Design History Society

Craft Designs and Development: A Search for Values

Author(s): Jaya Jaitly
Source: Journal of Design History, Vol. 2, No. 2/3 (1989), pp. 169-174
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Design History Society
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JayaJaitly
Craft Designs and
Development:
for Values
1 the village poor. This is the newly-introduced,
In its broadest sense, design can be described as
harmony in form. When man plans and lays out a
garden, invokes through an instrument the musical
notes of a raga, or deftly moulds a simple clay pot, he
is imposing a sense of harmony, order, and meaning
into his world. The most important aspect of design,
however, lies in the meaning and use of man's
creative impulses, and therefore the greatest
harmony is achieved only when the aesthetic aspect
of 'good design' is truly integrated with the utility of
the object which man has created.
To make my approach to design clear from the
very beginning, I will share a quote from Lao-Tse:
Thewheel's hub holds thirtyspokes
Utilitydependson the hold throughthe hub.
The potter'sclay formsa vessel
It is the spacewithin that serves.
A house is builtwith solid walls
The nothingness of window and door alone renders it
usable.
Thatwhich exists maybe transformed
Whatis non-existenthas boundlessuses.
The design of a wheel is its meaning, as the shape of
the pot indicates its purpose.
Today, the patrons of art and craft in India have
by-passed the difference between true design and
its superficial outer face-decorative embellishment.
The basic shape, form, and use of a handcrafted
object is forgotten for its carving, or the patterns and
motifs on its surface. Beautiful, ornate, even timeless
in their forms, they have frozen into admirable
museum pieces-only to be romanticized, patron-
ized, and the maker lionized perhaps for a few brief
moments. What has been forgotten is their relevance
as useful objects, serving meaningful purposes in the
lives of their creators and their users.
To cite an instance of the difference between good
design and good decoration, we will examine a
mundane but fundamental item in the daily lives of
Journalof DesignHistoryVol.2 Nos. 2 & 3 ? 1989 TheDesignHistorySociety0952-4649/89 $3.00
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a Search
smokeless chula (cooking stove) which is designed
for improved wood-burning cooking, to make
kitchens smokeless, and to use less firewood.
According to a UNICEF pamphlet, the design of the
stove corresponds very much with traditionally-
known cooking facilities:
Woodstovesusuallyhaveone, two, or threeholes forpots.
User's needs and cooking practicesmust be carefully
studiedbeforeselectingthe appropriatedesign, since the
stove size, numberof pot holes, and size of firehavemajor
impactson efficiency.Metalwater-heatingcontainershave
been addedto the chimneyin somemodels.Theseprovide
hot waterwithoutextrafuelneeds,butraisethe cost of the
stove. Improvedcharcoalstoves can be made of scrap
metal by traditionalartisans.Or of fired clay either by
small-scaletraditionalpottersor in largefactories.
The particulardesigns adapted for use in the villages
of Jammu and Kashmir are made of local mud, and
can be constructed by rural women in their homes,
or by the local village potter. Many women are
enthusiastic in learning how to make the newly-
designed stove. On one occasion when they were
asked to try it out, and the officer in charge of the
chula scheme went back after a few days, he saw in
one household a new mud chula with a beautiful
decorative pattern embellishing the outer walls. One
can rejoice here that design development has been
applied to areas that genuinely needed it; that
housewives and traditional artisans can understand
and accept these products, which are made with
their existing skills; and that the woman, happy,
because something has made her daily chores easier,
had bestowed upon it her love and blessings by
adding her own, individual, creative spirit.
This new stove is for truly indigenous use.
Inexpensive, well-designed, and with the additional
decorative patterns, it has that individual touch
required to make it an aesthetically appealing hand-
crafted product. It is necessary and important to
remember, however, that the form and line of the
new smokeless chula is its design; while the pattern
made on it by the woman is merely decorative
embellishment. Even with the most graphic,
detailed, or decorative motifs used on the outer walls
of the stove, if the stove itself was misshapen or
inefficient, the design of this product would be
useless.
