Dokter and Misses on Rejecting the Mundane
I can’t remember the exact moment South African design studio, Dokter and Misses stole my heart, but it was many, many years ago. On their website, they describe their work as rejecting the mundane, and when you look at their bold, colourful designs, this mantra makes complete sense. Firmly rooted in African Modernism, their pieces are inspired by the grittiness and juxtapositions of their home city, Johannesburg.
Founded in 2007, Dokter and Misses is the design practice of Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin. Working between South Africa and New York, the studio produces furniture and lighting that balance function with expression, shaped by resourceful, vernacular approaches to making.
They also produce limited edition work which is layered with political, historical and cultural narratives, and available through Southern Guild Gallery.
WHERE ARE YOUR ROOTS? Adriaan: I was born in Bloemfontein and spent my early years in QwaQwa, before growing up on a smallholding in De Wildt. It was close to nature, with enough space to run around and build things from whatever I could find. My mum is a potter and had a studio at home, and my family was always supportive of my creative interests. I studied at art school in Pretoria, took a gap year to work and travel in Europe, and then went on to study Industrial Design at the University of Johannesburg.
Katy: I’m a laat-lammetjie and grew up in a very outdoorsy, creative household. My dad spent weekends building an ocean-going sailboat in our backyard, my mum was an avid gardener and made many of my clothes, my sister introduced me to screen printing, and my brother handed me my first copy of THE FACE. All of that fed into my decision to study Information Design at the University of Pretoria, where I met a mutual friend who introduced me to Adriaan.
We were in first grade when segregation in schools officially ended. As apartheid unravelled and we were growing up, we witnessed firsthand how art and music helped challenge injustice. That idea of creativity as a tool for change shaped our thinking—and quietly set us on the paths we eventually chose.
TELL US ABOUT WHERE YOU CURRENTLY LIVE? We’re based in New York City at the moment. Katy lived here before we started Dokter and Misses in 2007 in our backyard in Brixton, Johannesburg, and spending time in New York was always something we talked about—until we finally looked at each other and said, “now or never.” We feel lucky to explore this new chapter while keeping the core of our practice rooted elsewhere. There are strong parallels between the two cities, and while New York increasingly feels like home, our hearts are never far from Johannesburg.
DESCRIBE WHAT YOU MAKE AND WHAT YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT. We make furniture and lighting that sits somewhere between sculpture and use. Our work is shaped by vernacular ways of making—resourceful, expressive, and often improvised. We’re passionate about building things that feel alive in the present tense, and in how everyday making, colour, and humour can carry through into objects without feeling overworked or overly symbolic.
HOW DOES PLACE INFORM WHAT YOU DO? Place is a crucial input for us. It’s often something we encounter—a building, a signboard, a person, a song—that sparks a new idea. In that sense, place operates very directly. Lately, though, we’ve been wondering how different an existing piece might have been if it had been designed somewhere else. Place can’t be separated from the process: it shapes how something gets made, and later, how it’s used.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN DESIGN? African design isn’t a single thing, and it’s most interesting when it resists being treated as one. For us, it’s less about identity and more about practice—specific places, systems, and ways of making things work. We’re drawn to work that comes from lived realities: current, risky, and shaped by context, without having to perform it. At its strongest, the work doesn’t try to explain or represent anything beyond itself.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE PART OF YOUR PROCESS? We love the moment when something moves from drawing into the workshop. Working at full scale and responding to material and process in real time, the design starts to talk back. At a certain point, it stops feeling like a plan and begins to develop its own logic, and our role shifts from controlling the outcome to listening and adjusting.
TELL US ABOUT A LOCAL UNSUNG HERO. A consistent inspiration for us has been sign painters in Johannesburg, as well as in other places we’ve travelled. There’s a clarity and confidence in that work, a directness that doesn’t second-guess itself. It’s practical and made to do a job: sometimes super-utilitarian, other times flamboyant as hell, funny, or deadpan raw. That distilled quality is something we try to carry into our own work.
WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT FOR THE FUTURE? We’re excited about the idea of longevity: building a practice that can move between places, scales, and conversations without losing its core. Personally and professionally, it feels like a moment of expansion, but also refinement.
Written by Hanneke Lourens, a California-based furniture designer inspired by her South African roots. Hanneke crafts her made-to-order collections and custom work by hand at her studio on the Northern California Coast.