Why is digital online advertising proving the toughest brief our industry has ever had to crack? Here is some value mined from from the gurus assembled at Tony Koenderman's Brainstorm sessions which took place in both Cape Town and Johannesburg this week 12 Nov 2009 07:37
Speaking at the Art of Digital Planning Workshop hosted by Digivox and Bizcommunity.com in Cape Town last week, Adrian Hewlett, chair of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) - the South African body armed with all the definitive info about global online stats, spends and trends - threw some welcome new light on the subject of digital revenue potential. 19 Oct 2009 11:44
It is refreshing and daunting to see the volume and standards of work coming out of new and not-so-new design and advertising studios and collectives in South Africa. [multimedia] 28 Sep 2009 00:38
The first of the two-night Cape Town Loerie Awards festival, held on Friday, 25 September 2009, at Cape Town's Good Hope Centre, saw finalists vie with each other to outshine their peers in the Brand Identity & Collateral Design awards categories. [multimedia] 28 Sep 2009 00:26
A live mermaid on a bed of oysters, salmon and braai buffets, served by rainbow-wigged hostesses and fantasy confectionery beyond your dreams welcomed guests to the Mayor's Party which last night, 24 September 2009, officially launched the 2009 Loerie Awards in Cape Town. 25 Sep 2009 12:30
Apart from global shrinking print circulation figures, the biggest problem facing advertising agencies and their clients must still surely be fragmentation of the media. This is the reason there are ads out there that nobody apart from awards judges could possibly claim to have seen. 22 Sep 2009 12:17
Inspiration levels at fever pitch, the 1500 privileged delegates of the 2009 Design Indaba once again assembled in the dark to witness the criteria that make up the world's design elite. In order to contextualise the levels of excellence and awesomeness of this conference, we might say that comparing it with most of the design we see around us everyday - like supermarket signage, tourism brochures, pole posters etc - is a bit like comparing a mediocre musician with Bob Dylan. 2 Mar 2009 09:11
The second day of the Design Indaba took us into a world of giant stickie figures, architecture and Zen... 27 Feb 2009 07:54
Design Indaba, Cape Town: As world economies melt down and resources diminish, designers are emerging as the key to maximising resources and identifying new sources of revenue out of nothing. 26 Feb 2009 12:13
More than one presentation praised Design Indaba as one of the world's leading events of its kind. Here are some of the highlights from the first day… 26 Feb 2009 07:58
The open invitation to visit their W+K Delhi offices was the cherry on the top of the presentation by Mohit Jayal and V Sunil on the opening day of the 2009 Design Indaba - repeatedly cited as the most respected and clouty conference of its kind in the world. 26 Feb 2009 06:34
Products and services that are meaningful, authentic and feelgood act as antidotes to recession and digital overkill, hence 2009 is the time for essential model shifts necessitated by global financial, humanitarian and health issues. 13 Jan 2009 11:14
How does one market and brand in 2009 when faced with at least 400 local websites on which you can place an ad, as well as 36 terrestrial channels, YouTube, podcasts, Facebook, radio, newspaper, magazine, mobile and sundry outdoor media options? 4 Nov 2008 09:10
As the third and last day of the 11th Design Indaba came to a close last week, it became increasingly apparent that it is pointless designing anything now unless it directly contributes to the wellbeing of people and their environment. 3 Mar 2008 08:38
As the second day of Design Indaba 11 got into its stride yesterday, Thursday, 28 February, 2008, it became clear that the relationship between the way anything works and looks and the way it makes you feel is at the heart of all design thinking. In fact, design is impossible without both thinking. 29 Feb 2008 10:16
From the humble beginnings of all of nine speakers in 1995 to more than three times that number in 2008 – who would have thought that in 11 years the Design Indaba and the South African design scene would have evolved so much? 28 Feb 2008 10:23
Whether remembering the banning of newspapers such as New Nation and South, being detained in Pollsmoor by the security police, drawing up the 1994 election “how to” posters or being served a bouquet of multi-million rand lawsuits by Jacob Zuma, Jonathan Zapiro has graphically embodied the essence of truth, freedom and a good laugh. Well deservedly garnering one of the biggest ovations of the conference, cartoonist Zapiro was the opening speaker on the last day of the 10th Design Indaba, Friday, 23 February 2007. 27 Feb 2007 11:46
