JOYFUL DESIGN
Recently launched at 100% Design Africa, Sketches from the Edge heralds a new consciousness for Dokter and Misses. By Mila Crewe-Brown
Unexpected design interventions, sculptural overtones, a playful sense of form and bold use of colour, all expressed in everyday objects. This has become the calling card of Dokter and Misses. Since they launched the brand 15 years ago, founders Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin have forged a unique aesthetic framed within the ordinary.
In the past few years, having ridden out Covid-19 and become a family, Adriaan and Katy became aware of how their design process had become constrained and sought to claw back the fun and experimentation.
“We’re constantly going towards a space where we can create with freedom; where those who appreciate our designs see we are pushing boundaries. If we can innovate with form and function, we’re happy,” says Adriaan.
The result of that new direction is Sketches from the Edge, which launched at 100% Design Africa. Recognisable and curious, the pieces — from a cabinet and chair to a pendant light and more — were born out of a need to design without constraint, to imagine without limitation and create instinctually.
Sketches from the Edge bears the unmistakable Dokter and Misses language of overt geometry, bold colour and a sense of humour, but this time they’ve led with instinct, trying not to overdesign or take the process too seriously.
Their Mimosa Cabinet, for example, bears the angular silhouette of their world-famous LALA editions, but this time it rests on two narrow points, its round door pulls resembling two eyes, then a face.
The Split Stool, in mild steel with an ash seat, manifests in stripped-back form, angular lines and curious details, such as the split steel legs which were born out of a fundamental production process.
The Disco Chair is a cheeky little seat reminiscent of an intergalactic visitor, while the Big Bang Desk Lamp, with its reduced silhouette, plays on the notion of a firecracker with a laser-cut tube at its base.
“The bottom tube innovates the typical shape and gives it a sculptural aspect,” Adriaan says.
Their designs question how two shapes intersect, how colour possesses energy and whether a product “feels right” or not. Such is the case with the Oyster Coffee Table, which appears to be made from one material, but on closer inspection surprises as a circular top of marble merges with a squared-off base of solid ash. It’s a play on materiality and form that tricks and delights the onlooker.
As their first launch post-Covid (and post-baby), it’s no surprise that Sketches from the Edge expresses their wish to strip back to basics and return to the joy of the design process. The collection scooped 100% Design Africa’s coveted South African Designer of the Year award.
“We only set out to create; it was like therapy, so it feels amazing that it has been acknowledged by the likes of 100% Design,”
say the couple.