The Aschers' work in textiles and art represent the postwar ambition to do something different, something avant-garde. Their vision was to promote optimism in a postwar society that was often dreary and depressing. The concept of the Ascher Squares--of collaboration between artist and designer, of freedom within an industry that had always been highly structured--was new. No instruction was given, no restriction placed upon creativity. "Make art" was the request, "let inspiration be the guide." The artists so employed represented a cross-section of Europe itself. They were English, Spanish, Greek, Russian, American, French in a sense, the Ascher Square is both a representation of postwar liberation and the state of art in the whole of Europe at the time.