Beautility

Past, Present & Future

From the foundation of Here we saw ourselves as 21st century inheritors of the philosophy of the Arts & Craft movement – succinctly summarised by the great man himself, William Morris:

Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

As we have grown in ambition and influence, we have developed our own philosophy born from this statement: Beautility. A commitment to make good choices desirable. For us the definition of good choices is shaped by the example of the Arts & Craft movement but evolved for the unique challenges of the 21st century. Evolved to focus on the urgent need to see ourselves as part of nature not separate from it, to the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, to our continued struggle to find alternatives to a narrow exploitative capitalist system predicated on winners and losers.

Led by Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and William Morris the movement was anti-industrialist and sought to champion the beauty, quality and functionality of traditional and natural crafts. It prioritised and believed in the power of the human, hand, heart and mind. It believed in the importance of nature as inspiration and ally (think of the emphasis they put on the inherent beauty of natural materials and the way Morris used the shapes and colours of nature in his work). The relationship between Art & Craft was symbiotic for them, as it is for us. Morris actively criticised over production and the creation of waste parallel to our own interest in environmentally sustainable bio-materials over fossil fuel alternatives. Morris was designer, writer, thinker, conservationist and an activist. These diverse attributes are aligned with ours as a studio and as individuals.

We believe like John Ruskin that The things we value and the way they are made indicates our social health and we are committed to ensuring that our work is a health tonic contributing to the increasing good health of society.