I designed this seating system in 1973 shortly after returning to Canada, from studying in Sweden. That Nordic influence is obvious. I was working for Muller + Stewart at that time, as a junior designer. Michael Stewart contributed the clever serrated connector as well as critical overall guidance. The objective was to make a comprehensive system without requiring too many parts. The leg and arm are identical in everything except length, minimizing tooling and inventory. Parts can be connected in various ways to yield diverse configurations. The intended market was student common area furnishing for the community collages being built at that time.

This is a chair that I designed in the early nineties. What I had in mind was a simple wood frame into which various legs styles could be exchanged. The frame itself would have an inset plywood seat which could then be upholstered, or not, as the occasion warranted. The back would be a simple piece of moulded plywood, which could be profiled in an infinite number of ways. The legs were simply profiled pieces as well, identical for both left and right legs. This would give me a very light chair, strong and very adaptable to producing in different guises. It could also be very inexpensive to manufacture.

I designed this outdoor ashtray for Aggregation Contract Furniture in the late eighties. At that time, more buildings were going smoke-free and the smokers clustered around the exit doors were leaving a mess on the pavement. This was a remedy. Pulling a pin allowed the collecting head to pivot, emptying the container for the disposal of the butts. Three versions were offered, for movability, immovability (concrete base) of wall mounting. This design won a design award, although I no longer recall which one.

I made this chair when my son was very young. I wanted a chair that was wide enough so that we could sit side-by-side when I read to him. I made a preliminary sample and he liked to sit there by himself, as well. Like a little emperor. With children, accidents happen, so the chair was designed so that the upholstery could be easily removed for cleaning. There are large elements: arms, back, cushions that sit on a wheeled platform.

I made this chair when my son was very young. I wanted a chair that was wide enough so that we could sit side-by-side when I read to him. I made a preliminary sample and he liked to sit there by himself, as well. Like a little emperor. With children, accidents happen, so the chair was designed so that the upholstery could be easily removed for cleaning. There are large elements: arms, back, cushions that sit on a wheeled platform.

This chair was designed for Nienkamper, the executive office furniture company. The back has a gently molded insert of plywood. The back of a chair, especially a visitors chair in an office, is often the first thing that is seen, and this chairs back is designed to be attractive, with a wide variety of fine woods available.

I designed this chair in the late eighties, for the recent furniture start-up, Ottoman Empire.

In the late eighties I designed a number of lights, for a number of clients. I've always felt that designing for light was special, because light is so essential and critical to how we experience the world. We are, literally, drawn to it.

I approached the Toronto housewares firm Umbra with this design in the early nineties. They had never produced furniture but I thought that this scale would be manageable for them. I designed it in two versions: with a painted MDF top and one with a top made in injection moulded plastic. The first would let them test the market with low products runs and then if the design looked successful, the material could be switched to plastic for higher volumes.

By the late eighties, I had been canoeing for quite a few years. I was eager to combine my love for this sport with my capabilities as a designer. I formed this company with some partners principally to sell the canoes that we made. We also designed and made a number of other small watercraft: rowing shells, skiffs and kayaks. I designed a simple canoe stand for our showroom, utilizing the materials and techniques of the canoe shop.

I designed the Nexus chair for Ambiant Systems Limited. I had previously designed some tables and suitable chairs were required. I was careful to both keep my tooling costs down and to create as much product flexibility as possible. There are two versions: armed and armless. Both of these could be produced with a wood seat, a caned seat and an upholstered seat. The backs could be either wood or upholstered. All of the chair frame parts could be cut from the same blank of moulded plywood. And the seat and back shared the same radius and so also the same mould. One of my objectives was to consider how the chairs looked side by side, from the back, which is how we typically see chairs when they are around a table.

The Pillar table system is based hub/connector into which a leg is forced, much the way that an axe handle is forced into its head. This connector has lugs, which allow it to be fastened to the underside of a table. A second casting provides a foot. Because these tables do not require rails for structure, they are very free to take many shapes and sizes and even different materials.

This version of the Pillar tables does not have a lug for under-table fastening. Instead, it relies on a top through which fasteners can be threaded. These fasteners are then capped with a third casting. Once again, a great number of sizes and shapes and materials are potentially applicable.

This seating system is composed of identical square, when seen from above, not unlike the quarter sections of land that the Prairies are divided into. In addition to the square seat, there is leg in each corner, identical to the others. When seats are adjacent, the legs slide into each other, thereby interlocking themselves into a fixed relationship, and sharing a foot. If the leg extends above the seat, an arm or a back may be secured to it. The arms and backs are identical, with the difference being their orientation, which is fixed through its assembly. They can be linked endlessly, much like the way that dominos are laid out.

This public area seating system was designed for Softcare Innovations, a healthcare company. The design is based on a gable-arm to which are affixed both a seat element and a back component. When multiples are desired, supplemental seats (and backs) will share the gable arm with its neighbor. The seats have a hidden steel frame and the backs have a molded plywood frame beneath the padding and upholstery. To increase the flexibility of an already very flexible seating system, versions of the gable-arm were produced in steel as well as versions that were fully upholstered.

This public area seating design was produced for Aggregation Contract Furniture. Since the fabrication would be sub contracted, I designed around the constraints of no metal over ¼ inch in thickness, so that many different types of brake presses could be use. This material would also be easier to punch. By using only these two common machines, a wide variety of seating versions could be achieved.

If this seating system were to be used in public areas in California, then a certain number of seats must be accessible to people in wheelchairs. They would need to slide into the seat latterly. This necessitates an arm that swings out of the way. As well, all pivoting must be accomplished without any possible pinch-points. And to prevent rust, the arm must be painted before assembly, and then assembled in such a way that it cannot be easily unassembled. Designing this arm involved almost as much work as designing the rest of the system.

This modular system, for Aggregation Contract Furniture, is based on a 24 inch square module, in plan. There are also narrower gable elements, curved benches, planters, waste collection units etc. Versions were available in Fiberglas, wood and concrete.