From Cape Town’s creative circuit to the heart of Gqeberha, Seugnét Snyman’s journey is full of quiet pivots, bold faith, and playful forms. At Kanaan Design Studio, motherhood, memory and meaning all shape the work.
Kanaan Design is a product and interiors studio founded by designer Seugnét Snyman in Gqeberha, South Africa. Known for its sculptural forms, quiet storytelling and deeply personal beginnings, the studio elegantly balances functionality with feeling. Every piece is grounded in Seugnét’s lived experience of motherhood, faith, and memory, shaped by a hands-on philosophy that values local production, collaboration, and the slow burn of making things that matter.
Back in 2015, Seugnét Snyman was a young designer with a head full of ideas when she left Gqeberha for Cape Town’s creative energy. It didn’t take long for her to make an impression.
In 2016, she was named a Design Indaba Emerging Creative. Her standout piece? A beautiful, soft, sculptural pouf inspired by origami fortune tellers. The ottoman was foldable, transformable, and nostalgic. It invited play and paused assumptions about what furniture could be. It was also unmistakably hers.
In 2017, Seugnét returned to Gqeberha – reluctantly. But it was there that she took a leap of faith, getting married and starting Kanaan Design, her own studio. Interior design projects became the focus, and product design was temporarily shelved. “The sketchbooks were full,” she says. “But interiors kept me busy.”
Still, product design was never off the table.
Eventually, her first product surfaced. The Aaron Wall Light. Created in memory of her firstborn son, whom she and her husband lost to miscarriage, it was her way of honouring grief with light. A half-moon plate behind a glowing disc.
“Aaron means ‘mountain of strength’ and ‘to be or become light. The light became a tribute to Aaron after losing him.”
The response to the product and it’s origin story surprised her. Other families shared their stories. One light became many. She introduced colour ways – Orange Tyde, Pink Mia – each named in tribute to another family’s child. It wasn’t a product line. It was a community of memory.
Motherhood changed more than just her time. It shifted her design language. “I used to design in black and white. Now I design in colour,” she says. Her children brought curves and play into the work.
The next expression of that was the Wavy Handle, designed to bring charm and delight to any humble door or drawer, and a reminder that even the functional can be full of joy.
Most recently, the Pose Mirror, with its wobbly steel frame and confident colour options, was inspired by their love of mirrors and dramatic poses. “It became about designing pieces that reflected them, too.”
Kanaan Design remains small, intentionally. Her husband Lucien is her behind-the-scenes partner and technical sounding board. Production is local. And the heart of the studio is still the same: purposeful design with meaning built in.
“I don’t want to make just another light or mirror. I want each piece to carry a story. That’s what makes it worth making.”
With every new piece, that intention is clear. Kanaan isn’t chasing scale. It’s building something slower. More personal. More true.
“If I look at what I’ve achieved before and after motherhood, I’ve done more since having kids,” Seugnét says. “That myth that you have to choose? I’m not buying it.”
We aren’t either.
- Website: kanaandesignstudio.com
- Instagram: @kanaandesignstudio
