The name Nimbo Alto comes from cloud identification terminology.

Nimbo: precipitating clouds
Alto: mid, or in-between, clouds

Alyson

I have spent much of my career making art and working with various companies to design textiles, dinnerware, clothes, wallpaper and other things.
On many of these projects I have had the good fortune to work with small artisan groups all over the world and learned from them a great deal about more sustainable modes of production. With Nimbo Alto we source the best ingredients and materials, make our packaging as minimal as possible, and think about how the things we design can be used for multiple purposes thereby extending their life.

Derek, has been my first collaborator through all of this work. He helps me rethink, revise and look at everything anew. We created Nimbo Alto in that spirit of curiosity, reinvention, and experimentation.

Derek

I worked in advertising for many years and in that time became keenly aware of how social media platforms and the marketing on them have been designed to keep us distracted and anxious. We feel the need to jump from page to post, continually looking for something new. As Cory Doctorow said, “Your chaotic, fraught internal weather isn’t an accident, it’s a business model.”

I have also seen how certain objects can motivate us to focus. Alyson is, as Saul Bellow would say, a “first-rate noticer.” I am constantly amazed by how she pays attention to things that I do not see, like sheets over plants the morning after a hard freeze that look like ghosts. She stops and looks, really looks, at most everything.
Alyson surrounds herself with things that remind her to take the time to slow down and pay attention. I’ve been lucky to benefit from her collection and have noticed how those things move me to practice being more attentive in my daily life. Those are the types of objects we try to create with Nimbo Alto.