Rising Star Philip Kramer

KRAMER DESIGN first blipped on our radar at Cape Town Furniture Week 2023 with a trio of VASTLY DIFFERENT OBJECTS. Who designs a light, a table - and a speaker? Philip Kramer, that's who.

- STEVE SMITH

IN A PURPOSELY LOW-LIT ENCLAVE AT CAPE TOWN FURNITURE WEEK 2023 was an otherworldly panel - part wall lamp, part gateway to Xanadu. Philip Kramer's Gradient light wasn't just mesmerising to look at; closer inspection revealed exceptional build quality with beautifully assembled LEDS within a sold walnut frame. Next to that was a metal coffee table called Merge, which looked like a camera aperture - and next to that was a hi-fi speaker also bearing the Kramer Design logo.

While the light and the table sat more comfortably within the CTFW exhibition (his light won the New Design Award for lighting at the inaugural CTFW x VISI awards), the speaker was a different story. Called “Open Baffle”, it featured a black woofer in the middle of a cream-coloured cabinet, with a massive horn tweeter perched above that. It gave off a strong retro-futurist vibe - of someone in 1930 imagining what a speaker would look like in the distant 2020s.

From a design point of view, it was a pretty disparate - though intriguing - combination of items; minimalist, techy and a bit retro all at once. In hindsight, and having seen the work he’s produced since, Philip’s idiosyncratic approach to design is starting to pull focus. Think Commodore 64 computer meets Atari game console and Japandi minimalism. I don’t think we’ve ever been more intrigued to ask...

• How did you become a designer?

“When I was growing up, I was always taking things apart and ‘modifying’ them. My dad was hands-on, putting up shelves and things like that, so I think at an early age I was dimly aware that your environment is highly changeable - if it doesn’t suit you, you can make it suit you. That mentality was simmering away in the background.