The project CERAMICS MADE IN UMBRIA aims to promote artistic ceramics as a major production sector in Umbria, yet with a historic, family tradition behind it and a strong physical presence in the local community.
The Regional Authority of Umbria also included the enhancement of artistic craftwork in its institutional mission: with the Regional Law No. 4 of 13/02/2013, Consolidating Act for crafts, it established that the Regional Authority will encourage promotional and commercial craft events. In full compliance with this regulation, the project began with the intention of identifying representative companies with which to develop an innovative idea to relaunch and promote Umbrian ceramics.
There are 36 towns in Italy with ancient ceramic traditions and Umbria can boast four of these: Deruta, Gualdo Tadino, Gubbio and Orvieto. However, excellent terracotta products are produced throughout the region of Umbria. Towns such as Città di Castello, for example, represent a maiolica industry which is evidence of its evolution in the economy and in manufacturing in Umbria.
The project Ceramics Made in Italy arose from research into the current situation of ceramic manufacturers. An analysis was made of the social and economic situation of the sector of Umbrian artistic ceramics to assess the level of preparation for internationalisation and the capacity to offer guidelines to define future development programmes. The research was conducted together with the University of Perugia and analysed a sample of companies, chosen from those present in each ceramics town. They were asked to complete a questionnaire entitled “Ceramics Made in Italy: taking a look at internationalisation”. Despite their important past achievements, the Umbrian towns with an ancient tradition of ceramics lament various problems and the continuing crisis they are currently going through is a justified source of worry to them. Numerous companies have been forced to seriously cut back their production cycles and this adds to the malaise of the workers, who are beginning to feel precarious. In fact, there has been a strong, selective process in the ceramic sector in recent years, which has led to fewer companies and fewer workers. Numerous reasons clearly lie behind this situation. These may be exogenous, such as the appreciation of the Euro against the dollar and an aggressive competitive policy by the countries in the Far East. They may also be endogenous, such as the productive and commercial fragility of the enterprises.
The study showed the need for a prompt change of direction to recover what is seen as an innovative and technological underdevelopment, which reflects negatively on company performance and the ability to open up to foreign markets.
Innovation can be the creation of new products or more efficient manufacturing processes. However, it must raise the level of the quality of artistic craftwork, which has suffered negatively over the years as a result mainly of the need to reduce prices to encourage competition and by the lack of an adequate training system for the workers. If the demand from overseas, including the BRIC markets, is marked by a request for ceramics with high value added, new productions should be using the top quality and beauty of their artefacts as a tool to increase their ability to penetrate these markets, especially in those countries where the income elasticity of demand is high, whereas price elasticity of demand is low. In the current phase where internal demand is weak, the Umbrian ceramic enterprises will have to commit themselves to attempting to enter those markets which look to our country as a world capital of art and the culture of “luxury goods”. They should be trying to cultivate the talent and pride in “hand-made” work.
Having seen the results of the research, the Regional Authority of Umbria wanted to create an innovative collection to transmit a new message: “The ceramic sector is updating its centuries-old artistic tradition”. To achieve this result, the desire was for ceramic companies to take an active part in the collection and the enterprises to produce the prototypes were selected from a sample of those chosen to take part in the questionnaire.
A selection was made of those companies which were most inclined towards internationalisation, according to the information taken from the questionnaire answers: percentage of export, number of employees, presence of a company web-site, use of e-commerce, basic level of knowledge of at least one foreign language. 21 ceramic companies from the different ceramic towns had the highest score for these parameters.
Said enterprises were asked to produce the articles in the collection under the guidance of a designer appointed to devise the drafts and working drawings for each prototype.
The collection consists of 45 articles and although the prototypes are the property of the Regional Authority of Umbria, the enterprises have the right to produce and sell reproductions without having to pay any royalties to the project designer. Each piece is produced by a different company so that each enterprise will produce one or more articles. This will be an entirely new type of promotional activity for ceramics compared to those of the past. Thus, the enterprises will, in fact, have a specific product of their own to represent them, yet which will unite the entire collection at the same time. This modern concept allows the companies to present the article to the market and still enables them to exploit the bond uniting their piece with all the others to give them strength in negotiating market prices. All this will be done in compliance with the project agreements signed by the 21 companies.
The Regional Authority of Umbria has ordered a communication plan to give the initiative maximum publicity and to promote the companies in the ceramic sector in order to guarantee the success of the project Ceramics Made in Italy. A coordinated image has been designed, in which the visual identity is simple, dynamic, immediately legible, and which coherently stands side by side with the abstract concept of the geometrical synthesis behind the collection. The rediscovery of traditional patterns is used as the matrix of a language of signs and shapes which give the project a unique connotation. The coordinated image will be communicated via multimedia operative tools, such as the web channel and social apps, and will be exploited to give continuity to the promotion of the ceramic sector.