2 items of trade-between the abysmally poor village
Product development is another activity often
mistaken for design development; and many
designers today feel that making turban cloth into
shirts, or anklets into ashtrays, is the equivalent of
creative designing. Clearly we should recognize that
this urban transformation of a product, from its
original use, which is based on a culturally felt
need-to an object used by someone almost from a
different world, and certainly from a different class-
is just a superficial (and, irresponsible) adaptation of
the product's use. The designer's responsibility lies
in understanding the milieu of the artisan-producer
and relating it to something and someone he too can
understand.
The most superficial of designers, or patrons of the
crafts, are those who believe that identifying
traditional crafts with a purely subjective eye, and
asking for them to be reproduced en massefor export,
is all that need to be done for the development of
handicrafts. These patrons often speak of 'good
taste' as being all, and for them there is a small
rejoinder by Harley Parker:
'Goodtaste'is the most obviousresourceof the insecure.
Peopleof good tasteeagerlybuy the Emperor'sold clothes.
Goodtaste is the firstrefugeof the non-creative.
It is the last ditchstandof the artist.
Goodtaste is the anaestheticof the public.
Self-appointed arbiters of 'good taste' select art and
craft objects at random from past history-whether
from old havelis, temples, roadside monuments, or
village homes. They place them in a milieu totally out
of context, where these pieces serve only to make a
visual statement of our past glory, or the designer's
'good eye'. The object is no longer in use as it was
originally meant to be; it is no longer considered
comfortable or convenient, and hence has no real 3
relevance to its makers or its viewer, and the only It seems ironical that 'development'
place it has a right to be is in a museum. Everyone like industries departments, design centres, weaver's
170
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has conveniently forgotten the real issues. Where is
the man who made it? For what could his skills be
used today? Can the object still be used with some or
no modification, given a different cultural environ-
ment? What do we use in its place now? How does it
compare with this? What can be done to make this
admirable object a useful part of our lives? 'Good
taste' answers none of these questions.
Crafts in India today have become commercial
artisan or weaver, and the urban elite who, on a par
with the foreign importer of handicrafts, cares only
that the product should be of 'excellent quality'. It is
significant that, at the level of the central govern-
ment, the development of handicrafts comes under
the Ministry of Commerce which oversees marketing
and export, whereas most state governments attend,
more realistically, to all aspects of handicraft under
the Department of Industry, which can administer
those areas of assistance needed most by artisans.
They include access to good quality raw materials at
fair prices, credit facilities, and technological assist-
ance through the district industries centres. Genuine
market contact can come only if these areas are
treated first with utmost attention and importance.
To a small extent, the marketing of crafts through
central and state handicraft corporations (often
tucked away into small industries corporations or
export corporations) have supported artisans who
otherwise would have no access to a wider market.
However, with the existing dynamics of profit and
balance sheets, these organizations have done no
more than replace the private trader or middleman
who buys, adds a percentage to cover administrative
costs, transport, octroi, and a margin of profit, and
sells the product elsewhere. Done with lip
sympathy, this activity can only be called patronage;
whereas it usually means that the organization is
merely doing the middleman's job, and more
inefficiently. The link between the craftsman's skills
and living conditions, his need to develop and
sustain his production, and the needs of a wider
market are hardly ever tackled in a linear manner by
a single institution.
organizations
JayaJaitly
 service centres, and schools of design have no direct
connection with, or responsibility to, the domestic
markets of villages, towns, and cities-where
traditional hand-crafted goods should surely have
more relevance than to department stores in New
York or Paris. On the other hand, marketing
organizations have neither the design teams, nor the
trained personnel who can genuinely feel and report
back on the pulse of the market, nor the funds to
spend on technological innovations to improve
products. Often they do not generate enough income
from their lackadaisical sales efforts even to pay the
craftsmen for their supplies within forty days of
delivery. It is difficult to expect artisans to be
progressive or positive about design and product
innovation when the via media between his hands
and the air-conditioned emporia in capital cities is
itself ill-equipped to handle his problems.
