I sat down with the owners of MASON, Ashley Rumsey & Stanley Sun, and creators of the first-annual Show Off street party in Toronto’s Junction neigbourhood – running October 18 – 30, 2011 – to discuss everything art, design, architecture and street party fun as a precursor to our Winter 2011 feature.

What is the Show Off event?
Show Off 2011 [first annual] is an event where local designers and artists were allowed to let their creative juices flow by creating innovative window displays in the popular Junction neighbourhood. By doing so, both the designers and retail spaces were put on display for the community to showcase what they’ve got to offer. This year we settled on 12 retail spaces and 20 designers to get creative. Spanning the Dundas West strip [West of Keele] shops like Mrs. Huizenga, Pandemonium and SMASH were some of the more popular locals to checkout.

What’s the message you are hoping to get out to the people of Toronto by doing this?
By bringing local Toronto talent [both retail and design] to the forefront of people’s minds, using the Junction as a backdrop, we showcased what Toronto’s got to offer in terms of design talent – and it’s a lot!

Why and how did you choose the designers you did for Show Off 2011?
We posted about Show Off on a number of popular art and design blogs and ended up having an overwhelming response. We also postered around the community to try and attract the attention of local designers, after receiving over 25 original submissions we, unfortunately, had to narrow things down to a more manageable 20 designers and 12 retail shops and art galleries. What it really came down to was how well the designers paired with the boutiques. A perfect example of this is designer Christine Kim and Lesley Look Hong who works primarily with paper as a medium for design, which was a perfect pairing for new and used bookstore Pandemonium.

How did you come-up with the concept for Show Off?
Well, it’s sort of a funny story. We were working on an interior design project of our own for MASON and, being slightly new to the area, decided to try the Junction neighbourhood to source some materials … Not knowing that everything is closed on Monday’s in the Junction! Our disappointment was quickly over-looked when we realized just how beautiful the architecture was. We were awestruck by not only the historical looking buildings but by the huge shop windows and beautifully appointed displays.

It wasn’t long after that experience that we started working in the area, thanks to a friend. After working in the area and seeing all the great things that were on offer at all the great independent shops, the idea came to us! The Junction is the perfect backdrop for showcasing Toronto’s artistic talent, and the windows – the perfect display.

What do you hope will come from this event? More success for MASON? Or is there a bigger picture?
Well, yes, we’d be lying if we didn’t say that our first annual Show Off event is a great promotional tool for MASON – but it’s so much more than that. The event provides not only us, but others in the community, the opportunity to meet other people from the design community as a whole and all other walks of life too! Since this was our first event, it’s also an experiment for us to see what works and what doesn’t. We’re hoping to turn this into an annual event, maybe have it in different neighbourhoods around Toronto? Who knows? We’re just hoping to grow from here.

How much work did you have to put into creating an event of this scale/stature?
Well, once we came up with the concept, there was a long list of things that needed to be organized. We needed to find retailers in the area, find the designers [via. popular design blogs, postering, etc.] Once we had those things in place, it was a matter of getting the events visual identity in place. We needed to create an image for the event – which we did so with postcards, ads, etc. It was a learning curve for us because we’re not event planners — we’re designers! So, we sort of had to learn on the fly about marketing, PR, we even caved and finally got a Twitter account! [@MASONintoronto]

How did Show Off help Toronto and Canadian design?
By bringing art and design into the public eye and making it the forefront of the community, thus, making it more accessible. People that might not otherwise be “interested” in art, per-say, but they might love the idea of strolling around the streets as an activity after work to see some of the displays. It’s really all about the community and getting people together – the interest in the design will come from there – by meeting and talking about it.

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