Having grown up among awful architecture in South London, Cameron Sinclair started the non-profit ‘Architects for Humanity’ when he was 24 years old. Transitional housing for Kosovo's Returning Refugees, HIV clinics in Lagos Nigeria, which incorporate movie theatres, organic farms and encourage input from communities to ensure the most effective solutions. 26 Feb 2007 11:03
A standing ovation before the first tea break at Design Indaba yesterday, Thursday, 22 February 2007, for Massimo and Lella Vignelli, New York-based design and life partners, was just one of the highlights of the day. Obsolescence is a social crime, challenges Vignelli, for although there would be no fashion industry without it, design does not need to be trendy. 23 Feb 2007 11:34
Thursday afternoon’s programme at the Design Indaba swept us into the heart of contemporary European design. Actually, one can think of few things more delightful than an afternoon in the company of four European designers at the peaks of their powers. 23 Feb 2007 10:56
The contingent of design devotees at the milestone 10th Design Indaba which opened at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town yesterday, Wednesday 21 February, is this year encouragingly made up of 56% business decision-makers, with approximately 20% of delegates from destinations as far afield as the Netherlands and Nigeria. 22 Feb 2007 10:25
Freestyle illustrator Paul Davis, also from London, urged us to “hang out our dirty laundry on paper” and draw as this could be the only antidote to the fact that computers can do 73 billions calculations per second in binary terms and the possibility of the reduction of designers to “people going to meetings in Chinos”. 22 Feb 2007 10:22
What is the difference between a handmade leather sandal and the footwear that made an imprint on the moon? None, according to Amsterdam-based, Satyendra Pakhalé, speaking on the final day of Design Indaba 9 a week ago. They both have equal human value. Ironically they are both low tech. 5 Mar 2006 13:25
Jupiter Drawing Room stalwart, Ross Chowles, opened the last day of Design Indaba 9 this year (DI9) and shared know-how from his forthcoming book, due for release later this year, on how to start and run a successful design agency. 5 Mar 2006 13:24
What would you do if you had the opportunity to do an image makeover of your country? Respected idea people, Thebe Ikalafeng from TwoTone, Gary Harwood of HKLM and Gaby de Abreu of Switch, were invited to measure their branding and design skills - in the hardest brief ever: 'Brand the Beloved Country', in front of the toughest audience anywhere at Design Indaba 9. 23 Feb 2006 12:00
The world has no face value for designer, Ji Lee, who wowed at Design Indaba, yesterday, Thursday 23 February 2006, with a mind so conceptual, a vision so inspired, a craft so utterly mastered and honed, that one might well think of giving him the brief to Brand the Beloved Country, just to get a fresh perspective on things. 23 Feb 2006 11:55
'Has clothing in South Africa got us thinking', was the title of the first presentation of the Fashion Indaba stream of the DI9 conference currently on in full swing in Cape Town. "Do the clothes we wear reflect our thoughts, are we letting people into our minds via what we wear without even knowing it?" asks Durban-based designer Amanda Laird Cherry. 23 Feb 2006 11:41
The 9th annual Design Indaba kicked off at the CTICC yesterday, Wednesday 22 February, with an uncharacteristic lack of ceremony - no address by the Premier, Deputy Ministers of Arts or Culture, no choirs and no praise singers. Perhaps this was fitting because in a climate where so much in the world needs to be redesigned, there is little time to waste. Arguably the world's most pressing design challenge is that of environmental degradation. 22 Feb 2006 11:00
In pursuit of doing things differently, better, or with more integrity in design, you seldom have to look further than the Japanese. With a seemingly endless supply of masters such as Shigeru Uchida. Maybe it is lost in translation, but the title of his presentation - 'Weak Modernity' did not sound particularly promising, yet in reality contained all the secrets of successful consumerism. 22 Feb 2006 10:52
The three days of gorgeousness, glamour and true grit that was Nokia Cape Town fashion week, has come to a close. It is fair to say, that while it may not exactly have arrived, on the whole African fashion might well be on the threshold of global desirability. 14 Aug 2005 12:06
Terry Levin is the founder of %ff the Shelf Marketing - a Cape Town-based strategic marketing consultancy, specialising in a contemporary Afrocentric approach to brand architecture and a relentless pursuit of the WOW! factor. 
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