#tokyoexchange

This year’s IDS Vancouver greeted attendees with the sleek design sensibilities of Tokyo-based studios we+ and Design for Industry. It was the fourth year for the Exchange at the West Coast design show, where designers from diverse cultures make big statements. Exploring the Pacific: The Tokyo Exchange brought engagement to the west with the harmonic concepts of the east. The works resonated with balance, attention to detail, and remarkable artful expression set within an unobstructed booth of pure white and black. 

Something as simple as flower vases were turned into powerful objects that played with surroundings and the viewers' imagination. 

We+ embraced the concept of simple form and light with ‘Disguise’, a spherical vase design made of multiple layers of wax. Balanced on small LED-lit apertures within the table surface these magical globes with the most beautiful subtleties in texture begged to be explored. They were filled with life - the slightest vibrations creating illuminated ripples in the water.

Disguise by we+  photo credit - Regina Sturrock 

Disguise by we+  photo credit - Regina Sturrock

Disguise by we+  photo credit - Regina Sturrock

Design for Industry’s ‘Ridge’ vase is an expression of nature’s landscape -a scenic and horizontally-aligned arrangement. Like a flower bed or ridge, the long thin vase allows the organic sculpture within the sequence of plantings to be the statement. Its long, distinctive form in marble plays in sharp contrast to the splay of florals. 

Ridge by Design for Industry - photo credit - Regina Sturrock 

The layered shadows that danced across the white surface were as much part of the art as the physical object itself. 

Ridge by Design for Industry - photo credit - Regina Sturrock

The explorations of design through simple objects always leads to the main directive - beauty. 

These two flower vases were just a small part of the Tokyo Exchange installation. 

Drift by we+ - photo credit - we+ 

Drift, an amorphic clock of iron sand, ticked away in time through the power of magnetic attraction and porcelain Lighthouse candle holders were charming ‘shrunk-to-size’ objects made to be held in hands and marveled.

Lighthouse by Design for Industry - photo credit - Design for Industry