Tools #3 – To Fold

The third issue of the annual magazine that promotes know-how and technique in design, craft or industry, dedicated to folding.

Through a historical assessment, reports from factories, the deciphering of savoir-faire, and iconic objects, Tools offers an enquiry into the foldings of yesteryear and the current day, by paying particular attention to those who produce the cult objects of our everyday life and thus convey the histories behind our shared imagination.

We fold. Every day, we fold. We fold (or in English, we bend, depending on the context) wood, laundry, metal, cardboard, earth—even our arms and legs. Folds find their way into the hollows of our skin, the corners of our eyes, the movements of the earth… In French, the ripples on water are “folds”… Folds are everywhere.
In crafts and industry, too, folds are the basis of many technical maneuvers: bending, pleating, twisting, forming, bowing, etc. Fans, parachutes, tents, napkins, chairs… objects are unfolded and folded back up. All the time.
So, we fold. But to what end? That’s what we set out to understand in the third issue of Tools magazine.