IDS Toronto 2020. 5 of the brightest impressions about the Canadian design festival

/ Design /

Yoga and meditation classes, finding neighbors to live together in a shared house, parties and DJ sets for 12 hours in a row, food and drinks from the future - what else did the organizers and participants of the largest design show in Canada surprise guests with? The brand ambassador of FAINA Design, Tatiana Franchuk, explains.

The IDS Toronto Design and Innovation Festival took place on January 16-19 for the 22nd time. Our FAINA Design and Yakusha Design team took part in it for the first time and was the only one from Ukraine. We introduced the ZTISTA line of organic items, the "Tree of Life" woolen tapestry, the new Mochar home fragrance and Motanka clay decor. Plunging into the unusual atmosphere of this event and seeing everything from the inside, we decided to share our impressions with our colleagues.

The theme of IDS Toronto 2020 is Design Your Future. In other words, the creation of a new design experience at the intersection of innovative technologies and solutions to acute social problems. "The boundaries between our home, work and the place where we relax and gain new experience are practically destroyed in the modern world," the organizers of the exhibition believe, "we want to get all the possible sensations in one place, we have "settled" elements of nature in our homes, created a place for collaboration, as well as a game area. Such a combination is possible with the help of design, and our festival tried to unite the best creators working in the multisensory ego field."

The stand of the Canadian public's favorite soft furniture brand Montauk Sofa (Montreal) in collaboration with Atelier Anaka

The four-day program of conferences and workshops during the exhibition was very rich and brought up very unusual topics for such events: nutrition and health, education and even government. In order to reduce the degree of seriousness, the organizers of the exhibition entertained the visitors and participants daily with long performances by the best Canadian DJs. And if dynamic music and parties are not to your taste, yoga and meditation classes were offered as a relaxing alternative. In general, it was really something to attract visitors to the exhibition, and many locals came there with whole families or large companies, and the party on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, it seems, gathered all Canadian celebrities from the world of design, fashion and television.

The motto of IDS Toronto is Design your future, creation of multi-sensory responsible design

IDS Toronto in figures and facts:

  • The first exhibition took place in 1999.
  • The number of days is 4
  • Number of participants/stands — 250+
  • The number of people who visited the show was more than 60
  • The number of mass media, bloggers, influencers — 400+
  • Speakers and lecturers — 60+ people.
  • Star guests of the exhibition in 2020: Frida Escobedo (Mexico), Diebedo Francis Kere (Africa / Germany), Yves Behar (Switzerland) and Bethan Laura Wood (Great Britain)
  • Ticket price — $25-65 (depending on the number of days and the program)
  • Some partners: Microsoft, Volvo, Miele

 

And yet, back to design and the list of five main locations and performances at IDS Toronto 2020.

Dreamland

This was the most photographed and "instagenic" trend zone from the Caesarstone brand under the creative curation of Jonathan Adler. Dreamland is a fresh look by one of the most star American designers on the topic of luxury interior and unusual presentation of material.

"Instagram" Dreamland installation is the most photographed area at IDS Toronto 2020

Imagine the interior of the future, in which all the most unusual and extravagant fantasies from your childhood are embodied. One zone smoothly flows into another, a rainbow is lit by neon light at the entrance, snow-white clouds and Roman columns swirl around, and the general atmosphere is very reminiscent of a cartoon. It was with this fabulous design technique that Jonathan managed to integrate such a hard material as quartz into a completely unrecognizable soft, almost ethereal environment.

 

Co Living

A team of architects, urban planners and interior designers from Picnic Design Inc. has been investigating the potential of "cohabitation" for several years as a way to solve the problem of overpopulation of the planet and the fight against consumerism. Their installation at the exhibition consisted of miniatures and projects of residences that could easily accommodate from 2 to 7 full-fledged families. If you want to have your own house, but you don't have enough money for it, find another 2-3 similar families and build a common one - although you will have to share the kitchen, garage, and work area with other people.

Studio Picnic Design (Toronto) presented the concept of co-living architecture

A model of the layout of a future house for several families

Do you dare to share? ("Are you ready to share?") the organizers of the stand ask us and immediately help us visualize the "future dormitory" and even fill out a questionnaire to find neighbors with similar requests and expectations.

