Tokyo Smoke Found - Image credit Ben Rahn for A-Frame

25.01.16 - Tokyo Smoke speaks “to the power of packaging and branding to sway the pendulum of perception”

Fast Company recently celebrated design work by Associate Professor Steven Fong and alumnus Lorne Gertner (BArch 1982) for Tokyo Smoke Found, a shop that specializes in coffee, clothing, and cannabis, located in Toronto's West End.

“The architecture of Tokyo Smoke's Toronto outpost reinforces the narrative of a gritty product having its Pretty Woman moment,” writes Diana Budds for Fast Company. “Like Julia Roberts's Vivian emerging from a Beverly Hills boutique prim, polished, and 'respectable,' the industrial-meets-modern interiors—designed with architect Steven Fong—speak to the power of packaging and branding to sway the pendulum of perception.”

Tokyo Smoke was founded by Alan Gertner and his father Lorne, who is also a member of the Daniels Faculty's campaign cabinet, a committed group of alumni and friends of the Faculty whose vision, passion, and expertiese are helping support the Faculty's ambition to relocate and expand the school at One Spadina Crescent — a site of deep historical significance in Toronto.