Suite 203, 18 Hook Avenue
Toronto, Canada
M6P 1T4
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+1(416) 761-9736
Interior design at the junction of
art, graphics, objects and technology.
We are makers of memorable spaces.
Mason Studio is a team of creative design professionals harnessing the power of a multi-disciplinary approach to create unified and captivating interior environments.
With our net of talented specialists in interior, graphic, web and industrial design, we are able to capture the fundamental values of our clients from every angle to maximize the full potential of a project.
At Mason Studio, we have a solid set of principles that guide our process. Whatever the situation, we fastidiously stay true to our core values to keep us in perpetual motion.
1 – The art of collaboration
We learned to share at a young age. We open our design process to other creative professionals who bring their carefully honed skills to the table. Putting great minds together brings out the full potential in a project, creating holistic and cohesive design solutions.
2 – We sweat the small stuff
When we say subtle, we don’t mean simple. The constant challenge is taking a complex idea or problem and solving it in an understated way. Our designs are not a cluster of visual distractions, but a carefully curated narrative of ideas.
3 – There is fun in seriousness
We’re serious about what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. A well-designed space should not only be functionally appropriate, but a total pleasure to be in. We involve eccentricity and humour in our process to create a story that gives you an experience to remember.
4 – Trends are yesterday
We don’t try to be in fashion. We create spaces that don’t fade quickly by dancing to the beat of our own drum. Through innovative problem solving and a solid design philosophy, we put ourselves in the driver’s seat of the band wagon instead of hitching a ride.
The perception of design is rapidly changing; gone are the days where ‘process’ is taking off a blindfold and seeing a completed design before your eyes. More than ever, there is a longing to experience the story behind the craft of design – to read the prelude before the final chapter.
We adamantly believe that the process behind our work is as important, if not more so, than the final product. A design without a process is a design without a soul. We make it a point to bare our souls, to show you how we work, to share our secrets, to reveal the genius ideas that work and those that don’t.
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The partners of Mason Studio, Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun, have extensive experience designing and managing retail, commercial and hospitality projects around the world for top-level international clients.
Ashley Rumsey (BID, LEEP AP) is a specialist in design and visual arts through studies at leading Canadian and Australian institutions. She has worked with multiple top Canadian design firms on projects in the United States, South America, Europe and the Middle East. She was a lead designer for a highly respected Toronto & New York based studio designing and managing large scale hospitality, retail and residential projects.
Stanley Sun (BID, BSc, NCIDQ, IDC, ARIDO, BCIN) is trained in design, fine arts and sciences from multiple academic institutions across Canada and Asia. He has worked for respected firms in North America, Europe and South East Asia and held the position of Lead Designer for a London, UK based multi-disciplinary design studio. He has developed numerous cross-disciplinary brand solutions for retail shops, exhibitions, hotels, commercial offices and concept spaces.
Ashley and Stanley met as fledglings in design school and formed an immediate bond, sharing one mind in design values, aspirations and the inability to accept status quo. They grew and evolved together, constantly changing paths but always on the same track. In their travels, they have seen what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Mason Studio was born as the child of their experiences. Over the years, they have come to fully respect the level of skill and dedication that is required in the process of any design. They are devoted to their professional craft, like a Mason is to his.
Project: TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace Exhibition
Date: 2013
Location: TIFF Bell Lightbox - Toronto, Canada
Concept: An interactive environment where kids engage with emerging creative media technologies and innovative digital experiences. Mason Studio and aftermodern.lab collaborate to create an exhibition space to encourage and enhance the immersion with the digital programmes. Photography by Jesse Boles.
Project: Toronto Design Offsite Festival – Design installation
Date: 2013
Location: Toronto, Canada
Concept: A series of gentle, cloud-like objects gather to form a site-specific installation, engulfing the gallery space in an ethereal moment of quiet. The noise of our everyday is challenged by pulling you out of reality and into a work of fiction, if even for a fleeting moment.
Project: Restaurant café
Date: 2012
Location: International
Concept: A lifestyle café concept for a celebrity name. An aspirational environment is designed for a clientele who desires an interior design which parallels the quality of the brand. A subtle material palette is selected for a relaxed yet elevated dining experience.
