Ones to Watch 2025: Industrial

Supermarket Studio

At Supermarket Studio, weaving is more than a technique. Founded by Chantel and Ryan Ness, the Vancouver-based studio blends backgrounds in interior design, fine art, filmmaking and family rugmaking roots (roots that run deep: Ryan is a fourth-generation carpet merchant). Their custom rugs feel both rooted and modern, grounded by a human-centred approach.

“Each one of our rugs passes through the hands of about 90 people from start to finish, starting from the person in the field who’s tending to the sheep,” says Chantel. The studio works with longstanding weaving partners in India, supporting endangered techniques like khadi (handspun yarn) and providing fair-wage employment for elder women no longer able to weave.

But their work isn’t just technical. “Listening is a tactile exchange in its own way,” adds Chantel. That means understanding the client, the space, the materials and the insights of their weavers. This approach lets the studio create rugs that are both practical and personal. 

In Figure Triptych, for example, three rugs were developed from the same core design (featuring a stoic sentinel figure) but achieved through distinct methods: a flatweave, a Moroccan Berber shag and a hand-knotted piece with varied pile heights and carving.

Judge Mischa Couvrette of Hollis and Morris praises the studio for “the connection to history with the pieces yet bold geometries and colours explored.” —Vivian Chong

 

Ones to Watch 2025: Maker

Sfossils

Mike Seymour of Sfossils isn’t interested in creating with a fixed destination in mind. “I try to go in with the most naivety as possible,” he says. “It’s anti-research, in a way.”

Eagle-eyed readers might recognize Seymour’s work from a profile in our January/February issue earlier this year—hot on the heels of his debut collections in Milan and Vancouver. Since then, he’s been exploring new glazes and materials, building a new studio and preparing for exhibitions in London and Moscow.

Seymour’s design ethos remains rooted in experimentation, not repetition.“It’s learning and pushing boundaries,” he says, “and trying to figure out what new things we can make.” His organic, sculptural pieces blend ceramics, light and textured finishes. “I go in only with questions, not with preconceived ideas,” Seymour adds, noting that much of his learning comes through collaboration with other makers.

His recent light installation at Vancouver’s Burdock and Co draws from West Coast geography and ingredients from the restaurant’s menu. Like a chef plating a dish, Seymour assembled and hung a palette of pieces in situ, creating a layered composition that echoed its surroundings. 

Judge Carla Sorrell of Design Victoria praises his approach: “Throughout the projects, a curiosity and reverence for the material (clay) and its potential to speak to the context (from an ancient villa in Italy to a restaurant in Vancouver) is exciting, relevant and captivating.” —Vivian Chong

Ones to Watch 2025: Furniture

Kerfwork Furniture

Brendan Harrington didn’t think he wanted to be a furniture designer. “Back in high school, I never took woodworking as a course because I didn’t like the idea of cutting down trees,” says the Victoria-based designer with a laugh.

But years later, he and his partner were struggling to find an affordable yet stylish dining table for their home. “We were both pretty broke, so I just started buying construction lumber, finding things in alleyways and then buying some really, really terrible tools from Canadian Tire and Home Depot,” he says. “I started making a table and a bench for myself—and it just sort of kept going from there.”

Thirteen years later, Harrington’s furniture brand, Kerfwork, is celebrating its second anniversary. The brand’s collection now includes six substantial pieces—two chairs, three tables and a media console. While these works are often large and heavy (his recent Crush dining table weighs nearly 500 pounds), Harrington skillfully creates a sense of lightness with design features like floating tops and tapered leg ends.

While Harrington has plans to expand Kerfwork into a small team of craftspeople, he doesn’t plan to stop doing the work himself. “I don’t ever want to hand off the reins and only handle the business,” he says. “To me, woodworking is the reason for Kerfwork.” —Xiao Qing Wan

Read More:

• Meet all of the 2025 WL Designers of the Year

• The Winners of the 2025 WL People’s Choice