The best in new design

‘Squiggle’ chairs, ‘undressed’ furniture and modular systems in playful colours stood out at this year’s Interior Design Show

For those interested in design but intimidated by the pretension that can sometimes accompany it, events like Toronto’s Interior Design Show (IDS), held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre last weekend, offer a fun way to see the work of design superstars alongside fresh blood. Dotted around the likes of adored U.K. designer Tom Dixon’s Toronto Ice Kitchen installation — reminiscent of frozen lakes and icebreakers and kicking off a yearlong collaboration with quartz-surface pioneer Caesarstone — was a sea of newcomers. Here are six who stood out.

Modify Furniture

The fun and playful colours jumping out from the Modify Furniture booth at IDS Toronto reflect the personality of Connecticut-based pediatrician turned designer (and ball of smart energy) Marci Klein, whose versatile modular system allows people to design their own custom-made (by her in her factory) furniture.

“Customers go online,” she says. “It looks like an empty shell. They decide how high and how wide they want it and populate it with colour, sliding doors and mix and match accessories.”

Klein collaborated with popular Brooklyn artist Daniel Moyer on one of these accessories — the Executive Decision paper weight — on display at the show.

Nate Roseti A quick glance at the “Squiggle” chairs by Delaware-based designer Nate Roseti, found in the Designboom Mart, and it’s easy to imagine reading about his quick rise to stardom sometime in the future.

An incredibly recent graduate from Georgia’s Savannah College of Art & Design, Roseti says he was trying to capture the “poignancy of childhood” in these chairs for adults.

“I think they’d work really well in a playful café or even a sitting area,” he says. Kroft + Co The “slow designed” and “undressed” furniture of Kroft + Co, based north of Toronto, stands out for its scant Scandinavian-like simplicity and surface material that from a distance looks like blackboard paint but on closer inspection is way more grown up.

“It’s linoleum,” says Dustin Kroft, the company’s director of product management.

“It’s very widely used in Europe and is one of the greatest surface materials you can find. In fact, all the court rooms in the U.S. use linoleum on their counters because it’s the greatest writing surface.”

“(Linoleum is) very widely used in Europe and is one of the greatest surface materials you can find.” DUSTIN KROFT KROFT + CO DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Oscar & Kennedy I don’t think there’s a person alive who wouldn’t benefit from having a fluro chair around (especially on a grey winter’s day) and judging by the number of people who flocked to the “Q9 series” by Vancouver designers Oscar & Kennedy, exhibiting in the show’s Studio North section, this sentiment was shared.

“The pivoting back keeps all the important joints and systems in your body at 90 degrees, which is an important fact for ergonomic working,” says Kennedy Telford, who designed them with his friend Oscar Trainor. And they look really cool too. Yusuf Mannan Getting things off the floor seems very definitely the way of the future, as we move into increasingly tight spaces, but the inspiration for furniture designer Yusuf Mannan’s multipurpose storage and display system, the Peg Project (made from maple and birch), comes from the past in the “minimalism of the Shakers.”

“No screws, no hardware. I just want to use wooden details and the old traditional hand tools,” he says. “It’s lightweight and for somebody who likes to move things around eas- ily. I think it would work well in a retail space, like cafés, where you want to change settings.” Abde Nouamani Melbourne, Australia, has a brilliant design scene and Abde Nouamani represented it well at IDS Toronto.

A recent furniture design graduate in that city, Nouamani has the romantic layering of being raised in Morocco’s Casablanca and his Acorn mirrors reflect the ancient Egyptian tradition of polishing copper until it provides a reflective surface.

“The problem with copper is that it tarnishes very quickly after a couple of days and you have to polish it again, but brass, on the other hand, doesn’t, so it’s better for a product like this,” says Nouamani.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Pediatrician-turned-designer Marci Klein’s new versatile modular system allows people to design their own custom-made (by Klein in her factory) furniture.

MODIFY FURNITURE Modify Furniture uses a modular system that allows people to design for themselves the piece of furniture they want, by choosing its height, width, colour, and whether it has sliding doors and accessories.

NATE ROSETI Nate Roseti’s Squiggle chair prototypes are made by hand in Delaware. Roseti designed the fabric, had it printed and did the upholstering himself.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Yusuf Mannan sits near his display, the Peg Project, which is made out of maple and birch wood using traditional hand tools and no screws.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Dustin Kroft is the director of product management at the Toronto-based Kroft + Co, whose designs stands out for its scant simplicity.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Kennedy Telford designed the fluro chair with his friend Oscar Trainor at the Vancouver design firm Oscar & Kennedy.

Nate Roseti wanted to capture the “poignancy of childhood” with his Squiggle chair.

Designer Abde Nouamani’s Acorn mirrors reflect the ancient Egyptian tradition of polishing copper.