Boutique Design - January/February 2017 - 88

DUAL BRAINER
Ken Lam's knack for balancing creative
concepts with rational solutions has
become the hallmark of Navigate Design's
multidisciplinary agency in Toronto.
INTERVIEW BY CHRISTINA GREEN

MAKE IT WORK. For Navigate Design co-founder/principal Ken Lam,
creating a wow design is worthless without a concept-to-execution strategy.
The designer and ex-engineer met Navigate co-founder/president Maher
Murshed in 2014, shortly after leaving his post as II BY IV DESIGN's creative
director to start his own practice. Maher, who had been running a hospitality
investment and management company for four years, was searching for a
partner to launch an interior design studio in Toronto that would complement his existing venture.
"The vision was to have a studio that would offer clients a one-stop solution for interior design, project management, identity development, branding
and marketing," recalls Lam. "Boutique design firms in Toronto all had a
similar one-prong business model, and the market was already saturated. We
had to do something different."
After three months of planning, the duo launched Navigate in March 2015.
This year, Lam says they'll be taking their integrated approach even further,
expanding the design agency's hospitality scope to include such services as
business planning, budget consultancy, digital marketing and F&B operations.

am presented with and to take emotion out of the equation. I can rank the
importance of design features in a space, and quickly decide what to keep
and what to lose without getting too attached to any of them. That doesn't
mean I don't care about the design; however, it makes it easier to help the
crew focus.

HOW DOES YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE IN ENGINEERING INFLUENCE YOUR
WORK STYLE?

HOW IS THE EVOLUTION OF 3D PRINTING CHANGING YOUR APPROACH
TO PROJECTS?

It doesn't in terms of aesthetics, but it does hugely aid my problem-solving
and decision-making skills. Engineers are trained to efficiently break down
problems, prioritize, divide and then conquer. Designers are trained to create
aesthetically pleasing and functional spaces. This is the typical left brain-right
brain fight in which the dominant side always wins. For a lot of designers,
that is usually the right brain and decisions are aesthetically driven. However,
it may not be the best solution.
It's easy for me to stand back and make design decisions based on what I

This year we will start to utilize 3D printing in our design process, especially
when it comes to furniture/fixture prototyping. We also want to explore
creating in-house art installations that can be used in our own projects.
This opens a lot of doors for us to expand our creativity, and at the same
time benefits clients when it comes to the visualization of their projects. The
feasibility of products can be reviewed in terms of their proportion and
aesthetics before they are fabricated. It saves a lot of time and money, and
can resolve uncertainties during the early design phase. 

boutiquedesign.com JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2017

WHAT ROLE DO YOU SEE MEGA TRENDS PLAYING IN YOUR
CONVERSATIONS WITH CLIENTS?

C O U R T E S Y O F N AV I G AT E D E S I G N

Hospitality projects naturally lend themselves to a world of design opportunities. Trends are a great indicator of aesthetics, but when we speak to clients,
we also emphasize the importance of having a strong brand. If the brand
doesn't call for eclectic elements, then we wouldn't tell the client to use them
just because they're trending.
We strive to create something that we haven't done before, and something
for which an abundance of similar designs doesn't already exist. Every client's
vision will be unique. Our goal is not just to convince clients to follow a new
trend, but rather, to steer them away from getting fixated on past ones.

http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - January/February 2017

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