Amelia chats to Lauren Davies, designer, and founder of HEKA London and Senior Strategist at Franklin Till, about how our senses play a role in our happiness, wellbeing & creativity in our home design interiors.

Amelia & Lauren met on video call (image created by Space A, background artwork by Mary Rawcliffe).

HEKA was founded to produce design that activates the soul. In ancient Egypt, Heka was the god of magic and medicine; the protector of the planet and humanity, associated with nature, herbs and ritual. HE means ‘to activate’ and KA is ‘the soul’.

“Our senses are at the heart of this wonder. They are the interface between our inner selves and the outside world.”

- Ashley Ward, Sensational: A New Story of Our Senses (2023)

Amelia (A) : Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today Lauren! Tell me a bit about your work and how you use the senses in your work.

Lauren (L) : So I guess its generally made up of two sides. There’s the design side, that includes personal studio projects, furniture and object design, sensory design experiences and workshops. Then there’s the client side, which is usually working on branding projects. This is where I’ll do lots of research on storytelling, both written and visual to help bring to life some sensory insights I discover.

A : Do you have a favourite sense?

L : It would be a toss-up between flavour and colour. My branding work primarily concerns the visual, scent and flavour.

A : Flavour and colour together?

L : Definitely: I love chemistry and how you can create colours from nature.

A : I remember watching a TV show about people with synesthesia. We are familiar with senses in their pure form, but when they start to mingle, they become more interesting. Have you come across anything similar in your work?

L : Definitely! I didn’t realise this until recently, but I have a very visual way of seeing the calendar in my mind. Monday is a semi-circle, Tuesday is an orange rectangle and Friday is a brown oblong shape. It’s linear but I can zoom into weeks and months, a bit like the software Prezi. I’d love to do an animation on how it works.

A : Fascinating! I like the idea of manifesting spatially these intangible things. Do you find that childhood memories play into how people brief you into projects?

L : Often when workshopping with clients, we’ll do a sensory decode and people will have visceral reactions to scent. Scent is powerful, it’s an unfiltered, pure memory. You can smell a smell that you haven’t smelt in 25 years, and it will take you back to where you once were.

A : I remember smelling some hand soap from my childhood home. The effect of being transported back was instant and positive. That smell might have a different response, or none at all, to someone else. When working with brands, how subjective can you be with scent associations?

L : I think in working with scent, you want to avoid anything that might be associated with another familiar product. For example, you wouldn’t want your face cream smelling like a stringent cleaning product. I’m more drawn to natural scents because they don’t invade your personal space so much. Natural scent has the power to change your mood neurology. Florence Williams, the author of Nature Fix, describes how forest bathing in the Hinoki cypress trees lowers levels of cortisol. You wouldn’t get that with synthetic scents.

“Scent is the most mysterious sense as there is so much that we don’t know. All types of scent have the power to change your mood and memory but natural scents also have the power to change your neurological state. In this way it’s fascinating.”

- Lauren Davies, HEKA London

A : So what constitutes a natural scent?

L : Natural scent comes directly from the plant and has a deeper quality. At the RCA, I realised the magic of taking a plant’s roots, flowers and bark and capturing its fragrance. It’s different from synthetic scents like air fresheners, which sit at the top of your nose.

A : It’s interesting how scents are marketed to us. Lavender to remind you of your granny’s laundry and so on.

L : Yes, and scent is the least explored of all our senses. I work with taste and sight a lot, but scent is also a bit part of it. Marketing picks up on this a lot and brands will use it to create customer loyalty and familiarity.

A : I always think of coffee and how it is used to reset your sense of smell after being overwhelmed with scent. I wish there was something like this for your sight, especially in this age of over-saturation of visual imagery and a plethora of inspiration. It can be a lot sometimes.

L : Yes, definitely.

HEKA London, Solar Ascent. (Image from HEKA London)

A : How do you use taste in your work?

L : I’ve just finished a project all about the crossover of the visual and taste. We explored how different colours affected the taste of a product. Does the colour sum up with experience and foretells what to come with the flavour? Something rich and dark in colour might not live up to expectations with its flavour. How do we pick colours in branding that fulfils that sensory journey?

A : Do we prefer tasting something if you know what it’s going to be?

L : I think it depends. Some people love the element of surprise and mystery, but others want familiarity. When designing for brands, the colours have got to be right. The texture, the smell, and even the temperature also play a huge role. Even physical spaces have a profound effect on how we taste our food.

