Enzo Vardaro (alumni- Interior Design) of Artitalia (industry partner) was approached in late August by HBC (Hudson’s Bay/ La Baie as retail partner) to see if Artitalia would be interested in participating in this year’s 2016 PAVE student competition. Enzo approached the Interior Design Department at Dawson to see if we would be interested in being the education partner. Initial brainstorming on this was that it should be with our third-year students, and made part of the Furniture Design and Construction course taught by Anne Marie Legault and Scott Millar.

A design competition was held with the challenge of bringing an e-commerce way of shopping into a ‘Bricks & Mortar’ setting at HBC. 14 teams of 2 students participated and students Jessica Warda and Laura Edgett were judged the winners. Design coordination/ construction meetings were held at Artitalia and the students saw first-hand the process of bringing a design concept to reality. Their concept was built as a full-size prototype at Artitalia in Montreal and shipped to Las Vegas for the PAVE/ GlobalShop 2016 retail trade show.

Judging took place in December 2015:  Judges were Anne Marie and Scott Millar, faculty Interior Design, Enzo Vardaro V.P. Design and Marketing, and Michael Mascitto, Marketing Manager at Artitalia, and Ted Wilson, Director of Design from HBC.