Meet the Joburg designer who's making houseplants sexier than ever

Joe Paine, a Jo’burg-based “designer-maker”, launched Joe Paine in 2008, a product and furniture design label that creates simple, sophisticated and design-forward products – with a special focus on plant products for the home, indoor and outdoor furniture, and levitating candles.

Idecided to embark on a career in design when I did a high-school history of art assignment on the Bauhaus.

I would define the creative process as the process of interrogating and solving a problem through the inclusion of both practical and human aspects.

Joe Paine products try to invent or innovate as much as possible within the philosophy of modernism, staying away from trends, but still being aware of the zeitgeist. I aim to add aesthetic in the fundamental use of a product. This is an emotional connection with the product that is subtle and varied, but ultimately endears the user to the product.

I have won awards for the Kreep Planter.

My favourite design is the Stone Age hand axe – an ancient lesson in ergonomics and craftsmanship.

My favourite building/interior space is the Great Zimbabwe ruins, for their incredible 11m drypack walls and monolithic cone towers.

My favourite designers are Joe Colombo, Jasper Morrison, Jean Prouvé and Alessandro Mendini.

My home is Johannesburg.

I draw inspiration from processes that are found within the industrial vernacular of Johannesburg; multifunction and how it creates a relationship between the user and product; old accessible technologies that I can easily appropriate and learn; and artists such as Jean Tinguely and Arthur Ganson, for their love of shape and movement.

I would describe my style as modernist in overall theory, and hard-edge in aesthetic.

In five years from now I see myself living in a small, forested cave, complete with a pandemonium of parrots and a cartload of monkeys.