Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken at Beaches Toronto

Everyone loves chicken! Well, for those that like chicken :-)  If you haven't been to Nando's yet you should definitely go for a visit. You will probably like chicken even more!

The unique Nando's experience is evident in the fun and lively space, as designed by STOA collective. You can see the design insight behind the project below.

"Every Nando’s location is unique, and with over 1200 open around the world it proves to be an exciting challenge for any designer to create a one-of-a-kind identity while still maintaining the Nando’s soul and brand.

We approached this restaurant project as an exploration of colour and pattern blocking along with interpretations of traditional African weaving techniques while reusing the raw identity of the envelope. To achieve this we kept the existing historical small village finishes of the space as an underlayer to the Nando’s hygge; raw brick walls and tin ceilings layered with vibrant South African personality.

Local collaborations with artists and fabricators, as well as the incorporation of South African-sourced art and products, enabled us to create a space with authenticity at the forefront, where wood is wood and leather is leather, and most importantly, craftsmanship and detail is cherished." - STOA

GTAA Passenger Information Zone at Pearson

If you have travelled from Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport, no doubt you have been greeted by the friendly and organic passenger information zone desks, kiosks, and the giant flower sculpture. Surrounding the functionality of screens with information and staff to help passengers, the design and materiality of the kiosks bring warmth and hint of comfort to the travelers where it helps reduce the stress of traveling indeed!

On the technical side, the back-lit solid surface flower petals and curved LCD screens are pretty impressive. Along with the flower is the circular information desk, it has a curved steel frame to support 2 large cantilevered ends with a double curved sold surface skin. This shows off Eventscape's outstanding capability to engineer and build designs that can achieve the designers vision!

Take a close look next time when you are at Pearson!

Sun Life Ignite Studio

Sun Life’s Ignite Studio is an innovation centre that uses leading-edge workplace strategies to create a fun, highly collaborative environment for employees to nurture ideas and innovate for clients. A variety of open and closed collaboration spaces offer employees a selection of areas for sharing ideas and brainstorming. Playful lounge areas encourage meaningful interaction between coworkers and foster a sense of community in the workplace.

Squint Eyewear at Bayview Village

Squint Eyewear boutique in Bayview Village, interiors by Designstead.

Happy New Year 2018

As a look back at the past year, here is a sampling of what I was up to. Toronto is the proud home of many beautifully designed spaces. Some of these award-winning designs span the sectors from retail, corporate, residential, to public spaces and product design. I am honoured to craft photography artistically in our community. Best wishes for 2018 and may the year bring you success and bliss abundant!

Keep in touch with my blog at Stevie Rave On and check out my Pinterest page.

Indigo Oshawa Centre

Have you been to the new Indigo stores? Some of you may have experienced the exciting stores with new look and expanded departments. Make sure you go for a visit and immerse yourself in Canada's largest bookstores :)

#Toronto Style Digital Interactive Sculpture

Were any of you fashion hounds stopped in the tracks by this beacon of #TorontoStyle in the Eaton Centre?

Cadillac Fairview launched a marketing campaign at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. Designed by the global design collective, Traffik, the main feature of the campaign is an interactive digital display sculpture with an integrated camera that customers can use to take photos of themselves. Their image then appears on a digital screen and can be shared on social media. This exciting and attractive interactive sculpture is engineered, fabricated, and installed by Eventscape.

Everyone who walked by the sculpture were drawn to it and eager to leave a mark - taking part in Toronto Style collective!

Transit City Condos

Transit City Condos is part of a new development in Vaughan. Designed by figure3, the interiors uses restrained luxury as guiding principle and cleverly mixes richness of materials with a play on proportions to envelop visitors in an experience of luxury without using opulence. See more detail of the project here.

fonelab STC

fonelab store in the Scarborough Town Centre, interior design by Designstead.

SickKids Atrium

SickKids Atrium featuring Teknion DNA lounge seating.

Smart & Biggar LLP office

Smart & Biggar office is designed by SDI. The welcoming space features an office design that is sophisticated and rich in texture, juxtaposing classic and modern elements in both form and material finishing - crafting a space that is begging to be felt and touched.

Oakville Place Ceiling Features

Oakville Place Ceiling features engineered and fabricated by Eventscape. The magical dangling lit-rings are just outright amazing to pull off considering both structural and power provisions!

UM Mediabrands Canada

UM Mediabrands Canada is an agency office designed by figure3. The crisp reception features a back wall with dynamically angled fins that change angle slightly between each individual pieces. The large red UM 3-dimensional logo is an uniformly finished storage that also features drawers filled with candies on the reverse side. Raw wood in boardroom and cafe area brings the natural, organic, and warm surface set against the crisp modern design. At the end of the space, a breakout corner with riser style seating provides flexibility to hold town hall meeting at the cafe or larger group brainstorm session.

2017 shop! award features from Toronto

I am honoured to have photographed some of the winning projects in the 2017 shop! awards. Congratulations to the designers and collaborators on the wins. You can see more photography of projects below: Nordstrom Holt Renfrew Milli Penguin Shop

Milli Avenue Road

Milli Avenue Road, designed by Designstead, is a finalist in the Shop! Awards 2017.

Initiative IPG Mediabrands

Initiative Toronto is part of the new IPG Mediabrands office space in the Waterpark Place. The young, energetic, and creative work style requires varying type of workspaces for the staff and clients. figure3 designed a space that is imaginative, fun, relaxed, and sophisticated all at the same time representing the brand and culture perfectly.

PayPal Toronto Office

PayPal Office at MARS Toronto.

Happy New Year 2017

As a look back on the past year, here is a sampling of what I was up to in 2016. Toronto is the proud home of many beautifully designed spaces and I am honoured to take part in capturing it artistically. In retail, there was a host of major department stores including Simons, Nordstrom, and Holt Renfrew anchoring large mall expansions as well as the cute Penguin Shop Toronto pointing to retail trends. Residential and Workplace sectors continue to push forward adapting to new trends of office and living styles.

2016 was a busy year indeed and along the way I contributed to a couple of design industry charity work. I started to broaden my capability with video to serve client needs better. I am also flattered and honoured to be top of the list on 10 Pinterest Boards for Workplace Design named by ChargeSpot. Please check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel. The best way to stay in touch is to subscribe to my blog posts at Stevie Rave On.

Best wishes for 2017 and may the year bring you success and joy abundant!

Nordstrom Yorkdale

Nordstrom opened its 3rd largest Canadian store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre with a 3 level 199,000 s.f. retail space that occupies a large portion of the new Yorkdale expansion. In addition to the typical Nordstrom services, departments and restaurants, it features large window-lit display areas and gallery-like moments with sculptural displays as well as numerous shop-in-store womens designer shops, rightly so for the fashion-forward Yorkdale shoppers. Personally as a man I was drawn to the rich smelling broken-in leather couch and the lenticular X-Ray Slash guitar-rocking portrait.

AVIVA Canada Toronto Office

AVIVA Canada's Toronto Office at the First Canadian Place is designed by figure3 and features furniture by Brigholme. The office design offers a central hub of meeting rooms with a shared breakout area. It is equipped with a cafe style servery and windy lounge furniture for  casual meetings and touch-downs use. The large sliding doors can enclose the meeting block or open up for town hall gatherings.

Large environmental graphics adorn the core walls while small meeting rooms with bold wall graphic and blue glass sidelights provide some visual connection through the space and features fun bold names such as: The Judgement Room."