Tapewriter by Netherlands-based Autobahn. Tapewriter is a font based upon the grid of fences. It’s a form of graffiti that makes optimal use of its carrier. Tapewriter is for everyone in posession of an opinion and the urge to express it in public with a roll of tape.
"We’re keenly aware that when we develop and make something and bring it to market that it really does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, and what our products will not speak to is a schedule, what our products will not speak to is trying to respond to some corporate or competitive agenda. We’re very genuinely designing the best products that we can for people."
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Don’t worry about what the competition is doing. Worry about what you’re doing. That’s how you do the best work.
(via parislemon)
(via parislemon)
Artisinal Production and Place
I’ve come back from Italy and Croatia. I should have kept up a nice travel blog documenting the new experiences and sights. I haven’t. I started by buying a new tumblr theme and setting up another blog, but that’s as far as I got. Natalie is far more disciplined than I and posted her point of view on our trek on her blog. All I have are a series of instagrams some of which you can get a glimpse of in my twitter feed.
One thing I’m always interested in when I visit other countries are the products and brands I come across and the types of products you can get. Tabea Kay had an interesting post on artisinal production in good magazine. She mentions that the demand for artisnal products are so great that major corporations are trying to brand and position products with this label and uses Italian made goods as an example. There is a reason why demand for artisinal products is high. People find value in things that are not mass produced.
People care more and more not only about the finished product but how and where it is made. With good reason, things hand crafted with care tend to be of a different quality but they also have an aura that can create a consumption story. These consumption stories ultimately make our purchases way more enjoyable. In the era of globalization buying from local craftspeople has an ethical upside. These include supporting local workers and greater transparency in how these goods are actually produced. I prefer to buy product from a skilled craftsperson that has studied his craft for years with some semblance of tradition. When you are traveling, the context of place also becomes important. A place that possesses a geographic advantage to producing certain products vs others. This advantage could even be the community long heritage of quality. This is very different from mass produced products that can be cranked out in any factory in any locale. Mass produced products always need an artificial story or recognizable brand name to be sold. I guess the term people use to differentiate these two contexts is “authenticity”.
When I was in Italy I was on the hunt for “authentic” artisinal products that actually made sense to buy in Italy. Tabea highlights how many of Italian fashion houses, D&G, Prada as examples, have goods produced abroad and assembled in Italy so they can affix the “made in Italy” label. Another common scenario is transplanting Chinese factories by importing their workers. In this scenario the products are created on the cheap and are technically made in Italy but lack the quality or artisinal production consumers are looking for.
Most shops I walked into I’d find myself asking I know this was made in Italy, but was it made by Italians? Is this Italian leather?, etc. I did manage to buy some leather goods in Florence from craftspeople. I also bought a pair Persol sunglasses as they are an Italian classic. I know things have changed since they were acquired by Luxottica, which is a large Italian eyewear conglomerate, but I was re-assured by the label on the arm of the frame “Hand Made In Italy”. It was tricky for me to buy other products where I found their origins to be suspect.
This is why sites like Etsy and Kickstarter are so popular and will continue to be so. As people have been use to consuming overseas mass produced items for so long it is a refreshing change to find unique products that are produced with care. I think there is tons of opportunity to launch services that cater to local craftspeople and connect them to consumers. The context of production and consumption matters just as much as the product itself.
Ben Barry used Processing to create the “entire graphic system” for Facebook’s F8 conference last year.
"Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."
— Sir Ken Robinson
