Haldane Martin’s interior for Striped Horse beer

Haldane Martin creates a moody, masculine interior for a new South African craft beer brand.

Posted 7 May 15 By Design Indaba African Design • Architecture & Interiors Creative Work / Lookbook Comments

South African designer Haldane Martin has added to his portfolio of creatively conceived interiors with the design of a new office interior for Striped Horse craft beer.

Grant Rushmere, founder of Striped Horse and brand guru behind BOS Ice Tea, commissioned Martin to design its offices in The Hudson in Cape Town’s upmarket De Waterkant area to coincide with the launch of their new beers. The headquarters would also serve as a show bar, with a space to meet clients and sample beers in a relaxed atmosphere, while showcasing the product and embodying the brand’s three-dimensional iconography.

Martin’s design concept is based on the persona of Peter Hill Beard, an American artist, photographer, writer and fixture on New York City’s party scene. His work, often portraying the people and landscape of Kenya, marries rugged masculinity with glamour and panache – safari, Ralph Lauren-style.

Martin also drew heavily on Dazzle camouflage or Razzle Dazzle, a family of ship camouflage patterns used extensively in World War I by the British Navy to confuse rather than conceal. Here the pattern has been applied to the faceted reception desk and beer fridges.

Beard would be right at home in the Striped Horse lounge area where a half-completed deep-buttoned Chesterfield sofa in rich brown leather takes centrestage. Other furniture pieces include a zinc passivated plated tray coffee table by Dokter and Misses and khaki canvas and leather butterfly safari chairs. A kilim rug adds earthy warmth and a half-sphere pendant light adds a contemporary pop of bright red.

The space is textured and moody with dark khaki walls, low lighting and recycled herringbone parquet floors that echo the Dazzle pattern. A ball chain screen divides the work area from the bar, creating vertical stripes with a touch of gold that reinforce the Striped Horse branding.

Martin created two bespoke designs for this project: rebar shelving and desks, whose combination of wood and reinforcing steel give the space a raw industrial feel. The rebar shelving, designed to show off the product and packaging, is a focal point. A brass-clad oval behind the shelving mimics the design of the beer label.

Other recent interior projects by Martin include the BOS Ice Tea office extension, the Michelle Ludek stall at The Watershed market at the V&A Waterfront and Plank Film Production’s offices in Woodstock, all in Cape Town.