Education, Training, Conferences, Awards

Have you ever asked an interior designer where inspiration for trendsetting ideas and out-of-the-box designs comes from? Interior Design Show exhibitors and participants are renowned for taking interior design a giant step further each year. That's why interior designers consider this a can't-miss event.

Interior Design Show (IDS 12), which is held annually in Toronto at the end of January, celebrates innovation. This year the third-annual kick-off symposium, Conversations in Design: Trailblazing & Trendspotting, innovatively brought a dozen international trailblazers together to share their insider views on trendspotting and great design.

Chee Pearlman, Director of New York-based Chee Company entertainingly guided 12 internationally-acclaimed interior designers, architects, retailers, curators, and industry leaders through individual revelations and group discussions to tease out the thought process behind each professional's translation of design into business and service realities. The 12 presenters offered instructive and inspiring perspectives on interpreting design for clients who want "something different," but don't know exactly what that means:

• Designer Amy Lau, known as "the first to spot trends and the last to follow" and co-founder of Design Miami, dissected design into 5 essential pairs of elements, including "conceal & flaunt" and "craft & soul," and took the audience through a photographic tour of recent projectsto prove her design points, and reveal the simplicity essential to effective complexity.

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• Swedish architect Eero Koivisto, Designer and Partner of Claesson Koivisto Rune Architectsdescribed the creative juxtaposition that allows design to evolve into innovation when he deconstructed the design process to reveal how to conceive commonplace things as something "really really different":

• Isola work lounge chair with built in table contoured for our "lounging" use of electronics
• Folding Leaf, a bare-bones cellphone designed for untapped South American markets, that breaks many rules, and
• Örsta, a private art gallery in a Swedish wheat field with exterior walls covered in tiny glass pearls that transform shifting light into striking colour.
• Michael Bruno, founder of 1stdibs.com, offered his successful design website as proof that innovation does not take huge budgets. He slogged away to bring the Paris Flea Market online by creating an online community for dealers that is so powerful it kept their businesses going during the 911-no-travel era. Bruno achieved success in spite of competitors with very deep pockets. If you haven't visited this site before, don't be surprised if a few hours go by while you explore -- you'll only have scratched the surface! Bruno describes 1stdibs.comas a "luxury lifestyle" site for those who have more fun buying than selling.

• Michele Caniato, President of design management consultancy Culture & Commerce, is also founder of Material ConneXion. "Our methodology is to empower clients with a global perspective on materials, processes, and emerging technology," explained Caniato. Material ConneXion, the largest materials library in the world with more than 6,000 materials, currently has 9 locations. Ten offices will open in China by 2017 to bring Chinese materials and technology to the world. In this digital age, the success of these "bricks and mortar" libraries, that bring people and materials together to foster innovation, have proven their value to the design and construction sector on many levels. Caniato says the inspiration for Material ConneXion arose from wanting to break down national material "silos" of Italians working with Italian material, and professionals in other countries restricting themselves in a similar fashion. Caniato emphasized that innovation is not limited to nanotechnology, $5 million dollar budgets, or hours and hours of work. Students who were challenged to create sustainable, biodegradable, inexpensive packing material created a multi-purpose substance made from mushrooms, that is wheat husks and fungi. In another example, Puma's "clever clever little box" is another example of practical innovation since the challenge to redesign the shoebox saved Puma $10 million a year and endeared them to "green" customers.

• Award-winning Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni of Lissoni Associates, the Inaugural Guest of Honour, shared many perspectives on his 30-year design career. A provocative speaker, he said, "Life is temporary -- I like to design something temporary." Lissoni explained that clients ask for something "to last a hundred years, something to pass on." He designs for the next 30 years, because he likes to use materials like glass and concrete which do not last forever. He creates for now, knowing "the space will disappear in 30 years and the building will be dismantled." The "temporary" reality is a great challenge for many North American renovating owners, too.

IDS was sponsored by relativespace and the City of Toronto. The other two key sponsors, RADO Switzerland and Audi, also backed IDS Platform, the concurrent week-long program of cultural design events, which includes Conversations in Design.

If you'd like to enter the interior design world, IDS offers two great opportunities to the public:

• Attend the IDS Opening Party and "party on" while exploring the extensive tradeshow floor, which will open to professional interior designers the next day -- Professional Trade Day.

• During the weekend, IDS is open to consumers, and hosts design seminars from many well-known designers, including Lynda Reeves and Brian Gluckstein.

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