Nov 26, 2008

Sustainable Designers Win National Design Award for Hanging Mobile

(VANCOUVER, BC, Canada) — 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 Employing eye-catching colours, shapes and moving parts, the mobiles are handmade from outdated travel maps and paper, wire and thread.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 Flie” is on exhibit alongside other winners of the 2008 Design Exchange Awards from November 26, 2008 to March 22, 2009. See below for product and company backgrounders.

Contexture is a 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, and “45” iPod cases made from recycled vinyl records and cassette tapes.

Contexture has been featured in New York Times Style Magazine and Globe and Mail, has appeared on CBC television and radio, and has participated in design-related events such as the Swell – Future Friendly Design exhibition and the West Xprssd exhibit of emerging Western Canadian designers.

For more information on Contexture Design, visit www.contexture.ca.