Page 34 - 07_Sept-2025

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DESIGN
FORWARD
Product prototypes by
six promising industrial
design students
 SUMMIT SITE
WATCH [a]
Hafsah Mohummed
 THE LUMO
SPEAKER [b]
Elisse Canaynay
 BASKNET [c]
Dree Beaudry
 CARBON
FIBRE CHAIR [d]
Ashley Na
 SKITTER
LIGHT [e]
Ainsley Toner
 KNOTTY
ASSEMBLE [f]
Jade Chan
(from left) Ashley Na, Jade Chan and Ainsley Toner, U of A industrial design students
Edmonton — one that could survive the churn of boom-and-bust
cycles. “The whole idea of MADE was … let’s create something
that has some resilience,” Kaba says. And they have: this fall,
MADE will celebrate its 25th anniversary during Edmonton
Design Week. Today, its board — which is chaired by Kazakoff —
continues to push the city’s design conversation forward.
Chris Provins, a designer, creative director and MADE board
member, says the organization is thinking about how to sustain
and grow design locally. That includes more public events,
advocacy and outreach intended to highlight how design
shapes — and is shaped by — the city we live in. The success
of these will largely depend on how they’re received by
emerging designers.
U OF A STUDENT HAFSAH MOHUMMED APPLIED TO
a number of different programs outside the city, including
architecture and urban planning, but it was the desire and
potential to actually build things that drew her to industrial
design. “I saw a picture of the (university) shop itself. I was like,
that’s what I want to do,” recalls Mohummed, now director of
the Student Design Association.
Others from the association, like fourth-year student Elisse
Canaynay, echoed her enthusiasm for the hands-on aspects of
the program and the ways it prepares students for the work-
force. She also credited instructor (and program alumnus)
Tim Antoniuk for encouraging the students to think about the
intention and the utility of their designs. “One of his sayings
that we quote every day is, ‘Is it purposeful? Is your design
purposeful?” The question highlights the fundamental
ability to recognize a need and to design objects to meet
that need.
But many of the students interviewed for this article are still
unsure if they’ll stay after graduating. Like design students
before them, employability and the market influence their next
steps, but diversity was front-of-mind in a way that it wasn’t for
the previous generation. Many of today’s design students are
women or people of colour — they are unsure about entering a
workforce dominated by white men.
When thinking of her next steps, fourth-year student Faith
Adra wants to go abroad in search of a more multicultural
perspective on design, feeling that her U of A education,
though useful in providing practical skills and real-world
experience, was shaped predominantly by Western viewpoints.
Adra noted that the multiculturalism of her cohort is a
strength that represents how diverse Edmonton actually is.
“I know that we all have different backgrounds and skills,” she
says. “I’m excited to see where all of us go.”
For his part, MADE chair Nick Kazakoff is committed to
building a design culture that reflects Edmonton’s identity and
future — and he sees this as a pivotal moment to do it. “Now is
the time for us to step up to build a cultural design scene that
is impactful, true to our identity, sustainable for the long term,
and positions Edmonton as a design-forward city.” ED.
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