Tuesday, November 25, 2008

5.5 question the status quo at Design Indaba 2009

Who can be sure whether green or yellow is the best colour? Whether baroque or gothic is more appropriate? Serif or sans serif? Zig-zags or swirls? Minimalism or maximalism? Whether a designed object is really more valid than its mass produced counterpart? But then, what is design? Is it style or function? Process or end product? Bricks or wallpaper?

Don’t expect to find answers from Paris’s 5.5 design collective – they’ll just riddle you with more questions, invade your assembly line, champion the discontinued product line, mould a cushion from your belly and start a garden in your lounge furniture.

"We ask these questions by designing objects. When you work in a team, it’s impossible to just talk about shape or colour. What has become important for the 5.5 designers is not a question of style, shape, colours or form, but the way that we perceive projects," explains Anthony Lebossé on behalf of the group of four – read the whole interview in the latest edition of Design Indaba magazine.

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet the 5.5 designers in person at Design Indaba from February 25 to 27, 2009.

Book before 12 December 2008 to make use of the Early Bird and Alumni discounts. Click here to register.

Dai Fujiwara of Issey Miyake at Design Indaba 2009

Just last year, Dai Fujiwara unleashed his debut collection as creative director for Issey Miyake on the Paris runway. Of course, Issey Miyake addicts would have been following the rise of this young textile engineer since at least 1998, upon the launch of the award-winning A-Poc series.

A-Poc is an acronym for “a piece of cloth” and describes Fujiwara’s proprietary software-driven design process, which weaves entire pieces of clothing with no sewing necessary. The technique represents a whole new creative, technological and ecological rapid prototyping proposition to the fashion industry.

And don’t even get us started on Fujiwara’s design wedding project that saw some of the world’s most renowned design companies get involved in the big day of an ordinary Finnish couple…

Rather come hear Dai Fujiwara tell you about that himself at Design Indaba 2009.

Book before 12 December 2008 to make use of the Early Bird and Alumni discounts. Click here to register.

Invite to AAA Expo

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

SOUTH deadline extended until December 8

Enter the SOUTH competition now and stand a chance to win R100 000. What's stopping you? Second place receives R50 000, third place receives R25 000 and all finalists will be included on the SOUTH exhibition, set to travel around South Africa and the world through 2009.

Missed the deadline? Design Indaba are extending the deadline to December 8 so as to accomodate a number of student and professional entrants who could not meet the original SOUTH deadline. All submissions are to be made electronically and finalists will be contacted regarding the final product for exhibition.

Have we mentioned the R100 000?

SOUTH is a multi-disciplinary celebration of what South African creativity really means. We’re not being prescriptive – in fact, we’re asking you what South African creativity is and asking you to embody the answer in whichever creative form you see fit – because it is going to be you that wins the R100 000.

Have we said that already? Let’s say it again: R100 000.

The award is open to all creatives across all industries including advertising, design, film and video, music, performing arts, fashion design, new media, publishing, radio and television, industrial design, visual art, architecture and crafts. That means that entries may be in the form of an advert, design, video, film, song, performance, fashion item, book, radio show, television show, industrial design, painting, sculpture, print, photo, building, craft work or anything else.

Two runners up will receive R50 000 and R25 000 respectively.

SOUTH is the new creative ethos that has emerged from South Africa in the past few years. It’s the zeitgeist of contemporary creativity in the diverse, heritage-rich South Africa. SOUTH defines itself beyond ethnicity, religion, race or language, rather celebrating difference and uniqueness while accommodating the ongoing social challenges of the modern world. SOUTH is an inversion of hand-me-down Eurocentric creativity – turning the world map upside down to find that South is on top and South Africa the pinnacle of the world.

Even if you don’t win a prize, so finalists will still be included in the travelling exhibition – an exhibition that stands to be this century’s most radical visual treat the world has yet seen from Africa. Everyone wins!

