Mohawk Maker Quarterly Issue #7 | Character by Mohawk

CH A RACTE R No. 07

WHAT WILL YOU MAKE TODAY?

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ISSUE 07:

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WHAT WILL YOU MAKE TODAY?

WELCOME TO THE

MOHAWK MAKER QUARTERLY CHARACTER

Character is about expressing our true selves, doing the right things and creating our own stories. “ He’s a real character,” we say of the goofy relative who wears mismatched socks and watches for UFOs. When we meet someone who’s persevered through hardship, we call her “a person of strong character.” C The word ‘character’ has multiple meanings: a role in a

play or narrative, a moral or ethical quality, a collection of features and traits that make up our individual natures. We like to think of ours as a company of character— COVE R : in many senses. MAIJA LO U E K AR I Mohawk a family operation, a rarity in our industry, A . TADisCAR PE NTE R

and the character of our family has shaped the company

B . each THAMgeneration. & VI D EG ÅR D AR O’Connor K ITE K TE Rwas a lawyer by with George tradeÅKE LINDMAN who E:SON never intended to go into paper manufacturing

—until the local business needed his help and he answered

C. J U N I PE R R I D G E George, whoRT worked the call. COL I N McCA H Y well into his 70s, shepherded

and expansion into new product lines. Members of our extended family also serve the company, on the Board of Directors and in various executive and management roles. In fact, we consider the entire Mohawk team to be D Our business is built on relationships, part of the family. handshake-level trust, communication and honesty among the people we work with. The fact that Mohawk has endured over three generations means we make decisions and innovate new products for the long term, not just the next quarter. Of course, we like to think of our customers as family, too. Many of you are small or family-owned businesses. You share our values of heritage, quality, responsibility and transparency. You thrive on innovation and you take smart risks.

our hallmark Superfine brand, and he had a soft spot for

D. MTconstruction WAS H I N GTOpaper N P OT TEschoolchildren. RY making for N ICOL E La MOTT E

George’s son — my father, Tom Sr. — guided Mohawk’s

E . B R E N DAN R AVE N H I LL STU D I O environmental stewardship, focusing on Earth-friendly M ATT H U N T

grades and implementing new, more efficient and Earth-

sustaining F. J U LIA equipment. TU R N E R Today, I am proud to be the third generation DA N I of E Lour DEN T family to oversee Mohawk’s growth E

Character—that ’s one thing you and Mohawk have in common. And it’s the subject of this issue of the Maker Quarterly, where we introduce you to other individuals and organizations of character. We think they ’re worth celebrating. —Thomas D. O’Connor, Jr.

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CONTENTS 3

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Letter

Sourcing Originality

An Origin Story

Reflections

Capturing the Individual

By Hand

The Movement

Defining Sustainability

The Hard Way

Paper Grades

Mohawk Live Augmented Reality App

Mohawk Live incorporates augmented reality, a new technology which allows access to content from web-based channels via scanned images on printed paper. The app was specifically designed to enhance materials printed on Mohawk fine paper, enhancing packaging, publications, point of sale displays, and other projects printed on Mohawk products. Mohawk Live seamlessly integrates print with dynamic, interactive content and transforms a one dimensional image to a multidimensional experience featuring 3-D images, videos, photos, infographics, text, websites and animations.

Mohawk Live is easy to download and use, following these steps: 1 2 3 4

Download the free app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Point and hover a mobile device at the image that has the Mohawk Live icon. Wait for the enhanced content to load. WiFi connections are recommended for faster load times and enhanced quality. The app will launch enhanced content, seemingly bringing the printed piece to life.

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COVE R : MAIJA LO U E K AR I

B .

THAM & VI D EG ÅR D AR K ITE K TE R

J U N I PE R R I D G E

MT WAS H I N GTO N P OT TE RY

E .

B R E N DAN R AVE N H I LL STU D I O

CHARACTER

TAD CAR PE NTE R

ÅKE E:SON LINDMAN COL I N McCA RT H Y N ICOL E La MOTT E M ATT H U N T

J U LIA TU R N E R

DA N I E L DEN T

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MIKE ANDERSEN

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ORIGIN STORY

From its fictitious eponym to its charitable contributions, eyewear retailer Warby Parker is a brand of character, in all senses of the word. BY

