A good time for design

Veteran designer Jonathan Crinion enjoying a new approach

Jonathan Crinion can't stand the sight of a poorly designed chair. "I would rather sit on a cardboard box," says Crinion, a Toronto industrial designer with more than 20 years experience in designing chairs and office furniture systems for clients such as legendary American manufacturer Knoll, Staverton of England, and Tecno of Italy. Crinion's Gazelle chair was recognized as a Canadian design icon when Canada Post commemorated his design in a 1998 postage stamp series. Last year, Arts Toronto honoured the designer with its annual architecture and design award, citing Crinion for his elegant, minimal, and refined work.
Sitting in the backyard adjacent to his west Toronto home studio on a recent late sunny summer morning, Crinion points out the importance of a dedication to design work. "You can't just be going through the motions. You have to be passionate about it. I've made it my life to know everything about design."
Crinion's design heroes include Antonio Citterio and Alberto Meda - two Italian designers who he says have a "quiet confidence in their work." Their designs are simple, but sophisticated, Crinion says.
Inspired by the likes of Citterio and Meda, the 48-year-old Crinion made a conscious effort a few years ago to scale back his business overhead so he could concentrate on designing. Instead of a 3,000 square foot office with a handful of staff, Crinion now works from a spartan home studio. He relies on his laptop computer, email, and a network of contacts built up over his many years in the profession. He travels frequently for work and inspiration.
Technologies such as stereo lithography, which create three-dimensional prototypes from initial working ideas, have also helped Crinion in his designing process.
The Toronto designer's most recent major project is the Plateau worktable for Staverton of Devon, England. The multi-function table system, which debuted at last fall's Orgatec trade fair in Cologne, Germany, is intended to open the lines of communication among co-workers or project team members.
The Plateau is a single two metre wide by six to eight metre long workstation that can comfortably accommodate up to eight workers. The configurable table can be used for functions such as a trading desk, call centre, or meeting table. "The nature of work has changed. It has become networking, interaction and communication," says Crinion in explaining a furniture design that was inspired in part by a year working with renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster. "The North American model has been 'stick your head in a cubicle and isolate the person.' (Plateau) is about turning your chair around and facing each other and confronting problems. That's not going to happen if you're surrounded by walls."
Plateau is an addition to the Landscape office furniture system by Crinion, also manufactured by Staverton. The minimal lines and attention to detail of the Landscape system are characteristic of Crinion's work. Also new from the Toronto designer is the Crinion Collection for Knoll, a modern take on the executive office suite.
Asked about his favourite projects, Crinion reveals a passion for environmentally responsible designs. He once designed a large capacity composter for use by institutions and the hospitality industry. Designs still looking for a manufacturer include a photovoltaic-powered fan and a wind generator that could be used on, for example, Toronto's lakefront or in cottage country.
Crinion's environmental concerns mesh with his overall less-is-more approach to product design. He laments the prevailing North American mind-set in which we buy cheap products with the expectation that these can be easily replaced if we become dissatisfied with them. "The mentality in Europe is quite different," Crinion notes. "People have less and they pay more for it, but they're happy to pay more for it. What they do buy will probably last a lot longer." European manufacturers, such as housewares specialists Alessi, put a premium on quality and product longevity, Crinion says. While many North Americans balk at paying more for a quality product, Crinion says we need to develop an appreciation and recognition of quality design if we are ever going to lose our disposable culture mentality. Like a truly classic design, Crinion would love his own work to be passed from generation to generation.
Crinion was born in Liverpool, England. In the mid 1950s his family moved to Boston, where his father, David Crinion, studied at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The family traveled around the continent in a station wagon for a year before settling in Ottawa. Crinion's father became chief architect with the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation(now the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation), where he was responsible for public housing design and planning. The younger Crinion studied at Ottawa's Carleton University and the University of Toronto before graduating from the Ontario College of Art's faculty of product and systems design in 1980. After three years with the respected industrial design firm Kuypers, Adamson, and Norton (KAN), Crinion formed his own company in 1983.
Along with the Gazelle chair for Area manufacturing of Toronto, Crinion's work includes the System 6 office furniture system for Knoll and the Compas office system for Tecno of Milan.
Crinion says he was fortunate to have challenging teachers and a valuable mentor in Jan Kuypers while at KAN, but he feels current design education in Canada leaves something to desired. For all of his creative abilities, Crinion is attentive to the practical aspects of his business and he feels it is here that Canadian schools are shortchanging their students. "Design education just gets you to the point where you might know a little bit about design. It doesn't give you enough information to shove you off into the world and say "now, go make a living‚" Crinion says.
Crinion's passion for design can extend into his leisure time as well. An avid sailor since his youth, Crinion is currently working on the cockpit design of a racing yacht being built by an English designer. Crinion plans to enter the 2005 New Man STAR trans-Atlantic solo race, a two week sprint from Plymouth, England to Newport, Rhode Island. He's currently looking for sponsors to raise about $1 million for the sailing challenge.
Unlike the minimalism of his designs, Crinion says he tends to tackle complex problems in his projects, which is why he feels he's been drawn to so many furniture systems. "I don't just style aimlessly. I try to evoke a feeling and look at what the attributes of that feeling might be and how they translate into a form," the designer says. Among his favourite Canadian designers, Crinion lists Scot Laughton (designer of Umbra's Juxta storage system) and Toronto architect Brigitte Shim.
With new technologies and an increasing interest in design among the general population, Crinion's passion for his work is continuing to burn brightly. "This is the best time in the history of the world to be a designer," says an enthused Crinion. "And I'm having a good time."

Publication Date: 2001-09-23
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=416