Weaving with Rush: Exploring Craft-Design Collaborations in Revitalizing a Local Craft

IntroductionThis study focuses on how designers can collaborate with local craftspeople to expand the market potential of a local craft. It also explores the types of contributions that designers can make to artisan communities. Local craft is a reflection of the relationship between humans and their environment within their historical, cultural, and social contexts. Pre-industrial artisans were skilled craftspeople who used locally available materials to create products and generate income. As similar products manufactured with alternative or new materials were introduced to the market the demand for traditional craftsmanship sharply declined. Mechanization and mass production led to a shift in the production system from customized artisanship to large-scale generic production. To compete with mass produced products, artisans generally must sell their individually handmade work at lower prices. Greenhalgh (2003, p. 6) indicates that crafts straddle between the art and design economies and often get the worst of both worlds. The artists naturally make a living by selling their handmade objects at a profitable margin, and the designers make a living by designing objects that go into mass-production. Considering that their craft products lack the prestige of art or the reproducibility of product design, craftspeople often have to resort to selling their unique works at mass production prices. Meanwhile, traditional crafts, involving practices rooted in local knowledge and accumulated over time, are part of our cultural heritage and should be preserved and revitalized. Designers are called upon to bridge the gap between idea and practice, and to link artistic and creative elements with practical and realizable outcomes (Dodgson, Gann, & Salter, 2005). Accordingly, organizations like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Crafts Council (WCC), and Aid to Artisans (ATA) have made efforts to bring traditional crafts into mainstream life. Such efforts include engaging designers to work with artisan groups to develop new product lines for new markets.From the perspective of promoting regional competitiveness through cultural industry, developing products based on cultural heritage and local resources can invigorate local economic development (Santagata, 2002). A growing niche market for unique and authentic products has emerged from the homogeneous globalization-driven market (McIntyre, 2010). Products reflecting local identity or highlighting cultural value offer a form of differentiation in an increasingly converging market (Lin, 2007; Moalosi, Popovic, & Hickling-Hudson, 2007). For this reason, culturally connected local crafts are in a particularly strong position to respond to this trend. Imbuing products with authentic characteristics by adapting features from local crafts could be a strategy to develop products which reflect differentiation and self-expression. Such products may fill a unique niche and build identity in the global market (Dillon, 2008). When local cultural assets receive attention, areas experiencing economic downturn, or industry sectors where local crafts are neglected, have promising prospects for economic revival. In Asia, the concept of 'One Village One Product (OVOP)' movements, originating in Japan and promoted in numerous Asian countries, encourages local residents to manufacture distinctive products to aid in their regional economic development through collaboration with experts in relevant fields, thereby adding value to locally available resources (Rana, 2008). Inspired by the OVOP movement, a division of the Taiwanese government, the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, has launched Taiwan's 'One Town One Product (OTOP)' program to promote distinctive local products. It has also organized the Taiwan OTOP Design Award since 2007. The objectives are to encourage alliances between craftspeople and designers, to bring public awareness to regionally specialized industries, and to apply respective design aesthetics. …