Greater than the sum of the parts

Frequent visitors to the InnovationLab will be aware that we regularly promote The Glass Polymer® as a durable, lightweight, crystal-clear alternative to glass. The phrase we should perhaps add to that is 'where appropriate.' The innumerable choices and compromise that define product development make it absurd to suggest that any material has a natural, over-arching, superiority. This is why products such as the Natura Due bottles, created by Rexam, and Crown Risdon's Crave container for Calvin Klein have a genuine appeal for us: the boundaries we push are those of materials science; where designers use these materials in difference combinations, this is art.

Since launch, the InnovationLab has sought to showcase the best and brightest from the diverse and all-encompassing range of products that feature Eastman materials. Often – more often than we expected – the most innovative have materials used in combination to create something truly original: choosing each according to its own unique set of characteristics. From the utilitarian practicality of ICF's Pro-Active Chair or the high-tech composition of Frankly Golf's F-16 Stealth Putter, to the simplistic beauty of the Encapsulated Image Layer Technology used by Lumicor and Schneller, it is materials in combination that have provided the InnovationLab with its finest subject matter.

Our finest example of this can be seen in the Collective Vision project. Developed in collaboration with IDEO, this portfolio takes eyewear as its subject, the aim being to demonstrate the very best in personalization and utility that advanced materials can provide. One of the strongest messages to come forth from the collaboration was that by using materials in combination, the range of new possibilities that open up is truly infinite.

Four of the six designers working on Collective Vision chose to combine materials to produce eyewear unlike anything seen before. Martin Bone's Bespoke combines cellulosics with copper and wood, while Vogue, designed by Markus Diebel uses Encapsulated Image Layer Technology to combine fabric with copolyester sheet. Extreme (Rico Zorkendorfer) and Visage (Pontus Wahlgren) both use Eastman materials in combination with soft-touch elastomers to create unique designs at the cutting edge of the possible.