B RY N M O OTH

Wire-rimmed aviators. Vintage cat-eyes. Nerdy black frames. Glamorous tortoiseshells. Few accessories add more character to our appearance than a stylish pair of specs. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, glasses are the drapes: concealing, decorating, revealing just a peek. For some, glasses are absolute necessities, suspended around the neck or tucked into a shirt pocket. For others, they’re fashion statements, a rotating wardrobe of tripledigit designer frames worn like a pair of stiletto heels. Squarely in the middle landed Warby Parker, an eyeglasses brand founded by four Wharton School of Business students in 2010. With a range of modestly priced and well-designed frames, a try-it-before-you-buy-it retail model and a philanthropic commitment, the company has since won fans across the spectrum: fashionistas, myopics, brand gurus, marketing professors and C-suiters alike. At the center of Warby Parker ’s success story lies character—not just the company’s moral compass, but the persona it plays on the public stage. That emphasis on character feels familiar to us at Mohawk, so we set out to understand what lessons we and other companies could learn from these ground-breakers. Create a business that solves a problem. When he lost a pair of $700 specs, Neil Blumenthal wondered: Why should something so essential—a pair of glasses to help the wearer read, get around and be productive—be so darned expensive? The question revealed a problem that led to a company. In the existing eyewear market, a few dominant players, hefty licensing fees for designer-brand frames and high overhead costs long meant that eyeglasses were either expensive or—think drugstore reading glasses—cheap and poorly made.

Blumenthal and co-founders Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa and Jeffrey Raider, came up with a deceptively simple model: Frames designed in-house, sourced directly from manufacturers and sold online to consumers pared multiple markups out of the price equation. Nearly all Warby Parker frames retail for $95, single-vision prescription lenses included. Customers can try five pairs for five days before purchasing. Right out of the box, Warby Parker was destined for great things. Features in men’s and women’s fashion magazines shortly after its launch caught investors’ eyes as well as consumers’; product immediately sold out, and the company has since raised several rounds of funding. Today Warby Parker is reportedly valued at just over $1 billion. Because it solves a problem. Build a business with character. For each pair of eyewear Warby Parker sells, it helps bring the power of sight to those in need. Blumenthal worked in the public policy and nonprofit sectors before heading to Wharton for an MBA—including a stint at VisionSpring, which delivers inexpensive prescription glasses to people in developing countries. Warby Parker works through VisionSpring, providing funding with which the organization trains local workers to perform eye exams and helps them earn living wages by selling low-cost glasses. The buy-one-give-one model isn’t unique to Warby Parker, of course, but it’s been part of the company DNA since its founding. It makes customers and employees both feel good. Envision the company’s personality. Warby Parker isn’t a real person, but it might as well be. The name is a hybrid of two characters that Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac outlined in his journals. In a story for Inc. magazine, co-founder Gilboa said, “ We had a list of more than 2,000 names for the company… but we kept coming back to literature, and around this

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MIKE ANDERSEN

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Warby Parker works through VisionSpring, providing funding with which the organization trains local workers to perform eye exams and helps them earn living wages by selling low-cost glasses. time I went to an exhibit on Jack Kerouac at the New York Public Library. He had written about all these characters in his private diaries, and they all had interesting names. There were two that all of us loved: Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker.” During the company’s startup phase, the founders gathered an inspiration wall of photographs that represented Warby Parker’s persona: clever and sophisticated, functional and accessible. Give the brand a voice. In an article for Fast Company, which recognized Warby Parker as the Most Innovative Company for 2015, the eyewear brand’s creative director, Sasha Tulchin, noted that Warby Parker is “the person you’d want to be next to you at a dinner party.” She describes the brand’s voice as “witty, intelligent, informative, playful, delightful.” Warby Parker employees receive visual and writing style guides to help the brand maintain a well-defined persona. Tulchin continued, “Every time we create a piece of copy, every time we create something new for marketing—every time it’s either in our office or externally projected—we do it with these filters.” Invite the team to play roles in the story. In an interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times for the newspaper’s Corner Office column, Blumenthal noted that the company carefully crafts an environment in

which employees can open up, share and be themselves. In group meetings, new staffers are asked to share something interesting about themselves. He commented: “ It’s usually something humiliating, and the reason is to make that individual memorable to the rest of the team and also to make that individual vulnerable. It’s through vulnerability that human beings create connections. The more vulnerable we can be with one another, the more that we’ll trust one another and the more we’ll be able to collaborate effectively.” “ One of our core values,” Blumenthal continued in the Corner Office column, “is to inject fun and quirkiness into everything we do… We want people to take their work seriously but not themselves.” Products that fill a need. A brand that feels real and relevant. A commitment to the greater good. It all adds up to a business of character—one that we all can admire.

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CAPTURING THE INDIVIDUAL Photographer Acielle captures bold looks and individual style in the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fashion capitals for her blog, Style du Monde.

