BOS is a proudly South African ice tea company known for its striking branding, brightly coloured packaging and iconic Afro identity. “Not just an ice tea”, BOS likes to engage, have fun, give joyful experiences and share a sense of life and living.

After working together on the BOS Expo stand in 2012, BOS commissioned Haldane Martin to design the interior for its new office extension. The BOS offices are located in Fairweather House in the centre of Woodstock’s creative business hub, an old industrial building converted into office space that houses art galleries, a publisher and small local businesses. BOS wanted to create a bright, colourful and casual work environment that would add a splash of colour and flavour to the office block. BOS’s office extension includes a new reception area, an ice tea bar, a hot desk for sales and marketing, and meeting spaces. Throughout the space, design elements speak to the primary colour scheme of the BOS brand, while the repetition of circular elements reinforce the shape of the company logo. The reception incorporates the BOS Expo stand designed by Haldane Martin, which includes a prime place for the the award-winning BOS Vending Robot that urges consumers to “tweet for tea”.

The Expo stand playfully converts stacked yellow BOS Ice Tea cans into a screen of “tall grass”. Having just launched a BOS Sport drink bottle, its colourful plastic bottle became the perfect building component for new design features in the office interior. Haldane Martin used these to create colourful geodesic dome lights, a playful reference to Buckminster Fuller’s architectural geodesic dome structures. These punctuate the semi-industrial space with an element of fun while speaking to the BOS ethos of sustainability. The design team also created a pixelated screen behind the reception desk using the same bottles mounted onto a wire mesh grid, creating a pattern with a game-like quality and drawing on the connotations of a sports pitch. This sits alongside the Expo stand and is accentuated by a dynamic faceted branded reception desk in bold yellow.

The Ice Tea bar and hot desk area on the bamboo flooring, has been raised on green plastic packing crates. This is in keeping with the packaging concept and serves to offset the dominant primary colours with a natural finish that creates cohesion with the raw industrial brick wall. Final furnishing features include a long hot desk with swing-out stools, based on the original design for Truth Coffee HQ but customised in BOS’s signature bright yellow. A branded portal window cordons off the space while allowing in natural light. The rest of the area has been furnished with brightly coloured design classics and, of course, strategically placed, well-stocked BOS Ice Tea fridges.

Haldane Martin’s combination of innovative yet quirky design elements with iconic features speaks to the forward-thinking mindset of the brand, while translating these through the clever use of upcycled materials and in an energetic colour palette constantly reinforces the brand’s identity. The overall result is an uplifting work environment that reflects the heart of the BOS ethos.

Design: Haldane Martin
Photography: Micky Hoyle