Thursday, March 27, 2008

Creative Company Conference

Design Indaba has a new sister company in Europe called the Creative Company Conference (CCC). Distinct from Design Indaba, which celebrates the creative professional, the CCC honours innovative business leaders and companies that place innovation, creativity and design as central to their strategy.

The Creative Company Conference heralds the primacy and potency of innovation and creativity in business and celebrates thought leaders in a unique assembly to be held annually in Amsterdam, where ideas, experience and best practice are shared and inspiration is sparked.

Scheduled for April 1 at Amsterdam’s spectacular Muziekgebouw, the CCC has secured ten leading innovators from four continents for its inaugural event. These include:

Position > Senior Vice President, Global Brand Marketing and Corporate Vice President
Company > The Coca-Cola Company
Country > United States
Marc Mathieu

Position > Founder
Company > IDEO
Country > United States
Bill Moggridge
Position > Chairman, President and CEO
Company > ING DIRECT
Country > United States
Arkadi Kuhlmann
Position > Fashion Entrepreneur
Company > Carlos Miele Ltda
Country > Brazil
Carlos Miele
Position > Vice President, Global Creative
Company > Starbucks Coffee Company
Country > United States
Stanley Hainsworth
Position > Founder
Company > Nando's
Country > South Africa
Robert Brozin
Position > Co-founder
Company > Innocent Drinks
Country > United Kingdom
Richard Reed
Position > Chief Creative Officer and Vice-President
Company > Disney Stores
Country > United States
Ivy Ross
Position > Chairman & Author
Company > ITR Consultants & Creative Economy
Country > United Kingdom
John Howkins

Arkadi Kuhlmann – chairman, president and CEO of the world’s largest internet bank, ING Direct; Bill Moggridge – founder of IDEO; Robert Brozin – founder of Nando’s; Richard Reed – co-founder of innocent drinks; Ivy Ross – chief creative officer and vice-president of Disney; Carlos Miele – fashion entrepreneur and founder of Carlos Miele Ltd; and John Howkins – chairman of ITR Consultants and responsible for coining the term “creative economy”.

At Design Indaba in Cape Town we celebrate the creative professional.... at CCC in Amsterdam we honour innovative business leaders and companies that place innovation, creativity and design as central to their strategy.

All Design Indaba alumni are offered a 33% discount on the full 1 day ticket to CCC – to register for this please contact loren@creativecompanyconference.com and mention “Design Indaba Network ticket” in the subject line as well as which country you come from.

Visit www.creativecompanyconference.com for more information.

MOST CREATIVE STAND AT DESIGN INDABA 2008

Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism wins Most Creative Stand Award at the 2008 Design Indaba Cape Town. The stand of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism Creative Industries Strategy (DEDT Creative Industries) was selected as the Most Creative Stand at this year’s Design Indaba Expo held at the Cape Town Convention Centre from 23-26 February 2008.

 

The Award was initiated by the Cape Town Partnership as part of its Creative Cape Town Programme – a social, economic and spatial programme which uses culture towards urban regeneration in the Central City to build an inclusive civic identity and vibrant economy, in conjunction with the Design Indaba.

This year visitors to the Design Indaba enjoyed watching a virtual walking tour of Creative Cape Town at the Cape Town Partnership stand. Creative Cape Town has identified more than 800 creative industries in the Central City alone—making Cape Town a leading centre for design, innovation and creativity in Africa.

The winning stand was designed by award-winning playwright Brett Bailey. It started out each day as one big white canvas. Performing and visual artists then filled the space with art, animation, photography, crafts and designs while interacting with the public, showcasing creativity in Cape Town and the Western Cape. At the end of the exhibition the space was filled with colour, crafts, photo’s and live animation much to the delight of the audience.

 

Six finalists were chosen by the members of the public visiting the Design Indaba Expo over the past four days. A panel of judges selected the winning stand.

