Best of Design Week, Day 5: Ingenious Lighting and Designer Selfies

Throughout Toronto Design Week, we awarded the top 100 products (& other cool stuff) we spotted with our custom Designlines Loves tags, specially designed by Sali Tabacchi.

Below is the fifth batch of designs that caught our attention. Keep track of everything we tagged in our master list.

Life Moves Fast is an obsessive recreation of Ferris Bueller’s teenage bedroom by Sarah Keenlyside and Joseph Clement (AKA The Racket Club) filled with movie-accurate decor sourced from eBay and thrift shops. Architecture is especially good at triggering memories, and it’s interesting to feel the particular nostalgia that comes from visiting a fictional space which you have a strong connection to, but had never before stood in.
Tagged by Eric Mutrie at Come Up to My Room, at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W

Another Come Up to My Room highlight is Overworld by collective Taxawork. A looping, bass-heavy soundscape and James Turrell-esque light show play out inside of a suspended box covered in geometric foil forms. We were impressed by how the trippy setup mirrors its setting – as visitors rise into and duck out of the installation’s surreal upper space, they mimic guests checking into and out of a hotel room.
Tagged by Eric Mutrie at Come Up to My Room, at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W

Shelter Bay’s installation at Come Up to My Room is filled with ingenuity. The design duo, comprised of Rob Southcott and Sarah Cooper, produced a collection of CSA-approved lighting components that can be affordably mixed and matched in hundreds of ways.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Come Up to My Room, at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W

We’re big fans of Carl and Rose, and especially love the new lamps on display in their pop-up workshop at Come Up to My Room. The design duo’s signature is composition & colour: Made from salvaged (approved) light parts and vintage vessels, each lamp is impeccably constructed and coated with custom-mixed car paint. Additional love goes to their tabletop & ceiling fans!
Tagged by Tory Healy at Come Up to My Room, at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W

Dishes Will Be Broken is a window installation and performance by artist Rahna Moreau. A small table is dressed with prim place settings; the china a family heirloom. Between 4-8 pm until Sunday, the artist will take pieces from the table & smash them, releasing decades of unspent emotion such familial items provoke. Moreau’s work speaks of family, secrets, mental health & our strange relationship with objects. The shards will be used in a future piece, and yes, she is keeping a few key pieces from the collection.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Dishes Will Be Broken, at Everyday Housewife, 1066 Dundas St W

Urbanproduct’s newly expanded showroom demonstrates UP’s many custom furniture and architectural finish capabilities + hosts an intriguing selection of product by designers near & far, including textiles from Edmonton’s Birch&Grey Design, growlers from Portland Growler Company, and art & objets by Toronto’s own Erin Mccutcheon.
Tagged by Tory Healy at OpenUP, at Urbanproduct, 225 Sterling Rd, Unit 23

Fugitive Glue‘s “new” mirror is great for designer selfies. If the neon circle looks familiar it’s because the frame is salvaged from the “New” signs the city posts (and often leaves up for far too long) to indicate traffic light additions, etc.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Like, You Know, Whatever, at Fugitive Glue, 163 Sterling Rd, Unit 128

A Design Week must-have: The National Design Collective’s limited-edition muddler, made from Jack Daniels’ whiskey barrels that are strategically crafted to reveal flame-charring.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Like, You Know, Whatever, at Fugitive Glue, 163 Sterling Rd, Unit 128

We’re confident that designer Oscar Kwong – a resident at Harbourfront Centre – is one to watch. The elegance and tangible thoughtfulness of his work make his unassuming pieces shine, a fact noticeably consistent throughout his body of work, no matter the medium or for whom it’s designed.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Balancing on Leaves, at Helen+Hildegard, 3036 Dundas St W

Castor Design knows we have a soft spot for copper. Their CU exhibit remarks on the design industry’s obsession with the element by showcasing a number of new furnishings utilizing the metal, including lights, a table and bongs. Also on display is a mini science demo, showing how copper can be stripped from a source & applied to an object. No spraying here. This exhibit will be up well into February, with talks and concerts to boot.
Tagged by Tory Healy at CU, 1161 Dundas St W

Mjölk’s John and Juli Baker worked with Japanese designer/artisan Oji Masanori to produce two lights manufactured here in Toronto by Harnisch Lamps. Both are gorgeous, but we especially love the Diamond Pendant, lit by LED and adjustable via a brass balancer. It’s simply stunning. When you visit, do also seek out Masanori’s brand new – and totally perfect – tea set.
Tagged by Tory Healy at Oji Masanori x Mjölk, at Mjölk, 2959 Dundas St W

The Good Type, an exhibition of graphic work by Slyeye, deals out beautifully blunt truths. Multiple typographical works remark on how social media – and the pressure to engage – affects its users. This print is titled Let it Flow.
Tagged by Tory Healy at The Good Type, at Cut the Cheese, 2901 Dundas St W