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“I try to capture those special moments on the street and give my viewers an image of what goes on during fashion weeks. What goes on outside the shows can be just as influential as what happens on the runway.” AC I E LLE

ST Y L E DU MON DE

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DEFINING

SUSTAINABILITY IT ’S MORE THAN JUST RECYCLING .

True sustainability means choosing raw materials with care, harvesting them with minimal impact and transforming them into products that matter.

BEYOND RECYCLED We’ve come a long way since the early years of recycled paper. Mohawk’s aptly named Loop follows a full sustainability circle, from input to output to input.

CONTENT

POWER

The preeminent choice for environmentally sound paper, Loop begins with the highest postconsumer waste content in its class and chlorine-free fiber sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Mohawk supports the use of clean, renewable wind-generated electricity through the purchase of Green-e certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from wind farms.

CHOICES

PROCESSING

No matter what the end use, there’s a Loop product that’s right for the job. Smooth, textured, coated for digital printing: Loop offers a whole world of color and finish options.

The therma l energ y used to manufacture Loop is offset through the purchase of carbon credits that fund renewable energy or emission reduction projects.

CERTIFICATIONS

ILLUSTRATION

PATCHARA CHAROENSIRI

Loop is certified under the globa l Forest Stewardship Council’s guidelines for forest management and the Green Seal program for environmentally responsible products.

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BOTTLING NATURE BY

O B I K AU FM A N N OF J U N I PE R R I D GE

Every tree is different yet the same. In the West we are blessed with an unmatched diversity of trees: firs, cedars, pines—species unchanged for millennia. Juniper Ridge draws inspiration and ingredients from these forests to create Wilderness Perfume, harvesting pieces of these trees to capture the wind, the mountain sun, the green life coursing through the forest f loor. We use hundreds of ingredients derived through careful extraction techniques. To illustrate the breadth of possibilities, consider a single tree among the 65 Western conifers: the Red Fir. On steep slopes in the High Sierra, the trees bend sunward. Black trunks rise like a church, cutting sunlight into green-tinted bands. The air is cool and smells earthy and sweet, clean and alive. How do we aromatically express this beautiful scene? By employing every part of the tree and extracting its fragrance: the needles that release bright notes; the bark with hints of vanilla; the root where mushroom-like aromas await; the limbwood that yields a lovely campfire note; the male cones which lend a culinary fragrance; the female cones dripping with sweet sap; pitch and resin that sing depth and brilliance. One tree yields 30 different Wilderness Perfume components.

JUNIPER RIDGE

COLIN McCARTHY

Moreover, we never injure any tree, harvesting only from those that are fallen, dead or designated for fire-prevention. We are stewards in all manner of wildcrafting. We could live a thousand years and not ma ke a ll the wilderness perfumes we want to make. The palette is deep and our life on the trail isn’t long enough.

THE NEW

SUSTAINABLE TABLE BY

B RY N M O OTH

The very model of sustainable eating—the farm-to-table movement—is not good enough, says Dan Barber. Barber’s Blue Hill restaurants in Manhattan and at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY, are as farm-to-table as you can get, sourcing ingredients from sma ll regiona l growers and an onsite farm. Yet, Barber argues in his book “The Third Plate,” it’s not enough. In researching his book, Barber met Klaas Marten, a local farmer who grows wheat for Blue Hill’s brioche. Marten also grows crops like mustard greens, kidney beans and millet, planted sequentially, to build the soil. Farmers like Marten make pennies on these cover crops (typically sold as animal feed). Barber realized he was buying “ just one of a whole ‘recipe’ of crops Marten was growing. I was treating his farm like a grocery store, cherrypicking what I wanted in a very single-minded way,” he said in a 2014 keynote. “The way to support him is to support the whole system.”

So Barber introduced “rotation risotto” to the menu, which incorporates those other grains and legumes that pave the way for the wheat. To illustrate the related issue of food waste (the U.S. discards nearly 50% of food it produces), Barber turned his NYC restaurant into a pop-up called wastED, with a menu prepared from blemished produce, veggie trimmings and leftovers that would typica lly go to waste. Barber advocates a cuisine that encourages chefs and home cooks to use not just locally produced food, but also the “ in between” crops and the trimmings and scraps they’d throw in the trash. A new kind of sustainable table.

ILLUSTRATION

PATCHARA CHAROENSIRI

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HARD WAY

Four distinctly different makers share why craftsmanship is the lifeblood of their businesses. BY

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Tartine Bakery C H A D R O B E R T S O N , C E O / C O - FO U N D E R

“ We reject convenience when it means compromise in quality or vision: Convenience is a description rarely applied to artisanal craft production. I’ll gladly take it when, and if, I can find it on our terms. Pretty much every thing we do is the harder way — but I’m a lways looking for an easier way… just with no compromise. Two things we are soon making even harder as we grow: No more pre-brewed coffee starting next week; only pour over Blue Bottle. And focus on fresh milled f lour from more regiona l grains for both our bread and pastry with the opening of Tartine Manufactory in the fall of this year.”

