"Software is not something where you press a button and get a result. Software enables practice and investigation like a tool or musical instrument. Instead of having a big warehouse full of stock, all our products are stored in files on the computer, thus keeping costs down," says Olivier.
Olivier's ultimate goal is set up a network of workshops and digital crafts people exchanging designs and files and micro-manufacturing at the point of sale, so staying small and staying local. Each workshop functions as an open studio, where the customer can come in, meet the designer-maker and see the product being made in the workshop through a glass partition.
"The concept of the open studio is very much the identity of Unto This Last, with people buying direct from the maker," he says. He wants to make the workshop itself a reason for customers to visit, creating an interactive experience for them so they buy not just the product but also the story behind it.
The company has yet to duplicate the model to propagate the chain of workshops from Brick Lane to Madison Avenue, but the seeds have definitely been planted.
Yasmine Chinwala, December 2005