Design is our soul.

It starts with design and ends with design. And for us, that means designing intelligent functions in appealing forms. We bring thought and creativity to everyday items through original design.

We are a Toronto-based homeware design company born over 30 years ago when graphic designer, Paul Rowan, couldn’t find a nice window shade to hang in his apartment window. So, he made one and people liked it. He soon teamed up with childhood friend, Les Mandelbaum, and Umbra (in Latin, “shade”) was born. Les and Paul began re-imagining everyday items into modern ware.

Today, Umbra is recognised all over the world for bringing intelligent design to everyday items. An in-house team of international designers allows us to come up with original design that speaks universally and personally to a broad customer base. The journey that started in Toronto continues—our designs can be found in over 120 countries.

Umbra Shift is an extension of Umbra that focuses on contemporary influences in the design community. For more than 30 years, Umbra has broken the mould by creating entirely new categories that apply thoughtful design to everyday items. Umbra Shift revisits these roots with a roster of established, emerging, and in–house designers who share Umbra’s passion to re-think things, designing personal objects they themselves would want to give or use at home. The result is a collection that expresses diverse points of view, yet sits together with a shared belief in ideas that are functional, familiar and forward thinking.