A Small Future

Who is allowed to decide?

Fashion has institutionalised one answer to the problem of relevance. A legacy house appoints a creative director and gives that person unusual authority over product, image, show, store and story. The appointment can fail spectacularly. But the model acknowledges that cultural coherence cannot be produced by committee. In furniture, creative directors exist, but comparable authority is far from standard.

What comes next?

Artek, Knoll and Cappellini did not become consequential by following a repeatable model. Each emerged from a unique convergence of cultural change, creative agency, industrial capability and people willing to place bets before their value could be proven. They captured the zeitgeist because they were close enough to feel it and free enough to give it form. The objects followed.