Laurie Wiid Van Heerden

Born in Cape Town in 1987, Laurie opted for a hands-on approach to study­ing design and manu­fac­tur­ing. He appren­ticed to Otto du Plessis and Charles Haupt at Bronze Age Foundry as well as to a carpen­ter for three years, and from 2009 to 2013, he worked closely with leading South African sculp­tor Wim Botha as his assis­tant. During this time, he started design­ing and manu­fac­tur­ing his ceram­ics and furni­ture and collab­o­rat­ing with fellow creatives.

Laurie Wiid van Heerden estab­lished his studio, Wiid Design, in Cape Town in 2013. Often working collab­o­ra­tively with other artists and across various mate­ri­als, Laurie’s product range spans furni­ture, light­ing, table­ware, and collectible objects that combine special­ist manu­fac­tur­ing with handcrafting.

Laurie Wiid van Heerden creates prod­ucts and objects that can be seen as the inter­face between art and design – where mate­ri­als are trans­formed into life-enrich­ing durable prod­ucts. With an exten­sive port­fo­lio of work for such a young designer van Heerden has won many acco­lades and has exhib­ited at Guild, 100% Design, Design Days Dubai, Design Miami and Design Basel.