M-S-D-S Studio
Slightly unusual and wildly refined are the defining features of Toronto-based MSDS Studio. For them, material is the central focus and their philosophy is based on the principles of good design and the inheritance of craftsmanship, while engaging with contemporary culture.
Their collection Source Materials is a perfect example, each piece – whether furniture, object or lighting, is unfussy and practical, timeless yet with a quirk. All about material, MSDS have used just one type per object allowing its individual characteristics to drive the final design. The Trio Tables, for example, are fabricated in aluminium, wood, and composite sheet and while on first look are quite similar – definitely from the same family, they’re also very much unique to their primary material. The timber Trio has light legs in varying lengths, the one made from composite much more solid – joined by large panels, and the tops on each one differ slightly. The Ancestor Chair, in a smoky blue washed timber, feels extremely modern and yet clearly draws on the traditional typology of the Windsor back. The Aluminium pendant lights turn simple silhouettes and an industrialised material into textural, achieved by the sand casting process. MSDS take a simple form and use well-proven, basic design principles as the starting point and then let the material in question do the talking, adding their deliberate hand of originality.
Keeping things simple and working closely with material certainly seems to be a method that is working for MSDS. Source Materials is a collection in which each piece feels original and yet understated, is sensible and subtle, exciting and extremely beautiful.
Credits: M-S-D-S Studio
