Between craft and commerce

Craft and commerce are treated as opposites. They are not. The best work we have made is the work that was beautiful and earned its keep at the same time.

There is a romantic idea that real craft sits above commerce. That caring about the money somehow cheapens the work. We have never believed it. A piece of design that looks immaculate and does nothing for the business is not craft. It is decoration with a good agent.

The harder discipline is making something that is genuinely well made and genuinely works. A brand that moves a company forward. A site that earns its place in the budget. Craft is not the opposite of commercial sense. Done properly, it is how you deliver it. The two have to live in the same piece of work, or neither one is worth much.