According to the judges, the Department’s stand was a clear winner in terms of being the most unique, interactive and innovative stand. “It showed the process of design and creativity as it evolves into final products – instead of focusing on the final product alone,” said Andrew Boraine, Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership, and one of the judges.

The Most Creative Stand Award Trophy was made by artist Daan Samuels from the Cape Craft and Design Institute. Samuels was one of the entrants for the Most Beautiful Objects Award at the 2008 Design Indaba.

The runners-up were the stands of Fly on the Wall Productions – a film making collective from Observatory (second place) and craft design company Design Afrika from Woodstock (third place) and.

 

Cathy Cronje’s name was drawn from the group of names who voted for the winning stand. She has won herself a night out to enjoy Creative Cape Town in Long Street, including a sleepover in the Daddy Long Legs Hotel, dinner and clubbing at Café Royale in Long Street and a Walking Trends Tour with Cherryflava along with twenty of her friends.

Bunk beds win Most Beautiful Object in South Africa Award

Y. Tsai of Tsai Design Studio was announced as the winner of the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at Design Indaba Expo on February 26, 2008. The Nested Bunk Bed received 150 of the 402 public votes cast during Design Indaba Expo.

 

The award asks our diverse country: "What is beauty?" While some may consider it an aspect of taste and others know it on sight, beauty becomes far more profound than a visual sensation when design characteristics such as social significance, economic impact, aesthetic value, humanist intuitions, lifestyle functioning and sustainability are thrown into the mix.

This young creative studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, strives to design products that are socially and culturally relevant to South Africa, hence the winning design being the Nested Bunk Bed, that offers a space solution for overcrowded,
low-cost houses.

Tsai was thrilled when he was chosen among the other incredibly creative finalists as the overall winner: “Thank you! I am very excited because I think that the bunk bed will get more sponsorship from the awards [Most Beautiful Object in South Africa] and then we can put more beds into orphanages. It’s great that Design Indaba is rewarding young designers and recognising that design can have a positive social impact.”

 

A hearty congratulations to Tsai, who wins a free stand at Design Indaba Expo in 2009, and the rest of the finalists: Ronel Jordaan; Daan Samuels; Juanita Oosthuizen; Philippe Bousquet; Clementina Van Der Walt; Lisa Firer; Richard de Jager; and Palesa Mokubung of Mantsho. Design Indaba hopes to see you all on our platform again next year!

Living space is at a premium in South Africa's townships - it's not unusual for six to eight people to share 36 square metres of space. The Nested Bunk Bed offers a space solution for overcrowded, low-cost houses. Sections of the Nested Bunk Bed can be pulled out to serve a number of purposes, such as a sofa for two, grandstand seating, or five beds that can be packed away into a standard bunk bed area. When fully extended, the bed system can sleep 20 children in a tight space of 50 square metres, as well as providing play space when the beds are retracted.

CNMA 2008 WINNERS

The CNMA 2008 award ceremony was held on Thursday 28 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, winners were announced by judged Patrick Burgoyne (Creative Review), Andries Odendaal and Alex Maclean (Airside). The Construction New Media Awards, now in its eighth year, celebrates and elevates the status of new media design by honouring and accrediting those designers, writers, programmers and thinkers who produce challenging, imaginative interactive work, both on a creative and a functional platform.

Congratulations to the Grand Prix winner, Gloo Digital Design for the Youngblood5 website. There may be no fortune in winning a Construction New Media Award, but fame comes in the form of the coveted Grand Prix, which has sent winners to New York, Vienna and London. It is awarded across all four categories including Online, Offline, Motion Graphics and Innovation.

SILVER SPECIAL MENTIONS

- Prezence for Ster-Kinekor WAP

- Gloo Digital Design for Youngblood5 website

- Hellocomputer for Vodacom CD ROM

CATEGORY WINNER:

Neil van Vuuren for Promotion

 

Neil is a student at The Open Window. The objective of this piece was to create an original audio-visual experience that explores the concept of the word ‘promotion’. The outcome is a 5 minute quicktime video intended for a contemporary audio-visual consumer audience.

