Studio Visit: MARK

i’ve been so excited to share this studio visit with you. MARK is a graphic design studio based in Cape Town whose office is actually in the same building as my own office. well, it’s thanks to MARK that i’m even here in the first place. Fred and i studied together many years ago, and as we kept touch over the years – thanks Facebook – i saw that he and Craig were working in a pretty nifty building, so i bugged him for the details and long story short, here we are.

Fred and Craig founded MARK in 2010 and moved into their space in Hout St in central Cape Town in the same year. looking for office space in Cape Town is tough, it’s hard to find a place that’s not too huge or too expensive or filled with ugly wall-to-wall carpeting… it’s just tough and rough. and when you’re a two man operation you don’t need anything TOO huge. so when they saw this space in the Mercantile Building, they immediately signed on the dotted line.

Originally we came to look at another office in the building but the space wasn’t for us. We walked down the stairs and caught a glimpse of light through some boarded shut windows. It was a storage space with beige walls and a grey carpet peeling in the one corner.Some hand sanding, varnishing and a couple of licks of paint later…

the space really looks amazing – so cool, and actually embarrassing for me when i compare it to my still practically empty office. i especially love the hints of yellow.

photographs by Russell Smith.

it boggles my MIND that people carpet over wooden floors! their work area is in the center of the space, three large white desks that form a square – plenty of space for mocking up designs.

the guys had this storage unit made especially for the space – on the right is their kitchen (fridge, kettle etc) which is cleverly hidden behind the graphic doors. this is an extra work space, which actually plays XFM all day long. it’s sounds like London up in here.

a lot of the knick knacks you see around the studio and on the shelves are completed product designs.

the couch was made and upholstered by Space for Life. perfect for clients and people like me who wander in off the street with their coffee and hang around for too long, overstaying their welcome.

if you want to know where anything is from just ask in the comments and i’ll get MARK to answer you! be sure to check out their new website, which they designed and was coded by Richard Smith. photos by Russell Smith.