. Nature designs in circles and without waste and uses only life-friendly materials. Nature creates elegant solutions, conducive to life, and is therefore the best design teacher we can learn from!
I studied Biomimicry at Arizona State University and learned from global leaders in this field, including Dayna Baumeister and Janine Benyus. For my final project, I developed a method to integrate biomimicry thinking in a design process that I use and teach in my programs.
Our Mission
We share the wonders of the world with our audience to inspire them to realize what they and future generations would miss if animals and plants become extinct. We are surrounded by wonders and powerful solutions for all kinds of challenges designed by nature that we can discover and emulate to create eco-friendly products, cities, and systems.
Our Vision
Our vision is to create a community that values and uses the brilliant, inspiring solutions that nature provides to create a sustainable future.
Get in touch
If you are interested in sustainable design or Biomimicry, I would love to show you how to do that in a design project, our online training programs, or live workshops. You will learn how to define your design challenge, use inspiration from nature, and develop a sustainable product or service from that process.
I look forward to working with you!
Reach out to me and let’s connect.
Let`s connect
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Address
ecobe Ulla Soeder
Kleine Königstraße 1
D-70178 Stuttgart
Germany
Call Us
(+49) 711 389 339 92
(+49) 176 292 718 69