What now?

Download the entry form at www.designindaba.com/south.

Send the entry form, pictures of the work, copy of ID and proof of payment to south@interactiveafrica.com.

Deadline extended to: 8 December 2008.

South background

Realising the need to fortify and celebrate the uniquely SOUTH-flavoured creativity that our country has been putting out, Design Indaba have partnered with Creative Circle and The Loerie Awards to form the Creative Alliance who have announced the SOUTH award and exhibition, sponsored by the SABC.

The SOUTH exhibition will celebrate the legends who have pioneered this upswing in a display of the top creative icons of the past few years. In turn, the SOUTH competition encourages everyone to invert their compasses and create something in the spirit of what it means to reclaim the world from the bottom up. The SOUTH competition finalists will complete the exhibition and three cash prizes will be awarded: R100 000, R50 000 and R25 000.

The SOUTH exhibition of legends and competition finalists will debut at the 2009 Design Indaba Expo. Then it’s time to take the message to the world – stand back Milan, London and New York, here comes SOUTH!

Onwards... upwards... southwards... viva!

Monday, November 17, 2008

MASSIVE CHANGE at Design Indaba 2009

What if we could do anything? What if the questions surrounding design turned out to be the big questions? What if life itself became a design project? What if the welfare of the entire human race became design’s practical objective? What if we succeeded?

These are just some of the questions why Bruce Mau’s groundbreaking book and exhibition, Massive Change, are nothing short of being a design cult movement. In 2006, Massive Change summed up the progressive ethos that has infiltrated 21st century creativity.

“Design has prevailed as one of the world’s most powerful forces. It perches us at the beginning of an unprecedented period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies hold the capacity to merge as global, relational and interconnected,” announced Mau.

Don’t miss Bruce Mau at Design Indaba 2009.

Book before 12 December 2008 to make use of the Early Bird and Alumni discounts. Click here to register.

AN EXHIBITION OF SUSS'TAINABLE DESIGN

Presented by the KZNSA Gallery in partnership with Design Indaba. Opens Sunday 16 November 2008 at 4pm with a performance by the South Jersey Pom-poms.

The inaugural SUSS'T exhibition, which takes place at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban for two months from November 16, 2008, is the result of a partnership between the KZNSA and Design Indaba. Curated by Brenton Maart, the exhibition catalogues and exhibits the broad wealth of design and creativity inherent in South Africa, most of whom regularly participate in the annual Design Indaba Expo. Exhibitors and objects have been selected based on their relevancy to sustainability (the concept from which the exhibition derives its name).

In showcasing the best of local sustainable design, the exhibition functions as an illustration of how design is capable of saving us from ourselves. Sustainability has long carried the stigma of inferior quality and being overpriced relative to the market. Additionally, the many elements of sustainability have been derided by neoclassical economists as economically inefficient. But the very definition of efficiency is radically changing as its measure shifts from profit to units of carbon, methane and social stability. With that shift, everything changes. And with new technologies and innovative approaches to materials and design, sustainability has lost its stigma. In fact, it's starting to sparkle and shine.

The exhibition adopts a multi-pronged definition of sustainability:

  • Environmentally and ecologically sustainable products, including Koop’s alien wood furniture by Richard Stretton and Angela Shaw, a minimalist range that packs up into a box.
  • Sustainable growth through skills development and application, including Ardmore Ceramics, whose depictions of indigenous animal and plant life, and visual interpretations of Zulu mythology, have seen them win major awards and their work housed in significant international art collections.
  • Sustainable economic growth through network development, including the Soda project, which is a best-practice model of collaboration between the country's high-end fashion industry and its skilled rural crafters.
  • Sustainable development, including the Hillcrest Aids Project (the makers of the gorgeous Little Travellers) and the Monkeybiz Project (who employ thousands of people in and around Cape Town to develop and produce the wacky beaded animals that have seen them gain international fame).

