Can you tell me a bit about Produced for Use and how much work goes into the artwork you sell?
I created Produced for Use as an outlet for the physical things I wanted to make and release into the world, free of outside pressures, client requests and the like. As an artist I mainly work on commissions in the digital domain for clients around the world — though sometimes these are also physical like the installation I created for Airbnb at the Sundance Film Festival.
Whilst I love this work and am lucky to have wonderful clients, I also wanted to sell my own physical items that were considered and beautifully crafted, combining modern techniques such as code with more traditional techniques. I only release new things when I feel the product is right and in my own time, free of market pressure. These are my shelves and I decide what goes on them and when. Each product goes through a myriad of iterations to get it right. I like to live with something for a while before I say, yeah this is it. For Morfff, it was sat in our hallway, being used everyday for almost six months before I decided to manufacture it. I’m not in a hurry.
What are you most proud of, and what’s the next chapter in your story?
Well I guess having a piece of work — Cinema Redux — in the MoMA permanent collection in New York. Since it was acquired by MoMA it’s been in four MoMA exhibitions, plus the work has appeared in countless other exhibitions. I made that work one rainy Saturday afternoon back in 2004 and just put it on my website for people to maybe bump into. That’s why I love the web — the real web, not Facebook I mean — because you can put your stuff out there and you just never know who’s going to see it.
For the next chapter, as always, I’m just trying to concentrate on getting better — learning new things, tools, processes and the like that I can use in my practice and on PFU products. I’m taking my time to go deep — really drill down into stuff to really craft the output.
Do you have another addition to your catalogue coming up in the near future?
Yes I do. Again it’s been something I’ve been playing with off and on for maybe a year now, but I wanted to find a way to get it right. Now I’m happy with it and PFU-006 will be released at the end of September. It’s quite different to the other things but those that have seen it have straight away asked how do I get one?
Your Experience With Stitched Boxes
How do you like your Stitched Boxes and what do you use them for?
I love them. Originally Morfff — my concrete letter holder — came in a standard printed box, but over the following months I grew to hate it. It was devoid of any kind of personality and just felt wrong for the PFU brand. I asked my friend Ashleigh Armitage — designer at Sheffield’s wonderful graphic designers Dust, who also designed Notes to Myself for me — and she said she’d seen these Stitched Boxes at a trade show. I hopped on over to your site and knew straight away this is what I was looking for.
They looked utilitarian but had a warmth and charm to them, and after getting a sample made-up I knew they would be perfect for the new Morfff packaging. It makes me smile when I package up a new order with these boxes. I also encourage people to reuse the box instead of recycling it. I’m certainly looking to get more boxes done for other products in the future