DesignTO

Festival Schedule

Celebrating 10 Years of Art and Design

DesignTO is about creativity,
community, and experimentation.
January 17–26, 2020.

The 2020 DesignTO Festival Schedule has Launched!

January is around the corner. Start planning your Festival Week today!

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DesignTO Launch Party

Kick off the 10th DesignTO Festival at our official Launch Party!

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DesignTO Symposium

DesignTO’s 5th annual symposium brings 9 multidisciplinary experts to discuss a Future without Work

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DesignTO Youth

Established in 2019, DesignTO Youth is a program that provides youth with access to creative disciplines and professionals.

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DesignTO Talks

Hear Berlin-based design and architecture collective They Feed Off Buildings speak about the process of creating ‘Urban Terrazzo’.

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DesignTO is Looking Fresh for 2020!

We worked with some great people to bring you the 2020 look & feel.

Win the Beam Lamp from Muuto!

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Blog

Designer Spotlights

Yaw Tony on Colour, Inspiration and DesignTO

Volunteer Spotlights

Meet DesignTO Volunteer Chen Shang

DesignTO News

DesignTO is one of NOW Magazine’s “50 best things to do in Toronto this winter”

Designer Spotlights

Vincent Hui and [R]ed[U]x Lab bring Design into the Real World

Upcoming Events

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Vertical Intersections is an itinerant public installation that consists of a series of vertical gardens with workshops that invite locals into shared public space to grow plants, share stories, and create community.

Exhibition

Vertical Intersections Installation, Workshop & Pok¡ Launch

Jan 17

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Jan 27 2020

This annual exhibition of furniture created by the students of OCAD University is now in its ninth year. The show presents original work that explores the role of furniture as a medium for personal expression, as a reflection of social and cultural norms, and as an influence upon human behaviour.

Exhibition

Tables Chairs and Other Unrelated Objects 9

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

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Visit Toronto's only fully electric glassblowing studio, Playing With Fire, for light refreshments, studio tour and glassblowing demonstrations. Guests will be invited to create their own blown glass terrarium at promotional pricing. Dates and times vary. Please RSVP via Eventbrite.

Event

Glassblowing Studio Tour and Demonstration

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

Designer Justin Bailey pairs with wallpaper design studio NewWall to present a series of mirrors to create a collaboration between designer and host that reciprocates the relationship between object and space.

Exhibition

Justin Bailey Design x NewWall

Jan 17

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Jan 24 2020

Students from Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science provide provocations on architectural elements through a series of prototypes within the Architecture Building. Showcasing their digital fabrication, physical computing, and parametric design acumen, these installations challenge current notions of architectural interaction.

Exhibition

Production, Prototypes, and Provocations in Digital Tools

Jan 20

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Jan 24 2020

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Founders of the Berlin-based design and architecture collective They Feed Off Buildings speak about using architectural debris to pay homage to demolished buildings and their histories. Maryam Siddiqi, Lifestyle Editor of The Globe and Mail, will interview them following their talk.

DesignTO ProjectEvent

DesignTO Talks: They Feed Off Buildings

Jan 24

‘PLACEHOLDERS’ is a series of work that explores how objects provide support, both in space and in thought, becoming a scaffold upon which meaning is built. They live, amongst people, on people, with people, around people, and through people…

Exhibition

PLACEHOLDERS

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

Address is an entirely new approach to showing, seeking and collecting new works by modern makers. Going into its 7th consecutive year, Address is a well-known exhibit presenting works by both established and up-and-coming studio based artists and designers.

Exhibition

Address

Jan 14

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Jan 19 2020

In this exhibition, OCAD U Industrial Design students using the participatory design framework to design bespoke textile goods to be sewn and distributed by Regent Park Sewing Studio as part of their livelihood and towards a future retail space in 2021.

ExhibitionFestival Feature

re:LOCATION // an offsite OCADU design course in Regent Park

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

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The Ideas Forum features fast-paced and fun presentations (20 slides shown for 20 seconds each) by artists and designers exploring the themes and questions surrounding the exhibition ‘Future Retrospectives’ with a focus on materiality.

DesignTO ProjectEvent

Ideas Forum: Materializing the Future

Jan 22

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DesignTO is turning 10 and we’re commemorating this momentous occasion with a party! Join us at The Garrison to celebrate this milestone and dance the night away.

DesignTO ProjectEvent

DesignTO Birthday Bash

Jan 25

Visual artist, designer and poet Jessica Hiemstra creates an abstracted paper sky on the ceiling of Toronto’s only all-poetry bookstore, Knife Fork Book.

Exhibition

The Sky is Falling

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

Part of the Dying. series, HollyJo’s The Wisdom of Ruins acts as meditations between the artist’s mother’s birthplace (in ruin after an earthquake) and the death of her daughter. Ruins, by virtue of existing, stand as a witness and marker of trauma and subsequent healing.

Exhibition

Dying.ruins

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

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The Designlines 2020 Designer of the Year Celebration honours the best residential interior specialist in Toronto. Also celebrated are the Best Public Space, Best Product Design and Best Restaurant Design chosen by the Designlines Magazine for 2020.

Event

Designlines Magazine’s 2020 Designer of the Year Celebration

Jan 24

This piece is about the process of working through an experience of creative theft, questioning the validity of ownership, and positing a nihilistic view of design all together.

Window Installation

Iconic Wooden Chairs

Jan 17

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Jan 26 2020

About

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Entering its 10th year, DesignTO is Canada’s largest annual celebration of design with over 100 exhibitions and events forming Toronto’s design week, January 17–26, 2020.

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Ambassadors

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Annie Robinson

Content Creator

Arno Marthouret

Strategy-Minded Creative

Design Lead

Creative

Lighting Designer

Cross-Disciplinary Artist and Designer

Dori Tunstall

Design Anthropologist & Advocate, Public Intellectual

Joy Charbonneau

Architect, Designer, Curator

Julie Nicholson

Creative Placemaker, Curator, Advocate

Lukus Toane

Artist Curator, Creative Project Manager

Major Funder
Program Partner
Partner
Media Partner

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2020 Festival

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