Treefrog’s catalog now includes six veneers by famed Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni. Lissoni’s influence has led to veneers with a more natural structure. This means wider wood grains, more authentic crowns, and purer color tones that best represent the European design aesthetic, from light taupe to walnut and a purer black.
Sottsass Grey, the final Treefrog Designer Veneer, is wrapped in history. Designed by the late Ettore Sottsass, a celebrated architect and designer who pioneered the Memphis design movement in the 1980s (think bold and clashing colors), this design was recently reintroduced in more muted wood tones by Treefrog’s Italian supplier. It’s both spectacular and soothing, and packed with the cool energy of Memphis.
As part of its 20th anniversary, Treefrog has made all of its prefinished veneers even better. The company switched to a more flexible and greener color-matched wood backer which eliminates the brown laminate backer and creates cleaner edges. It’s a minor change that makes an impressive design difference.
Lending to Treefrog’s sustainability, the new Designer Series is FSC® certified, like all Treefrog veneers. The wood used in the materials is of certified origin and from well-managed forests. Treefrog is produced in Italy, a country known for strong environmental and manufacturing standards that promote workplace safety, quality working conditions, fair wages, and limits on the environmental effects of manufacturing. Plus, Treefrog’s unique process uses faster-growing and more commonly occurring wood species to replicate the look and feel of rarer, and sometimes exotic or endangered, woods without harvesting.