New range at Dokter and Misses

get your music video seen by Michel Gondry

Babelgum’s talent-scouting continues. The free, independent Web TV platform today announced the launch of its brand new “Babelgum Music Video Awards” ™, in partnership with Music Nation. Following the success of the Babelgum Online Film Festival, which showcased the work of gifted independent filmmakers, Babelgum has now created a special contest focusing solely on music videos.

The Web TV company has launched this new competition to seek out and reward talented musicians and video directors, with a focus on indie artists. Once again, the audience vote will be crucial in picking the finalists, together with the professional jury consisting of Michel Gondry, David Ford and additional celebrity judges soon to be announced.

The competition offers bands the chance to win one of three prizes:

• The Grand Prize, a record development deal with Universal Music UK, will go to the final winner selected by the professional jury, announced on February 6th 2009;

• The “Performance Award”, an opening slot at a gig at one of MAMA Group’s live music venues, for the band with the most audience votes at the end of voting January 27th 2009;

• The “Mobile Award”, promotion in a Babelgum application for mobile devices, will go to the 40 semi-finalists.

Submissions are open now through the 16th November. Screening and voting will start on 17th November on the Babelgum TV platform, and will continue for around 2 months.

Babelgum CEO Valerio Zingarelli commented “This is a great opportunity for young musicians and video makers to expand their audience and find a new route into the industry. Today’s web users can’t get enough of new, non-mainstream music acts, so the Internet is an excellent place to present strong musical talent and an original vision to a vast audience. Building on the success of the Babelgum Online Film Festival, Babelgum is keen to expose new artists and help them overcome the obstacles of a system that’s still controlled by the majors”.

Details on the voting and prizes and full terms & conditions can be found on Babelgum and Music Nation.

If you're in New York...

...Design Indaba's friend Frederico Duarte has invited us to the D-crit.

Do drop in our behalf!

School of Visual Arts MFA Design Criticism Open House
Saturday, October 25, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
136 West 21st St., New York, 2nd Floor

D-CRIT is up and running with 15 stellar students, an all-star faculty, and a feature article on the program coming out in the next issue of Surface magazine.

Find out what the fuss is about first hand at our Open House taking place on Saturday, October 25. Students will be there to talk about their experiences so far, such as what it's like to produce a podcast for Kurt Andersen and the "Studio 360" team or why architecture critic Karrie Jacobs has them reading John Ruskin in preparation for a visit to Times Square. D-CRIT Chair Alice Twemlow will give an overview of the program, its goals, structure and its philosophy. Faculty members Russell Flinchum, Steven Heller, Karrie Jacobs and Leital Molad will talk about what students can expect from their classes.

This is your chance to meet and mingle over drinks and snacks and find out more about D-CRIT. We look forward to showing you around!

Click here to register online or contact the department for more details at dcrit@sva.edu or 212.592.2228. For more information about the D-Crit program--its faculty, courses and Lecture Series--please visit: http://dcrit.sva.edu.

The 2010 Lecture Series

Spaceships, Urban Design & Context for the 2010 Stadium

“At the outset we said that we do not want a spaceship…a foreign object landing arbitrarily on the historic Green Point Common. A stadium could easily be that. The 2010 Green Point legacy stadium had to be viewed as just one part of a much bigger picture.”

2010 Lecture Series guest speaker, Henri Comrie of Comrie & Wilkinson Architects & Urban Designers is a local architect and the lead urban designer of Cape Town’s 2010 stadium. The balance of the team is made up by members from Jakupa Architects and Urban Designers and OvP Associates. The team had to ensure that the immovable and enduring presence of the 2010 Stadium is sensitive to its urban context -- the concern is with both 2010 as an event and with delivering a world-class legacy precinct for Cape Town.

Planning the entire context for the Stadium -- from the exact location on Green Point Common “off-axis” to the right from the city approach route” to its spatial design in relation to the City, Waterfront, surrounding developments, the mountain and the ocean, Comrie and his team have been working closely with Stadium Architects and with OvP Landscape Architects whose job it is to ensure that the entire Green point Common beyond the stadium precinct, is re-developed as an apt setting for a world-class stadium as well as a series of significant public spaces.

