Artecnica wins Aid to Artisans' 2009 Innovation & Visionary Design Award! Artecnica began with a mission to blend art and technology to create innovative and inspirational everyday objects. But along the way, social and environmental consciousness ignited the Los Angeles based design group to strive for even higher ideals. Enlisting internationally renowned designers to team with artisans located with the help of Aid to Artisans, Artecnica launched its Design With Conscience line.

The Beginning

Artecnica was founded by Tahmineh Javanbakht, an Iranian-born painter and Enrico Bressan, an Italian born architect. Tahmineh has taught at her alma mater, Art Institute College of Design in Pasadena, and her designs are sold around the world. Enrico is an award-winning architect who uses his skills to improve the environment.

Tahmineh and Enrico founded Artecnica to transform household objects into thoughtful, meaningful works of art that enrich and inspire everyday life. Tahmineh and Enrico created Artecnica's exceptional home art collection in collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed designers.

While traveling the world looking for vendors, materials and artisans to produce these objects, Tahmineh and Enrico found a second agenda emerging: a shift toward environmentally friendly materials, fair trade, respectful employment and easy-ship flat-packed products.

In 2002, Tahmineh and Enrico expressed this deeper awareness of Artecnica’s global impact with the launch of a new program within the group called Design With Conscience. Every piece in this line not only meets standards of design, beauty and ingenuity, but also adheres to guidelines in the materials used, the human resources contracted, the cost of transport and sustainability. Artecnica ensures it is finding the most qualified and worthy artisans for their Design With Conscience products by working with Aid to Artisans, a non-profit organization that provides practical assistance to artisans worldwide.

The Heart

Today, Artecnica's Design With Conscience line is renowned for pairing internationally recognized designers with craftspeople in developing countries to produce inspired limited-edition objects for the home.

By working closely with local artisan communities, Artecnica's Design With Conscience team encourages the survival of indigenous crafts while avoiding the mechanization of the artisan. None of their works are mass-produced in an assembly line because they don't want to devalue the craftsman or exploit third-world labor. Instead, their products are produced in small quantities, adding to their value, and they often utilize recycled materials, minimizing environmental impact while stimulating depressed economies.

We are proud to carry Artecnica's Design With Conscience's Beads & Pieces bowls, which were conceived by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius. Handcrafted in the primary coca-leaf-growing region of Peru, these amazing bowls have provided talented artisans an alternative economic viability in a dangerous and oppressed area of the world.

The Highlights

With Tahmineh and Enrico’s strong leadership, Artecnica's Design With Conscience team creates products in accordance with humanitarian and environmental principles, an example of high art meeting real world socio-economic need. Enrico also extends his positive environmental impact by using his award-winning architectural skill to help foundations and design schools develop eco-friendly product design and architectural programs.

The purchase of these unique works of art supports the future of sustainable craft, including shared work and profit across borders, cultures, races and religions.

Gifts with style and relevance from a socially responsible small business . . .