Author Archives: Greg
Jan
02
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Greg Ball’s 2009 Design Top 5
Another year of global recession favored social media development, materials innovation, and the new, sharply-dressed MoCo Loco website.
Feb
05
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2 (or 3) Questions for Palette Industries
Having just returned to their native Calgary from IMM Cologne where they showed the Camus Lamp, we had a couple of questions for Palette Industries. We’ve been following their work for a while now and wanted to know what they saw at the show and more about their fixation with the poetics of design. Founded in 2005, Palette Industries has “set out to substantiate a multidisciplinary approach to design. Palette brings together a group of three talented individuals, Nathan Tremblay, Ian Campana and Samuel Ho to create a diverse perspective on our ever changing surroundings.”
More after the jump.
Jan
26
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Buoy Bench By Palette Industries
Working with a private client Palette Industries has turned their stock Buoy Bench into an artful high end version. The “Ornately Canadian” pattern was hand silk screened with gold leaf paint under the technical direction of highly acclaimed Canadian artist Bill Laing, adding a distinctly Canadian style to the piece. The pattern is a whimsical commentary on Adolf Loos’ concepts of Ornament and Crime where ornate is considered excessive and soulless. Lots of Canadian imagery, eh?
Jan
26
NO
comments
Buoy Bench By Palette Industries
Working with a private client Palette Industries has turned their stock Buoy Bench into an artful high end version. The “Ornately Canadian” pattern was hand silk screened with gold leaf paint under the technical direction of highly acclaimed Canadian artist Bill Laing, adding a distinctly Canadian style to the piece. The pattern is a whimsical commentary on Adolf Loos’ concepts of Ornament and Crime where ornate is considered excessive and soulless. Lots of Canadian imagery, eh?
Jan
19
NO
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Camus Floor Lamp
Inspired by, and iterated from, the Dharma Lounge is the new and notable Camus Floor Lamp by Ian Campana of Palette Industries. Quoting from the prolific writer Albert Camus, “You cannot create experience you must undergo it”, the lamp is a manifestation of the duality of life and self reflection using a typographic-inspired shade and a highly polished silver interior. The designers will be attending this year’s IMM show in Cologne, Germany where they will show their lamp with our friends at Designspotter. More after the jump…
paletteindustries.com
designspotter.com
Dec
31
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Greg Ball’s Top 5 Picks of 2008
1) 2008 started with our coverage of Toronto’s IDS, Gladstone, and MADE’s Radiant Dark exhibit – a fantastic curation of young designers from across Canada. The tragic and coincidental fire that destroyed a building next door gave Radiant Dark a darker more powerful edge than one could ever have imagined…
2) MADE in the WEST gave us a taste of the great “boom” we are seeing out here in Canada’s West. We had a lot of fun curating this one, and are anticipating much more to come in 2009!
In the spirit of the west, we really loved this fresh approach to 3) light switch covers and electrical outlets by keep it cartesian.
4) 11 – the beautiful game took the classic game of Foosball and made it a whole lot more interesting. GRO design produced the most beautiful version I’ve ever seen.
5) Chauhan studio took us outside “the box” with their form-over-function retro futuristic designed TV and phone. Looking forward to more work from this studio.
