Chapter no.1
WHY A USER MANUAL?
“Filamenta Infinita”
It generates continuous filamentous contamination, making the host material elastic and unstable, altering its mechanical and visual properties.
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Why, indeed, a User Manual?
Not to piss half the people off, contrary to Thom Browne’s quote. Or, at least, that’s not the goal. A snob may well interpret Mr. Browne’s thoughts in terms of “we are not for everyone; let’s rub people’s noses in it” but we take his quote more at face value. That is, if you are doing things differently, there is the simple fact that some people will not like it.
That’s a fact of life that you must accept. It takes some courage to do your own thing. To forge a new path… or at least try.
This is perhaps the first thing you should know about Grace Brigade. We didn’t set it up to do things “as they have always been done”. Quite the contrary, the whole company was born out of a sense of fatigue with the current state of things.
Commerce, Brand Direction, they are in a dire state and it has very little to do with economic cycles. The malaise runs deeper.
Grace Brigade is ultimately about fixing that, pulling Commerce and Brand Direction out of a cull, (boldly) into a new era. Not for the sake of being “revolutionaries” or “iconoclasts” but, very pragmatically, because we think there is a need for that.
So, let’s go back to the original question: why a user manual? We are a small company (21 people to the last count, by the time you read this we might well be a few more) and you could expect everyone to know what we are all about, can’t you? And yet, and yet.
First of all, our user manual isn’t simply meant to explain what we think about eCommerce and brand direction. That’s just the start. The bulk of it is preoccupied with providing guidelines in terms of how we can actually get there. It’s the behaviours, the philosophies and the approaches that are meant to turn the vision into practical, client-facing proposals that fit the ambition.
Secondly, just like every company, we expect to grow and while you cannot hope that a little book is enough to keep our culture alive and well… it certainly helps to have our core ideas written down, for everyone to check.
Finally, this is for the clients as well as the employees. When you are buying something from us – long before you have an actual deliverable in your hands – you buy into a method, or a way of thinking. Which means that, circling back to Thom Browne, if you don’t like the content of this booklet, chances are you might want to pick a different partner.
There, we said it! Maybe the pissing off part was inevitable, then.