Quick: name your favourite Canadian designer. With a few exceptions (Karim Rashid’s signature pink style makes him pretty memorable), and despite an overall boost in public interest in the design community, there’s still a certain level of anonymity when it comes to industrial design and the built environment in Canada – at least when it comes to home-grown talent. After all, many of most talked-about projects here in Toronto (the ROM crystal, the AGO reno) were done by Americans (Daniel Libeskind for the former, Frank Gehry for the latter)
Ah, the Design Exchange. The go-to for local pride. I known I’ve gone on about them before, but they do some pretty amazing design exhibitions, many of which are offered for free right in their lobby (fact I learned free-of-charge during a show on publishing design: Harlequin romance novels is a Canadian-born enterprise). But they also offer another valuable resource: their annual Design Excellence awards, which, if nothing else, reminds us that Canadian designers don’t just exist, they’re thriving. And at the 20th annual awards ceremony last night, a few things were clear.
If the geography of the winners is any indication, we’ve got three design hubs in the country, and they’re Toronto, Montreal and British Columbia in its entirety. Toronto took a gold in the fashion category for Smythe, clothier to the likes of Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively and Kate Middleton; a silver in industrial design for Poissant Design Associates‘ Softspout water bottle that has a silicone spout that helps to avoid spillage; gold and silver in landscape architecture for the Sherbourne Common and Nathan Phillips Square Podium Roof Garden; plus, ample awards in the interior design category for Quadrangle’s Corus Quay building, Levitt Goodman Architect’s incredible Centre for Native Family and Child Well Being (the first support centre for urban First Nations people in Canada) and Evergreen Brick Works.
Toronto took prizes in every category, actually, except—notably—architecture and urban design, the latter of which Montreal and British Columba swept in. Vancouver architect Bing Thom’s recently completed Surrey City Centre Library, for example, took the silver prize in the commercial architecture category (ed note: but libraries are always gold in our hearts, right, Mayor Ford?). The project, which features elaborate curving stairways leading upward through light-filled space (which Fast Company likened to a “very chic cruise ship”), was designed on the tightest of timelines. Excavation began a mere six months after Bing Thom was awarded the commission (Canada’s federal infrastructure program mandates that the money be used by set deadlines or be lost) and without the time for the normal public forums and meetings the firm used Facebook, Youtube and Twitter to gather public input on the design; crazily, it worked. And the incredible Espace Culturel Georges-mile-Lapalme in Place des Arts by Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux and Provencher Roy + Associs took the gold prize in the commercial interior design category—a well-deserved prize for the design, which is part of Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles cultural-hub renewal project. In this category, the City of Toronto’s failures to prioritize urban space might be what lost us prizes.
Canada-based Canadians appear to be working close to home, at least as far as this list goes. Despite the fact that the awards are open to projects anywhere in the world as long as they’re by Canadians working in Canada, only one made the cut: the aforementioned Bing Thom’s Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theatre in Washington. It’s a shame that the opposite isn’t allowed (Canadian practitioners living and working abroad aren’t eligible for the awards). Norway-based Canadian architect Todd Saunders, recently named as one of the five greatest architects under 50 by Huffington Post, is developing a series of artist residences on Fogo Island off the coast of Newfoundland; that’s definitely worth some nationalistic pride.
As I went through the industrial design category, my mood sank a little. How is it that visual communications gets three distinct categories, and the entire spectrum of industrial design is distilled down to one? Judging a water bottle beside a pendant lighting fixture seems, well, strange. And not a stick of furniture in the whole lot? Granted, the rule that products must be in production eliminates some of the smaller-run studios putting out one-off and limited-run pieces that I would have loved to see get due coverage. Still, I would have loved to see this section better represent the booming industrial design community in this country.
Speaking of booming, Toronto appears to be leading the way in branding and communication. With the exception of one bronze prize going to Kitchener firm Hagon Design, our fair city took every award in the branding, digital communications and print communications categories for projects including the Drake BBQ pop-up shop signage and Canada Post’s 2011 Year of the Rabbit stamp by HM&E design communications. So the joke’s on you, Bruce Mau – are you ready to come home yet?
For the full list of winners visit http://www.designexchange.org/dxa. The award-winning designs and projects will be on display at the Design Exchange at 234 Bay St. until February 26, 2012. And while you’re there, check out the Special Graphics showcase of graphic design projects on exhibit for free until the end of November.
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Paige Magarrey writes on design for Toronto Standard.