There are four key components to the exhibition:

Industrial and product design occupies the Main and Mezzanine Galleries, with signature work by Andrew Roberts, Andrew Walford, Ardmore, Avoova, Carla da Cruz, Cetsile Mbongosi, Chris de Beer, Colwyn Thomas, Daley Ntanzi, Elaine Woodbridge, Gillian Gerhardt, Fikile Makhanyazi, Gerald Bedeker, Give-It-Bag, Haldane Martin, Heath Nash, Hide, Hillcrest Aids Project, Khumba Mpanza, Kwakunzemnyama, Lindelani Ndinisa, Liv, Koop, Monkeybiz, Ncani Shaya, Ronel Jordaan, Sibongile Gina, Siya Frank, Simply Sam, Sonto Twala, Strangelove, Xavier Clarisse, Zenzulu, Zulu Bead Project and Zulu Lulu.

Fashion and jewellery design occupies the Mezzanine Gallery, with signature work by Amanda Laird Cherry, Black Coffee, Icon, Leigh Schubert, Lunar, Nic Bladen, Phillipa Green, Skermunkil, Soda, Springleap, Strangelove, Two and Veronika de Greef.

Books on art, design, fashion, music and culture, along with a selection of bound sketchbooks and diaries, occupy the new Glass Box Gallery. Editioned artists’ prints, drawings and sculptures are installed throughout the galleries, and include work by Andrew Verster, Claudette Schreuders, Colbert Mashile, Cameron Platter, Conrad Botes, Daniel Hirschmann, David Koloane, Judith Mason, Michael Croeser, Nhlanhla Xaba, Nils Eichberg, Oliver Schildt, Penny Siopis and Robert Hodgins.

Over the period of the exhibition there will be a number of special events including talks and demonstrations by artists and designers, performances, book launches and readings by authors and poets. Please watch the press for details.

Exhibition closes 11 January 2009.

KZNSA GALLERY: CONTEMPORARY VISUAL CULTURE 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban 4001 Tel: +27 (0)31 277 1703 Fax: +27 (0)31 201-8051

Email: curator@kznsagallery.co.za Web: www.kznsagallery.co.za

Please contact the gallery if you require further information, additional images, or wish to arrange to interview the artists and designers.

Friday, November 14, 2008

EXTRA MUROS: Architectures of Delight

Blooming around Johannesburg…

(Drill Hall, Market Photo Workshop, Alliance Française, Roka and 6…)

From 13 November to 12 December 2008

“Extra Muros, Architectures of Delight” is an exhibition originally produced and designed from a catalogue of photographs and criticisms of contemporary architecture, co-ordinated by the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine/Institut Français d’Architecture.

This exhibition has been specifically tailored for a worldwide presentation, focusing on architecture in tune with current urban situations, territorial or programme-related issues that are relevant throughout the world.

Through a critical mass effect, the 40 projects presented say that “good” architecture is not as rare as it seems, and that if we do not see it, surely it is because it is not where we expect it, also because it’s simpler, more modest or simply less preoccupied with its durability than we imagine.

“Extra Muros, Architectures of Delight” gathers exceptional photographs of master architects’ buildings (Jean Nouvel’s Justice Court, in the French city of Nantes, for instance) as well as anonymous constructions that, in the end, make of the exhibition a visual tribute to diversity, freedom, a certain taste for adventure, generosity, integrity, lightness and forms of enchantment.

With the intention of proposing a new and fresh look at architectural delights, the exhibition will be presented for free (of course!) in different locations of Johannesburg.

The Drill Hall and the Market Photo Workshop, in Town; the Alliance Française, in Parkview; Six Bar, in Melville; Roka Lounge Bar, in Millpark, will each host “a piece” of Extra Muros, giving the public an opportunity to look differently on these different areas and, at the same time, each stopover affording the public a new playful mobility within Joburg’s architectural delights.

