From Bruce Mau Design's website


Toronto served Bruce Mau well. Back in the early nineties when he had a very small design shop above Dufflet Bakery, Bruce worked on the well-known Zone books in collaboration with architectural theorist Sanford Kwinter, a Toronto ex-patriate living in New York. Toronto was in the throes of a recession in the building industry, and graduates from the region's architectural schools found themselves well prepared for a profession that did not want or need them.

These young grads had five year professional degrees that readied them for the design world. They were articulate, experienced, and by comparison to graduates of local graphic design schools, in possession of a broad theoretical understanding of the design world—not to mention pop culture as promulgated by the popular theory professor, Brian Boigon. Without opportunities in the profession, they looked for ways to apply their skills, and BMD became a natural choice.

Chris Rowat was the first architecture grad to join Bruce Mau Design. From the University of Toronto, the lanky and talented Rowat embraced Mau's theoretical aspirations. More than that, like most architecture grads Rowat was accustomed to working 80 hour weeks in search of an elusive design.

By the late nineties the majority of BMD designers were architecture grads. Gathered primarily from Toronto and Waterloo, the designers rushed to enter an environment that resembled the demands and promises of the thesis year design studio. Not surprisingly, hyper-charged with well-educated, motivated designers BMD's business was going very well, with a client list that included some of the country's better-known brands.

Now located on a large floor of a warehouse building in Toronto's design district, the BMD office was set to embark on its largest design challenge.

... more later this week.