Andersen Design Economic Evolution Discourse

Originally created for Medium These  vintage prototypes  by Weston Neil Andersen, presented in the images throughout this story, tell of a love for the work process which evolved into our company,  Andersen Design Introduction I grew up in a business in a home that designs and handcrafts ceramics. For a while the business also had a production employing about 25 people in a separate location. It was found that our type of production is better suited to a smaller more intimate setting, such as a business attached to a home. However, over the course of 67 years, the size of the of the line grew too wide and large to be produced in a small studio and I envisioned that the future of production should be a network of small independently owned ceramic production studios, which could function as an interactive network. Last month my idea was an anomaly as if existing in an alternate reality, but as the world turned toward social distancing and sheltering i...

One of a Kind Yellow Pitcher original prototype by Weston Neil Andersen copyright Andersen Design 1948 An anonymous benefactor has donated the funds for a memorial service for Weston Neil Andersen, founder of Andersen Design, who died in 2015. It is a daunting challenge but we hope to schedule the service in late August or Early Fall, the favored season for most of our most devoted collectors to visit the region. In the year 1952. Weston Neil Andersen and  his wife Brenda founded Andersen Design, The business development was as hand crafted as the products it produced. I credit the "can do" philosophy to my father's roots in the farming culture. Farmers are very independent self-reliant entrepreneurs. They grow things from the roots up and depend on the grace of natural forces for their fortunes. Andersen Design. was born, with a modest small business loan, self capitalization and a commitment to a vision which took years 15 years to establish on sure footing...

Rare Standing Robin, circa 1980's. PART ONE in a series in which I  place Andersen Design's vision of economic development in the economic development environment in Maine Introduction I was raised in a home business, similar to a farm, but instead of producing crops, we produced ceramics. From the beginning,  Andersen Design , was  conceived of as part of an economic development philosophy. My father Weston Neil Andersen, often expressed the value of creating jobs.  In this 1964 letter, by my father  as he sought capital for the next phase of development, He talks about increasing the number of employees of our small company and about the benefit that the ceramic industry can have for  Maine's feldspar industry . Our company was small but this is the stuff that real economic development is composed of, creating new avenues of wealth and connecting resources, not merely redistributing existing supplies of wealth. We created a product line of clas...