Come and hear Henri Comrie speak about the urban design of this legacy stadium at the Green Point Stadium Visitor Centre. Johan von Papendorp of OvP Associates will also be present to give an introduction to the evolving design of the Urban Park, which will be the presented in more detail at a future lecture.

The 2010 Lecture Series is a bi-monthly series of lectures by speakers who are integrally involved in the planning and implementation of national projects towards 2010, whose views are of special interest to the public.

DATE: Wednesday 22 October 2008
TIME: 17H30–19H00: 2010 Green Point Stadium site walk & Presentation
VENUE: Green Point Stadium Visitor Centre, Vlei Road, Green Point
COST: R100
RSVP: Lana Paries on 021 430 0410/9

DESIGN INDABA OCTOBER NEWS

DESIGN INDABA 2009

Design Indaba Conference will run from February 25 to 27, 2009, and the Design Indaba Expo will follow, opening on Friday February 27 and running until March 1, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

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DESIGN INDABA 10X10 SOLUTION WINS $100 000 HUMANITARIAN DESIGN PRIZE

MMA Architects’ principals, Luyanda Mpahlwa and Mphethi Morojele, have won the inaugural Curry Stone Design Prize of $100 000 for their ingenious solution to the Design Indaba 10x10 low-cost housing challenge. The annual international prize recognises breakthrough design solutions with the power and potential to improve our lives and the world we live in.

Design Indaba’s 10x10 Housing Project challenged 10 architectural teams, composed of handpicked South Africans paired with international alumni of previous Design Indaba conferences, to provide dynamic design solutions for the low-cost housing sector on a completely pro-bono basis.

The objective was to come up with affordable, attractive, innovative responses to the urgent need for housing the urban poor. Sustainable design, construction and operation principles were to be incorporated.

The first solution to the Design Indaba 10x10 challenge, MMA’s design for a single-family home leveraged a modest budget by borrowing elements from indigenous mud-and-wattle building techniques. The design forgoes traditional brick-and-mortar foundations in favour of a two-storey frame of timber and sandbag infill construction, which is both energy-efficient and requires little to no electricity or skilled labour to construct.

By the end of the year, Design Indaba will oversee the completion of 10 such houses in Freedom Park, a township in Greater Cape Town, with volunteer help from local women in the community.

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DESIGN BECKONS SAFFERS HOME

The Design Indaba stand at the Homecoming Revolution event offered a freshly dynamic take on South Africa to expats living in London. Having run since 2004, the Homecoming Revolution aims to encourage and facilitate the return of South African skills to their homeland and speaks to over 12 000 people. Design Indaba’s presence at the event was heralded as a great success, with most of the design-ware sold on the spot, and moreover thousands of people sensitised to the cutting-edge creativity inherent in South Africa.

The likes of Peet Pienaar, Tsai Design, Ronel Jordaan, African Salad, MMA Architects, Michael Mxakasa, Derrick Senteni, Daan Samuels, Clementina van der Walt, African Magpie, Heath Nash, Streetwires, Thys Carstens, Jefter Mwazha, Mandela Park Mosaics, Cape Originals and Johnno du Plessis were all featured on the stand.

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DESIGN INDABA FILM TO AIR

United States filmmaker Rob Nilsson’s short film Frank Dead Souls debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October. Made through a Design Indaba workshop in Cape Town, Nilsson improvised the script with non-actors. The film follows the staff of a magazine on a team-building bus trip. Poised to re-create itself as a more relevant interpreter of modern South African life, real life seems to get in the way as the motivational exercise unravels.

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WESTERN CAPE FURNITURE DESIGN COMPETITION

The inaugural Western Cape Furniture Design competition has announced its theme: EAT. The theme seeks to inspire a creative take on furniture that forms part of eating environments – tables, chairs, servers or other furniture in a dining room, outdoor, kitchen or other environments.

