the Design Indaba community of South Africa

Reading the fine print

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:46:00 +0200

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. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Imagine designing a whole new world...

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:07:00 +0200

Imagine only buying and consuming products which you know are good for you, your family and the environment because you know their history? Imagine a world in which we as humans weren’t killing off other eco-systems on our planet in our quest for rampant consumerism? Activist talk or our future reality…? Read full story... | Send to a friend

Design with solutions in mind

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:03:00 +0200

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. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Design does not need to be trendy

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:34:00 +0200

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. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Condom applicator takes first place at DI

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:04:00 +0200

It’s official - a condom applicator has just been selected as ‘the most beautiful object in South Africa’ by Jurgen Bey, a leading Dutch product designer and a speaker at this week’s Design Indaba Conference, 21 - 23 February 2007, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Roelf Mulder of …XYZ Design, a Cape Town product design consultancy, designed the applicator. Read full story... | Send to a friend

On the wings of a butterfly...

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:56:00 +0200

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. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Winning over the fans

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:22:00 +0200

The three-way agency pitch, which has become an interesting feature of Design Indaba in recent years, this year focused on concepts for the 2010 Fan Fests – the officially sanctioned areas in our cities where fans will gather in their hundreds of thousands to watch the World Cup Soccer matches. The agencies were Enterprise IG, RSVP King James and Grid. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Design for innovation

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:04:00 +0200

Do you still know how to do the Vulcan hand salute? Remember the beehive hairdos from Captain Kirk’s Star Trek odyssey last century? How about the replicator which made you anything you wanted? Well, that might not be as farfetched as we think as Prof Neil Gershenfeld from the USA’s MIT explained in his 20 year roadmap for the future at Design Indaba yesterday, Thursday, 22 February 2007. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Design is the new gold

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:25:00 +0200

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. Read full story... | Send to a friend

Get it in writing

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:22:00 +0200

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”. Read full story... | Send to a friend