8th Annual Best of Canada Design Competition
Best of show: Products
Inspired by the traditional Japanese art of origami, Unfold Studio created a line of folded-paper products that are environmentally correct and aesthetically gracious. Reusable items in the collection include a vase, photo frames, wine tote and set of paper serving trays. The paper plate is disposable. Every object is hand-folded in the correct artisanal manner, without recourse to glue or mechanical perforations.
Alsop: This is the winner for me. It’s outstanding.
Drobot: This is very cool.
Schleeh: I love the fact that a minimal amount of material goes into a substantial form.
Daoust: It’s elegant, fresh, sophisticated and beautiful.
Niven: The paper is unwaxed, which makes it recyclable. This is the most imaginative green product we’ve seen so far.
Product Winner
In this witty tabletop evocation of Brancusi’s sculpture The Kiss, two polished stainless steel serving utensils embrace.
Separately, each of the mirror-imaged pieces acts as a fork. When needed, they can “spoon” with their tongs interlocking to prevent smaller pieces from falling through what would otherwise be porous prongs. The double-walled, high-gloss, translucent, white hand-blown glass serving bowl keeps the salad chilled. The bowl’s inner circumference mates with the curvature of the serving pieces.
Drobot: It’s beautifully geometric.
Product Winner
The Box side chair is a lightly padded, wool upholstered side chair with a clean, geometric appearance. Actually, “Box” is a misnomer. The split “V” where the arms meet the back distinguishes it from the plain variety of box, adding a striking visual feature, akin to the flap of a box top, while providing an extra 10 degrees of recline in the back. The chair is upholstered with polyurethane foam over birch plywood for the seat pan and back and welded tubular steel for the arm supports. The base is made of formed and welded chromed tubular steel.
Bullock: This chair has a neat, tailored contemporary look.
Product Winner
Toronto designer Guido Costantino launched his Do-Do salt and pepper shakers this past May at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
The simple, elegant earthenware products are available in matte or gloss white and fit comfortably in the palm of the hand. The shakers, resembling a dome on a tray, are identical except for the number of dimples rising up from the flat surface.
Robbie: Just the thing if you’re having hard-boiled eggs in the morning.
Daoust: But it’s not good functionally because the footprint’s too big.
Banse: That would only be an issue in a restaurant application where the tables are small.
Drobot: It’s almost a centrepiece.
Product Winner
This folding, nesting, portable seminar table was designed in response to the increasing use of wireless technology in the office. It can unfold as necessary to transform a meeting room, cafeteria, or lounge into a lecture hall or training space. Fold also functions as a temporary workspace, to support a laptop computer, as a side table or as a telephone table.
The aluminum base is available in three powder-coat finishes; the ABS plastic tabletop comes in six colours. A button on the side of the table leg locks and unlocks the folding frame. A convenient carrying handle on the back of each tabletop gives easy portability. The plastic top and aluminium base are fully recyclable.
Niven: This is one of those rare products that has the market all to itself.
Product Winner
Fiorino Design created the Zig Zag magazine and newspaper fixtures for the Ink news and gift shop at Pearson Airport’s Infield Terminal.
Design criteria included: creating dramatic, eye-catching magazine and newspaper holders that would engage customers in a high-traffic airport concession; accommodate 12 to 14 different magazine or newspaper facings; be ergonomically comfortable and visually accessible without creating a barrier within the small space; and be easily mobile.
The magazine fixture has a two-foot-square base and stands almost five feet high. The newspaper fixture is shorter, but wider to hold broadsheets. The fixtures are made of one-eighth-inch-thick steel finished in two-tone epoxy. Satin-finished stainless steel makes up the support posts and rail kick base, which in turn conceals heavy-duty casters.
Schleeh: This has a fun, engaging quality.
