Design Salons
2011 Salons
The Beauty Salon Dinners
For years, design champions have argued that the designer’s impact goes far beyond the aesthetic. But are we ignoring design’s most potent weapon for creating unique, compelling and resilient buildings, infrastructure, landscapes, and public space? Is it time to reconsider the case for beauty and its defining role in 21st Century innovation?
Design Salon Dinner #1: What Makes a Beautiful City? Toronto vs. Montreal
The Beauty Salon Dinner series was launched on April 5th at the Martin Prosperity Institute with a conversation on “What Makes a Beautiful City?”. Special guest Marie-Josee Lacroix, Design Commissioner of Montreal, joined Toronto city leaders for this discussion.
Design Salon Dinner #2: Is Canadian Innovation in Crisis? A Conversation on Beauty, Function and Design.
DIAC co-hosted the second event in the Beauty Salon dinner series, “Is Canadian Innovation in Crisis?” on May 10th. The dinner conversation explored the relationship between beauty, function and design. Les Mandelbaum and Paul Rowan, Co-Founders of Umbra, were the special guests at the event.
2009 Salons
In 2009, the Design Industry Advisory Committee partnered with the Martin Prosperity Institute and Salon Camden to develop and host a series of Design Salons. At each of the salons, thought leaders from industry, government, education and design were invited to engage in a stimulating debate with an expert guest speaker and to enjoy a gourmet dinner and networking hour.
May 13, 2009, Christopher Hume, columnist for the Toronto Star, spoke on “What’s wrong with Canadian cities?”
June 23, 2009, Dr. Tara Vinodrai, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo, spoke on “Design in a downturn? Understanding the place of design in Ontario.”
July 21, 2009, Brian Burns, Professor, School of Industrial Design, Carleton University spoke on “Industrial Designers: despoilers or saviours?”
Forums
Walking Forum: Putting Pedestrians First
Designers from all disciplines have a critical role to play in developing human-centred streetscapes that put pedestrians first. In January 2010 DIAC collaborated with the City of Toronto and the Toronto Society of Architects to organize a Designers Forum in support of the Toronto Walking Strategy. DIAC assembled a cross-disciplinary panel of design experts (representing ACIDO, ARIDO, RDG Ontario, TSA and OALA) to share their insights and recommendations.
Complete Streets Forum
The Design Industry Advisory Committee led a breakout session at the Complete Streets Forum on April 23rd, 2010. The Forum was organized by the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT). DIAC’s cross-disciplinary panel discussion was titled “The Holistic Design Approach to Complete Streets”. The panel members were: Scott Torrance, (Landscape Architect),Chris Hardwicke (Architect), Wayne McCutcheon (Graphic Designer) and Arlene Gould (Moderator).
Pop-Up Design Incubator
Bringing Strategic Design to Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups
The Toronto Pop-Up Design Incubator is a mobile design support program developed to connect SME incubator clients to design talent and design tools to help them achieve strategic business goals. The Pop-Up Design Incubator has been developed by the Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC) with support from Toronto Economic Development. In its pilot year, the program will organize and deliver seminars on the strategic use of design to innovation-focused SMEs at MaRS (Canada’s largest incubator), and at a number of other incubator facilities whose clients and members are focused on priority business sectors including green enterprise, social entrepreneurship and health care technologies. The mobile design incubator brings design methodologies and tools to start-up businesses and demonstrates the use of an Integrated Design Process to help these businesses to improve commercialization outcomes by integrating design into every step in the product and service development process. The program connects entrepreneurs to designers in the six design disciplines: industrial, graphic, interior, fashion design, architecture and landscape architecture.
Incubator At TBDC: Design for Start-Ups
An Introduction to the Strategic Design Process
For small business entrepreneurs, it’s never too early to start thinking about design. Input from a designer can help an emerging company to engage investors, customize products and services to the needs of target customers, and visualize an innovation while it is still in the pre-concept stage.
On June 6th 2013, DIAC partnered with the Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) to present an introduction to the strategic design process for start-ups and other Toronto entrepreneurs. The seminar was the latest in the DIAC Pop-Up Design Incubator series that is supported in part by the City of Toronto.
The event attracted emerging technology companies who are resident in TBDC’s incubator facility as well as start-ups from the larger TBDC client community. Following the presentation, seminar guests had the opportunity to work in small groups with design experts to discuss their specific design-related business challenges.
The entrepreneurs appreciated the chance to spend a few hours discussing how design could improve their chances of business success.
“It is great that DIAC is connecting designers and entrepreneurs to create a wonderful working relationship.”
- Quote from seminar attendee
Sustainability
In 2008, members of the Design Industry Advisory Committee developed a four-part Sustainable Design Charter to highlight the critical role of designers in developing and maintaining sustainable products, environments and communication systems. The Charter was also intended to encourage the design sector workforce to assume a leadership role in championing sustainable design strategies.
In endorsing the Charter, the board of DIAC and its member associations pledged to:
Raise awareness of the critical role that designers play in creating a Sustainable Ontario.
Encourage policy-makers to acknowledge the potential of design to reduce negative environmental impacts.
Play a leadership role in furthering sustainability initiatives in local communities.
Champion the early and continuous involvement of designers in public sector sustainability action plans.
Model the principles and best practices of sustainability in professional practice and in design education.
Enable design association members to demonstrate sustainability best practices within the design studio.
Teach the principles and values of sustainability to association members, other design colleagues, and students.
Communicate success stories and promote the value of sustainable design.
Empower Ontario’s design workforce to help all clients reduce negative environmental impacts.
Promote the business case and social value of sustainable design practices on all projects.
Help designers to enable their clients to develop and implement strategies to minimize environmental impacts in products & services, process, communications and the workplace environment.
Encourage the client world to progress from incremental to systemic change in integrating sustainability into all activities and organizational design.
Develop Design for Sustainability research initiatives with DIAC colleagues in partnership with industry, government and education.
Work with DIAC board members to develop and articulate next generation strategies for sustainable design.
Educate and inform public and private sector stakeholders on the benefits of taking a sustainable design approach.
