October 1 - 4, 2020
Vancouver Convention Centre West
Prototype is a curated showcase of the next generation of designers.
This feature is a juried platform featuring products not currently in production addressing new ideas for the residential market. Participants include professional designers and students, presenting both to-market and conceptual works.
For 2019, Prototype is proudly presented by Vancouver-based Gryphon Development. At Gryphon Development, art is at the core of everything they do. It challenges their expectations and reflects the way they see the world. Gryphon believes that art is not only defined in paintings in sculptures, but also in the passion and process of making, be it designers, architects, craftspeople and beyond. Gryphon Musée, featuring Brent Comber, is currently on view.
Irina Flore
Irina Flore's L’art de la table collection of ceramics, produced in collaboration with Mudshark Studios in Portland, was the highlight for all three jurors this year. The series of objects is intended to bring a touch of originality onto our table and into our houses, while improving the culinary experience in a poetic and emotional way. As display, their purpose is to change the way we look at food.
MiMOKO Ceramics
The TŌRŌ Smart Self Watering Planter by MiMOKO was the people’s choice winner of the Prototype Design Competition at IDS Vancouver 2019!
Inspired by Japanese design philosophies, MiMOKO, led by ceramicist Monique Skelton, believes that true elegance is found in simplicity. In line with Japanese ideologies, MiMOKO believes in the worth of natural materials, asymmetry and white space to create harmony. In Monique’s design process, there is a constant play of tension and balance to create this harmony.
Ali Alamzadeh’s Layer Up is a material exploration that reconstitutes used newsprint into wood to create accessories and surfaces. It showed a dedication to rethinking a waste material and promises to be a potential solution to a big problem.
Leah Amick’s Peel Credenza is a low cabinet featuring expected form and unexpected detail. Framed and inset by beveled edges, deep and angular grooves interrupt the face of an otherwise flat plane, while opposed tabs jut outward from the center-line, taunting our inquisitive nature.
Tugging on a tab, the user makes a delightful discovery as the doors peel progressively away from the frame, one panel at a time. The doors open and wrap away, revealing colourful fabric backing and four adjustable shelves. Below, the apron tilts underneath, meeting tapered and splayed legs at geometric corners, and echoing theangular lines of the doors.
Charlotte Pommet and Elliot Kendall
Charlotte Pommet and Elliot Kendall moved to Vancouver after attending the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The two designers have experience working with a wide range of materials, including metal, wood, ceramics, plastics and textiles.
Their project “Per Meter” is a collaboration with a German veneer mill. “Veneer is no longer so popular, but it’s a very economical and environmentally-friendly use of wood,” Pommet explains. By thoroughly analyzing the properties of numerous species, the duo developed prototype modules that achieve a unique balance of strength and volume, making them highly versatile and adaptable to a wide range of potential applications.
Pommet and Kendall's projects have been featured in The Globe and Mail, AZURE Magazine, and more.
2017 People's Choice Winner
Dane Saunders is the founder of Retrobound, a Vancouver based art and industrial designagency focusing on product innovation and art furniture.
Inbound is an exploration into smart furniture via “art furniture.” With a built in ambient lighting system, Inbound is designed to augment and match your mood. Leather upholstery wraps the inside of the table, a new take on the age-old ottoman. The rest of the table is constructed of solid hardwood, walnut in this case, strong enough to dance on!
Emotive qualities, solid craftsmanship, and clever engineering are the building blocks for this prototype, as well as the growing collection at Retrobound. Dane Saunders’ projects have been featured on Breakfast Television Vancouver, The Edmonton Journal, and Air Canada enRoute.
ChopValue is a product engineering and design firm that transforms recycled chopsticks into diversely patterned products (think shelves, wall tiles, and tabletops).
Since winning Prototype in 2016, the company has taken this concept a step further and developed a furniture line. “Districts" features sustainable tables, a stool, and a credenza created from more than 100,000 recycled bamboo chopsticks—all obtained via ChopValue’s free weekly collection program that partners with local hotels, restaurants, and businesses.
ChopValue has been featured on CBC, Business News Network, the Vancouver Sun, and more.
2016 People's Choice Winner
After spending a decade designing and building furniture for various manufacturers, Sholto Scruton established his own design studio in 2011 to create uncompromising furniture that his clients would love for life. Local, healthy and sustainable - these are Sholto's considerations when he builds furniture - made to last.
The Tregullow sofa is designed for every day use and feels at home in a variety of interiors. It looks handsome from all angles and can hold the attention of centre court, yet can also sit back against the wall in support of the room's arrangement.