One of the most fundamental questions that a designer maker must be able to answer in order to establish a sustainable business is: Why should people come to you? ‘I make heirloom quality fine furniture designed to last using fine timbers and traditional techniques.’ Okay. I can rattle off a list of two dozen other small-scale woodworkers around Australia within delivering distance of your client that offer the same services. What is the specific value that only you offer?
One aspect of answering that question is to find your voice in design. People come to you because only you make work like you. They can’t get it anywhere else. One of the most important things a small scale independent woodworker sells isn’t just the work we make, it’s ourselves, and our relationship to the work and to our clients.
Beyond the economic rationale – and perhaps far more importantly – establishing identity in your work is an essential part of making it your own. Once you start to establish your voice in your work,
