The atmosphere was electric at grano restaurant September 22 as leading lights in Toronto’s design and architecture communities gathered to share their opinions on how to better harness and direct North America’s third largest design workforce.
In fact, Toronto ranked fifth overall in a recent University of Cambridge study that rated nations and their design competitiveness. “Canada placed fifth in absolute and relative terms,” reported guest Samantha Sannella, President of the Design Exchange, “which was surprising to me because we’re a country that doesn’t have a national design policy and we ranked higher than many nations that do. Our results owed a lot to the number of design schools and programs in Canada and to the volume of interior design export dollars.”
The evening’s moderator, Ian Chodikoff, left, remarked, “We’re taught the value of social capital and of building bridges between disciplines and that’s what we’re here to do tonight. I know a lot of you have been fighting for your own special causes throughout your careers and to reach to the next level maybe what we need to do is join hands and work together.”
On a similar note, Councillor Kyle Rae, Chair of the City’s Economic Development Committee (pictured left with Elyse Parker, Director of the Public Realm Section), observed that “I don’t think Torontonians appreciate the diversity and the depth of this sector. Tonight we’re hoping that some of the various threads and disciplines will come together and give us some ideas on how to move forward. There are some parts of the city that are way ahead on the design curve and others that are way behind.”
Mayor Miller suggested, “We’re not going to have excellence in design and innovation unless we find a way to allow and encourage creativity to blossom, particularly in our young people. There’s incredible talent here and I think that’s partly due to our diversity; when you have people from different backgrounds and cultures, the potential for the exchange of ideas is unlimited.”
Frank Delfino, President of World Markets for Teknion Furniture Systems (above left with Linda Lewis [Board of the Toronto Arts Council] and Susan Langdon [Executive Director of the Toronto Fashion Incubator]), summed up the evening’s challenge: “I think the overarching question tonight is ‘What’s stopping Toronto from being a design centre in the world?’ The answers are in this room, the assets are in this room. What’s missing is a czar of some sort, someone to coordinate these assets because quite often we’re competing for the same dollars. I think we need a czar or director, someone who reports directly to the mayor and has a seat at the decision-making table.”
An international perspective was provided by Enrique Penalosa (left), former Mayor of Bogotá, who was a keynote speaker at the 20th anniversary IIDEX design convention beginning the next day at the Direct Energy Centre.
“I’m not an expert on design,” noted Penalosa, “but I am very happy to be here tonight. It was mentioned that although Canada doesn’t have a design policy it is fifth overall in design and maybe that’s because you don’t have a policy. I think that most people in the world have no idea that the BlackBerry is a Canadian product and it’s a very sexy product, one that I think you need to leverage. Everyone seems to think that Danish design is sexy and that Milano is home to great design. So rather than a design policy, maybe what Canada needs is better marketing of Canadian design internationally.
“In the new economy, the real competition is for creative people, so quality of life may be the most important competitive factor and Toronto is already well known in that regard. All I would say is that you need to work a little harder at selling what you’ve got.”
One debate that surfaced repeatedly related to Canada’s withering manufacturing sector. Teknion’s Delfino pointed to a huge order recently secured by Neinkamper Furniture to supply 15,000 office chairs to Saudi Arabia, chairs that will be made in Canada. “If you can integrate manufacturing and design and still be competitive around the world, fantastic,” he said. “But we have a global economy and we have to compete with that bottom line price.”
But as Nelda Roger, Editor of Azure Magazine remarked, “Development in terms of manufacturing and design go hand in hand. Very often, product design is tightly connected to process and material — material innovation leads to design innovation. For that reason, I think it’s important that we at least try to develop and promote a strong manufacturing base in Canada, in Ontario and in Toronto.”
Umbra co-founder Paul Rowan (above right, pictured with Klaus Nienkamper) acknowledged that his company is sometimes criticized for “not doing enough manufacturing here in Canada but because Canada is such a small market for our products. We’ve been forced to think internationally and that includes manufacturing wherever it’s best and that’s not necessarily in Canada. So we’ve built success and actually increased our employment in Canada because we’re manufacturing where it’s most competitive.”
The format of the evening encouraged each table to debate different issues related to furthering Toronto’s design agenda and reputation as a design centre. Following are additional remarks made by those in attendance:
Paul Rowan, co-founder Umbra — “We had a lot of opinions at our table and some controversy but most of us agreed on the need for a consistent design brief that the city could prepare to encourage innovation in their own practices. All city workers should be encouraged to consider how their purchasing decisions could be design-motivated, how even the ugliest things in the city like the garbage trucks and garbage receptacles might be improved.”
