Hasta La Ideas

Top: A lineup of products from CraftedSystems. Bottom: Producing the work at a local YWCA.

Designer Aurelie Tu, formerly the head of women’s product at NikeVision, Timing and Technology, has left the comfort of the mega firm to found her own modern craft studio, CraftedSystems, a line of housewares made from modular pieces of felt—floor and table coverings, vessels, lights, and more. All of the pieces combine geometry with the unique 2D and 3D qualities of felt to deliver remarkable forms. But more amazing than the products themselves is the innovative production-line of Tu’s business. Instead of outsourcing production of her products overseas, she teamed up with the YWCA women’s shelter in Portland, OR to engage women-in-transition with skills development and the healing work of craft.

I caught up with Aurelie to chat a bit about the founding of her business.

Xanthe Matychak: What inspired you to start your own business and what were your desires going in?

Aurelie Tu: Throughout my professional life, I’ve often thought of starting a business. Being able to build a company that embodies values and concepts that you embrace is liberating, and can present different levels of fulfillment than simply having a job.

A lot of things inspired the thought of creating CraftedSystems, including design, sustainability and social consciousness.

It was inspired by the desire to: create a company which uses design to benefit others; create a lab which fuels materials experimentation and innovation; create a new method of delivering product via alternative labor sources; and blend high tech design methodology/practices and low tech/handcraft.

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