The Best Places for Design Inspiration in Toronto

At MAKO Design + Invent, we work with clients based all over the world. However, our main office is located in Toronto, Canada! One of the best things about being based in one of the most famous and culturally rich cities in Canada is being surrounded by thousands of people who come from all walks of life. They have a plethora of different interests, ethnicities, experiences, and, most importantly, ideas!

The creative culture that makes Toronto so iconic to not only Canadian culture but also the design world, in general, as it keeps the city alive and interesting. Every day, tourists from all over the world visit Toronto to see interestingly designed architecture and art and take part in interesting events.

As MAKO Design + Invent is a team made up of some of the most talented designers in Toronto, we are super passionate and proud to be surrounded by such a creative environment and to see and hear about new design efforts from other creatives in the city. Here are MAKO’s top places to visit for Toronto product design inspiration!

Get Product Design Inspiration at Toronto’s Very Own Shipping Container Market!

Stackt Market is a newer addition to the Toronto scene and has become a popular hub since its grand opening. Although deemed the name ‘market’, Stackt Market was designed in order to create a community-like opening where people can come and experience unique experiences in repurposed landscape of shipping containers.

The Market offers opportunities for all residents in Toronto to come in and rent a pop-up container to fill with anything that fuels their creative passions. From delicious and specifically curated foods, designs, art, and pop-up shops, Stackt Market offers something of interest to everyone.

The best thing about the inspirational hub is the number of new events, workshops, and opportunities that visitors get to experience. The area is adorned with numerous amounts of murals, designs, installations, and pop-up design workshops that not only allow you to view and spectate some of the coolest and most interesting designs from Toronto artists but also let you create and learn how to do these designs yourself!

Just this week, Stack Market is hosting a special event and space for DesignTO! Live art, events, and parties are held in the shipping container market for all to enjoy and see some great designs curated by some of the best designers and artists in Toronto. With so many activities and opportunities to immerse yourself within the creative scene in Toronto, Stackt Market is a must-visit to gain Toronto product design inspiration.

Want to see more spaces for Design in Toronto? Check out MAKO Design + Invent’s Top Makerspaces in Toronto in one of our past blogs here!

Toronto’s Top Product Design Firm, MAKO Design + Invent!

If you’re looking for a design in Toronto, how about none other than MAKO Design + Invent? Located in the heart of downtown, feel free to stop by and learn all about a leading Toronto product design firm and our services and meet some of our talented and world-class designers!

You can discuss your product design ideas with us! We’d love to get to know other design enthusiasts in the city and share some extra tips and experiences about what it’s like working for one of the top product development firms in North America and Canada.

Our office has an impressive list of our design renderings, patents from past clients, and interesting design equipment that helps make our product designs possible. Each and every team member has something special to share about their passion for product development and design and would love to get the chance to meet and share their experiences with others.

Did you know we hosted an open house for Austin Design Week in our Austin location? Check out how the team at MAKO shares their passion for design!

Product Design Inspiration from Toronto’s Contemporary Art Museum, the MOCA.

Known as one of the must-see museums and art galleries in Toronto, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCA) is an art museum that works towards being both culturally and socially useful. The museum is managed to promote exceptional artistic thinking and provide a creative space for discourse and learning within the contemporary art scene.

Empowering the Toronto art scene and informing international tourists and Toronto guests, the MOCA is a welcoming design and art hub with a mission to engage in adding cultural art and design appreciation to the diversity of the Toronto scene.

The museum has spent over 20 years collecting contemporary art and nurturing cultural practices in a huge former industrial space in a popular Toronto neighbourhood known as the Junction. This is a definite must-see if you’re interested in looking at contemporary design and getting some great creative Toronto product design inspiration.

Toronto’s Iconic Art and Design Landmark, the AGO!

Hands down, one of the most iconic landmarks in Toronto is the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). As one of the largest art museums in North America, the AGO carries a collection of close to 95,000 pieces of work ranging from contemporary art to European masterpieces.

With so many pieces of artwork on display, the AGO is a great place to look for design and design inspiration in Toronto. Not only is the AGO a great place to take in art and design from pieces that come from all over the world, but the museum’s mission is overall dedicated to bringing people together to experience and understand the world around them through art and design.

Thus, AGO offers a variety of different workshops and events that help immerse the Toronto creative community in the world of art and give them a more hands-on and personal experience in the design world. The AGO is one of the best places for Toronto product design inspiration, given its extensive collection of pieces of art and the number of opportunities offered to visitors of the museum.

The Ontario College of Art and Design and How They Encourage Product Design Inspiration

Did you know that Toronto is home to one of the best design schools in Canada? Located right next to AGO, the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) is one of the central design institutions in Toronto where those interested in learning, practicing and researching all aspects and disciplines of design.

Students from around the world study at OCAD to enhance their appreciation and knowledge of design and engage in creative, studio-based, aesthetic and technical learning. OCAD is not only dedicated to teaching art and design to talented students. OCAD thrives off being a huge design and creativity hub for the creative community in Toronto and is home to hundreds of different innovative and interesting designs created by some of the most talented design students in Canada.

In addition to serving as a leading college for art and design, OCAD is also home to a number of different galleries that display the work made by students, graduates, professional artists, designers, and researchers! The galleries are open for anyone to visit and see the newest and most innovative design and art pieces created today, perfect for getting a dose of Toronto design inspiration.

MAKO Design + Invent loves to encourage innovation and design for students! Learn about the MAKO Student Innovation Award we established.

If you have a great new invention and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO today and visit our website to find out more. Or feel free to give us a call at 1-888-MAKO, and we can set you up on a call with our product strategist!

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!