PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

The following interviews are part of a larger project for a third-

year Directed Studies in Design Futures. We have conducted

these interviews with Emily Carr alumni to gather knowledge

about design practices, methodologies, experiences and

advocay, while simultaneously taking the opportunity to

showcase former students of Emily Carr University. The

interviews were prepared with two specific audiences in mind;

Current, the Design Research Journal, and the Design°, which

both are web based publishing mediums for design research

and degree content respectively.

We are excited to share with you the outcomes of our project,

and to create a legacy for Emily Carr, sharing the experiences

and insights of alumni.

INTERVIEW

Bree + Solveig

The following is an

interview with the

Principal of Public

Architecture &

Communication and

Metaform

Susan Mavor.

The interview was

transcribed from a

video of our meeting

on October 20th, 2011.

SJ: Could you please introduce yourself and the

company?

SM: I am Susan Mavor and am the principal at

Metaform, which is a small studio I started in

1995. I graduated from Emily Carr in 1993 which

was then called Institute of Art and Design at the

time. I am also a partner in Public Architecture +

Communication and so right now I kind of wear

two hats, I am essentially in two bands. The larger

office you see behind me is comprised of both of

those teams. This is a situation we set up about

three years ago when some friends of mine, who

are architects, left their big corporate offices and

wanted to work on their own, and we saw a need

for identity in relation to spaces essentially. So

we’ve been working collaboratively since then. In

speaking about Metaform right now, it’s relevant to

frame it as about half of our professional work, with

the other half being conducted under the umbrella

of “Public.”

SJ: Do they [two company hats] feed into each other?

SM: They do, definitely. I would say it is easier to

add a communication project on to an architecture

project than the other way around if there’s a

building or large construction project or even a

feasibility study related to a community center. In

terms of process, we are making great progress in

feeding the one discipline into the other.

SJ: Could you tell us about the concept behind the

name Metaform?

SM: Well, at the time I think I was really interested

in the notion of transformation and metamorphosis,

that design is about transforming things from a

to b and the name is a play on those two ideas.

I also have an English literature background and

the notion of metaphor is interesting. The notion of

metaphor is a more abstract way of representing

something as opposed to what it is immediately

apparent.

Susan Mavor kindly let us visit her to talk to us

about her working experiences and signature

approach to projects. Susan is an Emily Carr

Communications Design alumni. She is a

principal of the Vancouver-based studio Public

Architecture + Communication as well Metaform.

Public Architecture and Communication is a

Vancouver based integrated design studio

formed in collaboration between architects and

communication designer. In addition she runs her

studio Metaform which she founded in 1995.

When looking at Susan’s website and work, our attention

was drawn to her use of sophisticated language with a lot of

semiotic depth to the terms she uses. Now this was making

more sense in terms of her having an English Literature

background as well, but we were curious as to how this

affected clients.

SJ: Yes, we saw for instance your work for the Man

Ray exhibit, which was so beautiful. We were very

excited to have the opportunity to meet you and see

where the ideas around this project were generated.

SM: The Man Ray exhibit at the MOA was the

latest in the long line of collaborations I’ve had with

them. When I left my first job as a designer and

decided to start on my own, I went straight to the

Museum of Anthropology.

SJ: What attracted you to museums?

SM: Well I love museums. They are just so beautiful

and MOA is a particularly beautiful Museum.

I have always appreciated the way museums

reflect on culture and not only on objects. This is

a particularly interesting time for museums as they

re-evaluate their role and the role of objects. I find

these reflections on culture engaging.

SJ: How do you build trust with your clients?

SM: I think it is important to listen to them. I mean

every designer says they do that, but not everyone

does it well. You kind of have to put yourself inside

their skin and to understand what it is they are

trying to get at. We try to understand their point of

view and solve their problems to the best of our

ability.

SJ: Our impressions of your work, from the

photography in the work, to the images taken of

it, is that there is a strong sense of space and an

architectural approach. There is a lot of depth, various

perspectives and angles in the work portrayed. So we

were wondering where this influence comes from?

SM: I think that’s a very interesting observation and

I’ll answer it in twofold. One influence is that my

first design work was in theatre. I didn’t know what

graphic design was when I was in University before

I went to Emily Carr. I was an English Major and I

loved stories. Then I suddenly realized that if you

do theatre design you get to take the stories and

make them into a real world, a three dimensional

environment with lights and doorways and all kinds

of fantastic imaginative things. And I have always

been interested in scale and in theatre the scale is

more in line with the human body. I suppose I am

less interested in the flat experience, but moreso

the three dimensional aspect. The second way to

answer that question is that sometimes things just

look better captured on a bit of an angle with a

bit more energy. If you are not actually holding the

thing in your hands it can look a little bit flat unless

it’s a poster or a stamp. So it’s a trick, and not a

very original trick.

SJ: A quote from your website is that “a good

designer looks at a problem from a few different

angles”. Can you explain a little more what you mean

by this?

SM: My long-term client-turned-collaborator at

MOA will often say that I never do what he asks

me to do, I will always do something different...

and that it will be better. So it is partially you look

at what’s being asked for and consider if this really

is the best way to do it. For example we did an

exhibit there a few years ago for the Tahltan Nation.

It was the first exhibit ever of the Tahltan’s artwork,

so it was a huge community event for them. There

was a lot of dialogue back and forth with their

tribe council and their elders; they asked for an

expression of themselves at the entry way.

So then the natural question was “What is it you

want to express? If there is one thing people

take away from this, what do you want them to

know?” But The Tahltan Nation wanted people

to know that this was their land basically, not just

in a political sense, but that “this is our land, it is

part of us”. So we created some banners through

which the visitors had to walk through, almost like

ovesized vertical blinds. Each of the banners held a

chunk of the image, and the banners were a portal

into a richly-painted red ochre room, filled with

artwork, beaded clothing, tools and stories. The

idea was basically that you were walking into their

land and their culture at the same time.

“Sometimes things just look better

captured on a bit of an angle with a bit

more energy.”