Bracket Magazine

CRAFT
Anonymous presents Bracket (01/08) Craft

Duane King Foreword
Duane King is a designer, thinker and writer. He is the founder of Craft can be a noun, a trade that you practice, an art that you make,
Thinking for a Living, a publisher and curator of thought-provoking or a special skill you acquire. But, more romantically, it is a verb, to
design content and a creator of meaningful experiences. produce, to make, to craft with skill and a careful attention to detail.
To craft is to do, to fight inertia, to say the world is not yet done, that
www.thinkingforaliving.org this thing that we make is not yet good enough. The
www.kingduane.com notion of craft is about putting things in motion, and similarly action
is what defines all of those involved with Crafty.
As the media and corporations talk about the work-life balance,

the craftsperson sees the two as inseparable. The line between
the two blurs into one as they merge so homogeneously as to not
allow a split. The life informs the work, the work informs the life; the
craftsperson lives their life through their hands and their
experiences.
In a world that is driven by technology, the role of craft has never

been more critical. Although machines have in many ways made life
easier, they have also removed the one-to-one correlation between
humans and the things we make. A pen meeting paper to form a line
or a word, the accidental variation in a line that makes your heart
sing. Imagination meeting good old-fashioned blood, sweat, and
tears. Soul. The missing ingredient of craft.
But craftsmanship doesn’t pertain just to the handmade. Instead,

craftsmanship is a basic human impulse; the desire to do a job
well for its own sake. A craftsman is engaged in their work. Time
melts away as the mind and hand become occupied in a search for
closure; a closure that can only come when we arrive at a sense
of completeness in a piece of work. The moment when, as Milton
Glaser said, “Just enough is more.”
Craft is all around us, giving us pleasure as well as serving a

function. It is as inspirational as it is functional. In between the
bustle of our daily lives exist the remnants of a bygone era. The
faded, hand painted logos on the side of a building, the thick sheet
metal of an old car, the carved masonry of a courthouse
downtown. All these things hearken back to an age when taking your
time equaled quality. In both a physical and intellectual sense, we
built things to last. Faster didn’t mean better—and taking your time
didn’t mean being lazy. More often, it meant quality.
In our rush to do things better, faster, and cheaper we’ve lost our
way. Typically, the more time you put into something, the better it
becomes. And the better it becomes, the more you can charge for it.
But as speed and efficiency become the primary criteria for the judg-
ment of productivity, it becomes more and more difficult for many to
justify craftsmanship. C. Wright Mills, an influential and radical social
theorist and critic of twentieth century America noted, “As tool be-
comes machine, man is estranged from the intellectual potentialities
and aspects of work; and each individual is routinized in the name of
increased and cheaper per unit productivity.”
In many ways, in our constant search for the elusive notion of ‘free
time’ we’ve declared a war on work. We are always trying to speed
up things. Our computers, our internet connections, our lives. Short-
cuts are revered. And somehow through all of our
advancements in technology we’ve lost something crucial to our
existence. There is something about the act of pressing a button that
is dissociative and perhaps in the process of so much button
pressing, many of us have forgotten about the importance of the
relationship between the hand and the head.
Crafty urges us all to reconnect ourselves with our work and to be-
come wholly involved in what we do. There is a quiet satisfaction in
things that are well considered, well composed. Engage yourself in
your work and let the satisfactions of making things be their own
reward. Then, and only then, can you produce work that can
delight, amuse, inspire—and maybe even change the world.
Duane King
Designer, Thinker, Writer
Portland (Oregon)
The 16 Conversations Aaron Rose Geoff Mcfetridge KarlssonWilker Mike & Yuri Abelson Dated
Film Director / Curator Artist / Director Design practice Designers 1 August - 18 September 2010
Los Angeles Los Angeles New York City Tokyo
United States of America United States of America United States of America Japan Publisher’s note
www.allegedpress.com www.championdontstop.com www.karlssonwilker.com www.postalco.net The following interviews were
previously published as a
Christine J. Brandt Ian Anderson KesselsKramer Rockin’ Jelly Bean supplement for Crafty 2010.
Jewelry designer Designer Creative Agency Artist
New York City Sheffield Amsterdam Tokyo / Osaka Instead of an e-mail interview,
United States of America United Kingdom Netherlands Japan we figured this would be a
www.christinejbrandt.com www.thedesignersrepublic.com www.kesselskramer.com www.rockinjellybean.com whole lot craftier.
Cmmnwlth Jason Gregory Mary & Matt Stanley Donwood For more information
Industrial design studio Designer Chocolate-makers Artist www.brckt.com
New York City Winter Park, Florida New York City Bath www.crafty2010.com
United States of America United States of America United States of America United Kingdom
www.commonwealth.nu www.makr.com www.chocolate-editions.com www.slowlydownward.com
Frank Chimero Jessica Hische Mihoko Ouchi Tommy Guerrero

Designer / Illustrator Illustrator Product designer Musician
Portland New York City New York City San Francisco
United States of America United States of America United States of America United States of America
www.frankchimero.com www.jessicahische.com www.thinkofthe.com www.tommyguerrero.com
Conversations 01
Colophon
Publisher Conversations Special thanks to For more information

Anonymous Aaron Rose Adrian Chan www.brckt.com
Christine J. Brandt Barbra Gan www.crafty2010.com
Editor Cmmnwlth B.A.L.L.S
Germaine Chong Frank Chimero Colin Faulkes Contact
Geoff Mcfetridge Daniel Koh Anonymous Pte Ltd
Art Direction & Design Ian Anderson Duane King 11E Mount Sophia #01-27
SILNT Jason Gregory Grace Tan Singapore 228469
Jessica Hische Larry Peh T: (65) 6336 6804
Date produced KarlssonWilker Karen Day E: info@anonymous.com.sg
10 October 2010 KesselsKramer Kelley Cheng W: www.anonymous.com.sg
Mary & Matt Mabel Tay
Paper Mihoko Ouchi Michael Lee
60gsm Newsprint Postalco Nur Hidayah
Rockin’ Jelly Bean OMFG Co.
Printed in Stanley Donwood Sean Lam
The Republic of Singapore Tommy Guerrero The Allboysclub
The Glue Society
Edition of The Scout Mag
1,000

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CRAFT

Anonymous presents Bracket (01/08) Craft

Duane King Foreword

As the media and corporations talk about the work-life balance,

In a world that is driven by technology, the role of craft has never

But craftsmanship doesn’t pertain just to the handmade. Instead,

Craft is all around us, giving us pleasure as well as serving a

Frank Chimero Jessica Hische Mihoko Ouchi Tommy Guerrero

Publisher Conversations Special thanks to For more information

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