We create original products which contribute toward a new South African design language.
VOGEL is a family business, run by husband & wide team, Terri & John Vogel, based in Cape Town, South Africa.
We are a contemporary design and manufacturing company, specialising in timber furniture with an African edge. John, the mind behind all Vogel pieces, enjoys exploring organic forms, inspired by nature & considers form an intuitive language which evokes an emotive response.
Our values revolve around people & planet, paired with adding beauty & upliftment in the form of graceful, playful design.
DESIGN RESPONSIBILITY
Vogel design strives to create unique, high quality pieces that are vernacular, universal & timeless. We explore and evolve new and interesting applications for existing crafts & technologies. Our uniqueness is based on originality of design & context. Our production paradigm includes cutting edge machine work partnered with maintaining a premium standard of hand craftsmanship.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Symbiosis with the planet is one of Vogel’s most important values. After exploring work approaches in many materials, John Vogel chose wood as his primary medium, loving the raw & direct connection it has to the natural world & the fact that good forestry management can ensure a sustainable supply. Minimising waste outputs & contributing towards tree planting initiatives, our new range of smalls are another example of conscious design. These pieces have been specifically designed to be crafted from factory timber off-cuts, bringing Vogel one step closer to a closed cycle metabolism. They are also able to be ‘flat packed’, minimizing international transportation costs & carbon footprint.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
John’s design process involves moving to prototyping as early as possible & evolving the design & production process alongside one another. Once the piece has been fully realised, it is sent to a team of skilled woodworkers that have been personally trained & taught by John. Vogel has a people orientated approach, equipping their staff with skills & knowledge that they can take on with them. Along with learning new skills, comes confidence in yourself & your capabilities, when you give people the opportunity to learn & further themselves, you develop their sense of self-esteem & sensibility. At Vogel, the growth of the individual is a primary value.
“We believe that through originality of our design, we can play a significant role in the development and uplift of local crafts into the contemporary market, both locally and abroad.
We foresee ourselves creating new avenues and alternative applications for existing craft technologies.”
It is our dream to build self esteem and an avenue for economic empowerment for those who have the talent and the will to create with their hands.
Nguni range; Cube range; Magnet range and many more...
