A customer at the fall fair in Salem asked for a knife that 'felt like a friend'

I was selling my work at a craft fair last October when a man spent nearly an hour looking at every blade. He finally picked up a simple camp knife and said, 'This one. It feels like a friend.' He explained his old knife, a gift from his dad, had been lost on a hike, and he wanted something that felt just as right in his hand. I spent the next two weeks making him a new piece, focusing entirely on the handle shape and balance he described. It made me think about how much of our work is about the feel of a thing, not just how it looks. How do you all figure out what a 'right feeling' tool is for a client who can't quite put it into words?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliotadams4d ago

Sometimes you just gotta hand them a few blanks and watch how they hold them.

davis.noah3d ago

Yeah, handing them blanks is the perfect way to put it. I gave a guy a totally open-ended project last month, just said "make it better." He spent two weeks changing fonts and colors without touching the broken core feature. Another person got the same task and immediately asked the right questions about what users actually needed. It tells you everything.

caseyc781d ago

Man, that reminds me of my old boss's hiring trick.