01/31 2011

IDS 11: The Shape of Things to Come

Contributed by Christopher Jones

Shady Wanis prototype table
Toronto’s Interior Design Show always opens a window onto what lies ahead, whether it’s innovative products from Canada and abroad, student work or standouts in the annual Prototype exhibit, which is where the table above by Shady Wanis for Design Memo was shown. The shape and wrapping curves was a form I saw echoed throughout the show. Student designer Francesco Anguilli’s Continue Desk, below right, part of the OCADU exhibit, has a similar spirit.

Student designs by Fancesco Anguilli and Joseph Grossi
The acrylic and wood chair, above left, by Joseph Grossi, points to another trend I saw a lot of at IDS this year and that’s the mix of wood with glass or acrylic.
Thrash Milner and Holtz Furniture
In the Studio North section devoted to new Canadian design was Thrasher Miln’s wood and lucite chair, above left, and in the main exhibition hall I saw designer/woodworker Marc Honsberger combining glass and wood in a number of his designs for Holtz Furniture.

Two other Studio North pieces caught my eye, especially designer Jody Racicot’s writing desk, below left, for Modern Revision, a young company focused on combining old and new materials like these vintage desk legs and table top — the piece has an almost Steampunk quality and yet the jerry-rigged materials feel seamlessly integrated. The quirky squiggly light pendant is the work of Toronto company, Ridgely Studio Works.

modernRevision_ridgely
At the Sheridan College Craft & Design Program display I ran into young designers Dylan Vankleef and Alastair Martin who impressed me with their chutzpah. Martin went through hundreds of sketches and failed attempts before coming up with his bent, laminated White Ash Pedestal table, below left, which earned him an A in his furniture design class. “I expect that all of this is A work,” I said, but he pointed out that Vankleef’s Lounge Chair, which was one of the hottest pieces in the section, received a mark of just 50 per cent because it came in past the instructor’s deadline. Pass or fail the chair attracted loads of serious inquiries from manufacturers and retailers interested in producing and/or selling the piece.

Alastair Martin's Pedestal table and Dylan Vankleef's Lounge Chair
And that’s what IDS is really all about, new products and new directions in interior design. I’m exhausted and invigorated by trying to take it all in. I dropped back into the show yesterday to find the Toronto Convention Centre teeming with interested consumers; the popularity of home reno and design TV shows has driven public interest to a new high and that bodes well for the future of the Interior Design Show.