“Here we think with our hands and we create with our hearts”
A new poster on our walls.
A few days ago, a new poster came to decorate our walls. This may seem a little anecdotal but you will understand why it is not a simple poster. I would like to point out, first of all, that it is a homemade creation and not a poster purchased from Ikea 😂
The origin of the idea.
First of all, where did this idea come from? In fact, I had been looking for several months for a way to express our profession as French manufacturers through a short and impactful sentence. Then the title of the book by the Swiss writer and philosopher, Denis de Rougemont, “Thinking with the hands” came back to my mind.📕
The fusion of thought and manual labor.
What a wonderful mental short circuit! Suddenly, thought and work of the hands , too often opposed, find themselves united. It is the fusion of design and manufacturing, of the abstract and the concrete, of the imagination and the body.⚡
Thinking with your hands: our philosophy.
For me, this title perfectly expresses what we have been experiencing on a daily basis for three years, when we officially became 100% manufacturers . Since then, we “think with our hands”. How so ? First, during the research and development phase: there is no need to work with a computer and do 3D simulations to hope to invent an ergonomic cushion . There is also no need to spend days and days making plans for the comet by filling out notebook pages. Pure, abstract thinking is the best way to hit the wall.🧠
The importance of manual experimentation.
On the contrary, we were able to realize that we must, from the start, “get our hands dirty”. You have to cut, twist, assemble, cut, deform, fill, empty, sew and fight. And this is all the more true in the world of cushions, which are very particular: the reason is the filling, which exerts a lot of pressure and is always trying to escape 😂
Thinking with your hands: a pragmatic approach.
While we can quite easily imagine that a tube of fabric forms a sleeve of clothing (we will just slide our arm into it), it is difficult to know the volume that a fabric pocket will form once filled. There is only one effective way to move forward... groping ! That is to say, thinking… with your hands.🤚
The philosophy of Denis de Rougemont.
For his part, Denis de Rougemont, wanted in his book to reestablish the link between thought and action . He expressed the idea that a thought only has an effect if it proves useful and concrete in the person's daily life. We think the same thing when it comes to design. Thought is only useful if it finds expression in form and allows the problems initially defined by the specifications to be resolved. It is an extension of the hands. The hands are his guide.🧭