The competition is open to all professionals and students in the Western Cape and R50 000 worth of prizes to be won. Entries close on January 23, 2009.

Visit www.furniture.org.za for more information and entry details.

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NAMPAK PACKAGING DESIGN CHALLENGE

Nampak invites all professional design studios, agencies and freelance designers to compete in the Nampak Packaging Design Challenge and be acknowledged for creativity in the area of packaging and graphic design.

Entrants in the professional category can either participate as a group/business or as an individual, while the student category will involve pre-selected packaging design students. All you need to do is register in order to qualify.

The deadline for submissions for the Nampak Packaging Design Challenge is January 31, 2009. Winners will be chosen and notified in February and the final exhibition of winning designs will take place at the Design Indaba Expo from February 27 to March 1, 2009, as well as being featured in the Design Indaba magazine. The first prize is an Apple Macbook Pro and the second prize a Wacom tablet. 

Click here to download the full entry form.

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LAST CHANCE TO ENTER SOUTH

Don’t miss the opportunity to enter SOUTH, a travelling exhibition sponsored by the SABC and launched by the Creative Alliance, a collaboration between Design Indaba, the Creative Circle and the Loerie Awards. SOUTH is a celebration of the gloriously positive, ridiculously naïve and relentlessly spontaneous creativity inherent in our country.

Prizes to the value of R175 000 are up for grabs. Submissions for SOUTH are open to creative practitioners of any genre over 21 years of age. Selected centres will be receiving work in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth between November 13 and 15, 2008.

For entry forms and more information please visit www.designindaba.com/south.

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LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT FOR EMERGING CREATIVES AND FILM FEST

The Emerging Creatives Programme, sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture, gives young or up-and-coming designers the opportunity to exhibit at the Design Indaba Expo.

The Design Indaba Expo film festival showcases the best South African short films, music videos and animations. The festival is a curated programme and there is no fee for participation. Film screenings should not exceed 12 minutes in length and all submissions need to be in mini dv or high-resolution Quicktime (uncompressed or pal).

For more information or to submit your work, please contact Beverley Cupido on Tel: (021) 465 9966 or bev@interactiveafrica.com 

Deadline: 31 October 2008.

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EXPO BOOKINGS

Book your stand by 31 October 2009 to ensure your inclusion in the Design Indaba Expo buyers guide. The Design Indaba Expo 2009 takes place at the Cape Town Convention Centre from February 27 to March 1.

To make a booking, please contact Beverley Cupido on bev@interactiveafrica.com or Tel: 021 465 9966

Month of People's Photography

It's the Month of People's Photography in Cape Town with little exhibitions popping all over the place. Here's a couple from Design Indaba magazine contributors...

Don't miss the Kudzanai Chiurai exhibition...

(pssst.. you might just cameo in the new Design Indaba documentary)

Design Indaba 10x10 solution wins $100 000 humanitarian design prize

MMA Architects have won the inaugural Curry Stone Design Prize for their ingenious solution to the Design Indaba 10x10 low-income housing challenge.
 
MMA Architects’ principals, Luyanda Mpahlwa and Mphethi Morojele, received the $100 000 prize, administered by the University of Kentucky College of Design. The annual international prize, which comes with no strings attached, recognises breakthrough design solutions with the power and potential to improve our lives and the world we live in.

“MMA’s ideas are exactly the kind that the Curry Stone Design Prize hopes to promote and encourage in the broader field of design – because now, more than ever, the world needs them,” said David Mohney, prize secretary and Curry Stone Chair in Design at the University of Kentucky.

Initiated by Design Indaba, The 10x10 Housing Project’s aim falls in line with the organisation’s fundamental mission to “create a better future, by design”. The project seeks to stimulate wider debate and creative thought around the delivery of low-income housing, a very pressing issue internationally, while at the same time benefiting some of Cape Town’s most impoverished families directly.

