i’ve recently launched the hard life, a book about a collection of the portuguese ethnology knowledge museum, which is truly amazing. there are so many nice things which were done with nearly no facilities. things made in little villages in portugal. it’s a bit like that book architecture without architects. it’s a kind of product world version of that. ~ jasper morrison

‘the hard life’ | 2017 | lars müller publishers

by what means did so much beauty and ingenuity appear in articles of everyday rural life in portugal? how did the shape of these objects balance necessity and formal perfection so skillfully? this book explores the effect that generations of trial and error, individual craftsmanship, and an instinct to carve out the essential with the slenderest of means brought to objects that made life both livable and meaningful to a pre-industrial society. the objects photographed and described by designer jasper morrison may be appreciated both for their beauty and for the example they set of design at its purest

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‘the hard life’ | 2017