OFFLINE CATEGORY:

SILVER SPECIAL MENTIONS

- Gert Schoeman (North West University) for Sleepless Night

CATEGORY WINNER:

Gert Schoeman, Leana de Beer & Carla Erasmus for Mossie

These three students from North West University created a humorous interactive experiment in Adobe Flash – just for fun. Mossie features a “hitman” service to kill off friends or family suffering from one or more of the seven deadly sins.

ONLINE CATEGORY:

SILVER SPECIAL MENTIONS

- Hellocomputer for Jack Daniels Crack Jack’s Safe Game

- Pixel Project for Adobe Keep it Legal – Lost in Programmeville

- Hellocomputer for The Dirty Skirts website

- Hellocomputer for Moonlighting

CATEGORY WINNER:

Gloo Digital Design for Youngblood5

 

This successful construction resulted in a 3 month tactical campaign for 5FM in commemorating Youth Day. Outcomes of over 1000 causes were created, 5000 comments made and had 80% of the site’s content generated by its youthful audience. The youngblood5.co.za flash website made it possible for the youth to create a ‘cause’ and then see how other users of the site feel about that same topic. The site also created important daily content for on-air discussion by radio DJ’s. Such a loose ‘blogging’ environment would raise many issues but the most discussed ‘cause’ would then be run by the client, 5FM, as a real-world nationwide campaign, for the people and by the people.

MOTION GRAPHICS CATEGORY:

SILVER SPECIAL MENTIONS

- Richard Armstrong (Vega Durban) for Blindside music video

- Brendan Joseph (Vega Johannesburg) for Jellyfish

- Bernadene Varty (Vega Durban) for Die Volk is in die kak music video

CATEGORY WINNER:

Fluorescence for Trace Your Roots

     
     
     

A cutting-edge 3D animation was create for the SABC’s Trace Your Roots television program. The modelling and animation was done in Maya and Lightwave respectively.

THE CNMA 2008 GRAND PRIX was awarded to Gloo Digital Design for the Youngblood5 website

THE TOP STUDENT PRIZE was awarded to the three North West University student; Gert Schoeman, Leana de Beer & Carla Erasmus for the offline entry – Mossie.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Karlssonwilker

After returning to New York, Jan Wilker agreed to address the SMS interrogation - clearly largely augmented by someone with a green chip. Jan also sent us some more pics of their trip to Serbia...

With the global trend towards environmental design how do you feel that your ability to experiment will affect your work? 

I don't think environmental design should be described as a trend, more as a global shift; people know that it is a necessity and there to stay. I would say that "environmentally friendly" or "environmentally conscious" design should not exclude experimentation of any kind (Indulgent experimentation in pure form, shape and color, that doesn't seem to directly focus on the "greener environment" should not be stigmatized). Overall, we are a very small studio and we have felt a change in our personal and professional interests; we are more prone to experiment in the "environmental design" direction than when we started out, 7 years ago. We are very curious of what will come out of that.

With the global trend towards environmental design how do you feel that design for designs sake will be affected in your business?

It will affect the design business, and it already does; but again, i don't see anything bad about design for design's sake, as long as it tries to push boundaries. As designers we are highly trained specialists in visual communication (if you had a decent education).

With the global trend towards environmental design how will design experimentation be affected? Whilst designers can change the world for the better they can also contribute a huge amount of waste material.  

Good for you if you think that designers per se can change the world for the better. I would prefer to say that we as people can change the world, no matter if you're a designer, a banker, a butcher or anything else. To the second part of your question: Yes, designers can and do contribute a huge amount of waste material and waste thoughts.

Was the Serbia trip for real? Please tell us more.  