Project: Junction Design Crawl – Design installation
Date: 2012
Location: Toronto, Canada
Concept: For the second annual community event, an installation takes over a once lively and central train platform in the Junction neighbourhood. The stage is brought to life with a large collection of objects which becomes the backdrop for live performers. For a brief moment in time, the platform is reanimated as the heart of the community.
Project: Interior Design Show – Feature exhibition
Date: 2012
Location: Toronto, Canada
Concept: A 160-square foot shipping container converted to a conceptual living environment, challenging traditional notions of space. Featuring the talents of local artisans, wood, leather and ceramics are crafted to demonstrate the versatility of indigenous Canadian materials at all stages of their lifecycle. Materials building materials such as horsehair and charcoal make the this small-scale interior environment is an exploration of the vast Canadian landscape and the richness of its resources.
For Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2013, Mason Studio pulled our guests out of reality and into a work of fiction.
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For Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2013, Mason Studio pulled our guests out of reality and into a work of fiction. In a site-specific installation, the 5000 square foot retail shop, Pavilion, filled with a series of gentle objects engulfing the space and created a deadening silence. The solidarity of a singular idea came to shape an ephemeral moment of quiet.
Watch the interview we had with Torontoist on our concept behind the installation:
Mason Studio was invited to participate in the DX 2012 Gala auction which took place on November 16, 2012. To
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Mason Studio was invited to participate in the DX 2012 Gala auction which took place on November 16, 2012. To see some photos of the amazing evening, visit the Design Exchange Facebook page
Here’s what we created!
For one evening only, Mason Studio transformed the Junction Train Platform into an enchanted stage for the second annual Junction
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For one evening only, Mason Studio transformed the Junction Train Platform into an enchanted stage for the second annual Junction Design Crawl.
Through a large series of manufactured objects, a sculptural installation lit up the neighbourhood creating a beacon of beauty and music with the coming of dusk.
Go to the Work section to see more photographs of the final installation.
We recently had a chance to interview Toronto-based photographer Jaime Hogge to learn more about his process and work. Read
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We recently had a chance to interview Toronto-based photographer Jaime Hogge to learn more about his process and work. Read the article at the Mason Journal.
Mason Studio was invited to participate in the feature exhibition for the Interior Design Show 2012 where 5 shipping containers
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Mason Studio was invited to participate in the feature exhibition for the Interior Design Show 2012 where 5 shipping containers were formed into a conceptual living environment. Visit the Work section to see more photos of the installation.
Stanley and Ashley take the opportunity to present at Pecha Kucha Vol. 12 in part of Toronto design week 2012.
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Stanley and Ashley take the opportunity to present at Pecha Kucha Vol. 12 in part of Toronto design week 2012. Watch the video of the event to learn about how you can voyeuristically see how others live. To learn more about Pecha Kucha, visit www.pecha-kucha.org
Western Promises “Mason Studio took over the Pavilion furniture showroom with its ethereal installation, which consisted of translucent tissue paper
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Western Promises
“Mason Studio took over the Pavilion furniture showroom with its ethereal installation, which consisted of translucent tissue paper billowing over trestle legs and illuminated from within. The creases and folds filtered light like clouds at dark.”
Mason Studio’s cloud installation for Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2013 is published on Dezeen Magazine. Click here to read the
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Mason Studio’s cloud installation for Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2013 is published on Dezeen Magazine. Click here to read the article and see the images on digital publishers website.
“Canadian interior designers Mason Studio filled a warehouse with luminous clouds as a calming space amid the hustle and bustle of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival last month.
Behind layers of scrunched-up tissue paper, the installation was filled with motion-sensitive devices that triggered a system of concealed lighting.
As visitors approached, each cloud would start to glow, but when that person walked away the lights would slowly die down.
“The installation was an attempt to pull festival goers out of the commotion and noise that inevitably surround design festivals, to provide a space of tranquil and rest, if even for a fleeting moment,” explains Mason Studio.
Gentle music accompanied the installation, helping to block out the noise from outside.”
From major brands to indie talents, the best from the Interior Design Show and the off-site circuit “Mason Studio created
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From major brands to indie talents, the best from the Interior Design Show and the off-site circuit
“Mason Studio created the standout display, a fanciful kitchen incorporating such tactile materials as horsehair, charcoal, and suede, all anchored by an oak table-cum-sink, and backed by a phrase from “O Canada” in white neon.
Mason Studio is honored to be featured on the January 2012 front cover of NOW Magazine. Thank you to Andrew
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Mason Studio is honored to be featured on the January 2012 front cover of NOW Magazine.
