think again, try again

I remember asking my grandmother where the bin was, she didn’t have one, everything had a place in a system of use, re-use and recycling. She could make clothes, grow food and she was a great cook. She was the original hipster I thought. These days these actions are rebellious, it seems we’re working against a system that wants us subscribed to everything we need, working for the machine just to keep pace.

But what if we looked back and took our inspiration from all the generations who did rather than bought, produced rather than consumed? This book does that, teaches you to own the means of producing books rather than treating you as a conscripted consumer. We seek to inspire all those that are working on new projects to embody the spirit of reuse, repair and resistance in what they do too, before it’s forgotten.

A rejoinder: to rethink, reimagine and remember.

made local

the Agus Arís studio is based in Westport, Co. Mayo. Here we print, bind and finish all of our products. We believe that products should be made locally in order to reduce emissions and increase transparency.

to use again

We’ve gotten used to a form of consumption where everything is single-use, built to be obsolete, repurchased or just rented to you but have you read the terms and conditions. This approach encourages the underthinking* and overconsumption that’s causing climate change. Agus Arís takes a different approach, we see design as something that can actually be empathetic, educational and offer each person agency, understanding and the ability to use, reuse and repair. We create

Recycling is also reuse and we use recycled papers and post-consumer waste wood alongside the elastic design that allows reuse in the object itself to create tactile note taking with elements of word digital word processing; delete, copy & paste.

All packaging is made from recycled paper and if not reusable itself is ready to be recycled.

asking questions

perhaps our most important practice is persistent questioning - of industry standards, of our own habits, of the stories we tell ourselves about what sustainability means.

who benefits from this production method? who bears its costs?

what assumptions underlie this decision? what alternatives might we consider?

how could this be better? what are we overlooking?

what would happen if everyone made things this way? what would happen if no one did?

we don't expect to arrive at final answers. the questions themselves are valuable - shaping our thinking, challenging our assumptions, keeping us honest about the compromises inherent in making physical objects in an imperfect world.

this questioning isn't a marketing strategy. it's the foundation of how we work, sometimes slowing us down, often making things more complicated, but always pushing us toward more thoughtful choices.

we hope to inspire this form of thinking within those who use our books for their learning.