PE R RY A . PR I C E

A M E R ICA N CR A F T C OU NCI L DI R E CTOR OF E DUCAT ION

There is an old response familiar to master craftspeople when asked how long it might have taken to produce a particular work—“about a few hours and thirty years.” Namely that the ability to make something well is the product of a lifetime of practice and refinement focused on what could be the work of only a few moments. Before the industrial revolution forever changed the means by which things could be made, every thing was the labor of human hands. But the decision by the contemporary maker to forgo convenience or expediency now in favor of the slow work of the hand is to question the assumed advantages of industrial production. The craftsperson does not choose a more difficult, skillcentered method of production from a lack of awareness of other expedient means of manufacture. Whatever their individual reason, they do it because they consider the work of the hand to be important, to have value. Value for the maker, who we romantically understand as enriched by their work, value for the object, made individually according to the rightness of its production, and value for the intended audience, who receive the work with an understanding that its making was deliberate, not simply pragmatic. The advantage of the handmade, I believe, is empathy. It is a means to connect the maker and the recipient, to humanize each through the eyes of the other. Who does not feel an unbidden surge of respect for the maker in the presence of an incredible object? What maker pours themselves into their craft without a care or thought for those who might enjoy it? The object persists, but what endure are the makers.

Philly Bike Coalition R A N DY L o B A S S O , C O M M U N I C AT I O N S M A N AG E R

“ It’s hard to imagine now, but most cities were never designed for cars. Most roads and sidewalks in the 19th and early 20th centuries were seen as public spaces to which all citizens had equal rights. Today, we use terms like “jaywalker” to describe a person who’s had their right-of-way taken from them. As urban centers have grown in recent years, so has cycling. In Philadelphia, nearly 40,000 people regularly ride their bikes to work in spite of our streets having been completely taken over by thousands of speeding cars, trucks and buses. Bicycling represents, in cases of distances of four miles or less, the fastest, most convenient way to travel in a city. But bicycling can be scary for someone not used to riding alongside several-thousand pound motor vehicles. Groups like the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia are attempting to quash this fear by lobbying our city to install physically-separated bike lanes on our streets, and offstreet trails for cyclists and pedestrians that provide safer spaces and ease some tensions cyclists often feel on city streets. The act of being a cyclist actually makes you, and everyone around you, safer. When more people use street-visible alternatives to motor vehicles, drivers are forced to adapt and inevitably slow down. Slower streets makes a potential cyclist more likely to join you on the road, and as more people ride their bikes, cities become more likely to build safe infrastructure, which additiona lly makes everyone safer and, well, gets more cyclists out on the streets.”

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Tad Carpenter TA D C A R P E N T E R C R E AT I V E , FO U N D E R

“As designers and artists, we chose a road that is not paved but rocky and constantly changing. Our parents wanted us all to be lawyers and doctors, but we said no. We decided to ta ke a risk. We decided to follow our hearts and do something we love. That decision was making a conscious effort to do something the hard way. As a designer who runs his own studio, there are a lot easier ways to make a living. Those other options aren’t better or worse, but at times seem as if they could be an easier lifestyle. But those other options, they ain’t me. Those options are not why I chose to do what I get to do. One of the greatest gifts of being a creative is being able to take comfort and joy in controlling your own destiny. Your life, your work, your outcome is based on what you make in the world. That is a very liberating and scarring thing. I wouldn’t change it for a second.”

Butcher and Larder R O B & A L L I E L E V I T T, FO U N D E R S

“ W hen we decided to open the The Butcher & Larder, its sole purpose was to not so much reject convenience, but do our part to bring back the way things used to be. At our store, there is total transparency. You see large cuts of meat in our cases alongside handmade sausages, pâtés and deli meats like summer sausage, roast beef and ham. And everything is cut to order based on what the customer wants. Behind the shop, though, there is a window into our cutting room where you can see us cutting whole animals that we buy directly from the farm. None of this is easy. None of this is conventiona l or convenient, but to me there is no other way. Why should I be just another meat market that orders pork chops by the case and sa lami from a factory? In our cases you see cuts of meat that may be unfamiliar, but a quick conversation with one of the butchers will not only send you home confident in how to cook it, but with the understanding that there are a lot more cuts of meat on an anima l than the ones you know, and those cuts are just as (if not more) delicious and usually a little less expensive. We could make things easier on ourselves, but it would totally defeat the purpose of why we are here.”

