One of the world’s top furniture designers is coming to Decorex Joburg this July. His name is Charles O Job, and his work is in museums. Literally.
Job is Nigerian-born and based in Switzerland. His Sketch armchair is part of the permanent collections at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Denver Art Museum in the US. That’s a big deal in the design world.
Now, he’s headed to Decorex Joburg 2025 as the official Designer of the Year.
His work is all about simplicity, sustainability and smart thinking. Take the Sketch chair: one shape, repeated four times. No waste. Easy to ship. Easy to fix. And still beautiful.
For Job, this way of working goes back to his childhood in Lagos. “We used to collect things and turn them into something new,” he says. “Now it’s called upcycling. We must have been ahead of the curve.”
Job teaches architecture in Bern and judges global design awards like the iF Awards, D&AD and the World Architecture Festival. He’s also just designed a set of chairs for the Dakar Design Biennale and created work for the new Studio Museum in Harlem.
At Decorex, you can catch his work in a special exhibition. There’ll be large-scale photos and chairs shown in global exhibitions – including one from Dakar. His talk, Body of Work, is on Thursday 24 July at 2pm. Expect stories from Lagos to Switzerland, and how growing up curious can lead to global success.
He’s also excited to connect with local creatives. “I’m looking forward to making meaningful industry connections,” he says.
Future Talks, where Job will speak, runs for four days with speakers across design and art. Others on the line-up include Sinegugu Ngxongo (Bambizulu), Stephen Klein (Klein Concepts), Tracy Lee Lynch (Clout/SA), Bongisa Msutu (Greenside Design Center) and artist Nwabisa Ntlokwana.
More info and full talk schedule at decorex.co.za.
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