Category Archives: Process

Back to Italy? We never left the land of design and handmade excellence!

In the media and at conferences people start talking about “Back to Italy”.

In face, many Italian brands seem to be bringing their productions back to Italy.

We have never left Italy, here’s why: we think that working in our country is an important asset…

1. Relocation = devaluation

With the lure (sometimes never materialized) to spend less we relocated without criteria.

By detaching the mind that creates a project from the hand that realizes it, we have produced monsters, both in quality and culture terms.

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2. The real Made in Italy is made with the head and hands of Italians.

The strong cultural value of our population comes from an integration of intellectual and manual functions, as in the great tradition of Renaissance.

The separation between “those who think” and “those who do”, typical of relocation, breaks beyond repair the true value of the best national products, moreover creating unnecessary and expensive roles in the industry, by manking tha value chain longer and longer (and therefore creating the need for… controllers, for instance , people who have no role whatsoever in the process).

Form our point of view, we’ve always believed in our people and in their enormous professional value.

3. Being “local” means reduction of the supply chain (and cost).

To the people who prefer to outsource productions, ermesponti suggests the opposite: concentrate creativity, design and production.

The short chain shortens the overhead costs and enhances the specific quality of the work as an expression of a strong core, able to build on its own experience.

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4. The higher the quality, the more important the intellectual involvement, at all levels.

In a high-quality product completely bespoke (custom or handmade), the “intellectual” quality of the person who works on it cannnot be ignored.

If this person, working with her hands, is also used to make her intelligence work in the process (certainly not what happens in Fordist chains with relocated production), she is also involved in continuos improvement of the object itself.

It’s a way of working definitely Italian: that’s how our country has expressed the masterpieces that have made us famous the world over.

In this way, Italians  in Italy may be able to face the high costs of a domestic production, making it convenient and rewarding again.

5. It’s also a matter of social responsibility.

Companies not only have responsibilities to themselves: we think that the relationship with the territory can and should be part of an advanced entrepreneurial dimension.

Work creates wealth, knowledge and culture: a company must be able to reinterpret and re-propose such values to the market, in a virtuous circle of growth and evolution.

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6. The consumer is the author of products.

The new prosumer” is no longer dissociated from the environment: she is the center of the market scenario as a whole, in which territory plays a big part.

7. Purchase = identity

Most of us are tired of being only a credit card, there’s a desire to return to be men and women who interact with products in a sensible way…

Which also means to recognize a prodution, something that happens near home, and maybe involves friends or family.

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“God is in details”… maybe even in the details of the work of our artisans

Listening to the sayings, many things are hidden into details.

We are talking about the more or less common proverbs “the devil is in details” (of uncertain origin, it seems the favourite motto for a pop musician), “God is in details” (attributed to Mies Van der Rohe, but also Gustave Flaubert and Michealangelo), “difference is in details”, “beauty is in details” and so on.

In Ermes Ponti, what we put in details is certainly a remarkable amount of effort and attention.

We are real maniacs for details as we believe that the beauty and the validity of the whole – of an environment as of an object – is the sum of many harmonic perfect details.

Some examples?

The panel below is a “martyr” panel, used to hold another panel which has to be shaped by the numerical control machine.

The “P” is then coated in clear micro fiber and matched to form the accessory that holds belts in a men’s fashion boutique.

Ermes Ponti bespoke interiors

ermes ponti retail design

Another one: this wall paneling with stylish frames in burnished brass will frame mirrors leather-covered… because Ermes Ponti not only works with wood, but also with high quality leather!

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ermes ponti leather paneling

One more, the closeness between the design stage and the production stage enables some creative sparks like this. Do you like it?

It’s a tattoo on wood, we called it Wood Tattoo and it’s a creation as part of a “business” work, the interior design is our brand for a retail fashion industry.

It’s an oak wood on which it’s apllied an adhesive before being finally treated with a pickeld effect.

So, when we say “end to end process”, it’s not theory, but daily practice! Even better, it’s the Ponti method.

Tatuaggio su legno, by ermes ponti

lavoro artigiano by ermes ponti: tatuaggio su legno