In their search for a firm who could help develop a sense of place,
@aesop ’s global design leads in Paris and New York found
@odami.team on the website of
@idstoronto , where Arancha González Bernardo (
@arancheetah ) and michaelfohring were exhibiting a line of furniture made from reclaimed trees.
@odami.team ’s focus on chic sustainability was a point of both attraction and connection for the ecologically minded brand.
Fast forward five years, and
@odami.team is sought after not only for its visionary composite of design references but also its principals’ honesty about the challenges of running a small firm.
Though the past year has seen it level up its branding, rack up big awards, and win contracts for everything from reimagining an iconic local womenswear store to designing a large Japanese eatery in downtown Toronto, they still wonder from time to time, Is this real? Is this really happening? “We still feel like outsiders in a sense,”
@arancheetah says. “Nobody in either of our families is an architect, and we’re not from Toronto. But that’s what makes us different. We’re able to mash our cultural circumstances together for something that makes sense here.”
đź–‹
@beth_hitchcock 
