Economic Complexity Theory in the Time of Coronavirus

Originally created for Medium

These vintage prototypes by Weston Neil Andersen, presented in the images throughout this story, tell of a love for the work process which evolved into our company, Andersen Design

Introduction

I grew up in a business in a home that designs and handcrafts ceramics. For a while the business also had a production employing about 25 people in a separate location. It was found that our type of production is better suited to a smaller more intimate setting, such as a business attached to a home.

However, over the course of 67 years, the size of the of the line grew too wide and large to be produced in a small studio and I envisioned that the future of production should be a network of small independently owned ceramic production studios, which could function as an interactive network.

Last month my idea was an anomaly as if existing in an alternate reality, but as the world turned toward social distancing and sheltering in place, the world order inverted, and now m…