The Hidden Side of Design: The Relevance of Artisanship

Abstract

Design Mysteries Become No Mysteries The concept of “industrial atmosphere,” elaborated by Alfred Marshall,1 plays a crucial role in explaining the link between geography and innovation.2 Clusters and industrial districts benefit from the access to a common pool of skilled workers and to new ideas that easily circulate among the firms and the professionals who share the same local context and socio-cultural background. Indeed, Marshall affirms that “mysteries of the trade become no mysteries, but are, as it were, in the air, and children learn many of them, unconsciously.”3 Knowledge, although tacit and socially embedded, is in the air, freely available to professionals and firms within clusters and industrial districts. Interactions among local actors are facilitated by physical proximity and shared local culture. “Being there” (located in a cluster or industrial district) is a necessary, although not sufficient, condition for absorbing and exploiting tacit knowledge. “Industrial atmosphere” has been used to interpret the diffusion of tacit knowledge among small and medium firms. The flexible specialization in traditional industries,4 such as textile, fashion, machineries, and furniture, and the peculiar organization of Italian firms into industrial districts (at least in the center-north of the country) were an important counterpart of the work of the most important Maestri of Italian design. Not by chance, designers such as Achille Castiglioni, Michele De Lucchi, Vico Magistretti, Marcello Nizzoli, Aldo Rossi, Richard Sapper, and Marco Zanuso (just to name a few) worked closely with firms that were based within these industrial districts. The extraordinary creativity of Italian designers met the flexibility and sensitivity of local entrepreneurs who were keen to differentiate their products through the lenses of quality and esthetics. The Milan area was the epicenter of this phenomenon, where a specific mix of designers, based in the city center, came together with firms located in the suburbs of Brianza (where an important furniture district is located). Tacit knowledge ran fluidly in the relations among the designers and entrepreneurs, as well as among firms within the district. Quoting 1 Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1920). 2 Elisa Giuliani, “The Selective Nature of Knowledge Networks in Clusters: Evidence from the Wine Industry,” Journal of Economic Geography 7 (2007): 139-68. 3 Marshall, Principles of Economics. 4 Michael J. Piore and Charles F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity, (New York: Basic Books, 1984).