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At the turn of the 20^th century, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. The general idea that resource production was done in the home began to shift, with both ideas and labor moving to offsite manufacturing facilities. Machination revved up. Efficiency – of certain things – grew, skillsets transformed away from analog know-how, and standards of making evolved, inevitably entwined with their new modes of production.

The turn of the 20^th century also bore a counter-shift, one of renewed interest in arts and the natural world: Central Park as we know it opened to the public in 1858; The American Museum of Natural History opened in 1869, with London’s following suit in 1881; in 1906 the Bloomsbury Group formed, joined in their philosophical loyalty to enjoyment of the aesthetic experience; with kinship to that philosophy, the Arts and Crafts Movement progressed in direct contemporaneity with the Industrial Revolution; Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, a concerned satire on the encroachment of industry on daily life, was released in 1936; in the mid-20^th century, the American Craft Council, Folly Cove Designers, and other American crafts-focused collectives began forming all across the U.S.

It was a fruitful period of recalibration with the analog, the natural world, and art in a new day in age in which those worlds seemed (and maybe were) under threat.

And so the cycle continues. Now is a new day in age, and it’s no secret or understatement that the Digital Revolution is in full, powerful swing. In all of its ability to diversify and connect disparate communities and ideas, there’s a technological sleight of hand clandestinely curating our lives. Hopes for net neutrality are now wistful, naïve remnants of the Internet’s halcyon days. It is an era of homogeneity.

True to the cyclical ways of industry, people are feistily kicking back against this virtual-/digitization. We’re seeing a restored appreciation for the handmade and for the tactile experience of creating. This is the ethos of the Maker’s Movement.

The Maker’s Movement is a wide-sweeping cultural shift in the ways we produce, and it’s ultimately counterintuitive to digitization. It’s a revitalization of the notion of micro-manufacturing, or highly skilled manufacturing with smaller production ecosystems. To be clear, the Maker’s Movement is not a technologically averse phenomenon. Rather, it values the handcrafted over the purely digital, and intuits the ways tech can be used to the advantage of the maker (think: 3-D printing and laser cutting).

Institutions are now offering spaces specifically for this sort of production, such as Brooklyn’s Industry City, which skews space toward creator tenants versus larger corporations, or BMW-backed design hub A/D/O, which offers shared studio space for small-scale designers. And bigger brands are defiantly taking note. As AdWeek reported a couple years back, brands like Levi’s and Home Depot are “courting” micro-manufacturers to bring fresh credence to their macro-corporate brands; we’re also witnessing this affinity for the privately owned/artisanal in the formation of retail partnerships between old-school manufacturers like Minnesota’s Faribault Woolen Mill Co. and big-box brands like West Elm and Restoration Hardware.

The Maker’s Movement is all around us. It is a part of the shift toward re-humanization (versus automation), authenticity (versus the ethos of “mass market”), and the value of individuality (versus homogeneity).

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For many, many years I had an upstairs neighbor at my SoHo loft. We gradually got to know one another, and I discovered that he was an art critic. He thrust Basquiat and others onto everyone’s lips. He knew his aesthetics.

After forging a relationship, he told me one day, “I’ve been trying to figure out the common thread that defines your aesthetic. It’s what I do. And it’s taken me so long to figure it out.” Admittedly, I was flattered I’d stumped a pro. “I realized,” he said, “what you like is to see the hand of the person that made something. You like to see their touch.”

My dear friend was right. He’d nailed the concept I surround myself with and live my life by: the presence of, and dedication to, the hand of the maker.

The Maker’s Movement is allowing that “touch” to flourish, that creator’s voice to be heard loud and clear. History has poised us to create, to make, to design, and to break free of the homogeneity of a virtual-dependent lifestyle. In my retail business and in my own creating and micro-manufacturing, I am proud of and committed to this moment in time, and how it’s enabling us to react, doing what we do best: making.

Sincerely,

Michele

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

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Join Melissa Joy Manning at our SoHo store for the trunk show featuring Hali Emminger, the designer behind Hechizo, and a member of the Sprig Collective. 

