How this design lab blends art with functionality to increase our ‘design quotient’

In Part I of our photo essay on the Design Lab at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, we showcase inspiring, creative works across diverse categories.

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 215 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.

Design is all around us, and has been taking on an increasingly important role in the industrial and digital eras. The Design Lab at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), which has a wide-ranging collection of 43,000 art works, showcases the creative side of everyday objects.

From furniture and ceramics to textile and jewellery, the collection spans almost a century of creative design from around the world. Functionality need not be boring, utility need not be drab, as this photo showcase reveals. The synergy between art, design, visual culture, product development, and user experience is one of the more fertile areas in innovation and entrepreneurship development.

Design appeals to all our senses, but effective design requires continuous commitment and openness to ecosystem alignment. Museums and design labs play an important role in increasing awareness and appreciation of design in our lives.

Diane Charbonneau, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts at the MMFA, joins us in an interview in Part II of this photo essay, and shares insights on the increasing importance of design in contemporary society (see also my interview with museum director Nathalie Bondil here).

Now what have you done today to observe and experience design around you – and transform your environment for the better?

Got a creative photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!

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