Vancouver always the plan for IDS Prototype Judges Choice winner Rupert Jasper

Rupert Jasper’s Inlay shelf looks assured: vivid blue, clean-lined and cleverly engineered. Its designer is more candid about the uncertainty that went into learning his craft.

There were plenty of days at Design Academy Eindhoven when Jasper felt completely lost. It was almost the point, he says:

“From day one, it’s kind of 100 per cent freedom, which is pretty daunting.”

Jasper began closer to home at Langara College, where the two-year Design Formation program gave him a grounding in architecture, interiors, product design and other disciplines.

Product design was the one that stuck.

When the time came to continue his education, he had the option of Emily Carr University but decided to look further afield.

Design Academy Eindhoven offered a very different kind of experience, and Jasper’s German passport made studying in Europe more accessible.

“I felt like I had a bit of a golden ticket, and I thought I should really utilize this opportunity,” he says.

Eindhoven was less about being shown how to design and more about figuring out what kind of designer you wanted to become.

“You got to choose and craft your own education path,” Jasper says.

Tutors came from different disciplines and brought their own approaches. Jasper describes periods of uncertainty and identity crisis moments, but says learning to navigate that uncertainty has proved useful now that he is working professionally.

After graduating in 2025, he stayed in Europe for almost another 10 months, working with a couple of designers and taking on projects he enjoyed.

He could have stayed longer, but Vancouver was always the plan. “I really wanted to come back and work in Vancouver. It’s my home. I love it here.”

His route into ANDlight came with unusually good timing.

Jasper had previously met ANDlight co-founder Lukas Peet while trying to arrange an internship during his studies. The scheduling did not work out, but the connection remained.

About three weeks after returning to Vancouver, Jasper was downtown waiting to meet a friend for coffee when he stopped outside a showroom to look at a group of ANDlight fixtures.

Peet and ANDlight co-founder Caine Heintzman happened to walk up behind him. They were there to photograph the products.

The three chatted, Jasper mentioned he had just moved home, and later that day Peet emailed to say ANDlight was hiring in production.

“It was kind of a serendipitous moment,” he says.

Jasper spent about 10 months working on the production side before recently moving into the company’s design department as a junior product designer.

“I feel really fortunate,” he says.

Alongside his work at ANDlight, Jasper’s been developing Inlay.