“Extra Muros, architectures of Delight” will be extended to the academic field with an exceptional one-week architecture workshop entitled “EUNIC Architecture Studio 2008”, co-ordinated by the French Institute on behalf of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC).

Taking place between the 17th and 22nd of November at the Drill Hall, “EUNIC Architecture Studio 2008” will invite a panel of international architects and “thinkers of the environment” to work around the idea of low-cost housing along with Gauteng’s architecture students and young professionals.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Art Vespa 2009 ­– deadline extended

Some people think that advertisers and designers sit around all day drawing pictures, which doesn’t sound much like hard work at all. Fortunately, Vespa South Africa knows this isn’t true, which is why they have just announced a deadline extension for Art Vespa 2009.

The revised closing date is 15 January 2009, which means that entrants can design their dream Vespa at their company end-of-year bash, during Christmas dinner, while lying on the beach in Plettenberg Bay or anywhere far away from the pressures of deadlines and client demands.

The prize remains, of course, an ultra-stylish Vespa LX150 wrapped in the winner’s original design, which is sure to evoke the envy of their less inspired colleagues.

Visit http://vespa.co.za/ArtVespa2009 for info and inspiration and submit to artvespa@vespa.co.za before 15 January 2009, with your name, surname, mobile number, agency and your designation.

The winning entry and two runners-up, as judged by an international panel from Piaggio in Italy, will be displayed at the Design Indaba in Cape Town from 27 February to 1 March 2009 for all to admire.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Bookend Design Competition

Submit for SOUTH next week!

One week to go...

Submit for SOUTH next week!

The overall winner receives R100 000.

Second place receives R50 000.

Third place receives R25 000.

The award is open to all creatives across all industries including advertising, design, film and video, music, performing arts, fashion design, new media, publishing, radio and television, industrial design, visual art, architecture and crafts.

The SOUTH exhibition of legends and competition finalists will debut during the 2009 Design Indaba. Then it’s time to take the message to the world – stand back Milan, London and New York, here comes SOUTH!

Submissions will be received between 13 and 15 November 2008, at the collection centres listed below. Centres will be open from 8am – 5pm.

The closing date for entries is 15 November 2008.

Submission centres:

Cape Town Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Town Campus Faculty of Informatics and Design corner of Keizersgracht and Tennant streets Zonnebloem Cape Town 7925

Durban Durban Art Gallery Second Floor City Hall Smith Street Durban 4001

Johannesburg Vega Brand Communication School 444 Jan Smuts Avenue Bordeaux Johannesburg 2194

Port Elizabeth EPSAC Community Art Centre 36 to 38 Bird Street Central Port Elizabeth 6001

If you are unable to make it to a submission centre, you may enter via e-mail: south@interactiveafrica.com. The deadline is 15 November 2008.

Entry forms are available to download from www.designindaba.com/south

For more information please contact Michael Purdham mikep@interactiveafrica.com

Onwards... upwards... southwards... viva!

DESIGN INDABA CONFERENCE EARLY BIRD NOW OPEN

Click here to play video

GET 10% OFF YOUR DESIGN INDABA CONFERENCE TICKET
when you take advantage of our Early Bird offer before 12 December.
Click here or go to www.designindaba.com.
Design Indaba Conference and Young Designers Simulcast: 25 – 27 February 2009.
Expo: 27 February – 01 March 2009.
Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Designer surfboard auction in Cape Town

Wavescapes Surf Art Exhibition and Auction

VEO Gallery in de Waterkant - TEL 021 421-3278

26 November to 3 December

Featuring some of the hippest young artists in SA: Kim Longhurst, Konradski (Conrad Botes), Leonora van Staden, Mak 1, Motel7, ND Mazin, Ross Turpin, Scott Robertson (Dirty Sanchez), Trevor Paul, and Willie Bester.

The boards are on auction on Wednesday 3 December, proceeds to NSRI and Shark Spotters