Sharpen your pencils

Our Awesome Work is an innovative industrial design Company in Cape Town that, with a name like that, we had to find out more about. And what a find! We especially love their Pencil Shaving Lamp, of which we have five to give away.

When and how did Our Awesome Work start?

Our design-duo consists of James Kennedy and myself, Yolandi Schreuder. We met five years ago, while studying industrial design. Whereas I see myself as someone with great ideas and intuitive vision, perfect for a conceptual developer, James is a multi-skilled, do-it-all innovator and problem-solver with a special interest in the technical and manufacturing side of the industry. At university we both realised that we compliment each other well and, after completing our studies, started working together.

Where does the name come from?

James suggested the name while working late one night, and I instantly loved it and saw the growth potential of the name. Our Awesome Work was established on 29 June 2011, which is in fact World Industrial Design Day. 

What is the driving inspiration behind the team?

We are passionately curious industrial designers that are constantly analysing and experimenting with new materials, shapes and manufacturing possibilities. We then use our findings to try out new ways of doing things, solving problems and addressing different situations. We find inspiration in everyday life, nature and envisioning the potential of how an object can be transformed into a new design, for instance, looking at a pencil shaving and interpreting it as a lampshade!

What do you enjoy most about your job?

There’s very little in life that gives us the same pleasure as being part of the behind-the-scenes design process. It’s satisfying to use a functional and aesthetic product, knowing that it simply started off as an idea, was developed into a concept and prototype, ending up as a lamp, table etc. It’s like Tony Gaskins who said: “If you don’t build your dreams, someone will hire you to help build theirs.” 

Of course there are also the advantages of being your own employer – as a student in Warren G Tracy’s class said: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

We saw that you were nominated (the only South African in your group in fact) for the World Design Impact Prize. Tell us about that.

Our Awesome Work launched with Baya, a DIY eco-desk for kids, which was one of 22 international nominees for ICSID’s inaugural World Design Impact Prize 2011. We were also fortunate enough to present the Baya desk to the World Design Capital Judges in July 2011, a few months before Cape Town was announced as World Design Capital 2014. 

We have five Pencil Shaving Lamps – available in yellow, red, blue, green and lilac – to give away. To enter simply tell us the colour you’d prefer in the comments below. The deadline is noon on Thursday 7 November 2013.

For more information visit them on Twitter, Facebook or ourawesomework.com.