Good Morning 3rings fans and welcome to the first week of February! This second day of the second month signifies the day after the Super Bowl, the beginning of the downhill half of winter, the Warholian 15 minutes of a small, chubby rodent called Phil, and-most importantly, of course-the onset of our coverage of Canada's premier interior design event: Toronto's very own IDS 09.

Letter Holder, powder coated steel. Designed by Thom Fougere, Kaley Lawrence, Ryan Litovitch, and Nils Vik of Keep It Cartesian.

You all remember Toronto, don't you? A scant four months back, we held a week-long look at IIDEX, Neo Con 08, the contract furniture fair that gave us such gems as TacTiles by InterfaceFLOR, ResinArt by Veritas, and the infamous Wood Chair of the Decade by Dieteker. Not to take anything away from NeoCon, but IDS 09 might just be a bit bigger and badder: since the fair's inception in 1998, over 500,000 industry professionals, media, and consumers have graced IDS' innovative spaces, where they've seen the debut of some of the newest concepts in design, attended forums on industry trends, and hob-nobbed with established and emerging designers and architects. IDS' founders, Steven and Shauna Levy, created their exhibit with an eye to the needs of consumers as well as pros; thus, this event features more residential fare than most, and likewise represents a bit of a departure for 3rings, since we typically focus on contract furnishings and building products. But enough preliminaries, onward to IDS 09!

Light Hook, stainless steel. Designed by Thom Fougere, Kaley Lawrence, Ryan Litovitch, and Nils Vik of Keep It Cartesian.

Cord Wrap, powder coated steel. Designed by Thom Fougere, Kaley Lawrence, Ryan Litovitch, and Nils Vik of Keep It Cartesian.

I'd like to begin our coverage with a bit of a dark horse (but fittingly so, given the event's slant toward emerging talent). Keep It Cartesian is a group of upstarts ( Thom Fougere, Kaley Lawrence, Ryan Litovitch, and Nils Vik) participating in IDS DESIGNGENNEXT, a feature exhibit of new work/prototypes by students from some of Canada's best design schools. And their product is a suite of variations on the humble electrical faceplate. The story goes that the foursome was tasked with designing a "container" out of a mere sheet of metal-"it's true," says Nils Vek, "this was a class brief that we decided to extend beyond an academic requirement. After numerous prototypes we had a limited run manufactured locally in Winnipeg and have had quite a lot of positive feedback" (via Apartment Therapy)-and the group took this notion beyond the proverbial box, interpreting "container" in a judicious way that evolved into the ingenious, functional, and inexpensive "Charger Clutch," "Light Hook," "Cordwrap," and "Letter Holder." Preferring to call the thing after the thing rather than contriving a fancy-shmancy referent (a very Cartesian gesture), these pieces are exactly as they're named, each doing double duty as obscurant of electrical wires and (respectively) place of respite for cell phones and iPods, handy hook for keys (right next to the light switch, who would have thunk it!), organizer of unsightly cordage, and proper slot for snail mail ("before email there was mail mail," quips the copy on their witty website).

Besides reminding us that the world isn't yet entirely virtual, Keep It Cartesian has provided us with some tidbits of functional beautification, or, putting that another way, thought through an accepted design fact to an appealing solution. So the next time you turn off your lights but can't find your keys, or trip over the absurdly long cord emanating from your Nintendo Wii, think of Keep It Cartesian, or just think, period. Otherwise, as a certain philosopher once reminded us, you might very well cease to exist.