 

Edible Future

"Edible Future" is a mobile exhibition that came to Toronto from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, created by students of the Dutch Institute of Food & Design. 15 independent researchers presented the author's vision of "food and kitchen utensils from the future": tea made from condensed water, new varieties of "non-meat", sensory food, bacteria that will allow people to eat spoiled food, dishes from vegetable residues, a menu based on moss and many other things.

Edible Future mobile exhibition about a creative solution to the food crisis

This exposure makes us think about what we can do to solve the global problems of food security, the reduction of fresh water supplies, the loss of biodiversity, and the abundance of food waste.

 

Studio North & Prototype

In this zone, collectible and independent design items based on innovative materials from more than 60 designers from around the world were presented. Some examples: designer paper lamps from ZEED, a coffee table made of coffee grounds from Only one yes, rainbow cement decor from Ryspot, furniture combining recycled plastic and solid wood in the style of Japanese minimalism from WooYoo, as well as our organic chair ZTISTA made of recycled metal, paper, textiles, clay and hay, created by Victoria Yakusha for the FAINA Design brand.

Coffee grounds table Anomaly Table No.1. Designer: Boris Yu (Only One Yes)

Designers presented 60 prototypes of furniture and decor made of innovative materials

ZTISTA coffee table made of organic and recycled materials, FAINA Design

Maker

In this space, exclusively handmade items from masters of North America were presented. Here you could see lamps, benches, chairs and tapestries made of natural materials of excellent quality and talk to the people who made these items with their own hands. A few names you should know about include Coolican & Company, Kastella, Lauren Reed and Atelier Nomade.

 

Nina Exler

Head of special projects at IDS Toronto

Nina Exler, head of special projects at IDS Toronto

PRAGMATICS. MEDIA: What is the key difference between IDS Toronto in 2020 and all previous ones?

Nina Exler: Every year, we cooperate with top designers and architects of America in the preparation of special projects, installations, various activities, areas for rest and networking between the participants of the festival and its visitors. This time, for the first time, we did a joint project with Jonathan Adler and the Caesarstone brand - a whole island called Dreamland, as well as the Reset Home exhibition together with Hummingbird Hill Homes and VFA Architecture + Design. The latter was a modular house with the most modern built-in and "smart" equipment, erected in the middle of the exhibition pavilion in just a few days. In it, everyone could relax, fantasize about the future, in which our home can become the main place for rebooting and restoring vital energy.

As for our traditional Studio North area, where such stars of Canadian design as MSDS Studio, Jordan Söderberg Mills and Thom Fougère once presented their items for the first time, this year we expanded its scope for the first time and, in addition to representatives of Canadian design, also invited many foreign designers . For example, the brand FAINA Design became the first participant from Ukraine and, we hope, opened a new direction for many other talented designers from Eastern Europe.

The focus of IDS Toronto is the promotion of sustainable design and the promotion of cultural diversity

RM: What is your main mission and what role does IDS Toronto play in the Canadian design market?

N.E.: Our mission is to support the design ecosystem in Canada. This means supporting new designers and demonstrating fresh ideas, which we regularly do in the Prototype and Maker zones. This helps independent and young designers meet potential customers, partners, attract the attention of mass media. We enable hundreds of designers to demonstrate and sell thousands of new items every year.

At IDS, we also support Canadian design, are a platform for dialogue about this phenomenon and popularize it among the world community. We want to tell the world about design talent in Canada, as well as the potential of the Canadian design market as a whole.

If we talk about the broadest and long-term task, on which, by the way, we put the greatest emphasis this year, then it is the promotion of sustainable design, the promotion of cultural diversity and the acquisition of new, inspiring creative experience by the participants of the exhibition. That is why we pay so much attention to lectures and public speeches, to which we invite professionals from all over the world.

A break for meditation during the busy program of IDS Toronto 2020

R.M.: What are your plans for the near future, what is new for the participants of IDS Toronto 2021?

N.E.: We have already started negotiations with several star designers and architects about collaboration for the next season, and soon their names will be announced on our website. We would like to invite the most progressive and innovative designers of the planet to the exhibition in Toronto. Our program of conferences and lectures, which included more than 60 speakers in 2020, will definitely be expanded. First of all, in areas such as Business of Design, Future of Living, Future of Work and Design Technology. If you have projects or ideas in one of these areas, feel free to submit them to our platform!

 

Text: Tatiana Franchuk