Yes, the Serbia trip was for real. We spent 12 days there and designed one calendar page every single day. The calendar was then printed and given out for free to the people of Serbia. It was all a non-profit project. The welcoming at the airport was only half-serious, though; since what they did was they re-enacted the usual welcoming procedure from the old communist times, the kind that African statesmen and Far East communist leaders would get when they would visit Yugoslavia. They wanted us to get a glimpse of their communist past. Overall, the 12 days in Serbia was something very uncommon for a designer to go through. Needless to say, we loved it. It's still one of our favorite projects of all time.

I take it you didn't get folk dancing or singing kids at the Johannesburg airport?  

Sadly, no. We would have loved to hear some folk tunes and see some dancing–hopefully next time. (Let us know if you ever come to New York, so we can prepare something for you.)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Marije Vogelzang

What is the fundamental difference between what you do and what an experimental chef does?

first of all, I am not a cook because I see the cook as the craftsperson, and the designer as the specialist. If you would design a pair of shoes you would go to the shoemaker to have them made. second, I try to approach food from a different angle. I want to communicate social issues through food - for example obesity, lack of taste in old age, massproduction, food miles, the killing of biodiversity etc. Most chefs focus on the food solely. I think the food is already designed by nature. therefore I want to be inspired by the verb of eating instead of food.

Have you brought out a book of your work?  

I'm working on two.

Where can we see more of your work?

In May I'll have my first solo exhibition in Gallery MaMa in Rotterdam. You can also visit the website www.proefamsterdam.nl. Click on the British flag for English language. The blog is updated regularly.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Hideki Inaba

Hideki Inaba enchanted all with his complex line drawings, but despite numerous questions about how he creates them, he's keeping his trade secret close to heart. He did admit that it takes a very long time.

How is your work influenced by your culture?

It is not influenced by culture. My daily life has influenced my work.

How do you feel about designing all those English things and how do you deal with the cultural differences?

I don't understand English and also don't know difficult Japanese words. I don't think I'm interested in language much. I recognize both English and Japanese as a picture.

How do you work with the Roman alphabet when you don't understand English?

I ask my assistant or go to the web translation.

How do you feel about the Roman alphabet as opposed to kanji or hidegana?

Roman alphabet is simple and very beautiful. It is like Japanese Hiragana. I like Roman alphabet better than Kanji.

Does your Japanese heritage influence your typography?

Well, I don't know.

http://hidekiinaba.com/

Carrol Boyes METAL 2008

Entries Closing for Carrol Boyes METAL 2008 New Designer Search: FRAME

After announcing the theme for METAL 2008 in January, Carrol Boyes is urging all South African designers to submit their entries for her New Designer Search before the closing date, 31 May 2008. This year, Carrol has invited entrants to design a prototype of a frame. The designs must fuse three key elements: functionality, manufacturing potential and aesthetics. No special experience or qualifications are necessary in order to enter. Entrants are required to submit their design along with a completed entry form, a copy of their ID and a one page CV to Carrol Boyes Functional Art.

Entry forms are still available at Carrol Boyes stockists country wide. To download an entry form, go to http://metal.carrolboyes.co.za. To have an entry form faxed to you, call 021 462 3129. Entries will not be accepted after 31 May 2008.

Oscar Pena

How are your designs influenced by ergonomics and environmental views?

Today as in the past, our design approach has been always influenced by people. We are a people centered design organization. We pay attention to all things that concern people today, including the environment. We also try to anticipate what will concern them in the near future, not just their needs but also their desires. We are committed to sustainable design and we adhere to our internal Green pages as a guideline for sustainable solutions.

What programs do you use to develop your products?

If it’s about CAD programs we use various programs, from RHINO, Alias, 3D Max, Photoshop, Flash, etc. We do not only use IT programs, we also have our own tools and methodologies for design, research and innovation and all of them are people centric. Our focus is in ‘what makes sense for people’.

Does Philips have a different design approach when developing for established and emerging markets like South Africa?

No, we have a global approach which is based on what makes sense for people. We are constantly developing tools and methodologies that apply to the world at large, and this includes emerging countries.

In which product range do you see Philips focusing most on within the next five years?

