More real than reality. That was how one participant described an aspect of our Arthaus conversation subject. Chris Hughes, the founder of Artifact Bags, was our presenter, and he led us into a consideration, among other issues, of entrepreneurial dilemmas, such as how to sustain, with joy and passion, the authenticity of a business when the ability to scale an endeavor is often required for success, and how to find investors who perceive the personality among the numbers. What sticks in my mind, though, is the idea that consumers (at least those Artifact Bags appeals to) are yearning for some imaginary life ideal. For them, Chris’s products are the embodiment of their desire. Consumers have a utopian concept that is more real than their reality, and equally Chris strives to fulfill this with his own single minded quest for perfection in his products and their design.
There is a nebulous intent inherent in everything that Chris does that perpetually is hyper-real. During the conversation, Chris’s innate intelligence and insight were prominent; a visceral illustration of his determination to accept nothing less than a universal perfection, and to conceive outcomes that transcend the merely real.