Design heritage is a serious subject for us at Bruce Andrews Design, so much so that we always celebrate other companies with a strong sense of heritage.
Design Heritage
One of these is Bernardaud, the Limoges, France, manufacturer of luxury porcelain. We were invited to tour the factories of this storied brand producing the highest quality porcelain tableware offered anywhere in the world. How remarkable is their heritage? Their Historic Table Collection include patterns created for royalty. Does Louis XV and Marie Antoinette ring a bell? If history is not your cup of tea (pun intended), many of the contemporary creations in their Limited Edition Collection are envisioned by art-world celebrities on par with Vik Muniz, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder and Jeff Koons.

Though we could go on and on about the luxuriousness of their products, the company upped the ante on their commitment to design heritage in 2002 when Michel Bernardaud, the chairman and CEO of the company, created a foundation, the Fondation d’entreprise Bernardaud, to draw attention to the varied qualities of porcelain that go mainly unnoticed. This is achieved by having artists and designers of all nationalities and all backgrounds engage in a creative give-and-take with the craftspeople employed by the company. This is but one example of design heritage we’ve explored here on our Journal.