Designers of the Year: Furniture Judges Revealed

Enter by April 1, 2019, to put your work in front of these all-star judges.

The founder of a Canadian design icon, the design mind behind one of the fastest growing furniture start-ups, and a West Coast furniture designer whose work has been collected all over the world: the top-notch creators on our 2019 Designers of the Year furniture design panel.

Danny Chartier

Co-founder of Montauk furniture, Danny Chartier is the head designer and executive manager of the iconic Canadian brand. Together with co-founder Tim Zyto, they made up the yin and yang of what is today recognized as the Montauk brand. The larger than life minimalist cool space soon became a magnet for the ne plus ultra clientele and the go to destination for interior designers and decorators across the city. The rest is history. You can now find a Montauk Sofa showroom in the most dynamic cities in North America – Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, New York and Chicago.

All Montauk Sofa upholstered products are hand made at their Montreal factory in St. Henri. Montauk sofas always start out with a traditional solid wood frame covered with springs which are held in place by eight-strand flax rope (the highest standard in the industry), all covered by memory foam and down filled feather cushions. 

Zoe Garred

Zoe is the director of product development at Article, an original modern furniture brand that is re-engineering the shopping experience. In her role, Zoe works with an in-house design team to bring Article’s catalogue of mid-century, west coast modern and Scandinavian inspired pieces to life.

Product designer, artist and ceramicist, Zoe is passionate aboutworking with natural materials to create elegantly simple, useful objects. Herwork has been featured in exhibitions around the world including 100% Design inTokyo, ICFF in New York and Designersblock in London.

In addition to her current role, Zoe is owner and creative director of her Vancouver-based design studio, Fleet Objects. Zoe is an honours graduate from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design’s Bachelor of Industrial Design program.

Brent Comber

Brent Comber Originals is an art and design studio that creates sculpted objects, functional pieces and design environments. Brent initially began working with wood as a garden designer in early 1990, creating pieces to compliment his Pacific Rim inspired gardens. Using solid pieces of wood, Brent found a new take on furniture design that truly integrated with the landscape.

 Materials are sustainably sourced from thesurrounding area, and milled at his oceanfront workshop and gallery. Through theexploration of materials; wood, stone, glass, resources are taken at theirpurest form and transformed into objects of recognition yet the fundamentalelements remain. Brent takes care to ensure that every piece retains its story,its relationship with the greater system, and that this story remains visiblethroughout his body of work.

Brent is thefourth generation of his family to be raised within the Pacific Northwest.Ranging from residential to commercial installations, his aestheticinterpretation of the coast has been recognized both locally and globally,showing as far as Paris, London, Japan, Bora Bora and beyond. Brent continuesto explore themes unique to the Pacific Northwest that connect people to thisunparalleled setting and the history and dynamism of the landscape.