ILLUSTRATION

MIKE ANDERSEN

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Think of a recent purchase: a pair of shoes, perhaps, or a nice dinner out. Something big-ticket, like a sofa for the living room. How involved were you in the creative process? Have any connection with the people who made the shoes or the meal or the sofa? Do you even know who they are? Probably not.

SOURCING ORIGINALITY By involving both creatives and customers in the process, Minted has become a go-to source for welldesigned goods. BY

B RY N M O OTH

Which is why Minted stands out among e-commerce sites. It’s all about collaboration, community and creativity— among the designers who sell their goods (including printed cards and invitations, fabrics, art and home decor) via the site, and between designers and buyers. Anyone looking for greeting cards or party invites had, pre-Minted, three options: Traditional mass-market retailers selling the same designs to everyone, craft marketplaces like Etsy offering an overwhelming assortment of items of variable quality, and photo-card websites that limited buyers to a set of templates. Minted takes a curatorial approach to its merchandise mix, which makes shopping a more pleasant experience and sets the aesthetic bar high. It handles production, winning a reputation among participating designers for turning their concepts into well-crafted products. And its collaborative approach lets customers purchase paper items and other goods that truly ref lect their sensibilities. Both established designers and those new to the site submit their works to a community-driven selection process that determines which items will be produced. “ Minted’s unique crowdsourced model represents a modern marketplace,” says CEO and founder Mariam Naficy. “Our model ensures quality because only the top-voted designs are sold on the site.”

A .

NEWSPAPER SAILBOAT CUSTOM ART PRINT

THE BIG ONE CHILDREN’S BIRTHDAY PARTY INVITATIONS

PRECIOUS NAME BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS

B .

THE MEADOW LIMITED EDITION ART PRINT

SUSI E A L L EN

J EN N I F E R W ICK

O S CA R & EM M A

M EL A N I E S E V ER I N

Design pros might get their hackles up at the word ‘crowdsourcing’—but Naficy’s quick to note that Minted is nothing like the sites that offer logo and website designs for practically nothing. Minted’s designers participate in the process, she says, because they value the critique from like-minded artists. “This is a community of creative people helping each other,” she says. “Many of our artists have creative day jobs where they work for clients. They often describe their time spent designing for Minted as the time when ‘I’m my own client.’ And unlike spec work, the products submitted to Minted challenges are generalizable. If a submission doesn’t win one of our challenges, you’re welcome to sell that design on your own store or elsewhere.” Because Minted handles both sales and production—with an eye toward high-quality paper, materials and textiles from partners including Mohawk—designers get to focus on creating their original works. Most important, Naficy says, they benefit from the camaraderie of Minted’s community. “Some say being part of the community is like going to design school without the tuition,” she says. The result? Customers have access—via a website that’s as well-designed as the products themselves—to beautiful limited-run or unique items. In many cases, a buyer can engage directly with the designer to request customized touches that make a piece really one-of-a-kind, a work of true character.

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REFLECTIONS A glass tree house reflects the character of both man and nature. BY

SA R A H W H ITM A N

Recall the tree house you dreamed of as a child—or perhaps were lucky enough to own—but swap out the plywood walls for mirrored glass and your backyard for the Arctic Circle. This figment of your imagination is actually a real-life structure called The Mirrorcube, nestled among the treetops near the small village of Harads in the far north of Sweden. It’s one of six two-person “hotel rooms” that make up the Treehotel, a collection of outposts for eco-tourists between the small settlements along the Lule River and the vast wilderness of the north. Designed by Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård, co-founders and chief architects of Tham & Videgård Arkitekter in Stockholm, Sweden, The Mirrorcube ref lects the natural environment surrounding it without marring it. For example, the lightweight aluminum structure is mounted directly on the tree trunk of a tall pine with clamps that do not perforate the trunk. It was built by local craftsmen who combined native know-how and natural resources with a new vision of how living among the trees could be taken to another level. The roughly 13-by-13-by-13 foot cube is clad in highly ref lective glass, creating a 360-degree view that changes based on weather, light conditions and time of year. To prevent birds from colliding with the glass, a transparent ultraviolet color visible only to birds is laminated into the glass panes. A hidden roof terrace provides a secluded space for rest in the middle of nature. Tham and Videgård were also interested in the paradox that while humans search for authentic experiences among nature that heighten the sense of being alive, at the same time we bring protection in the form of hightech gear, such as Gore-Tex clothing and Kevlar tents. So they incorporated these materials into the design of the Mirrorcube. “So the idea of the Mirrorcube is in part ref lecting this paradox of being at the same time an abstract object standing out from its wild surroundings, but also through the effect of mirrors completely blending in, almost disappearing like a mirage among the trees,” Tham says. The demand for this camouf laged refuge among the trees is high. It has attracted visitors from around the world who come to trek through the wilderness with the Treehotel as a start or end stop, or just to relax for a few days away from the buzz of modern life.

