From a medical technologist to an interior designer, Kgomotso Malope never imagined that she would change jobs one day. But for the last five years, Motso Designed has seen Malope travel across the country and the continent to build her business.
“One day I woke up and decided that I wanted to do interior designing and did not want to work as a medical technologist any longer,” she told Vutivi News. Malope now has three employees, including a graphic designer, a marketing expert and an “all-rounder”.
“Growing up in the 80s in the township of Thembisa in Ekurhuleni, we always believed that art was strictly reserved for the guys, while the girls did other things,” said 43-year-old Malope, who is now based in Fourways in Johannesburg. “At the back of my mind I always knew that I liked art, but I didn’t know how to draw so I took the science route,” she said. “I always liked room makeovers and decorating spaces.” Interior designing has always been Malope’s passion. “I quit my job and enrolled at Design School SA where I studied for a degree in interior designing,” she said.
“However, because I did not know how to draw, I had to learn the basics from scratch.”
Malope told Vutivi News that so far, she had worked in South Africa’s nine provinces, and in countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe. And her favourite project was a restaurant in Bryanston, Johannesburg. “The restaurant was linked to a conference centre, and I had to do everything from designing the countertop to the furniture of the restaurant,” she said.
“What I loved about this project is that it was the first time I started something from scratch, and because they didn’t micromanage the project, I received free reign,” Malope said it was critical that her customers were satisfied. “For me, seeing how ecstatic they become when they realise how I turned their dreams into a reality is priceless,” she said.
“Of course, I do not work in a vacuum, but I consult with my clients and they tell me what they want, and I work my magic,” she said. “I live to see my clients get excited because something that just started as an idea, which has become a final product, touches them so much that they even point out how I have exceeded their wildest imaginations.”
