American craftsmanship is alive and well

April 14, 8:37 AMDesign Trends ExaminerNeal Shaffer

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Good craftsmanship and good design go hand-in-hand, so much so that I'm tempted to argue that one can't exist without the other. One of the easiest ways to separate a weak designer from a good one is to look at functionality. Whether it's a logo, a piece of furniture, or a building, it has to both work and last to be good. The way to make that happen is to pay attention to detail, honor the process, and use good raw materials. In other words, pay attention to the craft.

There isn't as much of that around as there used to be, but Tadd Myers' outstanding project A Portrait of the American Craftsman serves as a much needed reminder of the way things were.

The project looks at six American manufacturers -- from boots to guitars to baseball gloves -- who still take an old-school, handmade approach to large-scale manufacture of consumer goods. The photographs are well-observed and rich in detail, but they never resort to pandering. "Portrait" really is the right word, and the accompanying quotes do a great job telling the story without overdoing it.

I think the whole thing is summed up best with this nugget from Carl Chappell at Trail Town Custom Boots:

A working cowboy will get three or four months out of a pair of factory-made boots or three or four years out of a pair of mine.

This is my early candidate for Link of the Year. 

(found via Draplin)