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One thing I’ve always held true is that, as much love as I have for the things around me and as much joy as they may give me, they’re still things. It’s just stuff. I don’t attribute preciousness to, or feel unnecessarily protective of, the objects in my life. I carry incredibly valuable things at the store, but I’ve always wanted people to experience those things. I want to open them up to people, to share them, to make space for tactile relationships. The same goes for the items in my home.

For years and years I’ve accumulated complete sets of mismatched china, glasses, silver, and napkins, selecting a common element that is incorporated into all the pieces. I’ve been collecting turquoise and blue wine glasses, and I buy anywhere from one to six of a style that I like; that characteristic color stays true for the whole “collection” even though the styles differ. They’re old, new, from the flea market, gallery pieces, travel finds, and from local shops; they make up a constantly changing, aesthetically related collection of glasses. It’s not only that the eclecticism is fun and reflects my personality; it’s also pragmatic! If one glass breaks, the set won’t seem imbalanced. I have the freedom to fill its spot with another glass, from another place, with another story.

This eclecticism is part of my personal beauty. I want to liberate my customers with that ideal, and transfer creative courage to them through the eclecticism of my shop. The wonderful thing is, once you’ve found comfort in the unconventional, in the mismatched, in the aesthetically diverse, it’s all the more comfortable to recognize that your taste is going to change over time. Life is long, and we have so much stimulation now than we’ve ever had before. We don’t need to box in our aesthetic identity; rather, we can enjoy the opportunity to go and explore and evolve, to bring new things into our lives, and to appreciate the evolution of our creativity.

With this ethos in mind, I curate my shop to be a cornucopia of curio, and to function as a springboard for people’s own curatorial visions and aesthetic self-expression.

People carry things away from the storefront and combine them with their own curio, décor, or art, all in different ways than I’d ever have presented them. In a beautiful transference of creativity, this forges their story, paints their character, and contributes to their own environment of comfort.

Outside the home, that “environment of comfort” is really important as a business owner. In the name of hospitality, I approach customer service the same way I throw a party: I work my a** off to make sure things are ready for my guests to enjoy themselves, and once the first person steps through the door, I wipe my hands of the prep work and I’m right in the festivities with them, turquoise glass in hand. In my home, my guests have free rein. They can help themselves. They know where the food and booze are, so the party’s in their hands to enjoy. In my shop, I want people to enjoy their experience the same way. My team and I put a ton of hard work into the store for our guests to experience and discover things for themselves. We’ve made room for self-guided exploration, but we’re always in earshot.

As a business owner, a conscious aesthetics of hospitality is crucial to establishing relationships with your customers. All of these considerations, both visual and behavioral, are part of that, and lend to an environment that titillates, inspires, bemuses, tickles, and, most important, is comfortable and easy to enjoy.

I’ll close out by saying that as much as I love celebrating my customers by throwing parties in the store, I’ve yet to do a big sit-down dinner. The dinner table, as that fabled instrument of unification, feels like the next step in bringing together my loved ones and new friends alike. I can feel it coming down the pipeline! Comment below if you want to be added to the invite list. I’d love to host you.

Sincerely,

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

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I confess. I’ve committed my fair share of retail sins.

I’ve also encountered some of these “sins,” or mistakes, by doing business with other designers or vendors and with other retailers. With these experiences in mind, I compiled a few standout things I’ve found are common missteps or breaches in etiquette in the retail world. I hope these call-outs and pointers on establishing your precise marketplace, pricing appropriately in light of your profit margin, and retail neighborliness can contribute to a healthy, sturdy foundation for growing your business or brand.

NEBULOUS MARKET IDENTITY

From the get-go, it’s important to establish your market identity. Are you exclusive? In other words, are you going to cultivate a consumer following, develop narrow or niche stockists relationships, and make fewer things with a costlier price point?

Or is your eye set on mass market? Are you looking to scale big, and produce inexpensive goods for a large audience of consumers?

This is a foundational decision, because it reflects – and affects – the expression of your craft and the “identity” of your sales avenues (specialty stores versus big box, for example).

To be clear, there’s no better or worse way to establish yourself! What’s important, though, is making sure that you’re grounded in the vision you have for your company, and that you have made clear decisions about the direction you’re moving.

