August, 2001. Mike Christiansen, sensing a profound need for a sea change in the eyewear industry, launches Venus Eye design to offer a distinctly different product selection to eyewear retailers combined with a distinctly different attitude in addressing their concerns.

August, 2006. Venus Eye design has become one of the most respected and admired eyewear design companies in Canada, both for their innovative styles as well as their responsiveness to customer requests and consumer demands.

Starting with their very first collection, Venus laid out their game plan. The general consensus, at least with the major players, was that plastics were over - bad fit, bad styles, bad sales. Venus knew that with proper design, unique colors and contemporary styling their laminate frames could nicely fill a huge void in the marketplace. The continuing success of this line shows just how right their observations were.

The Venus flat collection again demonstrates the Venus approach to responding to consumer purchasing patterns. The unique flat metal designs in this series are available in an outstanding array of shapes and colors, are extremely lightweight and hypoallergenic and fit nicely within the most popular price range for Canadian consumers.

From the beginning, a major priority for Venus has been designing frames to accommodate progressive lenses. With over 60 percent of the Canadian population sitting in this category, this is a market segment that Venus pays particular attention to. Their designs both set and push the trends, but not to the point that they are too bizarre for the typical, style conscious consumer. Venus understands that their customers want a look that is simply stylish but stylishly simple.

An adventurous use of colour is one of the primary elements that sets Venus frames far apart from any others. Scientists have determined that the human eye is capable of distinguishing over 300,000 colours. Every one of which is capable of triggering a diverse mood or feeling, each as distinct and individual as human beings themselves. It is truly a personal experience that gives a particular colour its personal character. With this foremost in mind, the Venus colour palette is thoroughly researched and analyzed for each collection as the designs evolve. With intriguing names such as chocolate mandarin, peach fondue and nanaimo bar in the mix, considerable thought and experimentation are given to coining the perfect name to suit each frame colour. Venus carefully studies fashion forecasts, discovering upcoming colour trends, and applying them to the colour selection to produce frames that are significantly unlike anything else available in the market.

The newest Venus collection for adults, Venus X, has been designed with ultra thin stainless steel in an incredible range of vibrant colours. The collection features some of the most distinctive shapes yet to come from the Venus design studio, but each is still engineered to fit progressive lenses. With eight new models to be added to the original 15 designs in Fall ’06, the Venus X series can only increase its already overwhelming popularity.

And now we come to the children. Recognizing that a majority of parents were looking for frames that were specifically gender neutral and definitely not tied to any “brand character”, Venus has introduced an exclusive collection of sophisticated stainless steel and pressed aluminum models, each available in five exciting colours. The “qt-pie” line now lets young children express themselves with looks as cool as their parents.

With an outstanding and revolutionary product selection, ever evolving design development and a finger firmly on the pulse of consumer demands, the prevailing attitude at Venus Eye Design can be summed up in a few choice words; listen to your customers, treat everyone with utmost respect, and always give them what they want.