By
Regional Authority of Umbria
Division for Policies on Enterprise Credit and Internationalisation
The Regional Authority of Umbria also included the enhancement of artistic craftwork in its institutional mission: with the Regional Law No. 4 of 13/02/2013, Consolidating Act for crafts, it established that the Regional Authority will encourage promotional and commercial craft events. In full compliance with this regulation, the project began with the intention of identifying representative companies with which to develop an innovative idea to relaunch and promote Umbrian ceramics.
There are 36 towns in Italy with ancient ceramic traditions and Umbria can boast four of these: Deruta, Gualdo Tadino, Gubbio and Orvieto. However, excellent terracotta products are produced throughout the region of Umbria. Towns such as Città di Castello, for example, represent a maiolica industry which is evidence of its evolution in the economy and in manufacturing in Umbria.
The project Ceramics Made in Italy arose from research into the current situation of ceramic manufacturers. An analysis was made of the social and economic situation of the sector of Umbrian artistic ceramics to assess the level of preparation for internationalisation and the capacity to offer guidelines to define future development programmes. The research was conducted together with the University of Perugia and analysed a sample of companies, chosen from those present in each ceramics town. They were asked to complete a questionnaire entitled “Ceramics Made in Italy: taking a look at internationalisation”. Despite their important past achievements, the Umbrian towns with an ancient tradition of ceramics lament various problems and the continuing crisis they are currently going through is a justified source of worry to them. Numerous companies have been forced to seriously cut back their production cycles and this adds to the malaise of the workers, who are beginning to feel precarious. In fact, there has been a strong, selective process in the ceramic sector in recent years, which has led to fewer companies and fewer workers. Numerous reasons clearly lie behind this situation. These may be exogenous, such as the appreciation of the Euro against the dollar and an aggressive competitive policy by the countries in the Far East. They may also be endogenous, such as the productive and commercial fragility of the enterprises.
The study showed the need for a prompt change of direction to recover what is seen as an innovative and technological underdevelopment, which reflects negatively on company performance and the ability to open up to foreign markets.
Innovation can be the creation of new products or more efficient manufacturing processes. However, it must raise the level of the quality of artistic craftwork, which has suffered negatively over the years as a result mainly of the need to reduce prices to encourage competition and by the lack of an adequate training system for the workers. If the demand from overseas, including the BRIC markets, is marked by a request for ceramics with high value added, new productions should be using the top quality and beauty of their artefacts as a tool to increase their ability to penetrate these markets, especially in those countries where the income elasticity of demand is high, whereas price elasticity of demand is low. In the current phase where internal demand is weak, the Umbrian ceramic enterprises will have to commit themselves to attempting to enter those markets which look to our country as a world capital of art and the culture of “luxury goods”. They should be trying to cultivate the talent and pride in “hand-made” work.
Having seen the results of the research, the Regional Authority of Umbria wanted to create an innovative collection to transmit a new message: “The ceramic sector is updating its centuries-old artistic tradition”. To achieve this result, the desire was for ceramic companies to take an active part in the collection and the enterprises to produce the prototypes were selected from a sample of those chosen to take part in the questionnaire.
A selection was made of those companies which were most inclined towards internationalisation, according to the information taken from the questionnaire answers: percentage of export, number of employees, presence of a company web-site, use of e-commerce, basic level of knowledge of at least one foreign language. 21 ceramic companies from the different ceramic towns had the highest score for these parameters.
Said enterprises were asked to produce the articles in the collection under the guidance of a designer appointed to devise the drafts and working drawings for each prototype.
The collection consists of 45 articles and although the prototypes are the property of the Regional Authority of Umbria, the enterprises have the right to produce and sell reproductions without having to pay any royalties to the project designer. Each piece is produced by a different company so that each enterprise will produce one or more articles. This will be an entirely new type of promotional activity for ceramics compared to those of the past. Thus, the enterprises will, in fact, have a specific product of their own to represent them, yet which will unite the entire collection at the same time. This modern concept allows the companies to present the article to the market and still enables them to exploit the bond uniting their piece with all the others to give them strength in negotiating market prices. All this will be done in compliance with the project agreements signed by the 21 companies.
The Regional Authority of Umbria has ordered a communication plan to give the initiative maximum publicity and to promote the companies in the ceramic sector in order to guarantee the success of the project Ceramics Made in Italy. A coordinated image has been designed, in which the visual identity is simple, dynamic, immediately legible, and which coherently stands side by side with the abstract concept of the geometrical synthesis behind the collection. The rediscovery of traditional patterns is used as the matrix of a language of signs and shapes which give the project a unique connotation. The coordinated image will be communicated via multimedia operative tools, such as the web channel and social apps, and will be exploited to give continuity to the promotion of the ceramic sector.
By
Regional Authority of Umbria
Division for Policies on Enterprise Credit and Internationalisation