Two-man play

WORDS Nechama Brodie

VISI hasn’t spoken to our good friends Greg Gamble and Philippe van der Merwe of Tonic in a while, so we sent Nechama Brodie around for a catch up.

“There’s a perception that we have a furniture shop and decorate clients’ homes,” says Philippe van der Merwe who, together with partner Greg Gamble, runs design business Tonic.   

“We provide full interior-architectural solutions,” explains Greg: technical solutions realised with a contemporary aesthetic, one that is as easily applied to projects as it is to products. 

Working spaces

The Tonic showroom (at 3 Desmond Road, Kramerville) is where they show select items from a “growing body of Tonic-designed furniture” (new batches come in every few months; Tonic doesn’t “keep all of our design on the floor at the same time”), and niche European brands for which the firm has the local agency including Knoll, ClassiCon, Gubi, Artek and Andreu World.  

“We don’t just fill the showroom with stock,” says Philippe. 

“Even in our showroom,” adds Greg, “we will show a body of work by contemporary artists.” Which means you’re equally likely to leave the space coveting a Jieldé light as you are a Paul Edmunds linocut. 

The Tonic studio, in Parktown North, provides a base for the company’s project designs (or that might be design projects), which extend from residential homes to small corporate, retail and hospitality spaces. 

Some of their best-known public projects include the game-changing SLOW lounges and Sandton’s SLOW in the city. 

“For us, [SLOW] was such a successful project because the client enabled us to be creative – and we saw how much value that added to the space,” says Philippe. 

Tonic have also recently completed the new presidential departures and arrivals lounge at Waterkloof Airbase, where heads of state fly in and out from.  

Tonic looks like…

“We need a new payoff line,” says Greg, when I asked what defines the Tonic “aesthetic”. 

“We cannot use words like ‘bespoke’ and ‘curated’,” Philippe says, “they’re annoying when you apply them to yourself.” 

Philippe suggests that what defines part of Tonic’s work is a “contemporary aesthetic, but one that is quite traditionally crafted.”

“We like working with interesting materials,” adds Greg, “either new materials, or old materials that aren’t being used in a contemporary way. We’re quite limited with manufacturing and technological capacity here [in South Africa], which is why we decided to really push the good craftsmen we have.” 

“It’s also about trying to sustain that [craftsmanship], because it’s disappearing,” says Philippe. “We want to hold on to those traditions.” 

Mixed methods

Philippe and Greg are currently working on a new batch of products – which they hope to launch in August or September. 

“We generate a lot of ideas – a lot of sketches,” says Philippe, “and then edit out.”

“We’re not looking for high-concept pieces,” says Greg. 

“It’s still a sofa, still an armchair, still a table… but we always try to shift something,” Philippe explains. 

Greg says his current inspirations are a mix up of “post-modernism, the Eighties, Memphis…” (So on trend with Li Edelkoort!)

“I like Memphis,” agrees Philippe, “but Memphis mixed up with Arts and Crafts. Weird opposites.”

“And Shakers,” says Greg. 

“How do the Shakers fit in?” I ask.

Greg smiles.  

“You’ll have to wait and see.”  

3 Desmond Road, Kramerville, 011 262 4513, tonicdesign.co.za