Doshi Levien

The boundary between home and work has been erased for these two extraordinary designers, and they couldn’t be happier.

- Catherine Coyle

Jonathan Levien spent much of his childhood in his parents’ toy factory in the north of Scotland, where an abundance of boxes, scissors, bales of fabric and reams of tape allowed him to come up with all sorts of creations. It was an imaginative child’s dream; arts and crafts on a large scale without a teacher pointing the way or classmates hogging the glue. He made all sorts – cars, dens, cities – while the soft toys his parents sold were in production all around him.

On the other side of the world, Nipa Doshi was also immersed in a creative environment. She grew up, surrounded by innovation, in a pink Art Deco house in New Delhi. The people of the neighbourhood all made things: on either side of the house were a bicycle workshop and a printing and paper-cutting factory, with a stall selling freshly baked cookies across the road. She remembers going to a tailor, delighted by the drawings she’d come up with for her outfit, eager to see how the tailor would interpret them. “I had a strong link with making from a very young age,” she says.

She and Jonathan met at the Royal College of Art in 1995 where both were doing a Masters in furniture design. Their strengths were different but complementary, and while they were critical of each other’s work, they also shared a deep-rooted respect. It wasn’t long before they became partners in business as well as in life.

They established their studio, Doshi Levien, in 2000, and were very quickly successful. Last year, their collaborators included Moroso, B&B Italia and Kvadrat, while their latest venture, with John Lewis, has just been launched.

Their approach to design is like their approach to life: open-minded, serious and very considered, yet fun and approachable at the same time. Design, to them, is life.