Case Study: Recycled Sari Book
Reflections on craft product development from the eyes of an industrial (product) designer. While living in Bangladesh, one of the social businesses that I worked with was Sacred Mark Enterprise (SME), which works to provide alternative employment to former sex workers through handicraft production. My support centered around graduating this business from being incubated under […]
4 Things to Ponder When Developing a Catalogue
By Guest Blogger, Nelleke Schiere A catalogue not only shows your customers the products you want to sell, it can also tell a lot about your company: how are you structured; what is your capacity; can you keep up with deadlines; and the quality and details of your work. In other words, it is a […]
More product development tips – what to avoid!
A few months back, guest blogger Nishant Das shared with us 6 Simple Product Development Tips, in which he outlined a useful steps on product development. We recently came across an equally helpful guide on Outerspace by Jarrod Baker: 5 Common Product Development Mistakes You Should Avoid. Baker highlights some of the common mistakes […]
Home Decor Trends for 2016
As we know, with home decor, it’s all about adding accents and personalized touches to make a space feel unique or special. A big part of this is visualizing the space and getting a sense of what consumers might like to fill their homes with. These home decor trends as listed on the Apartment Therapy, […]
Key 2016 Fashion Trends
With 2016 well under way, we thought we’d share a few fashion trends for Spring and Summer 2016. The Swatch Book, a great resource on design and trends has recently shared some Key Fashion Trends for 2016. The colours, patterns, textures and designs provide good food for thought for those designing and accessories and home […]
Basic Considerations for Developing a Product Line
By Guest Blogger Nishant Das Thinking of developing a product line? Here are a few things to consider (although transferable to any product line, this primarily focusses on considerations for artisan groups). 1. External (Visible) Considerations A ‘product line’ is a broad term, so first determine what type of line you want to develop. Here […]
Aid to Artisans: creating profitable business opportunities for low-income, global artisans
AG: Tell us about Aid to Artisans. ATA: Aid to Artisans (ATA) aims to create opportunities for international, low-income artisans to build profitable enterprises inspired by handmade traditions. ATA was established in 1976 and aspired to assist artisans to import their handicrafts to museum stores in the U.S. retail market. In 2012, ATA joined Creative […]
Trade & Cross-cultural influences in the crafts industry
On a recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I was reminded of how over the centuries, trade and commerce has played a role in cross-cultural influences on craft production and development. An exhibition titled, Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia, focused on the influence Asia had on the […]
Application – Visualising home decor
We recently featured a post by guest blogger Nishant Das, who shared with us 6 Simple Product Development Tips. By providing us insightful tips about product development and design, he showed us how to look at a product critically in order to develop relevant and well designed objects. A recent article in Brit + Co […]
6 Simple Product Development Tips
By Guest Blogger: Nishant Das Developing a successful product is hard. This can be even more complicated when you are developing a product for a foreign market and you have access to limited resources. Fortunately, there are a few simple, quick and cheap things that you can do that can help you in improving your […]