The Artisan Designer

I was raised by a single mum who surrounded herself with objects of simple elegance to give her strength. It was objects from a time where beautiful products and the craftsmanship behind them was cherished equally. I grew up dreaming that I one day would create objects that gave someone strength, or at least some happiness. This is a part of my story, one that I hope will shine through in all my design.
In this project I wanted find out if I one day could live the dream where an artisan designer can make a living, even raise some kids out of a small scale local production?
To find the answer to this question I conducted both quantitative and qualitative research. Interviewing people from all the pieces of the design, production and distribution puzzle. Both about their thoughts on the future, and about what to learn from the history. I made field studies, visited design fairs, and tried to climb the internet to see what I could find. Investigated the climate and the landscape of the design continent and where the borders are, looked into what we as designers would need to cross them in terms of skills, knowledge and tools, and why we would want to.
The result is a family of products made with the restrictions but also the opportunities of small scale local production in mind. Made from common stock material, like sheet metal, metal pipe, wood, window glass and porcelain. Some of the products are quick “fry ups” and some have been “slowly cooked” from when I first started here in Lund, but they all have a family trace, and I am their proud mum.
Say hi to: Box, The Muggs, Pillerburken, The Booms, Pipe/3310/Snake, Spots and The Toothpasters.
More than anything this project has been about getting to know myself better. To calibrate myself and my goals with reality, the one outside the safe and comforting walls of this school. I needed to find my strengths and weaknesses and ways to best use them both. I needed to know what tools that had to be sharpened and what tools I should leave in the drawer.
This project have helped me see that I have a place in the design world, and even though I don’t know the exact location of this spot, I know I want to sit there in sunshine and rain and create objects that would give someone strength…….. or at least some happiness.
hugs /Olofjanson.com