Because we believe in emerging talent, we have decided to call upon the next generation of Canadians to add their creative touch to our collections and see their ideas produced and distributed in Mobilia stores.
It is with much enthusiasm that we launched, last May, the very first edition of the NEXT contest in collaboration with Index-Design (a Montreal agency whose mission is to connect interior design professionals). The contest offers the opportunity for designers with less than 5 years of professional experience to let their creativity shine by presenting new furniture designs.
A FIRST FOR MOBILIA’S NEXT DESIGN CONTEST
As a starting point, the young creators had to select one of Mobilia’s four Worlds: Natural, Euro, WOW or Spontaneous, all while making sure to present a product that could be easily commercialized in order to be sold in one of 8 Mobilia stores or our online store.
At the end of August, our jury, comprised of well-known figures in the Canadian design industry, were faced with the difficult task of selecting finalists. The jury included Johannes Kau, President of Mobilia; Cindy Couture, General Manager and Content Director at Index-Design (in french), Marie-Hélène Trottier, Cofounder and Creative Director at Jump & Love; Lisa Barnes, Director of Sales and Commercial Development Informa Exhibitions (Toronto International Design Show) and finally Guillaume Sasseville, Creative Director and Founder of SSSVLL.
The Mobilia NEXT Jury
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Only 6 finalists were selected among a panoply of innovative and creative projects. It wasn’t an easy choice, but we are very excited to present our 6 finalists :
ALPHABET (Audrey Savard-Drouin, Jean-Baptiste Bouillant and Joël Desmarais)
After obtaining her bachelor degree in Industrial Design at the University of Montreal in 2014, Audrey quitted Montreal for Australia where she had the opportunity to work in her field of study as an intern for 26 Street Design.
On his side, Jean-Baptiste finished is bachelor degree and master degree in environmental design to undertake the conception and the construction of furniture for the coffee/terrace Share the Warmth.
Joël Desmarais is first of all the founder of Machine-DA, a design agency in furniture, image and events, but also the founder of the working group A250, a design shop in the object, space and graphic field.
Samuel Barker and Alexis Rondeau
Samuel, undergraduate in Industrial Design at the University of Montreal in 2015, is currently designer for L2B after having worked for Mega Brands Inc. and Studio SSSVLL.
His partner Alexis has also graduated in the same program and has joined the Luminair Group in Montreal and in California.
Lambert Rainville and Nicholas Sangaré
Lambert, on his side, obtained his master degree from the Design Products Program at the Royal College of Art in London where he also had the chance to get closer to manufacturing institutions such as David Mellor and the department store Fortum & Mason.
In addition to his university formation in Industrial Design, Nicholas Sangaré is an architectural technologist and has already realized more than thirty kitchens, residential interiors and commercial space developments.
Cabinemarket and furniture designer, Loïc combined his two passions to realised wood works which made him earn recognition at the Grands Prix du Design in 2012 in Montreal.
Marco Dion
Marco obtained his bachelor Degree in Industrial Design at the University of Montreal in 2013 and acquired his experience in the field when working with MGA, Anthill Design Studio and Dix2.
Studio Knowhow (Mathieu Leclerc and Pascau Vandame Martin)
Undergraduate in 2016 in Environmental design at UQAM, Pascau has two years of experience as a designer and projects manager for Mo Design workshop & Architecture.
Also undergraduate in the same program in 2016, Mathieu went for the furniture conception integrated to architecture and for spacial architectural design.
To see each of the finalist’s detailed presentation, check out our Facebook page every Wednesday starting October 4.
The winner will be announced in January 2018 a the Toronto International Design Show
The designer who wins the NEXT contest will be given a $5000 scholarship, in addition to having their design presented at the Interior Design Show in Toronto and will be distributed in Mobilia stores.
Well done!
