In the words of the Design Council of Saskatchewan (DCS): “Design is all around us. From our homes to the buildings where we work, from product brochures to billboards, from public parks to roads and bridges, the world around us has been shaped and molded for both function and beauty. Much of what we see in the world has been created by applied design professionals. Design Week has been established to illustrate the importance and impact of applied design in our daily lives.”
To cap off its Design Week ’09, the DCS presented the Premier’s Design Awards, in Saskatoon, on Oct. 30. A single winner was announced in each of six categories: Architecture, Community Planning, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Collaborative.
It turned out to be “Stantec night in Saskatchewan.” Stantec Architecture claimed half of the six awards: for The Lantern, at the Regina Early Learning Centre, a multi-purpose space for art and learning that makes good use of coloured glass (Architecture); Mano’s Restaurant & Lounge in Saskatoon, a renovation integrating the elements of earth, rain and fire in an intriguing way (Interior Design); and Zu, a colourful and clutter-free environment for a web-solution provider in Saskatoon (Collaborative), with Stantec Consulting. Stantec Consulting also won for Market Square, an evocative public space that provides a gateway to Saskatoon’s Riversdale Community (Landscape Architecture).
Rounding out the awards: the city of Saskatoon won for Pleasant Hill Village, a dynamic revitalization of Saskatoon’s Pleasant Hill neighbourhood (Community Planning); and Confident Communications won for its dramatic cover design for Paul Derry’s Treacherous, an account of his life as an RCMP agent among the Hells Angels (Graphic Design).