Again it is ironical that most state marketing
outlets, established for the exclusive purpose of
promoting and marketing the crafts of their own
state, prefer to stock 'fast selling' products from
other states. They do not delve deeply into the
condition of all existing folk, trade, and feudal crafts
of their own areas, in order to redesign, adapt, or
even just revive them. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh,
Maharashtra, and Bihar are cases in point, while
many other states are 'offenders' to a lesser degree
when, to boost sales, counters are allotted to
jewellers who sell precious stones from Delhi and
Rajasthan to augment their sales figures. In such
transactions, the question of reviving traditional
motifs and patterns, let alone giving genuine
technological and design input, does not arise.
The Design Centre for handicrafts in Bangalore
does creative design work with traditional artisans,
but their product range and innovative designs
remain in the showroom. Craftsmen are supposed to
visit the Centre, and draw ideas and inspiration from
these; but they have two major problems which no
public sector patron thinks about. Firstly, most poor
and needy craftsmen cannot afford to come from the
villages to face the imposing and bureaucratic
attitudes of such institutions. Secondly, and more
importantly, they cannot risk producing new goods
that they do not know will sell, unless they can be
assured of an order by private or public sector
retailing outlets.
The School of Design in Srinagar similarly
CraftDesignsand Development:a Searchfor Values
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employs a number of highly skilled craftsmen and
designers to create new forms in materials such as
wood, papier mache, copper, willow, and clay.
Interesting modern products lie on display in the
showroom which is only reluctantly opened to
visitors. Artisans again are supposed to replicate
what they will, but without ready finances or firm
orders from even the government institution pro-
moting the sale of handicrafts. The onus of all market
experimentation, viable price structuring, and bulk
retailing is left to the artisan. The state government
emporia should be full of these newly designed
products, to gauge the response of the market and
take the lead in developing a wider range of hand-
crafted products. The purpose of their existence is to
show the way, and assure design and marketing
support to the smallest artisan in the state.
Victor Papanek could almost be describing our
holy of holies, the National Institute of Design at
Ahmedabad, when he says:
Themaintroublewith designschoolsseemsto be thatthey
teach too much design and not enough aboutthe social,
economic,andpoliticalenvironmentin whichdesigntakes
place.It is impossibleto teachanythingin vacuo,least of
all in a systemas deeplyinvolvedwith man'sbasicneeds
as we have seen designto be.
With its skilled and erudite faculty, its upper echelon
students, its well-equipped laboratories, library and
other facilities, and the support and funds it receives
from highly placed and influential bodies, the NID
has made no visible impact on the lives of the vast
number of artisans across the country. Nor does it
have its stamp on any important item of daily use in
the craft or industrial sector. A modified wheelchair
and bicycle have not moved beyond the showpiece
stage; and there has never been a clear answer
forthcoming as to why these products have not been
taken up for manufacture and distribution by any
company, either private or public.
Artisans are generally expected to leave their
homes and spend time at the Institute to learn new
work techniques-with sometimes disastrous
results. A community of wood workers who live in
the desert area of Kutch, in homes that are nothing
more than a collection of bramble and twigs, had to
come to Ahmedabad to work on a project with the
NID, to use differentmethods of production, and learn
to make a wider variety of products. For a man who
171
has never been further than Bhuj nor left his family
for more than a few hours, and who could barely
afford the bus fare of Rs 2.50 into Bhuj from his
village, it was an experience that he was not
equipped to handle. After a day, he returned hastily
to his desert dwelling, and said that he would be
willing to learn only if someone would take the
trouble to stay with him.
Unfortunately, these crucial institutions spend a
good deal of energy on slick presentations of
teaching aids for spastic children that do not work
when used by a spastic child, designing new mail
boxes for use in the VIP areas of New Delhi, or
designing logos for the telephone department (surely
the job of an advertising agency?).
Institutions such as these will first have to
understand the customer or the community for
which they are designing and then work as
community problem solvers. The most important
consideration is to ensure that the artisan can, under
his existing conditions of living, produce objects that
are relevant to him as well as to the community
outside. This can be achieved not through patronage,
nor through decorative processes, but through tools
and products which can enable the artisan to
compete with the mass-produced goods which flood
both urban and village markets.
