Online Only: An extensive gallery of designs with marks of Canadiana.The polar bear, the deer, the Inuit—these Canadian icons were all on the table when designer Cynthia Hathaway introduced a collection of porcelain figurines at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel last year. The forms were immediately familiar, though radically transformed. The bear struggled for its life as it sank into the tabletop, the deer had a Mercedes-Benz logo for a halo, and the good-natured Inuit was melting into a puddle. “They are your standard souvenir forms from the past, but I really wanted to bring attention to what’s happening now in Canadian nature and to the peoples of Canada,” says Hathaway, who named the collection Souvenirs Revisited. “We have the polar bear, but it’s starving to death in the Arctic. The deer is about our consumption and branding of nature.”

Hathaway is one of the leading figures in a new wave of Canadian designers who are taking the profession places it hasn’t been before. Although designers in other countries have long had signature styles—Italy is known for its flamboyant furniture, Japan is pegged to clean minimalism, and Scandinavia is famous for sensuous bentwood creations—Canadian designers have never developed a look or philosophy they could call their own. But that’s changing. Over the past few years, designers across the country have been taking on Canadian icons and images, transforming them into a style that might best be described as “lumberjack chic.” Prominently featuring wildlife, camping gear, and unadulterated Canadian wilderness, the aesthetic doesn’t so much reflect modern Canadian culture as it does other people’s expectations of what it means to be Canadian.

The movement began in 2003 with the Cabin project, a travelling exhibition organized by Motherbrand, a company founded by Canadian designers Michael Erdmann and Todd Falkowsky. Erdmann and …

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