Personalization, customization and bespoke: Increasing the product offer

It could be said that true luxury products are defined through skill, connoisseur- luxury ship, rarity, craftsmanship and innovation. Luxury brands on the other hand are customization defined by illusions of luxury, fashion, authenticity, lifestyle, aspiration, the global fashion market and profit. Increasingly luxury brands have introduced options to custom- manufacture ize and personalize their products to enhance their offer and thereby creating technology the perception that the customer is purchasing something individual. However, branding these options within the realms of the luxury brand do nothing more than offer craftsmanship variations on a theme. Component pieces within an existing product range are retail produced and offered for sale as part of an existing product category. Offering a customized product changes the perception of the consumer. They believe they are buying something different, but this is far from the reality. Luxury brands offer customization to attempt to diversify and add value to their product offer. If one considers craftsmanship and innovation as core components in creating differentiation between luxury and luxury branded products, it could then be argued that traditional crafted products and the integration of digital technologies challenge the status quo. As customization and personalization are already occupying a place of growing significance and include viable modes of industrialized production, the product offer lacks the integrity that would be associated with a handmade luxury product.Peer reviewe

The Formation and Development of Japanese Craftsmanship

Japanese craftsmanship is an important resource of Japanese industrial culture. The Japanese manufacturing industry has a global reputation and strong competitiveness and influence, and the artisan spirit is one of the “secret weapons” that has made the Japanese manufacturing industry strong. The evolution of Japanese craftsmanship in different historical periods can further enrich the connotation of craftsmanship and deepen people’s understanding of craftsmanship, which is of positive significance to all countries in cultivating and promoting craftsmanship and improving the service capability of various industries

Rural Craftsmanship, Employment Creation and Poverty Alleviation: The Case of the Bamboo Craftsmanship in Bangladesh

Abstract: More than 30 percent of total population in Bangladesh is extremely poor. Halving the existing poverty level as per the millennium development goals of the UN by 2015 is the major challenge of the country. The question arises as to how to eradicate extreme poverty quickly? Successful experience of the East Asian countries reveals that creation of employment opportunities in the non-farm industrial sector for the rural poor is instrumental to eradicate poverty. Due to stagnant large and medium scales industrial sector and sole dependence on agriculture sector for employment and income, Bangladesh suffers from huge unemployment and disguised unemployment, which has been further worsening due to high population growth rate. Since the long past, rural informal income generating activities, such as traditional bamboo craftsmanship, however, has created enormous employment and income opportunities in the country especially for the rural poor and distress women. Empirical studies though recognize the contribution of rural informal activities to poverty alleviation, seldom focuses on who are the craftsmen, how they produce and market their products. Using primary data collected from more than 200 bamboo craftsmen from four districts in Bangladesh, this study tries to examine the role of rural informal activities and characterizes who are the craftsmen. The study finds that bamboo craftsmen are mostly uneducated and inherited the skills and businesses from their parents. The study also finds that all of the workers in the bamboo industry are family members and nearly 50 percent of total workers in the bamboo sector are female. Thus, the traditional bamboo sector contributes enormously to the creation of employment opportunities for the rural women. Finally, based on the opinions of the craftsmen, the study recommends some suggestions for the development of the bamboo industry in Bangladesh.industrial cluster, industrial development, craftsmanship, bamboo

Ornament and craft:Digital design and the profession

The separation of ornament from Modern architecture declared famously in Adolf Loos’ essay “Ornament and Crime” placed space as the primary concern of architecture, with evidence of craftsmanship and symbolism removed from the canonical and conventional public buildings of the past century. Yet, Harvard Graduate School of Design’s historian Professor Antoine Picon notes the widespread return of ornamental expression in architecture today is “inseparable from the massive diffusion of the computer” and furthered by a “weakening in the tectonic approach and the increased importance attached to surface.” In Cellular Tessellation (CT)—a project developed for Vivid Sydney 2014, an 18-day festival of light, music and ideas – this contemporary problem of the separation of surface from structure was addressed as a core area of interest, as were ornament and the expressive potential of architecture through digitally enabled craftsmanship

Dangerous Liaisons: Relationships between design, craft and art

The introductory essay [co-authored] examines the background and current interconnections between design, craft and the fine arts. This Special Issue was able to expand the debate by showing how attitudes to materials – from 19C sculpture to current fashion – appropriate craftsmanship to reinvigorate notions of handmaking

Royal Show needlework

WOMEN are stealing the m a n out of craftsmanship. Some of the best craftsmanship in this highly mechanised age is the work of women who can feel proud that their creative skill with the needle continues while factory production has largely replaced the craftsmanship once devoted to timber, leather and metal

Reclaiming Craftsmanship

In upcoming years, many institutions in the private and public sectors will lose valuable organizational knowledge due to organizational restructuring, departmental consolidation, retirements and attrition. This can have a potentially crippling effect on organizational effectiveness and service delivery. Organizations need to establish processes and develop tools that allow them to capture employees know-how-and-know-what, and disseminate that information and knowledge to other employees. In the age of the digital economy, the temptation appears to be to introduce technology to capture codifiable data, resulting in the inadvertent undervaluing of the personal knowledge and expertise accumulated by their employees over many years of practical experience. My focus is on personal knowledge, particularly concerning acquisition and transmission. Approaching the research from a post-positivist as well as a pragmatist approach, I have sought to identify and understand the factors that influence people to share knowledge and conversely how people learn from others, through mentoring for example. Within this context, I advocate for the return to the spirit of craftsmanship and reclaim the ideas of learning by doing, having more human-to-human connections to learn from, and taking the time to be engaged in mastering a practice. My goal has been to question rather than to pursue a definite explanation for how the acquisition and transmission of personal knowledge unfolds. As a pragmatist, I approach the idea of knowledge as a derivative of our engagement and active experience with the world. To this end, I added an applied element to this dissertation; I have included a working prototype of a platform for people to share their skills and interact with others in their network. This software application also acts as a repository of data for my research and for topics related to personal knowledge. For example, it includes an Alphabet of Personal Knowledge wherein I briefly examine the etymology and use of selected words in the context of knowledge acquisition and sharing. My interest lies in using multi-dimensional methods that complement each other with the express goal of creating new knowledge that can in turn be used to improve mentoring and knowledge sharing programs

[Review of] Oscar Hijuelos. The Mamba Kings Play Songs of Love

Hijuelos\u27 novel, a Pulitzer Prize winner, earns it laurels through the author\u27s craftsmanship. Its unusual flashback structure, its characterizations of the two Castillo brothers, and its many pages of lyrical prose are praiseworthy. Many readers will enjoy this story of the rise and fall in the careers of two Cuban musicians who flourished in the Desi Arnaz era

Research on the Cultivation of Craftsmanship Spirit among Higher Vocational College Students and Integration of Industry and Education

This paper investigates the cultivation of craftsmanship spirit among higher vocational college students and the optimization and application of the integration of industry and education models, with the aim of promoting the development of craftsmanship spirit among students and advancing the integration of industry and education. Firstly, by analyzing the current status of cultivating craftsmanship spirit in higher vocational colleges, the necessity and importance of its development are explored. Secondly, considering the specific conditions in the Sichuan-ASEAN region, the feasibility and key factors of fostering craftsmanship spirit are discussed. Subsequently, this paper presents methods for optimizing industry-education integration and collaboration between colleges and enterprises based on craftsmanship spirit, aiming to facilitate deeper cooperation between higher vocational colleges and the industry. Finally, through case studies and empirical research, the practical effectiveness of the proposed model is validated, providing strong theoretical and practical support for educational and teaching reforms in higher vocational colleges