THAM & VIDEGÅRD ARKITEKTER

ÅKE E:SON LINDMAN

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MT WAS H I N GTO N P OT TE RY

NICOLE LaMOTTE Mt Washington Pottery, the L.A. studio of Beth Katz, creates functional and decorative ceramics with a Japanese inf luence.

HAND

In an age of e-manufacturing and i-tools, handmade goods are highly in demand. What’s the deal? BY

B RY N M O OTH

SHELTER PUBLICATIONS

LLOYD KAHN Shelter Publications founder Lloyd Kahn celebrates small-scale and hand-built architecture in his books, including “ Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter” and “Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter.” For his photoladen title, “Builders of the Pacific Coast,” Automobiles, furniture, homes, even food: Today, so Kahn connected with an under-the-radar many of the goods we consume are mass-produced by community of Northern California craftstechnology-driven machines half a world away. Which people who create buildings, by hand, of is why handmade items really shine. found materials. This “magical” seaside home was constructed of scavenged At a time when things can be made so quickly, in such driftwood and fallen cedar. quantity and for so little, the trend toward anti-mass is growing. Farmers’ markets, craft fairs and f lea markets proliferate across the country, all of them showcasing handcrafted and home-produced goods. E-tailers like Etsy and eBay feature a bewildering array of items made by hand. Graphic design annuals testify to the popularity of hand-rendered lettering and line drawing in branding and print communication. Perhaps this interest in handmade goods is simply an antidote to our increasingly digital world. Or perhaps it’s more than that: We’re wired to create. Throughout time, humans have been makers. Modern makers are using the tools of their forebears in new ways to produce goods with a fresh sensibility. Witness the continued popularity of home canning and woodworking— but with a twist. Cruise any urban f lea market and you’ll find bearded dudes using hand tools to craft furniture that’s perfectly at home in a downtown studio apartment, creative canners hawking jams and pickles in unexpected f lavor combinations. We admire the process. Producing things with our hands may be in our DNA, but many of us today don’t have the time or training to do so. Seeing evidence of an artist’s hand in an item gives us a window into the process by which that item was made. We feel closer to the act of making. We crave connection. We want to know that the things we buy were made by someone—a real person—and not by a machine.

The imperfections inherent in handmade goods—a rough edge, a smudge of ink, a potter’s thumbprint—are signs of the artist’s presence and character. Maker fairs and farmers’ markets let us actually meet those creators face to face. We want unique. Are we coming to the realization that more isn’t better— that owning lots of junky stuff is less satisfying than owning fewer, better-quality items? Bespoke may not be the new mass-market (yet). But savvy consumers recognize that they can convey their personal style and character by surrounding themselves with one-of-akind goods. We treasure heirlooms. Because we recognize the effort, craft and vision that goes into handmade goods, we regard them as keepsakes. A gorgeously bound volume of classic literature isn’t something to off load in next summer’s garage sale; it’s to be passed down to children and grandchildren. The hand bestows meaning, longevity, value.

RIFLE PAPER CO.

Florida-based designers Anna and Nathan Bond have built their Rif le Paper Co. brand on a mix of elegance and whimsy. Their broad range of high-qua lity paper goods, from greeting cards to wa llcoverings, feature the duo’s gorgeous hand-drawn illustration and type. Botanical elements are prominent in their work, including this art print by Anna.

TH O R NWI LLOW PR ESS

When does a classic become a keepsake? When Thornwillow Press creates a hyperlimited edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “ The Great Gatsby” by rebinding the book’s 75th anniversary edition with Moroccan leather and handmade paper. Luke Ives Pontifell’s company is one of the finest custom publishers and stationers in the country, crafting exquisite business cards, invitations and journals.

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MT WAS H I N GTO N POT TE RY

R I FLE PAPE R CO.

S H E LTE R PU B LI CATI O N S

TH O R NWI LLOW PR ESS

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MT WAS H I N GTO N P OT TE RY

NICOLE LaMOTTE Mt Washington Pottery, the L.A. studio of Beth Katz, creates functional and decorative ceramics with a Japanese inf luence.

