(In the words of Nautilus’s founder Lauren Keil)
When trying to decide what to name my business I wanted to find a name that was rich with symbolism. As an emerging entrepreneur (and ocean-lover) I felt that the nautilus embodied perfect metaphors for the characteristics and qualities of the business I felt inspired to develop.
The nautilus is an ancient creature, one of the oldest animals to survive in the earth’s oceans. This exquisite animal has harmoniously been living in the seas since long before the first dinosaurs, some 350 million years. It is related to squids and octopuses, some of the most intelligent and evolutionarily sophisticated animals to roam our seas.
The cross-section of a chambered nautilus is spectaularly beautiful. Its’ elegant spiral shape demonstrates the sophisticated design elements of physics and math, and its’ bright mother-of-pearl white highlighted with florescent colours illustrates the creativity and beauty of our greatest artist, Nature. It’s shell henceforth symbolises the authentic beauty that emerges when the balance between the pragmatism and structure of science and math is matched with the creative inspiration of art.
As a project management and consulting company, we strive to provide reliable, precise, pragmatic, structured approaches to designing and managing projects (borrowing scientific and mathematical techniques). The projects we choose to devote our time to are discerningly selected to ensure they are aligned with our values and vision, they are often complex. Both vision & complexity requires creativity and artistry to succeed. As a business we are steered by our commitment to ‘be intentional’ and ‘purpose-driven’ - led by our desire to collaborate with those that are like-minded in making the world a better place by advancing social equity and stewarding our planet with the care it deserves.
The nautilus is a symbol of nature’s grace in growth, expansion, and renewal. It is also a symbol of order amidst chaos.
With geometric precision, the nautilus grows in direct proportion to its needs: “The nautilus lives in a beautiful spiralled shell divided into increasingly larger chambers. When it first hatches from the egg it has 4 chambers already formed, as it grows, it moves into the next largest space in the shell and builds a wall to seal off the old chamber. Nautiluses are known to outgrow and build up to 30 chambers in the course of their adult lives. It’s important to note that these chambers do not go to waste, as Nature does not waste anything - the nautilus keeps these inner chambers filled with gas to help control its buoyancy. When it wants to dive, it adds water to the chambers.”
The symbolism here is linked to the sophisticated evolutionary design of the nautilus. As a consulting firm, our clients can trust that we commit to applying this same level of sophisticated design to the projects and programs we provide consultancy on and manage. Just as the nautilus builds new chambers in proportion to its needs, we commit to carefully listening to our client’s needs and through a collaborative, iterative process, developing strategic plans to meet these needs, ever adapting along the way by engaging effective communication throughout the project’s life to ensure the articulated outcomes our client desires are achieved.
Measuring the spiral of the nautilus reveals that the chambered shell perfectly adapts to the mathematical formula of the “golden ratio” Phi. This ‘Golden Ratio Spiral’, known as Fibonacci Sequence or Sacred Geometry represents the building blocks of our natural world. Considered sacred because this pattern emerges everywhere in nature, from the grandiosity of the shape of our galaxy and hurricanes, to the minutia of the arrangement of sunflower seeds in a sunflower and the detailed pattern imprinted on the leaf of a fern. ‘The Golden Ratio’ is one of life’s great mysteries found in all living things. Plato called this number ‘the key to the physics of the universe’.
The principle of the Greek letter ‘Phi’ extends beyond the field of mathematics and physics and is also a symbol of psychology and philosophy. Studies have shown that when this ratio is incorporated into artwork and architecture humans seem to find it more beautiful and elegant. That the ratio is found in all living things implies that it is part of a ‘blueprint’ of the universe, something that underlies the foundation of all living things and which serves to connect them to each other and to a greater whole. The chambered nautilus is but one example of the way our world organises itself. The patterned growth of the nautilus’s chambered shell symbolises the beauty and structured stability that is rare - but possible - when we adapt and change in a collective effort to live in harmonious relationships with others and our natural world.
As a symbol, the chambers of the nautilus are powerful metaphors for evolutionary design, our ability to learn, adapt, grow, and thereby survive. As our planet -and henceforth, humanity - faces existential threats caused by our own greed that has led to the exploitation of the earth’s natural resources and one another, we must learn from our mistakes and decide that we are going to design our future chamber in such a way that restores the harmony and balance we must achieve with nature and one another to survive. We must never forget our past. The nautilus’s shell is the perfect representation of its past, each previous chamber providing the critical infrastructure needed to reflect and build upon, creating the conditions conducive to growth. History forgotten repeats itself. We do not have the luxury of time to repeat mistakes made. We must efficiently, effectively and swiftly design ‘a new chamber’ - the way we live - to assure the survival of our planet, and humanity, as a species. We can only do this by figuring out how to live within our planetary boundaries. We have the potential to grow in balance and harmony respecting both the environment and our society’s present and future needs but in order to do this we must be intentional in our design for how we meet the needs of both our planet and the 8.1 billion people who call it home. The challenges are complex, but not insurmountable if we work together and put the collective good above our individual desires for ‘more’.
The nautilus is also a symbol of strength because it can withstand very high pressures in the ocean. It is thought that the nautilus can dive up to 2,600 ft or 800 meters before its shell will implode. We have pushed the limits of the grace that nature has given us to tipping points, we must work together to design a harmonious future - people and planet - before it’s too late.
The nautilus is a reminder to us to never stop learning, growing and expanding our view of the world. And because it is the shape of a Golden Ratio spiral, it reminds us that our own bodies and minds contain the Golden Ratio, that we are all part - and therefor have an innate responsibility to the greater whole.