Fresh inspiration for young designers

Paula Scher, head of Pentagram Design in New York, will facilitate the five-day workshop for graphic design, multimedia and fashion students from May 10. She will also hold a plenary session on May 14 at RAU to which all students, industry professionals and the media are invited.

Scher, perhaps the most famous female graphic designer in the world, first made her name in the 1970s, designing strange LP sleeves for Atlantic Records and CBS. Her groundbreaking fusion of a young, pop sensibility with a period-influenced aesthetic gave her work a quirky, conceptual freshness which spawned many imitations.

Scher's signature motif is her innovative and eclectic use of type. Her distinctive, yet elastic style is evident in projects as diverse as an Elvis Costello record cover or corporate ID for the banking giant, Citicorp.

And it's not only her work that grabs attention. Scher is also a dynamic, witty and down-to-earth presenter. On her last trip to South Africa for the 4th Design Indaba Conference, she was judged one of the best speakers among a delegation of international design heavyweights.

In this month's workshop, students will be required to design an identity for a real or imagined youth-oriented product or service. The challenge is to develop a distinctive visual language for the brand so that it is easily recognizable, even when the name or logo is absent.

This month's workshop is the ninth in the Design Indaba Educational Workshop Series, which attracts around 5 000 participants every year. The project grew out of the annual Design Indaba Conference, held in Cape Town. The objective of the workshops is to take design to all areas of the country throughout the year, to inspire and educate young creatives and to expose them to the latest and best international work.

The initiative is one of the pillars of Design Indaba's campaign to put creativity at the forefront of South Africa's economic development.

The organizers say South Africa is rich in raw talent and innovative ideas – rare commodities in a world of increasing uniformity. By harnessing and refining these assets, they believe we can create a design industry that will be the envy of all, and products which the rest of the world will covet.

This month's workshop runs from May 10 to 14. The plenary session takes place on Friday, May 14 between 2pm and 3pm at the E-Les lecture hall at RAU. Cost is R150 per person, including refreshments. The workshop is sponsored by Woolworths, SAPPI and Audi (SA).

For more information or to book your place at this open session, please contact Yasheeni on 021 418 6673 or email her at .

The programme of Design Indaba Workshops for the rest of the year is:

23-27 August: Facilitator: Ilse Crawford, strategic designer, former Design Indaba Conference speaker, head of department at the celebrated Design Academy, Eindhoven.

23-27 August: Facilitator: Oscar Peña, celebrated conceptual homeware designer whose work is inspired by the idea of "serious play".

30 August, 3 September: Shubhankar Ray, the creative director of Camper where he has worked on The Walking Society concept and the Visual Language System.

13-17 September: Facilitator: Ross Lovegrove, eclectic British born designer who's current projects range from Tag Heuer spectacles to a sculpture for Amnesty International.

September: Facilitator: Malcolm Garrett, pioneer of digital design, technology and thinking, widely acknowledged for his iconic and intelligent design.

November: Two film workshops, held in conjunction with the Resfest South Africa.