SHELTER PUBLICATIONS

TH O R NWI LLOW PR ESS

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MOVEMENT CHAMPIONS OF CRAFT

Tartine Bakery Award-winning bread and pastries San Francisco, California TARTI N E BAK E RY.CO M

“ We started baking and selling at the Berkeley Farmers market in the mid 1990s, driving hot bread and pastries in twice a week from our wood-fired oven in Point Reyes Station. Both A lice Waters and A lain Ducasse were customers after a couple of years. But when we finally opened our shop in San Francisco in 2002, it was no instant success. We barely survived our second year in the Mission District. Thankfully, the neighborhood started to change and let us stick around.” Images from Tartine Book No. 3 and Tartine Bread

Broken Homme

American-made footwear and leather goods Los Angeles, California B RO K E N H O M M E .CO M

“Our tagline sums up our values: Quality is Victimless. We stand wholeheartedly behind the qua lity of our product. We are lucky to have worked with some shoemakers that are second- and third-generation cobblers. But we also continue to learn better ways to construct things and will continue to service the product that we put into the market for life. We know that the foundation of our brand must be built on the quality of what we make.”

Greenwich House Pottery Helping individuals through arts education New York, New York G R E E NWI C H H O U S E P OT TE RY.O RG

“ For more than a century, Greenwich House Pottery has helped artists through residencies, internships, exhibitions and classes. Arts education guides all our programming. The goal of Ceramics Now is to encapsulate contemporary ceramic studio practice, engage the art world and elevate artists’ works. Our team of 35+ professional artisteducators curates each class and program with careful consideration of the 1,260+ students who study here annually. In addition to our core programs for adults, we offer classes for teens and children through Greenwich House Afterschool.”

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PHOTOGR A PH E R S / I L LUST R ATOR S CH A D ROB E RTS ON & E R IC WOL F I NGE R DI EG O DI A Z A R L E Y-RO S E TOR S ON E

Jack Lenor Larsen

A. B. C.

D. E. F.

E DWA R D A DDEO M ATT H U N T M A IJA LOU E K A R I

Textile designer, creator and collector New York, New York COW TAN .CO M/L ARS E N LO N G H O U S E .O RG

“ Making everything—camps, boats, crafts, costumes, arrangements, gardens—as a child, and later studying architecture, is what led me to work in weaving and textiles. My fabric patterns are inspired by Mondrian, Matisse, Japan, India, Peru, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Bauhaus, Art Deco, l ’Art nouveau and Northwest Indians. Understatement, nuance, craftsmanship, nonconformity and being a world citizen are at the core of my character. I have worked in 60 countries.”

Brendan Ravenhill Studio Furniture, lighting and product design Los Angeles, California B R E N DAN R AVE N H I LL .CO M

“ I try to find a story to tell in every piece we make. This can be the story of a manufacturing method we invent, a novel use of material characteristics, a constraint created by building code, or an exploration of tension and compression. Once I find the thread of a story, the designs that result are in some ways the conclusion of that narrative. They’re objects whose final form is a mathematical proof of the question or constraint the story posed.”

Maija Louekari Textile designer and illustrator Helsinki, Finland MAIJALO U E K AR I .CO M

“ I guess the first impressions that led to my work came when I was a kid. I asked my father why we call our chairs ‘Aalto’ chairs. ‘They are designed by Alvar Aalto; he has given the special form to the chair,’ my dad replied. It was then that I rea lized that behind every object there is a person who designed it. Also, many childrens books—and illustrations in them—have affected me a lot.”

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MOVEMENT CHAMPIONS OF CRAFT

Tartine Bakery Award-winning bread and pastries San Francisco, California TARTI N E BAK E RY.CO M

Broken Homme

American-made footwear and leather goods Los Angeles, California B RO K E N H O M M E .CO M

Greenwich House Pottery Helping individuals through arts education New York, New York G R E E NWI C H H O U S E P OT TE RY.O RG

27 ISSUE 07:

CHARACTER

PHOTOGR A PH E R S / I L LUST R ATOR S CH A D ROB E RTS ON & E R IC WOL F I NGE R DI EG O DI A Z A R L E Y-RO S E TOR S ON E

Jack Lenor Larsen

A. B. C.

D. E. F.

E DWA R D A DDEO M ATT H U N T M A IJA LOU E K A R I

Textile designer, creator and collector New York, New York COW TAN .CO M/L ARS E N LO N G H O U S E .O RG

Brendan Ravenhill Studio Furniture, lighting and product design Los Angeles, California B R E N DAN R AVE N H I LL .CO M

Maija Louekari Textile designer and illustrator Helsinki, Finland MAIJALO U E K AR I .CO M

