The Winter Olympic Games are a winter multi-sport event held every four years.  February 2010 saw Vancouver, Canada, welcome athletes from 82 nations, as they hosted the 21st Winter Olympics.
APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) broadcast live coverage of the Winter Olympics throughout the event.  An Indigenous network, APTN provided 10 hours of daily coverage with commentary in a variety of Aboriginal languages, as well as French and English.

AKA Creative Group, have worked with APTN on a number of previous projects and were approached in summer 2009 to submit a design pitch for the APTN Winter Olympics set design. Competing against two other design companies, AKA Creative Group were successful in their pitch, leading them to complete the set design and installation over a 6-month period.

AKA Creative Group’s design was inspired by the sweeping forms of the north; drifting snow, the northern lights, the motion of sport, and native imagery. The contrasting colour palette included the cool whites and blues of the northern landscape and the warmer red and orange tones of the columns, as well as the warm wood tones of the Kruze chair which was specified as the hosts seating.

AKA Creative Group approached Tayco, Boss Design’s North American partner, about incorporating the contemporary Kruze chair, designed by award winning designer David Fox.

Andrew Kinsella, design partner at AKA Creative Group, comments on their decision to specify Kruze:
‘We used Kruze in our original pitch as it complemented the contemporary design of the set and brought added warmth to the host area. We contemplated using the Simple Chair from Keilhauer and a couple of Herman Miller task chairs, but after careful consideration we chose the Kruze chair because it’s modern design, warm tone and functionality worked perfectly with our Olympic set design.  The ability to get the Kruze chair with adjustable seat height was also very important in it’s suitability to the hosts needs.’

Andrew also comments on the service provided by Tayco; ‘We have admired the products that Tayco sells for some time. This is the first time we have showcased a Tayco product on one of our sets, and no doubt it won’t be the last.’

He continues: ‘Our design experience with Tayco on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games was worthy of a gold medal. Tayco’s Kevin Philips worked diligently in providing us with an amazing product, the Kruze chair, with costs and deadlines always in mind.’