On Tuesday, May 19, we collaborated with our friends at Dark Tools to host internationally renowned lighting designer David Trubridge in Toronto. As part of his second North American tour, David was in the city for one day only following WantedDesign NYC. David is a recent recipient of two Red Dot Design Awards and to say that we were excited for his presentation on design beauty would have been an understatement.

In his talk, Beauty Matters, David spoke about the importance of beauty in design and how it relates to design sustainability through a telling of his personal journey. Originally from the U.K., David and his family set sail around the world in 1981. Navigating throughout the Caribbean and the Pacific on a boat that became their home for four years, he arrived and settled in New Zealand. Through his experiences, David’s strong connection with the earth’s elements strengthened, and his passion for the environment deepened, which are prominent aspects of the stories told through his designs.

The event was a huge success and we had a fantastic attendance of more than 50 architects and interior designers who joined us to watch David’s presentation and to chat with the designer. Despite the large group, David was not short of stories to tell. We particularly enjoyed the one about his submission of an art piece to the Melting Ice / A Hot Topic exhibition produced by the National World Museum and the United Nations Environment Programme in 2007. Given the nature of the exhibition – to address climate change from a global perspective – David wanted to avoid shipping his sculpture across the world and instead sent digital documents with instructions for creating his artwork. His piece was ultimately honoured with an award, but he didn’t want to fly to the U.S. to receive it, as that would have contradicted the purpose of the exhibition.

At the end of the night, a copy of David’s book So Far was to be awarded to one lucky guest. So Far is David’s autobiography that parallels his experiences with his design evolution, perfectly weaving the two together in a beautifully illustrated book. Being the generous man that he is, David brought a couple of extra copies and ended up giving away three of them!

We can confidently say that everyone who joined us in welcoming David Trubridge to Toronto had a great evening and learned a lot about beauty in design, design sustainability and of course, David himself. We’re looking forward to the next time he stops by and can’t wait to hear more of his incredible stories. If you’re not familiar with his stunning lighting kitset fixtures, be sure to check them out here: www.davidtrubridge.com