Wewerke Design
Wewerke Design
Where: Trail, BC
Year Established: 2018
Website: wewerke.com
Owners: Bernard Mitchell & Krista Humphrey
We are an industrial design studio.
Give us a brief description of your manufacturing processes and philosophy.
Wewerke Design is a Kootenay -based design studio with experience in the development and realization of product design, industrial design, furniture and lighting, spatial fixtures, graphic identities and colour/material/finish specification. Our goal is to assist you to develop the required qualities of objects, processes, services, and their systems, in whole-life cycles. By using design thinking, human-centred, and sustainable design practices, we create consumer products that will lead your business to prosper.
How many employees and/or contractors do you work with?
Just the two of us.
What brought you to the Kootenays and how long have you been here?
We have been coming to the Kootenay since we originally came through while relocating from Ontario in our old Westfalia 10 year ago. We fell in love with Nelson and the surroundings right away, and although we settled on the coast for a number of years, we made sure to come back to the area every summer and every winter to explore, bike, snowboard, swim, etc. Eventually the pull was too strong, so we found a property in the Slocan Valley to refurbish and found ourselves calling it home here very quickly. From that point, the plan was to rent out the valley property, go to university and get a design degree, then come back to set up shop for good. And we’re happy to report that the plan has been fulfilled. Three years ago we returned, fancy university degrees in hand, and started looking for a studio space. Our search led us (unexpectedly) to an old church in Trail, and it has since been reformed into a comfortable and spacious live/work product studio with a substantial prototyping workshop as well.
Tell us about the history and relative work experience of your founder(s).
OMG. Sooo much history. I’ll keep it as brief as possible. We met 22 years ago and have been inseparable ever since. Described by some as being “attached by a wire at the head.” We like to challenge ourselves and each other. While in Whistler for 11 years, we were tile and stone contractors and worked in some of the most fantastic mountain homes in Canada. Giving up the physical labour for more cerebral pursuits, while still utilizing our experience with tools and materials, was something we both readily agreed on. In 2017 we both completed (with distinction) a Bachelor of Science in Product Design at Art Center College of Design, in Los Angeles California. We love working together and truly believe that “2 heads are better than 1” in the design process.
Describe the mission, vision, goals, and aspirations of your company.
We are a Canadian design couple. Two distinctly unique individuals with different creative approaches and voices, yet a complementary and united pair of dreamers and achievers. Our shared creative drive led us to jointly pursue an education in design at Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena California, from which we graduated in the spring of 2017, each with a bachelor of science in product design. We had a mutual dream: to open our own design studio; a place where we could explore our creative ideas and imaginings, and help bring others’ dreams to reality also. Now that we have honed our skills, and with our dream still intact, it is time to build that future. We are a brand new design studio, our senses are primed, and we are ready to share our enthusiasm with the world around us. We yearn to engage with other like (and unlike) minded individuals and to gain some exposure for ourselves as well.
