FEATURED DESIGN
Bench Mark Emerging designer Khosi Leteba launches his Bodulo Bench in collaboration with Wiid Design and Nando’s Clout
A
vibrant interpretation of Sotho culture has found physical expression in a newly launched bench, which is ready to make its mark on the world stage. The new piece was designed by the up-and-coming Khosi Leteba and brought to life in collaboration with one of South Africa’s leading design studios, Wiid Design, and with creative direction by Tracy Lynch of the Nando’s Design Programme. Leteba channelled his Sotho heritage when formulating the original design, drawing on various elements of Basotho
culture to create both the curved, sculptural forms and the surface patterning. “I designed the shapes and the pattern to tell the story of the Basotho people, their culture, architecture and agriculture,” he states. The bench forms part of a family of similarly themed pieces that Leteba dubbed the Bodulo Collection. He successfully pitched this collection at the inaugural Clout Industry Days Fired Up by Nando’s at 100% Design South Africa 2019. Catching the interest of the judges and the Nando’s design team is what led to the prototyping of this piece.
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Lynch reached out to Wiid Design’s award-winning founder, Laurie Wiid van Heerden, to help Leteba prototype the bench. During the prototyping process, two versions of the bench were made – one in cork and another in plywood. Wiid Design first refined the initial files to make them viable for Laurie’s core material, cork. “Then the communication started,” van Heerden explains, “so that Khosi could approve our interpretation, because obviously it is his concept. The second bench, the plywood version, was a little bit more technical, and a little bit more
of a straightforward translation of Khosi’s concept.” The end result is an astonishing contemporary expression of Southern African culture and tradition that pays testimony to the ongoing commitment from Nando’s Clout to support the local design economy. The bench will be made available on the Portal to Africa, the online design marketplace that gives the Nando’s global interior designers access to purchase pieces of furniture designed and manufactured in South Africa for upcoming Nando’s restaurants. https://clout-sadesign.co.za