One reason this is such a crucial early-on distinction is that if affects your margin markup when you’re selling to consumers and buyers. For example, you can’t follow the conventional margin markup if you’re putting hours and hours of strenuous time and material resources into your product – but you’d likely be much more flexible here if your product is more easily assembled. This leads us to... 

MIS-PRICING

So you’ve committed to being a manufacturing and design business. Now, you’ve got to make that green. Stay out of the red. Taste the rainbow. However you want to say it, without exception, you must turn a profit to be sustainable and successful.

You know your business model and it’s time to focus your attention on your sales avenues. Hugely important is recognizing whether or not you are going to be selling to platforms other than your own website. (I think it’s safe to assume that most brands, at this point in time, will show and sell their goods or services from a dedicated web platform. Please do leave your comments below if your brand is an outlier!)

The Internet has disrupted the retail paradigm as we knew it. I get really hyped up about this, so I’ll save the nitty gritty of this ginormous shift for a later Design Talk. But for now, I want to call out that retailers will not sell your goods if you are selling on your website for less than they can afford to sell your goods for. Think: if you sell a product for $100 on your site, and try to sell it to a retail buyer, they’ll have to mark it up to $200 to accommodate for their profit margin and for the massive, unaccounted for overhead costs they’re responsible for.

Thus, from the inception of your brand, your product, and your online presence, there’s a certain amount of consideration that must go into your pricing so you’re not undercutting potential buyer partners.

Keeping in mind your market identity, and of course your practical considerations like material costs, other resource capital like website and operations, labor, and time – make sure you’re pricing to sell at the amount you’ll be able to make a profit based on where you see your business going. Pricing for your perceived profit margin is, of course, just another facet of your business interplaying with your vision for it.

I want to reiterate that no vision has to fall in line with another! Regardless, your decisions should be thoughtful, deliberate, and forward-looking. And “the money stuff” is certainly at the forefront of that decision-making.

DISRESPECTING THY NEIGHBOR

And with that, you’re up and running! (If only it could be that easy… ;) ) You’ve mastered your self-definition and established practices for sustainable profit margins. You’re developing relationships with stockists and are poised to expand even further into brick and mortar.

You are on a roll! Honor that “roll” (dare I say... butter it?!) by honoring your relationships with buyers. Respect their commitment to your brand, and your product, and recognize that in turn, you’ve committed to them. Part good business etiquette and part self-preservation, recognize that it’s not okay to pursue other retailers in the same neighborhood as your current stockists. Your current buyer cannot continue selling your product if their neighbor is selling it too – especially if it’s for even just 1¢ less, which starts a race to the bottom as far as profitability goes.

There’s also the seasonal acknowledgement of that buyer-vendor commitment. It’s best to avoid selling your back stock to a flash sale site, for example, until your product is fully out of circulation at your stockists.

Beyond all that, if you’re selling something that should be perceived as exclusive, you’re undermining its value if people see it in two shops in one day. You’re removing the sense of urgency to buy it at all, if the perception is that it’s available anytime, anyplace.

I have incredible faith in small business. That’s why I’m working on Design Talks as a resource for small companies, designers, and creative entrepreneurs. And the reason behind this all, the reason I want small businesses to be able to enter the market, is because I value and want to experience innovation and individuality.

And that is the hugest, most sin-repenting, redemptive, holy thing happening right now: there is a wealth of innovation on the market.

People aren’t hesitating to get their ideas out there. They’re learning from their mistakes and studying up on how to best make, promote, and sell. The democratization of the Internet has played a wonderful role in that (again, I say this with a tinge of caution, explanation forthcoming in a future Design Talk!). Innovative designers are forging smartly ahead to receptive markets like never before.

It’s the sustenance of today’s creative momentum that I hope Design Talks can be here to foster, to help create a scaffolding for future creator-innovators and their business models. That creative innovation is the spice of life.

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

Next week, pull a chair up to the dinner table as I talk aesthetics and congeniality of hosting. Plus, my personal practices for self-preservation, for when entertaining gets exhausting.

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