Linked largely to the export market, the private
sector has willy nilly brought about most of the
change in designs produced by artisans. These have
been more as a result of market pressures than as a
response to a genuine need. This actually widens the
gap between the ruralartisan and the market. He has
no idea of the life styles or needs of the person for
whom he is producing. 'Design', passing through the
intermediaries involved, becomes repetitive, imitat-
ive, and in the next season 'out of fashion'. An
importerin New Yorksends a drawing or photograph
of a brass decanter to Moradabad, or a 'Kashmiri'
patterned wooden letter-box to Saharanpur, which
the artisan reproduces, against the orders. His fellow
artisans are told that these items 'sell like hot cakes'
somewhere, to someone, so they too begin to
produce them. 'Design' has proliferated,until the fad
for wooden letter-boxes or brass decanters dies out.
Worse still, a sophisticated patron of the crafts may
visit with his or her entourage, and advise the
artisans not to lose their traditional touch or cultural
heritage. No one even seeks to ask-let alone
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answer-questions about whom the artisans should
rely upon to keep them in touch with both their
tradition and the modern changing world.
4
Some institutions have set themselves on to the
correct path of design policy and development in
handicrafts-although their success is not proved
through the figures on their balance sheets, but by
seeing the visible change in the lives of the artisans
involved. The Gujarat State Handicrafts and Hand-
loom Development Corporation has attempted to
maintain a firm link between the designer, the
artisan in his cultural environment, and the require-
ments of customers from a wider market. The result
has been that many groups in the rural and urban
areas of Gujarat, both traditional and modern,
seeking sources of additional income, have turned to
the production of handicrafts.
In its contact with village homes and itinerant
traders (wagaris)the Corporationhas access to a rich
collection, based on textile as well as other handi-
crafts. The very best and exclusive pieces are
collected for its future museum and as reference
material. Traditional motifs, patterns, and products
are documented by its design cell, composed of both
artists and professionally trained designers. A range
of new products, using the artisan's creative skills
and traditional motifs, are prepared in the artisan's
home, with the close involvement of both the artisan
and the designer.
These products reach the emporia outlets where
design and marketing consultants, along with
administrative and sales staff, study the customer's
response to them. This information is conveyed to
the design cell and to the artisan, with detailed sales
figures, suggestions on improvements in colour,
shape, and design, according to the ideas and taste of
the customer. The artisan is able to understand the
products he has been asked to create because the
patterns and motifs are from his own environment,
and the end use of each product is carefully
explained to him. Often the object is reproduced in
its original form, with minor size variations, and
reintroduced for the same use among the urban
public.
New designs are backed with specific and
quantified orders; hence the artisans themselves
JayaJaitly
 work positively and with confidence. If there is a
constant flow of information about market demands
to the artisan, backed with technical and design
assistance, occasionally this triggers off enthusiasm
which encourages the artisan to adapt his traditional
skill towards contemporary use. A confident leather
worker may experiment by devising leather cases for
an electronic calculatorwhich he has seen in the city.
But this kind of 'design' activity is unfortunately still
more in the genre of product adaptation. True design
development would need a greater integration
between new tools, new methods of manufacture,
and improved shapes and forms-keeping in mind
the ultimate purpose of the object for both the
producer and the consumer.
Despite patronage in terms of official marketing
support, prestigious foreign exhibitions, and other
such promotional work, the groundwork of design
development is still left to the largely illiterate rural
artisan himself-who sinks or swims according to
his own ability. Genuine efforts at rebuilding and
retooling an environment suited for craft develop-
ment is considered too expensive, and too much
hard work. It is always easier to tinker with the
surface, and justify it by stating that no one should
interfere with 'traditional' ways, even if they are
obsolete or uncomfortable. A genuine integration of
tradition and technology is never sought. Instead the
beautiful, decorative craft object is treated as a
precious showpiece, and when it has outlived even
that value, the piece and the artisan get thrown out
in the name of realism.
5 able, work is stopped entirely or else careless
If we believe strongly in the quality of life and
human dignity, an important requirement to
improve the condition of both is to ensure a durable
link between man and his environment, even as both
are caught up in the dynamics of change. Man's
world is an extension of himself; a design-that is,
the ordering of man's tools, his work, and his
goods-must deal with both his material and
spiritual needs. What then are the essential ingredi-
ents for meaningful design efforts in the field of
handicrafts?