Thank you to Andrew Sardone for the great article.
“Last week in a chilly warehouse north of Woodbine Racetrack, some of our country’s brightest design minds were converting six bright-blue shipping containers into conceptual rooms. When the Interior Design Show opens tonight (Thursday, January 26), they’ll be stacked high for an installation called How Do You Live, which comments on the seemingly never-ending condo boom in Toronto.
Stanley Sun and Ashley Rumsey of the Junction-based Mason Studio might be the newbiest of teams participating – they founded Mason less than a year ago, though both have considerable experience on big international projects with other firms and made a name for themselves locally with the Show Off exhibition of 20 designer work sin 13 Dundas West storefronts in the fall – but that just makes their slick creation stand out more.
“We wanted to challenge what a kitchen and bathroom can be, ” say Sun. “One is a completely private space, and the other is completely public.”
To make them work together, the duo broke down each area to its functional rather than social use. In the middle of the container, water flows from a pot filler facet into a long oak trough before passing under a cooking platform and cascading into a garden. The phrase “Our Home and Native Land” glows in a neon light mounted on a back wall of charred pine boards.
“The is less delineation between cooking, living and working spaces,” say Rumsey about the reality of living in a shoebox-sized apartment. “Our exhibit aims to challenge the way you can live within the space.”
Mason Studio partners Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun are interview by Glen Baxter of Fashion Television for their involvement with
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Mason Studio partners Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun are interview by Glen Baxter of Fashion Television for their involvement with the Interior Design Show 2012. Click below to watch the segment.
Mason Studio’s shipping container installation for the Interior Design Show 2012 is featured in the Dutch architectural magazine, Objekt. Luxury
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Mason Studio’s shipping container installation for the Interior Design Show 2012 is featured in the Dutch architectural magazine, Objekt.
Luxury Container as Architectural Yardstick
“Living space is a scarce commodity, particularly in the world’s large metropolises. Interior designers face a great challenge when they have to create in a limited floor area an opulent atmosphere with a sense of space. Also in the Canadian city of Toronto, where apartment blocks are springing up everywhere like bamboo shoots, living space is getting ever scarcer. At the Interior Design Show designers pulled out all the stops to create optimum living spaces, based on the dimensions of a container.”
An interview with the producers of the Interior Design Show about the concepts and ideas for the feature exhibition called,
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An interview with the producers of the Interior Design Show about the concepts and ideas for the feature exhibition called, “How Do You Live?” Watch the video below.
Forbes magazine discusses the new Marilyn Monroe Cafe design created by Mason Studio.
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Forbes magazine discusses the new Marilyn Monroe Cafe design created by Mason Studio.
The Junction shows off its ability to draw a crowd The Globe and Mail speaks to Mason Studio about the
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The Junction shows off its ability to draw a crowd
The Globe and Mail speaks to Mason Studio about the event we hosted called Show Off in the Junction which was held in the fall of 2011.
The Grid chose Mason Studio’s shipping container exhibition to be one of, “the 5 most amazing things found at the
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The Grid chose Mason Studio’s shipping container exhibition to be one of, “the 5 most amazing things found at the Interior Design Show 2012.”
House & Home Online TV speaks to Mason Studio partners, Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun, about their conceptual space at
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House & Home Online TV speaks to Mason Studio partners, Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun, about their conceptual space at the Interior Design Show 2012. Click the link below to watch the interview.
“Jet-setting design duo Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun fill us in on why Toronto’s where the he(art) is.” OTM Zine
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“Jet-setting design duo Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun fill us in on why Toronto’s where the he(art) is.”
OTM Zine speaks to the Mason Studio partners about their business and the Canadian design industry.
Read the full online article here.
Mason Studio is honored to be featured on the front cover for the Interior Design Show 2012 official catalogue.
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Mason Studio is honored to be featured on the front cover for the Interior Design Show 2012 official catalogue.
Thank you to Judith Mackin of the Telegraph Journal for the article about Mason Studio’s installation at the Interior Design
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Thank you to Judith Mackin of the Telegraph Journal for the article about Mason Studio’s installation at the Interior Design Show:
“…Our Home and Native Land left me in a state of paralysis (my Stendhal moment at last?). The pared-down aesthetic of this conceptual kitchen and bathroom, by Ashley rumsey and Stanley sun of the Toronto-based interior design studio Mason, is a truly Canadian design.
