The Sound of Design

What do music and sunglasses have in common?

Music has accompanied mankind since its very beginning and is being created every day. So it is not surprising that most "new music" sounds familiar because it consists of a virtually endless number of existing themes – until we hear something that stands out and cannot be easily categorized; something that has the potential to define a completely new style or genre in its own right.

Press contact

Joachim Kuss
Communications
Phone +49 151 42112288
joachim .kuss @zeiss .com

Aalen | 15 July 2016 | ZEISS Vision Care

This evolutionary pattern seems to apply to most arts and also adjacent disciplines like fashion and design. Except there’s one big exception:, unlike "free artists", designers and fashion designers tend to be tasked with a more or less specific assignment, which can severely limit creative innovation. After all, a car is just a car and a swimsuit is just a swimsuit, isn't it? SUVs and the bikini are only two examples which demonstrate that, even when limited by a specific product category, it is possible for some creative minds to create something, that has never existed before.

A radical idea for an entirely new design

The Italian sunglasses manufacturer RETROSUPERFUTURE® managed such an achievement when they presented their TUTTOLENTE series in summer 2015. As part of the "SUPER" range of sunglasses, the TUTTOLENTES put into practice the radical idea of creating the whole pair of glasses entirely out of the lens material and combining it with an almost completely flat design. The end result: these sunglasses truly stand out. "We used only minimal metal hardware to hold the components together", explains Daniel Beckerman, founder and CEO of RETROSUPERFUTURE®. "There is no difference between the lenses and the frames, and even the arms are made out of one single sheet of ZEISS mirrored lens material. Hence the name: TUTTOLENTE literally means 'all lens'." The entirely new look of the TUTTOLENTE sunglasses caused quite a stir in the design community. Moreover, they proved to be a big hit with customers, including quite a few celebrities from the world of fashion as well as music: do names like Rita Ora, Martin Solveig, Demi Lovato, Santigold, and Theophilus London sound familiar? So not only were the TUTTOLENTES a commercial success for the company, but they also cemented its reputation for leading-edge design at the same time.  

A high-quality partner for high-quality material

Members from the design team at RETROSUPERFUTURE® remember the creation process: "As soon as we were certain that we would go ahead with the TUTTOLENTE concept, we knew that we had to choose the material for the lenses very carefully, which in this case would be the same as for the frame. Instead of the more frequently used polycarbonate, we opted for polyamide, because the material proved a better match for our ambitions in terms of visual quality, stability, flexibility and resiliency – especially when refined with a premium protective coating." For this reason, finding the right partner was key: "It's similar to music: an instrument that is out of tune ruins the whole song! Of course, there is a vast number of companies that can deliver decent quality – and even more that can't – but since we’re one of the leading designers of sunglasses in the world, it was imperative for us to procure our materials from a leading supplier in terms of not only lens material quality, but also branding. Therefore it was an easy decision for us to go with ZEISS, as they do not only deliver the first-rate material that we expect, but they also enrich our TUTTOLENTES with their unique brand in the optical world."

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Press contact

Joachim Kuss
Communications
Phone +49 151 42112288
joachim .kuss @zeiss .com

About ZEISS

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. The ZEISS Group develops, produces and distributes measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cinema lenses, binoculars and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. ZEISS is divided up into the four segments Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, Vision Care/Consumer Products and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. The ZEISS Group is represented in more than 40 countries and has over 50 sales and service locations, more than 30 manufacturing sites and about 25 research and development centers around the globe.

In fiscal year 2016/17 the company generated revenue approximating €5.3 billion with around 27,000 employees. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).

Further information at www.zeiss.com

Vision Care

The Vision Care business group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of eyeglass lenses and ophthalmic instruments. The business group develops and produces offerings for the entire eyeglass value chain that are distributed globally under the ZEISS brand. The business group is allocated to the Vision Care/Consumer Products segment. In fiscal year 2016/17 the segment generated revenue of €1.1 billion with around 9,770 employees.