Firstly the craftsman must be brought in touch
with the various aspects of a wider society. Condi-
CraftDesignsand Development:a Searchfor Values
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tions must be created where he meets his customers
face to face, and understands their needs. For this
stalls, shops, and traditional market-places must be
set up where craftsmen can themselves sell their
products. These could be arranged in small towns
and cities, and should be provided rent free, with
electricity, and some storage facilities. Largerdepart-
ment stores, government emporia, and super-
bazaars must provide space for the presence of
genuine craftsmen themselves.
Then craftsmen and design teams must work
closely together, particularly to understand why a
certain new product using the craftsman's skill needs
to be designed. Ideas for tool and technique changes,
as well as product adaptation, must have the active
participation of the artisan-so that he is not
alienated from his end product, but feels and
understands the need for change. For this, designers
must spend more time with artisans-to understand
their environmental limitations, and to explain the
cultural milieu of the customer to the artisan.
It is most important for designers to identify the
real problems in the craft sector needing solution,
and apply their skills to solving them. Problems
would certainly include the need to find new
substitutes for unsuitable, scarce, or expensive raw
material.
The relieving of drudgery in production, while
maintaining the characteristicnature of the product,
is another important innovation from the designer.
At present artisans are encouraged to continue with
slow back-breaking processes, in the name of
tradition and pristine purity. In the present day,
when production thus becomes unviable or unbear-
machine processes are introduced-diluting the
quality of the final product. 'Hand stitching' of even
inner seams of certain textile goods is demanded by
European and US importers, if their patronage is
wanted. This kind of protectionism should be fought
at all levels. There is no need to fear the machine-as
long as it helps man and does not replace man.
Another requirement for those designers working
with artisans is to assume definite responsibility for
marketing the products being designed. In Jammu
and Kashmir, designers and consultants come via
World Bank projects to design handloom woollen
blankets which are perfect for a department store in
Sweden. But the marketing of these by local agencies
173
poses problems. Designers must work with organ- genuine needs of as large a number of people as can
izations responsible for the marketing of their be reached and catered for. In applying their skills
designs. Or the designer must have formal market- towards reducing costs, raising efficiency, increasing
ing arrangements through retail outlets both in India durability, and incorporatingthe creative spirit of the
and abroad; otherwise the craftsmen are used as crafts' own cultural environment, craft designers can
prototype producers and then abandoned. As they be responsible for ensuring that craft products
have no knowledge of distant markets, they cannot compete fairly with mass-produced industrial goods.
pursue them on their own. We are singularly poised between an era of highly
Officialdom, patrons, traders, and designers must specialized handwork skills and the soul-destroying
have a deeper understanding of the sociological possibility of automation, mass production, and the
milieu of the artisan and learn to evolve, rather than consequent problems of alienation. We are fortunate
impose, ideas of design change. A more positive that we still have a choice of where we want to go
attitude towards the promotion of crafts is required and what we wish to become. It is still not too late to
from them, instead of 'preserving-our-glorious- focus imported high technology on areas such as
heritage' and 'help-the-poor-artisan' attitudes. We irrigation, communication, and crop preservation
must assert with confidence that craft products are while we find sound indigenous answers to the
better for every man's use, and the artisan has an myriad requirements of the second largest self-
important role to play in society. How many of us are employed group in our country-the artisan. Design,
really convinced that a handloom sari is cheaper, when applied meaningfully, can help in the transi-
more durable, and more suitable for our climate than tion between tradition and progress-as long as we
mill-made synthetic apparel? Yet it is. Metals like understand what is meant by true progress.
brass and copper used for vessels lasted a lifetime,
JAYA JAITLY
were better for the health, and could be kept cleaner
NewDelhi
than any plastic bucket today. How much should the
economics of a situation be allowed to wipe out the
wider social benefit? Editor'snote: This article was first published in the IndianInter-
Designs of craft products must be suited to the nationalQuarterly.We are grateful for permission to reprintit here.

174 JayaJaitly

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