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Opinion

Pia’s Picks: vases that could’ve come out of a computer program

Pia Seidel
31/8/2026
Translation: Katherine Martin

With their distorted shapes, dearth of right angles and colours that could’ve bled right out of a screen, these home accessories remind me of 3D renders. Those unreal spaces that come into being online before being made reality elsewhere. This is exactly what makes them so enticing.

I absolutely love looking at 3D renders. Rooms that come to life on screen, where gravity temporarily ceases to exist, walls spring up in colours rarely found in real life, objects transform their shape without looking broken and light appears from some indiscernible source. Recently, I found that exact same aesthetic on an actual shelf.

Why should you go for this look?

It’s no surprise that digital images are changing our perception of colour and shape. As colour trend researcher Jane Boddy explains in Icon Magazine, colours originally associated with illuminated screens have long since found their way into physical objects. She calls them «backlit brights» – colours with an almost magnetic intensity.

Vase Candy by Gilde: light green, hand blown, with a surface that reflects light almost too strongly.
Vase Candy by Gilde: light green, hand blown, with a surface that reflects light almost too strongly.
Source: Gilde

The artist Lucy Hardcastle also describes how combining muted pastel tones and bright colours blurs the line between the real and the virtual.

Years ago, I spoke to 3D artists such as Hannes Lippert, Charlotte Taylor and Alexis Christodoulou about imaginary houses that’ll never be built and the freedom rendering offers compared to a traditional photo shoot. That same sense of freedom goes into these vases.

Lote Vase by Hübsch: sand-coloured, pristine, almost too smooth for a handmade piece.
Lote Vase by Hübsch: sand-coloured, pristine, almost too smooth for a handmade piece.
Source: Hübsch

Intricate, not angular

These vases have very few right angles, and their shapes are filled with movement. Looking as if they’ve been moulded by hand rather than turned on a pottery wheel, they’re characterised by flowing lines, contours that merge into one another and shapes that look temptingly stackable. Some have a golden glaze that lends them extra depth, while others vary so much in shape that they look different from every angle.

Fast Cameo by Rosenthal: soft pink porcelain with a render-style surface.
Fast Cameo by Rosenthal: soft pink porcelain with a render-style surface.

On-screen colours

Delicate pink, fresh mint-green and deep midnight-blue are all part of the same design family, but more reminiscent of a digital mood board than classic interior porcelain. The collection also contains a hand-blown glass vase in translucent green with white accents. Its surface refracts light so strongly that it appears to change colour depending on the angle of the light. This detail looks almost otherworldly in photos.

So there you have it: a whole lot of on-screen aesthetic for your real shelf. You don’t need any software – just your watch list.

Rosenthal Phi City - Abyss - Vase 10 cm (1x)
Vases

Rosenthal Phi City - Abyss - Vase 10 cm

1x

Hübsch Lote Vase Sand (1x, 3.20 l)
Vases
EUR57,90

Hübsch Lote Vase Sand

1x, 3.20 l

Rosenthal Fast - Cameo - Vase 14 cm (1x)
Vases

Rosenthal Fast - Cameo - Vase 14 cm

1x

Rosenthal Node - Coral - Vase 10 cm (1x)
Vases

Rosenthal Node - Coral - Vase 10 cm

1x

Rosenthal Hop - Fossil - Vase 14 cm (1x)
Vases

Rosenthal Hop - Fossil - Vase 14 cm

1x

Rosenthal Skum - Mint - Vase 14 cm (1x)
Vases

Rosenthal Skum - Mint - Vase 14 cm

1x

Gilde Vase Candys (1x)
Vases
EUR72,71

Gilde Vase Candys

1x

Gilde Vase Olbia bright
Vases
−6%
EUR57,17 was EUR60,64

Gilde Vase Olbia bright

Rosenthal Phi City - Abyss - Vase 10 cm (1x)

Rosenthal Phi City - Abyss - Vase 10 cm

1x

Hübsch Lote Vase Sand (1x, 3.20 l)
EUR57,90

Hübsch Lote Vase Sand

1x, 3.20 l

Rosenthal Fast - Cameo - Vase 14 cm (1x)

Rosenthal Fast - Cameo - Vase 14 cm

1x

Rosenthal Node - Coral - Vase 10 cm (1x)

Rosenthal Node - Coral - Vase 10 cm

1x

Rosenthal Hop - Fossil - Vase 14 cm (1x)

Rosenthal Hop - Fossil - Vase 14 cm

1x

Rosenthal Skum - Mint - Vase 14 cm (1x)

Rosenthal Skum - Mint - Vase 14 cm

1x

Gilde Vase Candys (1x)
EUR72,71

Gilde Vase Candys

1x

Gilde Vase Olbia bright
−6%
EUR57,17 was EUR60,64

Gilde Vase Olbia bright

In my Pia’s Picks series, I regularly showcase my favourite finds – things I might not need, but definitely want.

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Like a cheerleader, I celebrate good design and bring you closer to everything furniture- and interior design-related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior finds, track down trends and interview creative minds about their work.


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