Dokter and Misses brand creates bold modernist design

The flame of high street shopping has slowly fizzled out in South Africa. Most people prefer to do their shopping in giant malls where shop window displays are generic, sometimes tacky and the same at every mall.

In our fast-paced lives, we don’t need to slow down to look at pretty window displays and dream pace about everything for sale in beautifully decorated stores. But in the days of lockdowns and social distancing, using the web to look at beautiful stuff is elemental.

It’s been more than a decade since the first Dokter and Misses range illuminated the way towards a design style that has lingered in the country.

A mix of ultra-modern, splashes of retro, pops of colour and natural materials, a Dokter and Misses’ (DAM) piece is unmistakable. But don’t think the strong design was by accident.

Picture: Supplied

Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin always wanted to create beautiful things and their eventual foray into what was to become Dokter and Misses’ was always going to be organic.

“Growing up on a plot in De Wildt without television led me to make things with my hands to stay entertained,” says Hugo. “

Visits to the scrapyard in Brits, building foefie slides, making pottery in my mother’s studio, painting candles for extra money.“Being exposed to this world of materials and physical things helped me understand things and not be intimidated by objects.

“Later I went to art school and took sculpture as a main subject. This is when I knew what I wanted to do. After studying industrial design at UJ [University of Johannesburg], I went to work for South Africa’s best designer, Gregor Jenkin. His generosity allowed me to follow my own path and start DAM,” says Hugo.

Katy Taplin and Adriaan Hugo. Picture: Supplied

Taplin cultivated a love of design while pouring over magazines like The Face, Vogue and Rolling Stone, which induced her to study information design at the University of Pretoria. She then worked at the now-defunct Student Life and spent a year in New York working in branding.

“I realised then I couldn’t get excited about someone else’s brand, and as I began planning to come home, Adriaan and I (who studied together) talked about starting something of our own.

“It’s taken me many years to confidently call myself a product designer, but I’ve learned from the best and my background in graphics and branding has added another facet to the business,” she says.

According to Hugo, they started with a strong idea of what to create and their first range featuring primary colours and bold modernist design immediately established Dokter and Misses’ in a unique realm. They were doing things which were familiarly unfamiliar.

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“We received really positive feedback from the public and the press, reassuring us that we are doing something that has a place in the world,” says Hugo.

“We realised that if we put out our own unique ideas again and again (which is easier said than done) clients will start accepting these ideas, rather than expecting you to replicate trends or another designer’s work.”

They also believe that since then South Africans have started embracing bold designs more.

“South Africans in general really appreciate design. I sure have done my time explaining the difference between mass produced, trend-driven products and what we do and people have come to appreciate that design is actually about original ideas and pieces that will last more than a lifetime rather than fast, low-quality throwaway fads,” says Taplin.

Picture: Supplied

But the urban setting of Johannesburg, where they are based and were established, plays a role in what they produce.

“In recent years there has been far more awareness of design and support for local design, which is good. On the downside, with increased access to information, ideas are shared, pinned and posted easily and the value of intellectual property can be lost.

“South Africans should only accept original ideas and support the struggling designers who came up with these ideas wherever possible,” Hugo says.

After 10 years, the demand for their products hasn’t subsided. In part that might be because although Dokter and Misses’ items can be considered modernist, they are also timeless.

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