Craft as a decision. A conversation about print, technology, and working with material

Absolutely. One can approach this from two perspectives. On one hand, there is technological advancement, which does not always mean that something simply becomes better. Typically, one parameter improves at the expense of another.

In the case of digital techniques, many technical aspects have indeed improved: machines are more efficient, take up less space, and consume less material. In practice, however, print quality often undergoes a gradual decline. This is not an abrupt change, but a process that unfolds over time, as it once did with offset printing.

At the same time, in the area of tool-based techniques, there has been enormous progress. What once required hand-carving or typesetting can today be engraved with great precision by machine, achieving considerably higher quality and sharpness of detail.

We endeavour to draw on technological advancement where it genuinely raises quality, whilst preserving those techniques that hold craft value where it truly exists.

We work primarily in the technique of typography, which in its essence is the same technique that Gutenberg employed. The difference lies in the way the tools are prepared: today we no longer set them from individual type, but produce them using other technologies.

What matters most, however, is the way in which we use this technique. Typography allows one not only to transfer an image onto paper, but to emboss it into the paper itself. This is how we achieve relief, an effect that is simultaneously visual and tactile.

We have an internal expression: we don't print, we press. Everything we create has a physical dimension, regardless of whether we are working with ink, foil, or embossing.

The second significant technique is hot foil stamping, known since the nineteenth century, as well as the more advanced multi-level embossing, which allows paper to be formed in a manner closer to sculpture than to conventional print.

The combination of different orders of practice.

On one hand, we work with traditional techniques; on the other, we develop our own technologies and build bespoke machines tailored to specific processes.

Alongside the space housing our historical printing equipment, we also operate robotic solutions. This juxtaposition of old and new forms a coherent system of work.

We do not begin with a finished design. We enter the process considerably earlier.

In the case of La Marqueuse, the starting point was the branding, but there was not yet a specific packaging design. We began with a conversation about the object: its structure, proportions, and material.

This process is workshop-based in its nature. It unfolds through successive iterations, tests, and trials. This is not production but a stage of exploration, throughout which decisions concerning both construction and detail gradually take shape.

Initially, I was rather sceptical. The jewellery packaging market is very closed and heavily codified. Certain standards exist, both aesthetic and technical, that are difficult to avoid replicating.

It is a very demanding area, in which not only form matters, but also functional requirements: durability, closure mechanism, and the protection of the piece.

What ultimately convinced me was the determination of the La Marqueuse team to do something different. It was a decision to move beyond convention, and that opened up the space to work.

From the outside, these objects appear very simple. And that is deliberate.

The most demanding elements are invisible, such as the multi-level embossing that runs across the edges. These are technically complex solutions, but their purpose is not to demonstrate difficulty; it is to achieve the right effect.

Good craft means that complexity is not put on display. It simply works.

The key was to move away from the language of the industry. Jewellery packaging carries a very strong visual code that is replicated globally.

Here, the aim was to create something different: more subtle, grounded in precision and material rather than in ornamentation.

It was equally important to preserve a balance, so that the packaging would support the jewellery rather than compete with it.

It depends on the scale and complexity of the project.

In the case of La Marqueuse, it was approximately nine months, owing to the multi-stage nature of the work.

The production process itself is considerably shorter, typically measured in weeks, but it is the preparatory stage that determines the final result.