Why is Councillor Shelley Carroll crossing her fingers? Only Joe Mimran knows for sure
Joe Mimran, Joseph Mimran & Associates, Chair, Fashion Design Council of Canada — “We discussed the need for a PR campaign that promotes Canadian design and the successes of Canadian designers here at home and around the world. I don’t think we do enough of that. One of the hardest things about trying to create a brand for Canada is that we need a publication, some way to get the word out. Our domestic magazines are read here and rarely leave these borders. But just look at what Wallpaper magazine did for Swedish design, and the power of a publication like that that goes around the world. We need to present Canadian design in a way that’s romantic, that will make people want to come here and seek out our designers. I don’t think we celebrate our successes enough. I think the City needs to do a PR blitz and we need to think about how we want to brand ourselves as a city.”
Nelda Roger, Editor, Azure Magazine — “If you try to get outside and sell yourself internationally there is no support, in fact there are impediments to that. It’s a very tricky thing. Wallpaper was bought by Conde Nast which is something that would not be allowed to happen in Canada, there are federal regulations regarding media ownership that prohibit such things.”
Klaus Nienkamper, President, Nienkamper Furniture & Accessories — “I had the pleasure of going to Germany and Italy with Mayor Miller and Councillor Rae and while we were there we saw this huge billboard with a picture of a beautiful Canadian landscape and it said, ‘Gateway to Alaska.’ (Big laugh). We just don’t have the image out there.”
Rita Davies, Executive Director of Toronto Cultural Services chats with Third Uncle principle John Tong
Frank Delfino, President, World Markets, Teknion Furniture Systems — “The fact that Paul Rowan and Umbra can compete with anyone in the world in terms of design is related to the fact that he’s able to manufacture and compete on a price basis. I think what need in Canada is a level playing field. I’m not saying we should get orders from City Hall just because our goods are made here, I think we have to compete at every level. But sometimes the level playing field doesn’t exist in our own country, it exists more so in the Middle East and in countries like Columbia – we just installed $12 million worth of furniture at Bank of Columbia, furniture that was designed and manufactured by Canadians. The reality is that we have to produce products that are well-designed, the competency is design. Manufacturing? If you can integrate the two and still be competitive around the world, by all means. But we have a global economy and we have to compete with that bottom line price. I’d love to keep hiring people here but I think trying to protect it is the wrong thing to do, we should be protecting the design element which is far broader than how a thing looks.”
Stephen Levy, Snr. VP & GM, Merchandise Mart Properties Canadian Inc. — “We just had the Toronto International Film Festival and to my mind it’s a bit of an elitist event, an event where most of us are spectators rather than participants. But I believe that in order for us to create something like it for design we have to get rid of our egos and the silo mentality that says, ‘What I do is more important or better than what someone else is doing.’ I believe that events are economic drivers. Events add to the economy by creating jobs, excitement, by stimulating people. There’s a little town in Belgium called Kortrijk, it’s a little town of about 250,000 people but they manage to pull together every year in a way that’s astounding. Little places can create big events and big events bring big news, big people, big industry, big profit. I urge you to commit to leaving here tonight with the intention of doing something constructively as a group.”
Luigi Ferrara (George Brown College) chats with Maytree Foundation Chair Alan Broadbent and Mike Williams, General Manager, Economic Dev. Culture & Tourism, City of Toronto
Councillor Shelley Carroll — “At our table we were discussing how to get this city government move beyond its culture of criticism. We’re crippled by it, it’s a real problem. If we’re really going to work with the design committee we have to get past criticism and celebrate the brilliance of design in this city. We’ve got to just move. And it’s not necessarily about the Culture department, it’s about the transportation department saying we’re just going to cut this street in half and landscape it and call it a pilot and see if it makes people feel better. We need to take our expertise from the trenches rather than slowing things down with process.”
Glenn Pushelberg, Yabu Pushelberg, Interior Designer — “Let’s have a design Olympics, let’s have a design week and let’s open up the showrooms with the $5,000 sofas but let’s also include IKEA and let’s open up Yonge Street and invite graphic designers to paint the street. If you look at cities like Barcelona where the streets have been made into people streets or places like Milan, then you can make it work vertically for any kind of design, it doesn’t have to be architecture, it can be fashion, it can be graphic design. Everybody embraces the idea, they’re just not as comfortable if it gets expensive or too precious, or whatever. Once you change that attitude about community then you can grow something that’s really strong.”
Arlene Gould, Strategic Director, Design Industry Advisory Committee — “One thing the City of Toronto has right is its design education infrastructure. I teach at York and Ryerson and I think that bit is really great. Where we do have a problem is that I see lots of disillusioned mid-career designers who hit a wall, asking themselves what are they doing with their lives. Innovation is about breakthrough results from design and I’m interested in how to get those breakthroughs . . . I think we have to be better at forming partnerships whether it’s with the health industry or the transportation department. I think this is a very good time to be having conversations like this what with the urgency of global warming and related concerns about the environment.”
