Why we keep five trades under one roof

Welcome to the Behind the Tech Labs journal. This is where we’ll write about the work in progress: the projects on the bench, the tools we build to make them, and the occasional opinion about how things ought to be made.

The short version

Most shops pick a lane. We didn’t, on purpose. The most interesting objects don’t respect the boundaries between trades — a bag wants a machined buckle, a bench wants an embedded sensor, a pottery tool needs a potter, a machinist, and a sewist in the same conversation. Keep those trades far apart and the interesting parts get lost in the hand-off. Keep them close and they argue productively.

What to expect here

• Build logs — projects from sketch to finish, including the parts that didn’t work.
• Tool making — the jigs, fixtures, and machines we build so the next thing is possible.
• Monkey Stuff — notes from running our own product line end to end.

More soon. If you’re working on something that cuts across disciplines, we’d love to hear about it — say hello.