A : Can you give an example?

L : If you are providing a hearty stew, but the place you’re eating it is a cold, bare room, would you get the same feeling of comfort from the soup? In a cosier, warmly lit environment you would perhaps get a more rounded experience of what the soup is meant to convey. On the other hand, perhaps the soup’s associations with warmth would bring positive associations into that cold space.

A : Do you think the colour of your environment affects the taste of food?

L : I’m not sure about colour, but it’s certainly inspirational and changes your experience in the space. Interiors aren’t just about what something looks like, it’s about how people feel.

A : I agree. Lighting is a classic example of this. Some people want soothing mood lighting, but others find it frustrating when they can’t see.

L : And how do you balance that? My husband likes bright light, I prefer it dimmer. The bright lights make me stressed, whereas the lower lights make him sleepy. How do we coexist when we need different things from our space? I have found directional lights are a good balance. They’re calming but great for tasks like cooking and reading.

Mark Rothko, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950. © www.MarkRothko.org

A : How much of what we associate with different colours subjective? How do you approach this with clients?

L : There’s many studies that show colour is psychological. Baker Miller pink reducing violence in American prisons for example. But it is always down to preference too and what you’re comfortable with. Just because you like bright colours, does not mean you should use them in your house. How could you use your love of colour to enhance focus in certain spaces?

A : It’s amazing how one bright orange cushion changes the space. We love playing with fabrics and the power of it in a space is so important, as it can change it into something more austere into something with depth. Often people are really trying to find the colour that talks to them, but when you’re over thinking it, it almost stops you from opening your mind. You can always change your mind in a few years.

L : And think about what colours you love and not be influenced by what you’re being told to like. I recently worked with Colours of Arley a new colour based on a hyper real version of the Green from beyond my back door - this was something really important to me.

A : How do you get clients into a point where they’re not too influenced by external forces? Getting back to zero, a bit like smelling the coffee?

L : It’s gut instinct. I always provide a questionnaire for clients to being with to understand what we’re typing to get to. Getting an in-depth understanding of them is important. You have to lead them to decisions which might be surprising but ultimately fulfilling. That is our role as designers.

A : So true. Our role is to help people with that and get them to reset. Anything that helps us to navigate the content overload is helpful. Are brands looking for other ways to engage people away from the visual overload?

L : Definitely. That’s where the other senses are important. When you experience all the senses, you are finding space in the present moment and meditating on the present.

A : Sound is not something you deal with a lot. How important is it in design?

L : One of the most profound pieces of art I experienced was at the Pompidou Centre by the artist Joseph Beuys. It was a room lined with thick wool. It was the most deafeningly silent space I’ve ever been to. The lack of sound can also be just as important.

A : It’s often what you don’t hear that’s important in a space.

L : I agree. Actually, we insulated our staircase and found that it has improved the acoustics in the rest of the house.

A : What about music?

L : My husband has put his speakers in the correct position to hear it the best way! He loves music, but I will have nothing on when I’m working as a way to focus. Shutting off one sense so you can fully focus on other things.

Joseph Beuys, Plight, 1985. © Adagp, Paris. Photo credits : Georges Meguerditchian - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP

A : Touch is also important. How do you use touch in your work?

L : I use touch when workshopping with clients to pull ideas out of people. This works well in skincare brands. Having something out that is rubbery or soft or rough is useful to distil what the brand wants to be associated with.

A : Interesting. I guess this works in interiors, especially with sofas. In some spaces like offices and restaurants, a firm base to bounce off is better. But in our home, something squishier is nicer. Maker & Son are an example of how a brand has captured the experience of what it feels to sit on a sofa.

L : Yes, they did a great job during Covid with their sofa in a van for people to try before they bought! I also think choosing textures that are luxurious but aren’t a source of stress where you’re worried about getting it dirty all the time. That defeats the purpose of the comfort of it. I like using patterned fabrics as not only are they joyful but they also disguise stains and spills which is useful!

A : I agree, it opens a conversation about how much time we put into our surroundings and when that starts to affect us. There is only so much we can worry about our space before it impacts us.

L : So true. When I design a space, it isn’t just about the objects. It’s about making the most of the natural features: ceiling height and natural light for example.

Experiencing design is so much more than just what it looks like!

You can find Lauren’s work on heka.London & through Franklin Till