28 MOHAWK

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PHOTOGR A PH E R S / I L LUST R ATOR S GR EG K L A S S EN & JA N ET F R A N K L I N DA N I E L DEN T

A. B.

GR AY A R E A

Greg Klassen Furniture Contemporary fine furniture Lynden, Washington G R EG K L ASS E N .CO M

“ My furniture designs are inspired by the materials I use. No two trees, or the boards that are milled from them, are the same. I try to celebrate the unique character of the wood with my designs. A pair of twisting natural edges brought together create a void where I might add a river made of blue glass. Other times, I might plan a design around a large crack in the wood. I like to think of my role as showing people the beautiful thing I found, and often that means a special pair of wood slabs with a little bit of my artistic touch added in.”

Julia Turner

Gray Area Foundation

Award-winning jewelry-maker and artist San Francisco, California

Applying art and technology to create positive social impact San Francisco, Californa

J U LIATU R N E R .CO M

G R AYAR E A .O RG

“ I have a table in my studio that’s covered in small objects, a weird but organized mixture of things I’ve been given, made myself or found. They are like notes to myself that I add and take away over time. Many of them have been shaped, abraded, burned, painted, stapled, taped, tied or otherwise subjected to an impulse I had. I’m always working with them, rearranging them and combining them in different ways, moving the treatments forward until something jumps out as a good expression of what’s on my mind.”

“Art and technolog y are both powerful instruments for social change. When you bring them together, the possibilities are endless. One of Gray Area’s most successful programs was called Urban Prototyping, with an expressed goal of using art and technolog y as tools for civic engagement and urban revitalization. Urban Prototyping brought to the attention of city government the need for innovation within the Planning Department to make it easier to deploy creative projects in the public realm. Gray Area acts as a partner to incubate some of the best projects to help them become permanent.”

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28 MOHAWK

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PHOTOGR A PH E R S / I L LUST R ATOR S GR EG K L A S S EN & JA N ET F R A N K L I N DA N I E L DEN T

A. B.

GR AY A R E A

Greg Klassen Furniture Contemporary fine furniture Lynden, Washington G R EG K L ASS E N .CO M

Julia Turner

Gray Area Foundation

Award-winning jewelry-maker and artist San Francisco, California

Applying art and technology to create positive social impact San Francisco, Californa

J U LIATU R N E R .CO M

G R AYAR E A .O RG

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32 MOHAWK

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PAPER GRADES QUICK REFERENCE

MOHAWK PAPER SELECTOR The Mohawk product portfolio is designed to bring craftsmanship, tactility and quality to all the ways you print. Be it digital, offset or even letterpress, the Mohawk product portfolio has the perfect paper to bring your project to life.

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Options +Navajo

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Via is the best-selling uncoated paper in America, offering Mohawk quality at an affordable price. Featuring popular textures, colors and highly printable white shades, Via is a paper for today and for every day.

Digital

Strathmore

Packaging Papers

Mohawk features a comprehensive collection of digital substrates, including a family of reliable and economical coated and uncoated papers specially made for digital presses, as well as a unique offering of specialty substrates for digital printing that help place you and your customers on the cutting edge.

Setting the standard for design and innovation since 1892, the Strathmore Collection is a diverse assortment of cotton papers, colors and finishes that honor tradition while striking new ground with contemporary colors and surface technologies. They add an image of luxury to all print communications.

Appealing to the eye and touch, Mohawk packaging papers deliver rich imagery, deep color and fine detail to help luxury brands stand out in the retail environment. With a suite of options, this collection helps create consistency across a range of packaging and promotional materials.

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The names, symbols, logos, photographs and all other intellectual property of the companies, brands, and people appearing herein are the exclusive property of their respective owners and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of or by Mohawk; any legal and equitable rights in their intellectual property are exclusively reserved to those owners.

Smooth, Restful Blue 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 3-4, 29-30 Inxwell Supersmooth, Eco White 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 5-6, 27-28

Sandy Alexander Clifton, NJ Sandyinc.com

Smooth, Citrus Green 70 Text (104gsm), Pg. 7-8, 25,26

I N KS

Smooth, Pure White 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 9-10, 23-24

4cp, 2nd black, match green, match pink, spot dull varnish, 4 hits of white and match green UV inks on Pg. 11-12, 21-22 ITE M N U M B E R

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Mohawk Loop Feltmark, Pumice 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 1-2, 31-32

Antique Vellum, Urban Gray 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 11-12, 21-22 Smooth, White 80 Text (118gsm), Pg. 13-14, 19-20 Smooth, Birch 70 Text (104gsm), Pg. 15-18