Design Indaba’s 10x10 Housing Project challenged 10 architectural teams, composed of handpicked South Africans paired with international alumni of previous Design Indaba conferences, to provide dynamic design solutions for the low cost housing sector on a completely probono basis. The objective was to come up with affordable, attractive, innovative responses to the urgent need for housing for the urban poor. Sustainable design, construction and operation principles were to be incorporated.

The first solution to the Design Indaba 10x10 challenge, MMA’s design for a single-family home leveraged the modest budget by borrowing elements from indigenous mud-and-wattle building techniques. The design forgoes traditional brick-and-mortar foundations in favour of a two-storey frame of timber and sandbag infill construction, which is both energy-efficient and requires little to no electricity or skilled labour to construct. By the end of the year, Design Indaba will oversee the completion of 10 such houses in Freedom Park, a township in greater Cape Town, with volunteer help from local women in the community.

Jurors commended MMA, one of the few black-owned architecture firms in South Africa, for creating an easily scalable prototype that can be built with unskilled labour from the local community. These elements are especially pertinent given the need for an additional 350 000 new homes for greater Cape Town’s swelling population over the next few years.
 
Juror Michael Speaks, dean of the University of Kentucky’s College of Design, said the winning project is "a symbol for the way a family can develop a future". Other jurors included journalist John Hockenberry, architect David Adjaye, designer Renny Ramakers and prize founder Clifford Curry.
 
"It means a lot to us to be recognised for what we thought was a small project, which means that the decision we took to embark on a humanitarian project was a right one," says Mpahlwa. MMA Architects will be using the award to research more alternative design solutions and to expand its scholarship program.

For high resolution images please contact:
Deborah Weber
+27 (0) 21 465 9966
deborah@interactiveafrica.com

CNMA 2008 STUDENT WINNERS

The CNMA student winners of 2008 were off to the UK where they interned for 4 weeks at 3 reknowned design agencies. Read what they wrote about their adventure: Slugging suitcases, exited faces and underground mischief, is only some of the great off-time experiences three students from the North-West University ‘s Potchefstroom Campus experienced on their internship month in London during their July break. Leana de Beer, Carla Erasmus and Gert Schoeman all three overall student winners of this year Construction New Media Awards hosted by the Design Indaba embarked on an opportunity of a lifetime to intern at two prestigious agencies and one major design magazine.

On arrival, the beckoning London sun shone down on the three talented pups as they fought their way through the new environment, minds ablaze with the sheer size and experiences this world city has to offer. And in true traveler voyeurism, with larger than life attractions around every single corner, the three students started to prepare themselves for the work at hand: Leana was posted at Poke Digital, and worked on major brands which one included designing skins for the telecommunications company, Orange. During this time Leana also became like a family member at Poke and Simon Waterfall was really impressed by Leana’s work ethic and professional attitude. Carla on the other hand was mincing words for Marks&Spencer and had a blast thinking about her future prospects in the digital arena at the prestigious Digit in London under the creative hand of Daljit Singh. Gert was dealt the publishing card at the Creative Review Magazine, and made sure that he got onto Patrick Burgoyne’s guest lists, as Gert was invited to almost every shindig, and received so many opportunities to work closely with the one person who knows the bizz of the worlds creative industries. After almost a month in London the students returned very reluctantly to the freezing temperatures of the North-West Province to eagerly share their experiences with all of us at the University. The Construction New Media Awards is such a valuable awards program, especially for the opportunities it poses for young digital creative’s to find their feet within the “global village” but inherently, it also celebrates the best digital South African talent that is on the rise amongst the already established traditional advertising and media industries. The students would like to thank in particular Caryn of the Design Indaba, which without her extremely proficient organizing skills this trip most probably would never have happened. Also, thanking the three agencies, Poke, Digit and Creative Review for allowing these three students the opportunity of a lifetime, and for being so welcoming and forthcoming. As always, we look forward to the produce of 2009 and cant wait to see who pushes the pixel boundaries further and double clicks faster.