Tools Magazine gives craft a contemporary image, proving tools and machines to be cultural objects worthy of our attention

When Clémentine Berry, lead designer at Twice Studio and editor of Tools Magazine tells us how the publishing project began just over four years ago, she explains: “I have a passion for craftsmanship, I felt for a long time that this wasn’t being valued enough, especially from a contemporary perspective… Then there was Covid and the first strict lockdown that confined us all to our homes and forced us to think about the future. I thought, if everything collapses, how are we going to make things if we don’t know how they’re made?”

Eager to get inside the craft techniques that make up our everyday lives, and closer to the machinery, artisans and tools behind their being, the designer started the project with the belief that “we can learn more by questioning an old craftsperson or someone that has worked for 30 years in a metal factory sometimes, than by talking to someone that’s fresh out of a prestigious school.” The idea behind the magazine was to demonstrate that, once uncovered, this know-how in art, design, interiors and architecture holds a wealth of knowledge for the creative industry and provides an overview of designs past and present.

Being experts in the field of graphic design and art direction over at Twice Studio, having offered services for visual identity, publishing, websites, photo direction and more since 2010, Clémentine and the team had naturally always wanted to make a printed magazine of their own, in parallel to their practice. “Art direction and graphic design are our professions, and we are used to offering our services to clients and responding to briefs. This time, we wanted to create a project for ourselves, exactly how we envisioned it and without constraints,” she says, and so Tools Magazine was born.

Four beautifully designed publications later, Twice Studio has explored crafts in the spheres of moulding, weaving, folding and now cutting. Like those it follows, the magazine’s new issue, To Cut, is the careful documentation of a year of expansive, and fairly sideways research on the technique, through a contemporary lens. “For this year’s issue, whose theme is “to cut” — a theme which may seem a little violent and abrupt,” Clémentine explains, “I wanted to highlight the skills and personalities who play with this subject and provide more delicate answers and restorative solutions.” And so, the magazine’s pages flip through hobbyists and professionals alike: “gardeners who carve boxwood, a taxidermist who gives life and purpose back to animals, a stone quarry that makes the materials for our home, and a dog groomer who beautifies the fleece of small dogs.”

Just like past issues, the team have worked with graphic designer Malou Messin to create a bespoke typographic experience to dress the magazine according to its theme. Accompanying the signature cover text and body type there is “bold broken, even damaged typography, with curves turning into angles” throughout. Quite a contrast to back issues such as To Weave, in which cursive typography with rounded shapes, and thick and thin strokes twisted in and out of pages. As for the art direction, this is as stylish as ever with satisfying process images mixed in amongst interviews and close-ups of archival finds. “I have always found that the tools produced to communicate craftsmanship had a somewhat old-school, dusty feel,” the editor says. “The goal of the magazine is to give it a contemporary image, one that reflects today’s world.”

To form such an eclectic but carefully curated series of spreads on each issue’s craft, Twice Studio’s research process is extensive: “We go to any Parisian library that might have books on the subject (there are a lot of them in Paris),” she says. “Then we interview enthusiasts, craftsmen, designers, workers, engineers... All the trades that might be closely or remotely linked to the subject at hand.” Once the issues main topics are selected, the team do an open call for submissions from photography to illustrations on the subjects found. So look out for the next issues call-out in October: you might fit into their very niche, wonderful themes — which, according to Clémentine, might be something on turning: “(To Spin), wood, ceramics, etc. And then maybe on breath, air (To Blow), with glass blowing as an example… But nothing is set in stone yet!”

“We always choose fields that encompass different types of techniques and materials,” concludes the editor. “We always learn a lot of things from our work on Tools topics. We meet all kinds of people, passionate and knowledgeable specialists in the subjects we cover. They are gold mines, and listening to them has become our passion.”

Tools issue 4: To Cut launches today, 11 September and can be found online on the Tools website alongside all previous issues.