Crafts on Peel

Celebrating the Legacies of Local Craftsmanship

Crafts on Peel is a non-profit creative space that seeks to reinvigorate public interest in the heritage and culture around traditional Hong Kong craftsmanship. The organisation platforms makers from all walks of life, celebrating an increasingly forgotten form lost to the contemporary imagination. At the heart of each exhibition is an appreciation of humankind’s relationship with raw materials, each creation honed under the guidance and methods of countless generations.

House of Forme worked with the client on their key visual design, editorial & layout, and production for their fourth thematic exhibition, “Stories Encapsulated: Wood”, open from January to May 2022 in Central, Hong Kong.

See their website: craftsonpeel.com

Revitalising the Form

Our key visual was designed to communicate the textural flexibility of wood, reflecting the sensitivity, precision, and innovation behind the craft. Paralleling the techniques found in exhibited works, the Chinese character for wood, "木", was created by tenon and mortise. The resulting visual not only acts as a metaphor for the collaborative nature of craftsmanship, but also as a parable for the crucial role of the craftsmen, who worked in the shadows of the limelight to bring “Stories Encapsulated: Wood” to life.

Reshaping Craft Narratives

From the triptych installation of ‘Wood Tectonics’, to the upcycling of salvaged trees from redevelopment zones, the exhibited objects unearth extraordinary stories, challenges, and inspirations, introduced in the form of 14 custom-made brochures. Printed with metallic pantones on hand-chosen, fallow brown paper with textured grooves, the brochures ground each collaboration of carpenters, farmers, architects, and engineers in organic form and materiality.

Finding Possibility in Simplicity

With the aim of evoking tactile and sophisticated stories from a simple picture, the brochure demonstrates the wide-ranging possibilities and variation of the material itself. Within a short timeline, House of Forme managed the full production pipeline from initial design to print, hopefully extending the lifecycles of felled trees, and Hong Kong’s woodworking and carpentry culture.