Mash.T Design Studio is a South African designer-maker practice founded in 2016, working across lighting and furniture as a site of inquiry into form, material, and making. The studio cultivates archival gestures by engaging craft lineages and material intelligence as living systems, translating texture and gesture into contemporary objects that exist between the sculptural and the functional.
THE STUDIO MASH.T
Through hands-on manufacturing and close collaboration with master artisans across South Africa, Mash.T develops original designs with layered interpretations—objects shaped as much by memory, process, and technique as by use. The practice approaches making as a critical act, reworking the familiar to invite slower looking and deeper engagement.
Mash.T’s work forms part of the permanent collections at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Woven Legacies:
The Story Behind the Hlabisa Bench
FOUNDER & OWNER
Owner and founder of Mash.T Design Studio, Thabisa Mjo, is passionate about preserving traditional skills and helping other small businesses. Mjo stumbled into the industry by impulsively entering the Nando’s Hot Young Designer Talent Search competition in 2015. The challenge was to create a pendant light with a contemporary forward-thinking South African twist that could be used in any Nando’s restaurant globally.
To the designer’s delight, the Tutu 2.0 light was announced a winner, and has now been installed in restaurants across the world, from Cape Town to Malaysia, Washington and London. However, for Mjo, who had never designed anything before, the real prize was discovering that she had a gift she had never tapped into.
Mjo has subsequently designed full product ranges and won several awards, thus securing her name as one of the continent’s top design talents. Most recently, Mjo has become the first South African designer to have two of her works, the Tutu Light and Mjojo Cabinet, be installed as part of the permanent collection at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) in the Louvre.
The Hlabisa bench which was produced in collaboration with Houtlander and master weaver Beauty Ngxongo has also been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The quintessentially African aesthetic of Mash.T’s designs is a result of Mjo’s passion for working with artisans that have mastered traditional skills such as weaving and beading.
“For me, arts and crafts, and anything handmade, represent luxury, and my aim is to merge these traditional production methods with forward-thinking design.”
Collaboration & Our Enduring Mission
Our mission is to contribute towards making South African design a celebrated global category brand. To achieve this, we collaborate closely with exceptional craft-makers, including world-renowned master weaver, Beauty Ngxongo, the fine art beading studio Qaqambile Bead Studio, and multi-award-winning furniture brand, Houtlander. These partnerships ensure our work remains rooted in traditional skill while pushing contemporary boundaries.
The Founder's Philosophy
“I can’t just be designing for the sake of designing, or because it looks pretty online. Building a business that will change people’s lives in a meaningful way, and that will outlive me – that is my passion.”
