Outside The Box at Toronto Design Offsite Festival

The sixth year of Toronto Design Offsite Festival launches for one week beginning January 18. WantedDesign, WorkOf, and TODO will partner up for the third year in a row to present Outside the Box – first at the festival and then in NYC in the spring. Collaborating with local correspondents, and in partnership with WorkOf, WantedDesign will bring specific creative vision from five cities – New York, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago – through an unexpected selection of objects to fit in five unique boxes. The concept/theme “multiple” will unite the bankers boxes that each city fills with original works from local designers. More

The exhibition — with an added box from Toronto — will also travel for presentation at WantedDesign Brooklyn, part of NYCxDESIGN in May 2016.

Dates
Mon, Jan 18, 2016 — Sun, Jan 24, 2016
Cocktail party, Saturday Jan 23, 5-7pm
Location
Stylegarage, 78 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Check out the event photo album

Chicago

“Chicagoland”

As a city defined by strong relationships that are built between designers and local manufacturing, the contemporary design hub show highlights the best cross section of upcoming American designers in the midwest region. Focusing on materials and fabrication techniques that are characteristic of the windy city, Chicagoland features design work in metal, wood, glass and plastic with the highest quality materials and craftsmanship.

Chicago correspondent: Ben Stagl

Edmonton

Truly “outside the box,” taking a risk defines the multitude of what you’ll see Edmonton Bankers box. In a city that is somewhat isolated, the local designers have pioneered their our own way of thinking, doing and making. This year’s theme, “Multiples,” represents the strong undercurrent of opportunity located in the prairies of Alberta.

Edmonton correspondent: Chris Provins & Carmen Douville

Halifax

“In Knots”

Using pattern and repetition, “In Knots” conveys the complex feeling of living in Halifax, acknowledging the complex themes that arrise in with the objective of progress and gentrification. The exhibit is a conceptual piece made up of rope, knots, and beadwork to form a rope-quilt patterned map of Halifax’s historic & modern street network. As a tool geographic, it explores the points of tension in the city, physically and historically.

Halifax correspondent: Breakhouse Inc. | www.breakhouse.ca

Designers:
Breakhouse Inc. is represented by Margot Durling, Delaine Tiniakos-Doran, Megan Fildes, and Janine Basha.

Los Angeles

Home to a thriving community, Los Angeles designers are actively producing work rooted in nature with a nod to mid-century architecture and design. Key to the ‘multiples’ theme, these artists and makers are keeping material front and center, working in wood, iron, brass and concrete. The exhibition itself playfully explores a range of materials, exacting craftsmanship, curious handmade forms, and pleasantly unexpected forms.

Los Angeles correspondent: Erin Brown | www.eb-la.co

Montreal

“Omniforme”

Bringing together unique works from designers and denizens of a vibrant and multi-faceted city, Montreal’s box “Omniforme” focuses on design elements to echo the dynamic layers of cultures, languages, seasons, and architecture. Through use of geometry, color, texture, and material, the curated objects use materials that are approached and explored in new ways: using crocheted metal, bent sheet brass, and pressed wood fibre, and so on.

Montreal correspondent: Zoë Mowat

Ottawa

“City in the Woods”

Known as the city surround by woods, Ottawa deals with extremes such as weather (temperatures that range from way below freezing to way above freezing) and geography (how to get from the deeps woods to the office building via bike paths and roadways). In response, multiples represent the multi-purpose items that enable multi-tasks that are necessary to Ottawa’s multi-faceted locality.

Ottawa correspondent: Sabine Modder | www.sabinemodder.com

Designers:
Warehouse | www.warehousebrand.com
Brendon Taylor & Laura Langford, Matchstick Design | www.matchstickdesign.ca
Sarah Dobbin | www.facebook.com/SarahDobbinCeramics
Emil Mateja | www.emilmateja.com
Workshop Studio and Boutique | www.workshopboutique.ca

Portland

“Photo Adventure”

Portland’s lush landscape necessitates adventure and capturing those moments is precisely the reason why this box contains everything you need to need document the trip and and gear to sustain you along the way. From Portland made camera gear to snacks to keep you sustained, and a notebook to record the details of your trip, this collection is equal parts durable and adorable with objects like a backpack to hold it all, and a box that can be re-purposed as a stool, a table, or a tripod.

Portland correspondent: MadeHere PDX | www.madeherepdx.com

Seattle

In lieu of theme “Multiples,” multiple uses, pieces, and materials, are reprentative of the aesthetic styles special to Seattle. Inside the box, each studio has approached the idea in their own way, resulting in multiple interpretations. The diverse set of works represents a small cross section of what design looks like and how it responds to the Emerald City.

Seattle correspondent: Darin Montgomery

Designers:
Fruit super Design (Joe Kent and Sallyann Corn) | www.fruitsuperdesign.com
Maiden Noir (Christa Thomas and Nin Truong) | www.maidennoir.com
Rachel Ravitch | www.rachelravitch.com
Small Craft Studio (Jared Randall) | www.smallcraftstudio.com
Darin Montgomery and Charlie Schuck | www.urbancase.com | www.charlieschuck.com
Grain (James and Chelsea Minola) | www.graindesign.com
Free Time Industries (Kate Bailey) | www.katebailey.com
Brian Beck | www.studioegallery.org/artists/brian-a-beck

New York

“Dinner For Two”

New York captures the hustle and bustle of a city like no other. Being one of the largest intersections of art and commerce, NY designers constantly shuffle between worlds of Fashion, Art, and Design with ease. The New York City designers chosen create products that live somewhere between these worlds. Unique forms and unique materials are combined to build a fantasy of dining in this set that speaks to the very nature of multiples in our daily life. Plates, cups, flatware, candles, and all the parts that go into a table setting are multiples we use daily—and are more fun with a friend!

New York correspondent: Chad Phillips & Zoe Fisher

Evening Opening Reception

party

Save the date!! On January 23rd, join WantedDesign and Toronto Design Offsite at the celebratory reception for “Outside the Box.” 5-7PM at Stylegarage on 78 Ossington Avenue.

Funding provided by the Government of Ontario