By Christine Lepisto, Berlin

“100% human design” is the subtitle of the enterprise “sofarsonear.” What we find really interesting about this company is the approach: it is almost like the thesis project of someone defending the proposal that you can remain committed to ethical principles and still succeed as a business. In fact, if you look around, you can find the name of one of the partners, Francesca Gasparotti, on papers with titles like “Fair Biz: Reality or Utopia?” (Italian only) or in association with the program for the executive masters degree in ethical management. As it happens, the commitment to local craftspeople and the Fair Trade principles of protection for the environment logically generate items of natural materials. The deliberate intention to design for manufacture in the craft tradition results in products which are an exceptional expression of the simple joy of life, possibly due to their very human scale.