Interior Design Show director Shauna Levy shares her thoughts with City of Toronto Sector Development Officer, Laurie Belzak
Samantha Sannella, President & CEO, Design Exchange — “I believe design policy begins at the federal level but some people at our table disagreed, they felt it needed to be more of a bottom up, local level thing. I think there has to be a leader, someone driving the PR, a design champion. In Hong Kong they have a minister of innovation and design, I thought that was amazing. They spend millions on design every year. 2009 is the year of design and innovation in the European Union, which recently announced its own design policy, which is focused on user-centred design and how important design is to the social well-being of people.”
Geoff Cape, Executive Director, Evergreen — “The concept of design is obviously a very broad one and it seems to me that as a city we need to find hook or a big idea within that theme to rally around; we need to figure out what we do that’s unique and can be used to help define us comfortably. We’re talking to some degree about “pushing” our agenda out into the world but what’s the pull? What are outsiders naturally coming to us in search of?”
Councillor Kyle Rae — “The subject of policy has come up a few times tonight and having been at the city for 18 years I’ve watched how policy deadens the ability to move people and ideas forward. Policy is often used as a tool to say, ‘No, you can’t do this or that.’ Bureaucracies do that. I’d be thrilled to see a policy that came from you, the designers in the room tonight, a document that gave us direction regarding how to fund, direct, innovate and market, a mandate that helps you move forward. A lot of what the city does, the city does alone. We are not supported by senior levels of government. We often get criticized for whining but it’s because we see funds going elsewhere and we see our tax dollars being spent elsewhere in the country and we’re not given the opportunity to flourish as a city. Please give us some direction that will allow us to help you.
Mayor Miller compares digital notes with Mayor Miller compares digital notes ACIDO President Joe Loudon and Spacing's Matthew Blackett
Photos: Harold Clark Photography
Guests:
Mayor David Miller
Councillor Kyle Rae
Councillor Shelley Carroll
Councillor Adam Vaughan
Laurie Belzak, Sector Development Officer, Design & Fashion/Apparel, City of Toronto
Matthew Blackett, Publisher, & Creative Director, Spacing Media
Tracy Bowie, Vice President, IIDEX NeoCon Canada
Alan Broadbent, Chair, The Maytree Foundation
Peter Caldwell, Vice- President, Finance & Admin., Ontario College of Art and Design
Ian Chodikoff, Editor, Canadian Architect Magazine
Geoff Cape, Executive Director, Evergreen
Rita Davies, Executive Director, Cultural Services, City of Toronto
Frank Delfino, President, World Markets, Teknion Furniture Systems
Heather Dubbeldam, Toronto Society of Architects, Dubbeldam Design Architects
Robin Fraser, Fraser Designs + Associates
Luigi Ferrara, Director, Centre for Arts & Design, George Brown College
Robert Freedman, Director, Urban Design, City of Toronto
Rachel Gotlieb, Author and Curator
Lionel Gadoury, President, Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, Context Creative
Arlene Gould, Strategic Director, Design Industry Advisory Committee
Chris Jones, Cultural Affairs Officer, Cultural Services, City of Toronto
Pierre Jutras, President, The Spoke Club
Susan Langdon, Executive Director, Toronto Fashion Incubator
Janna Levitt, Co-Founder, Levitt Goodman Architects
Shauna Levy, Vice President, Merchandise Mart Properties Canada Inc.
Stephen Levy, Snr. VP & GM, Merchandise Mart Properties Canadian Inc.
Linda Lewis, Founding President DX and former Chair, School of Fashion, Ryerson U.
Jonathan Louden, President, ACIDO & CEO, Cooler Solutions Inc.
Roberto Martella, owner, grano
Joe Mimran, Joseph Mimran & Associates, Chair, Fashion Design Council of Canada
Klaus Nienkamper, President, Nienkamper Furniture & Accessories
Elyse Parker, Director of the Public Realm, City of Toronto
Enrique Penalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá
Tim Poupore, President, Ove Industrial Design Ltd.
Glenn Pushelberg, Yabu Pushelberg, Interior Designer
Lisa Rochon, Architecture Critic, The Globe & Mail
Paul Rowan, VP Design, Umbra
Nelda Roger, Editor, Azure Magazine
Deborah Rutherford, HOK & President, Assoc. of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario
Samantha Sannella, President & CEO, Design Exchange
Matthew Searle, Director of Marketing, IIDEX NeoCon Canada
Sheena Sharp, Councillor, Ontario Association of Architects
Richard Sommer, Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
John Tong, Principal, 3rd Uncle Design Inc.
Susan Wiggins, Executive Director, Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ont.
Michael H. Williams, General Manager, Economic Dev. Culture & Tourism, City of Toronto
Lilie Zendel, Senior Cultural Affairs Officer, Cultural Services, City of Toronto
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