Creative Entrepreneurship in Images: Design Combining South Africanand Scandinavian Aesthetics
We at YourStory want to bring the story of entrepreneurs across sectors through various channels – text, video, photos, social media, events and audio. This photo blog about Pedersen + Lennard, an up and coming design company from Cape Town is part of our partnership with Cool Entrepreneurs. Cool Entrepreneurs is a photo blog that illustrates the lives of people around the world who have created fascinating careers for themselves. “An entrepreneurial life can be so incredibly creative and downright fun—that’s what we mean with ‘cool’ entrepreneurs. The goal is to illustrate that potential in its full, rich variety. It is inspiration for a creative life” the folks at CE say. CE is founded and run by Belgium based Frank Boermeester.
Pedersen + Lennard's work reveals a clear fascination with South Africa’s heritage and craft, while remaining true to a clean Scandinavian aesthetic. Luke Pedersen and James Lennard met while studying Industrial Design in Cape Town and went on to further their education in Sweden and the U.S.A respectively. Today they work from their Cape Town based workshop and can frequently be spotted at their cool showroom and café, The Field Office.
Hello Luke, can you tell us what a typical day is like for you two? It starts early with an iced coffee in the garden watching my puppy play and table mountain view, seeking some peace for the day. Then I head to the workshop to start the day off while James starts at the Field Office, we’ve had to learn to adapt and grow into managing a design business and now a coffee business, but it’s fun!
Where do you get your inspiration? Cycling on the busy main roads in Woodstock, seeing old crafted furniture that we can reference in our own style. Time in the nearby mountains and definitely travel.
How is South Africa as a place to do this type of business? In some ways it’s still this wild and unchartered land, especially the design industry. The industry is relatively young in comparison to some countries so we have to be flexible and learn to adapt – it’s a lot of cutting your own path in the woods. At the same time we enjoy the vibrancy and the new appreciation that people are starting to have for our work and the value being placed on design in general. It’s a very possible place to do business, nothing’s impossible.
Any tips for other aspirant creatives and entrepreneurs? Do what you love as it’s what you do most of. Be willing to change your ideas and stick to some of them!
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