The most compelling feature of the installation is the high concept 13-foot oak table they designer; part of its surface opens on constantly running water, referencing how eating and cleansing are intimately linked. At one end of the table, water pours into a live garden, providing a continual floor and dynamic movement through the space.
The wooden bulk of this booth’s materials – logs, floors, walls, table, chairs and burnt firewood – establishes a sense of warmth even as it serves, in its consistency, a minimalist aesthetic. Adding to the sense of warmth is an unpredictable material for walls and back counters: suede.
The neon sign “Our Home and Native Land”, which brought to mind conceptual artist Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, competes with the amazing communal table for your eye’s attention.
I’d guess this exhibit will be the most photographed of the event. It speaks to home, to our rustic history, to our patriotism, but most of all it’s a beautifully curated space whose impact depends on suggestive juxtapositions of materials and media.
The design pieces that Mason Studio chose for their table include found objects, cutlery by Diane von Furstenberg, plates by Vera Wang and most impressively, two of the re-issued Jacques Guillon chairs. Guillon is often referred to as the father of industrial design in Canada. In 1953, he built the chair’s frame from salvaged materials such as airplane wings and parachute cording.
I asked Sun and Rumsey the same question I put to Robbie and Mugford: “How does this space speak to the general public about how they live? I, for one, can’t see too many kitchens featuring a cascade waterfall and suede? What should we take as your message?
Sun explains that the suede is a conceptual flourish, that it would be more appropriate in another room. But the message is to use everyday materials in novel ways (such as Mason jars, a sly allusion to their company name). “We felt the same way about the Mason jars. Don’t hide them; display them as art. The grains inside the jars being displayed along the wall are beautiful.”
Rumsey agreed. “It’s okay to pare down you space, to choose just a few things that you love, objects you have an emotional attachment to. Find a place for them and reduce the clutter.”
“From the How Do You Live exhibit at IDS 2012, one of the more popular installations, Ashley Rumsey and Stanley
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“From the How Do You Live exhibit at IDS 2012, one of the more popular installations, Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun’s Our Home and Native Land.
The duo, known as Mason, set out to create a design based on the ritualistic properties of the home. Their conceptual space, one of six created for How Do You Live, is an exploration of the “primitive rituals” that take place in the kitchen and bathroom.
Says Sun in Toronto’s NOW magazine, “We wanted to challenge what a kitchen and bathroom can be. One is completely private space, and the other is completely public.”
Rumsey and Sun deconstructed the kitchen and the bathroom into its functional parts – instead of by its social usage – and created a new paradigm. Water flows from one end of the system where there is a food preparation and cooking platform and eventually cascades into a garden.
Says Rumsey, “There is less the limitation between cooking, dining, living and working spaces… Our exhibit aims to challenge the way you can live within the space.”
The shipping news: can a 20×80-foot industrial container be a thing of beauty? “A tin pot suspended over an open
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The shipping news: can a 20×80-foot industrial container be a thing of beauty?
“A tin pot suspended over an open fire in a rustic-meets-contemporary kitchen? What cheek! But you can’t expect any less from Mason. The exuberant design firm is the brainchild of Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun, who run their business in the Toronto’s natty Junction. Despite the street cred, they’ve brought style to A-listers including Sony, Adidas and W Hotels.
Their aplomb, they say, is due to their varied backgrounds. Both have been involved in disciplines including visual arts, art theory and science research (really). And they’re big on collaboration. “To foster diversity, we work with other artists, designers, craftspeople and academics,” the team says.
Their space explores the “primitive rituals that take place in the kitchen and bathroom.” Evidently, the two space share a connection. “We hope to challenge our visitors’ preconceived notions of what [these rooms] mean, and to examine how they occupy these space in their own home.”
Here, you’ll find the loo unusually close to the cooking zone. Their reasoning: “Water can be used in several ways to serve the needs of both the kitchen and the bathroom.”
"The exuberant design firm is the brainchild of Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun who run their business in Toronto’s natty Junction. Despite the street cred, they’ve brought style to A-listers."
~ National Post
"A hip Toronto firm that's poised to shake up hospitality design"
~ Azure
"Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun of the Toronto-based interior design Studio Mason, is a truly Canadian design."
~ Telegraph Journal
© Mason Studio Inc. 2013. All rights reserved.
