A few weeks back I was in Calgary for a visit and stumbled across a great design store called KIT. It was one of those shops so filled to the brim with beautifully designed objects that you have to leave without picking up anything at all or else risk taking home too much. But one piece has plagued me since and I finally found it this morning. It was a beautiful porcelain plate with a crisp red design, produced by the company ARTECNICA.

The company mandate is worth a read as they advocate “design with conscience” and work on a global scale with designers and artisans to produce objects that are sustainable in their production and materials.

From their website: “Our challenge is to develop a competitive product that will encourage the survival of indigenous craft. Fulfilling this mission requires a smart designer, a savvy and visionary project producer, and a willing and ambitious artisan. Our objective is to avoid the mechanization of the artisan, which devalues his work and undermines the project from both a design and an economic standpoint.”

“design with conscience projects employ production methods that are human and environmentally friendly. we denounce child labor, promote safe, toxic-free environments, and use purchasing criteria that prevent labor and environmental exploitation. our vision is to promote self-sustaining communities of skilled artisans in underdeveloped countries. design can be used to advance living standards worldwide. through design with conscience, artecnica hopes to inspire others, promote global awareness, and help generate a better and more humane world.”

hmmm…nice.

Here are a few other designs from their site:

I love these reinterpreted bottles because it’s less about the recycling of materials, which takes it’s toll on our environment as well, but about finding new uses and interpretations for the objects that already exist.

ARTECNICA also works with designer Hella Jongerius, and she’s one of my personal faves. Below is a projects she’s developed with ARTECNICA in which “Artisans located in the primary coca leaf-growing region of Peru handcraft the collection. With the help of Aid to Artisans, a non-profit organization that provides practical assistance to artisans worldwide, Artecnica offers an alternative economic reality to the people of this dangerous and oppressed area.”

Here are a few other images of Jongerius’s work which I can’t get enough of.

Alright, that’s enough eye candy for one day…off to work!