We have just consolidated our company in three main sectors, Consumer lifestyle, Healthcare and Lighting. Products that fit within these three sectors will be our main focus. Our underlying goal of Design at Philips has always been to bridge the divide between people and technology, adapting technologies to meet people’s needs more effectively.

What are you most excited about for the future?

I'm excited about trying to make it happen. I see myself as a creative and active participant, not a spectator.

How will the current environmental concerns be influencing the future landscape of industrial and product design?

We have been for the last 10 years paying attention to environmental issues. As an example in our energy saving lamps category, our new Ecoclassic 50 is the worlds most efficient halogen energy saver, saves 50% of energy, is dimmable, instant start up and a life span of 3 a years. It won the IF Gold award in the product design category.

Abbott Miller

Abbott Miller's pioneering Harley Davidson Museum sparked a lot of interest. The first opening is due for July 12. And for those who asked what the budget was, Abbott regretfully cannot divulge that information. But we'll keep you posted on all new developments...

Jakob Trollback

Jakob Trollback enchanted everyone with his moving graphics and the catchy music throughout his presentation - maybe his days of DJing are not yet over?

In response to the numerous requests: The catchy track used on his showreel was "Parenthesis" by The Blow from the album Paper Television.

Li Edelkoort

What would you say drives or informs your trend forecasting knowledge?

Trend forecasting is a profession in which one's intuitive muscle is trained in the same way that an athlete trains a muscle of the body. I like to regard my work as a modern-day form of archaeology, where a fragment is found here, another fragment there, until one day all of the information is combined to formulate an idea – a lifestyle change, a trend.

I’m a trend forecaster. The difference between trend scouting and trend forecasting is obvious. Trend scouting is looking at things that are already there; you weigh the repercussions and estimate how long it will last. Whereas what we do — what I do — is forecast what is but a breeze on our neck; a glimpse into the future often without much evidence to support it. I have to make do with shreds of information, from sources as diverse as a conversation, a client’s opinion, a newspaper article, a financial report, a film, an art exhibit or fashion show. My work is based upon intuition. Only then do we add reason and philosophy, and try to detect and understand the repercussions.

Where do all your visuals come from?

Many of the visuals come from the magazines I produced over the years (View on Colour, InView and Bloom). We had to create these key images since they simply didn't exist elsewhere. We also have a large library with art and design books and magazines that provide endless inspiration.

What are your predictions concerning the current environmental threat the world is experiencing?

As part of my forecast for summer 2008 two years ago, I studied the nuances of grey, including inspirations by the weather and natural disasters. The idea was to explain that beauty could be derived from chaos, that we were metaphorically interested in burning bridges and starting afresh, and that ash, lava, earth and rainstorms could inspire the creation of interesting highly-tactile and beautifully-dilapidated fabrics and shapes. Little did I know that we would see even more floods, earthquakes and mudslides beyond the tsunami and the ecological spirit would be fueled partly by nature making man feel small and humble. Also with the prolongation of our summers long into fall as a result of global warming, the idea of an Indian Summer with autumn leaf colours and exuberant and decorative styles fit for a regal maharaja or savvy sultana seems imminent.

Ivan Chermayeff

During Design Indaba 2008 we pioneered a new system whereby the audience could submit questions to the speakers via SMS. Unfortunately we didn't have time for all the questions, but I'll be posting the questions and answers on the blog.

First up, Ivan Chermayeff:

What do think of the new Xerox logo?

Didn't you know that Xerox was giving up copying documents in favor of selling beach balls to kids?

What computer program/s do you use when executing your work? Or do you work mostly by hand?

I draw, cut, and splice by hand. The office sometimes follow through, or I direct others with nimbler hands using Illustrator and Photoshop programs on Mac computers.

For me, computers are too slow and in general have lowered the highest quality of graphic design as they have raised up the level from the bottom. Great, innovative work will come again, but it takes time. In the meantime, computers are just tools we can't do without. Personally, I prefer scissors.