This Looks Easy… By: Eric Mutrie
But it’s not. Umbra’s latest product hit, the Bolo, was born out of DesignTO’s annual prototype exhibition ‘Work/Life’. Why haven’t other good design ideas reached the same success? “Behind every product, there are a hundred headaches,” says Matt Carr, who serves as the Design Director—aka the ultimate design troubleshooter—of homewares manufacturer Umbra. Your shoe rack? That soap dispenser? A hundred headaches each. Every January, Umbra joins forces with DesignTO to produce ‘Work/ Life’, an exhibition that invites a select roster of Canadian designers to develop smart solutions for smallspace living. After prototypes are unveiled at Umbra’s flagship store during the DesignTO Festival, a jury then selects one design to potentially develop into an Umbra product.
Image: Umbra Bolo Planter, designed by Simone Ferkul. Courtesy of Umbra.
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Editorial
However, since the annual competition began four years ago, only one winning entry has successfully made it to market. If ‘Work/Life’ can teach new designers anything, it’s that some headaches are easier to overcome than others.
