Designers of the Year 2023: Meet Your Maker Judges

There’s just over a week left to enter our 2023 Designers of the Year awards—deadline is April 3!

We created the Maker/One-of-a-Kind category back in 2016 when it was clear that the creative industries in western Canada were both booming, and deserved proper celebration and recognition within our awards program. It’s a category that’s seen a broad range of winners—from potters and ceramicists to textile artists and sculptors. Curious? You’ll see them all in our Winners by Category page here.

And we’re proud to announce the internationally renowned judges that will be joining the Maker panel for our 2023 WL Designers of the Year Awards. From a sculptor whose colourful work is collected around the world, to a multi-disciplinary designer whose artisan-made designs are available at West Elm, Anthropology and the Met, to a curator who’s behind the top design shows in Canada—these are the talented artisans judging this year’s entries.

 

Dan Lam

Sculptor

Internationally acclaimed, prominent contemporary artist and social media Influencer; Dan Lam is an artist based out of Texas. Lam’s sculptural work expresses and plays with sensational dichotomies by combining unconventional materials, organic forms, and bright colors. With contrasting themes verging on beauty and grotesqueness at once, Lam’s art provokes its viewers to ponder meaning and existence while inspiring feelings of familiarity and wonder.

Curiosity, play, and fun are the foundation of where Lam’s work begins. Her experimentation results in beautiful sculptures created with various materials such as foams, polyurethanes, resins, acrylics, and polymers, which defines her style.

She has exhibited worldwide, and celebrity clients include Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, The Game, and Lily Aldridge. Notable art collectors, such as the Tisch family, have acquired her work. In addition, Lam has collaborated with prominent companies, including Facebook and Virgin, and renowned art producers, Meow Wolf. Her pieces have been featured in Architectural Digest, Travel and Leisure, and Forbes, amongst many other international media outlets. 

 

Diego Olivero

Diego Olivero Studio

As the founder of his eponymous design studio, Diego Olivero Studio, Diego has worked on a vast array of architectural, interior design, and installation projects in Guatemala, Venezuela, Miami, Brazil, Honduras, Panama, and the UK. His design collaborations are available at West Elm, Anthropology, CB2, Madewell, ABC Carpet and Home, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Perez Art Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, among others.

Curiosity and admiration for craftsmanship led Diego to work in different mediums, from wood, glass, metal, textile, and ceramics. Diego has collaborated with artisans in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Philippines, Kenya, Thailand, Madagascar and co-founded Meso Goods, a curated boutique of objects made by over 550 designers and artisans from Latin America. Meso Goods partners directly with artisans to create fair wages and empower men and women in rural areas of Latin America while expanding to other parts of the globe. Meso Goods distributes products in more than 20 countries through museums, retail stores, and exhibitions, generating sustainable economic development for artisan families.

Diego’s beautiful and modern interpretations of local tradition have received numerous recognitions and awards. In 2016, Diego was inducted into the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative by the United States Department of State, as a leader and social entrepreneur. This led him to co-create CONVERSA, a platform to learn, share, connect, and act for social good. Diego also received the London Design Biennale’s 2018 Public Medal for the Guatemalan Pavilion Palopo, and recently won two Gold Medals at the World Biennale of Interior Designers in Mexico City. Recently his work became part of the collection of the State Department of the United States.

Bronwyn Gourley

IDS Vancouver and IDS Toronto

Bronwyn Gourley is a devoted member of the interior design community in Vancouver and became a part of the IDS Vancouver team in 2014. Prior to joining the IDS team, she worked as a residential interior design consultant, architectural technologist and installation floral designer in Vancouver and has been entrenched in the design and events industry for over 17 years. 

Currently, she is the Director of Conference for IDS Vancouver and IDS Toronto, where she leads the West Coast efforts of the Interior Design Show brand with outreach to design studios throughout the Lower Mainland and up and down the West Coast of North America. 

Bronwyn is a proud advocate for the Pacific Northwest design community and will push to ensure they are included in and invited to every opportunity granted to other leaders in the design industry. 

 Deadline to enter the Western Living Designers of the Year Awards is 11:59pm on April 3, 2023. Enter now!