Green designers Contexture Design are being recognized this week at the 2008 Design Exchange Awards. The design team received top prize in the category of industrial design for their hanging mobile, "As The Crow Flies".
The Design Exchange Awards celebrate Canada's top designers in twelve categories from architecture to visual communication. Winners of the annual competition are featured in a major exhibition at the Design Exchange in Toronto, which promotes Canadian design excellence.
Contexture's Nathan Lee and Trevor Coghill beat out a record number of entries from lighting fixtures to water decanters to win Best of Category in industrial design. The winning entry, "As The Crow Flies", is a hanging mobile that depicts a family of crows returning to a rookery, or communal nesting place. Employing eye-catching colours, shapes and moving parts, the mobiles are handmade from outdated travel maps and paper, wire and thread.
"Over the years our focus has shifted from our educational background in landscape architecture to sustainable design at a product level," says Nathan Lee, Contexture Design co-founder. "Receiving this award in the category of industrial design is very satisfying and encouraging."
In addition to "As The Crow Flies", Contexture has had success with other industrial design projects. The "Coffee Cuff", a wooden bracelet handmade from reclaimed architectural veneer that doubles as a java jacket, has appeared in the New York Times Style Magazine and been featured in a number of design exhibits. "45 iPod Cases" made from recycled vinyl records and cassette tapes have also received critical acclaim in magazines such as Spin, as well as appearing in numerous tech and design blogs.
"As The Crow Flies" is on exhibit alongside other winners of the 2008 Design Exchange Awards from November 26, 2008 to March 22, 2009. To see the mobile online, visit www.contexture.ca/asthecrowflies. To download print quality images, visit www.contexture.ca/media. See below for product and company backgrounders.
Nathan Lee
Contexture Design
604-729-2444
Contexture is an award winning Vancouver-based multidisciplinary design firm comprised of workshop (product design and fabrication), studio (graphic art and design) and fieldwork (landscape design and illustration) departments.
The firm's two designers, Nathan Lee and Trevor Coghill, are graduates of UBC's Landscape Architecture program. Their work emphasizes simple, elegant and sustainable design, and is often inspired by reclaimed materials with historical, cultural or environmental significance.
Contexture products include "Bentwood," a line of wooden accessories featuring the "Coffee Cuff," made from reclaimed architectural veneers, "45" iPod cases made from recycled vinyl records and cassette tapes, and a line of wildlife-themed hanging mobiles including "As the Crow Files" and "Redfish", both made from found maps.
Contexture has been featured in New York Times Style Magazine and Globe and Mail, and has appeared on CBC television and radio. They have participated in design-related events such as the West Xprssd exhibit of emerging Western Canadian designers, and were awarded Best in Category in Industrial Design at the 2008 Design Exchange Awards for their mobile, "As the Crow Flies". Their work has been shown at the Museum of Vancouver and in a an exhibit called CUT/COPY, part of the Toronto International Design Festival hosted by the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
--30--
Back to media page