by Jacques Talbot (MA Art History candidate)
Emery Lane ('10 B Des) has been awarded the 2014 Emerging Designer for the Graphic Design category by the Design Exchange (DX) Museum. His design will form part of an exhibition featuring the work of designers recognised in the Emerging Designer Competition, and will be on view at Toronto's Design Exchange Museum until May 19th, 2014.
The Design Exchange, a not-for-profit located in the heart of downtown Toronto is a unique platform for the preservation of design heritage and the celebration of current and future design and designers in Canada. DX acknowledges and advocates progression in multiple avenues of design as these relate to industry and how the field of design informs and steers contemporary culture. DX also recognises the importance of design and its application on a day-to-day basis and the manner in which its function is pivotal as well as its aesthetic from a societal perspective. Better design can (and does) impact quality and safety of living.
Even as an undergraduate studying visual communication design and printmaking at the University of Alberta, Emery Lane showed a great deal of promise, recognized as Best in Show and the recipient of the Livia Stoyke Excellence in Leadership for his graduate exhibition in 2010.
He speaks fondly of his design studies at the U of A, noting how valuable it has been to have design thinking presented within a strong foundation of liberal arts education.
"Studying both printmaking and graphic design in a university setting, for me, was all about negotiating a vocational identity. But looking back, I can appreciate not only the mix of art and design, but philosophy, poetry, and politics as well," says Emery Lane.
"In my mind, awards like this are about recognizing one's ability to articulate ideas in a thoughtful manner. The ability to generate relevant visuals is merely half the challenge. As my practice matures, I am becoming more sensitive towards the marginal spaces within other disciplines. For example, I'm working with a cinematographer to design the visual language component of her short film and on another project I'm trying to program a critical typeface for digital media with a couple web developers in Toronto."
In Toronto, Emery runs his own home-based design company, Main and Lane. Since 2012, he has hosted graphic design workshops at Toronto's contingent of the globally renowned Idea Coutoure Inc. (IC). In addition to working on features with IC, upcoming projects include visual identity and poster designs for the revitalized Union Station in Toronto, Canada's busiest transit hub that is itself evolving to incorporate cultural programming and mixed retail space.
Image: Design for Union Station. Reproduced with permission from Emery Lane.
Emery is also working on a promotional website for a book launch for an author focused on brand strategy. A subtle allusion to the impact of traditional marketing tactics, the 'Buy Me' icons are inconspicuous at first, appearing in small numbers and over short intervals of time. Soon, however, they fill up the screen, eclipsing the very content they are promoting.
Emery's work, and the work of other emerging designers from across disciplines such as architecture, fashion, industrial design and interior design, is on view at the Design Exchange Museum from February 21st to May 19th, 2014.