tagged craftmanship – lucas did this

January 25th 2023
filed under hyperlinks, articles

Design has shifted more toward manufacturability and appearance than functionality, when it should be a balance of all three. Arguably, it’s nearly impossible for corporations to avoid participating in the trend cycle as long as consumers have an appetite for more — whether it’s a predilection for cooler clothing or whatever new incremental yet buzzy technology just came out. At the same time, the blame does not lie on consumers’ shoulders; corporations are responsible for creating and stoking the ‘new and more is better’ culture we have today.

Izzie Ramirez sums up why Your stuff is actually worse now, especially in the fashion and the tech industry. What has happened to “less but better”?

vox.com/the-goods/23529587/consumer-goods-quality-fast-fashion-technology
I don’t know what I’m doing. And if you don’t know what to do, there’s actually a chance of doing something new. As long as you know what you’re doing, nothing much of interest is going to happen.

— The benefits of not knowing according to Philip Glass, filed under well said, December 8th 2022
December 4th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, videos

© Business Insider (via YouTube)

Kimonos are known for being expensive, and a kimono from the Japanese brand Chiso is one of the most expensive you can buy. One kimono takes around 20 artisans over six months to make, and it can cost over $10,000. We followed the process of creating a handmade kimono, step-by-step, to find out what makes these garments so expensive.

I always love to see some good craftsmanship in action, especially from Japan and even more so if it’s about a traditional craft like in this video from Business Insider on Why Chiso Kimonos Are So Expensive.

via gilly.berlin
If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem.

— Hiroshi Sugimoto on having a vision, filed under well said, April 24th 2022
The idea is to find yourself a posse of misfits who have the courage to not only question authority but the whole dominant reality, and create magic together.

— “Create magic together” (author unknown), filed under well said, December 31st 2021
December 23rd 2021
filed under hyperlinks, recources and tools

Better to know a knot and not need it, than need a knot and not know it.

— the motto of Animated Knots

Nothing fancy, just a well-structured website with a lot of different knots explained with neat little stop-motion clips accompanied by short descriptions. Bookmarked:

PS.: Why not wrap your Christmas Gifts with a ‘French Sinnet One’ this year for example!?

animatedknots.com/complete-knot-list
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

— Ira Glass “The Gap”, filed under well said, December 19th 2021
November 21st 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, art, design

© Tavo Studio (via Vimeo)

Where is your OASIS?
There is always a space between art and design, and that’s the spot where everyone
wants to be.
Oasis is a manifiesto in favor of the search for the balance between design and art.
Where is the border between client´s requests and your aspirations?
In short, it is a difficult balance to achieve.

behance.net/tavo_
November 19th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, art, design

© nomena (via Vimeo)

© nomena (via YouTube)

nomena is investigating new types of space perception. research and practice, academic and commercial, technology and aesthetic.

As mentioned in the about section of this blog, I love projects which cross-scale in media and studios (and creatives) who work interdisciplinary. Japanese studio nomena by Shohei Takei is such a studio, working at the intersection of art, design and science to create amazing tactile projects.

nomena.co.jp
October 26th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos

© Craig Mod / Carina Fushimi (via YouTube)

A lovely short documentary on the Japanese craftsmanship involved in the making of a photo book called Kissa by Kissa. Besides The Craft of “Kissa by Kissa” — Bookmaking in Japan, Craig Mod has a lot more unpretentious videos from Japan to discover on his YouTube-Channel.

Watching those makes me dream about travelling the world myself again —and hopefully Japan someday, too.

shop.specialprojects.jp/products/kissa-by-kissa-3rd-ed
September 20th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, art, culture and sociology, design

© Kirby Ferguson (via YouTube)

Our creativity comes from without, not from within. We are not self made, we are dependent on one another. Admitting this to ourselves isn’t an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness —it’s a liberation from our misconceptions, and it’s an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves, and to simply begin.

As creatives, we are usually driven to chase what we think of as purely original ideas. While I was studying design, a video series called Everything is a Remix was making the rounds, offering another –presumably much healthier– perspective on novelty and inspiration.

A decade later, Kirby Ferguson is apparently redoing the series for 2021 and I recommend every creative to watch it —but especially those who are still in training.

everythingisaremix.info
Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.

— Leonard Koren “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers”, filed under well said, September 17th 2021
September 7th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos

© RJ Bruni / Inmist Media House (via Vimeo)

A story about a ceramic artist, Cathy Terepocki, and her journey to find purpose within her work. When most artists are seeking to further put themselves at the forefront of their work Cathy made a conscious decision to actually remove her personal touch.

I always enjoy watching craftsmanship, especially if it’s captured with such a pleasing –and extremly well-suited– granular and tactile aesthetic like in this beautiful short called Shared Earth.

inmistmediahouse.com/films/shared-earth/