Radiant Dark opens Toronto design week with Bacon Savers and felt discs

Under the soaring ceilings of Commerce Court West last night, Radiant Dark kicked off Toronto’s first International Design Festival, which runs until Sunday. The exhibit, with creations by over 40 contemporary Canadian designers, is curated by the owners of Made, Shaun Moore and Julie Nicholson. Only in its third year, the showcase has already gained a rep for presenting some of Toronto’s best design talent.

For the 2010 event, participants created pieces—chairs, rugs, cutlery—inspired by our relationship with money and the economy, hence the Bay Street locale. To wit, in Kathryn Walter’s Felt Studio installation, spectators can take a felt disc from a pile but are required to leave something behind—whether it’s money, an empty cigarette pack or a bobby pin. In Jill Allan’s clever Bacon Saver piggy banks, penny savers insert coins through the swine’s snout.