“An homage to Canadiana” is how designer Tyler
Vreeling, owner of Edmonton’s Fat Crow Design firm, describes its White Moose furniture and home accessories label. For a company that has just hit its first birthday, the five-member creative team (four of them University of Alberta design grads) has been busy bringing to life the old adage “nature inspires” in very new ways. See the wilds of Canada take aesthetic form in pieces like their Autumn rug (bottom left, designed by Joanna Goszczynski), magnetized coasters (top left) emblazoned with loons, beavers and wolves and a chair designed by Mark Oswald whose shape was influenced by an old 1960s Canadian-designed heater. For their Spruce Stand room divider (shown above), Vreeling gave fellow designer Joel Harding the key phrase “digital Group of Seven” and a modern-looking, tree-etched green masterpiece is what emerged. How’s that for quirky Canadian inspiration? —Katie Nanton