Friday, December 19, 2008

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM DESIGN INDABA

Design Indaba wishes you safe, festive and happy holidays.


DESIGN INDABA CONFERENCE

Experience the fabulous Marcel Wanders, Dai Fujiwara of Issey Miyake, AdamsMorioka’s real message, 5.5’s challenge to the status quo, Javier Mariscal's theatricalities, Dunne & Raby’s technological futurism and Bruce Mau’s vision for massive change… all at Design Indaba Conference and Young Designers Simulcast from 25 to 27 February 2009. Booking and more information at www.designindaba.com


DESIGN INDABA 10x10 HOUSING PROJECT

The first Design Indaba 10x10 house designed by MMA Architects’ principals, Luyanda Mpahlwa and Mphethi Morojele, has been shortlisted for the Design Museum’s Brit Insurance Design of the Year award. On a winning streak, the project received the prestigious Curry Stone Design Prize in September.

Catch up on the latest developments: http://designindaba10x10.blogspot.com/


DESIGN INDABA EXPO

Creativity that knows no boundaries. That's what Design Indaba Expo is all about. Elegant lamps made of ostrich feathers; recycled milk bottle caps assembled together in flower mobiles; funky jewellery made from old-fashioned silverware; sophisticated laptop bags crafted from billboard vinyls. These are just some of the ideas that have wowed the crowds over past years – as well as hundreds of influential buyers from across the globe. Come and see the latest on the catwalks in all-day fashion shows, sample the finest in food and drink, vote for the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa, view the short-film festival, be enticed to buy from more than 250 exhibitors and hobnob with the designers in person. Above all, be awed by the creative spirit of innovative South Africans.The Design Indaba Expo is nearly full, to avoid disappointment contact Beverley Cupido on 021 465 9966 or bev@interactiveafrica.com.


SOUTH

The SOUTH competition submissions from across the country are currently being adjudicated. 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!


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 know this isn’t true, which is why they have announced a deadline extension for Art Vespa 2009. The revised closing date is 15 January 2009. The prize remains, of course, an ultra-stylish Vespa LX150 wrapped in the winning design, which is sure to evoke the envy of less inspired colleagues. Visit http://vespa.co.za/ArtVespa2009 for more info and entry forms.


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 31 January 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 27 February to 1 March 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.


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 are to be won. Entries close on 23 January 2009. Visit www.furniture.org.za for more information and entry details.

Friday, December 12, 2008

JAVIER MARISCAL returns to Design Indaba 2009

“Sometimes, the design process enables us to give new meanings to old forms or new forms to old meanings. In this way, we feel that we are advancing in our work, we are innovating, insinuating or inspiring. So that times still change. So that we are not evident.”

When people ask Javier Mariscal what he does for a living, he sometimes says he’s a tightrope walker and other times he says he’s an acrobat – even when he uses the world of the circus to describe himself, he takes on several jobs. In a circus, he would also be the ring manager, he would design the big top and the staging, he would go up on the trapeze and would be most annoyed if he didn’t find time to feed the elephants.

Furniture design, painting, sculpture, illustration, interior design, graphic design, landscape painting, gardening, horticulture and more… since Javier Mariscal’s life and career has been characterised by creative incontinence as vital activity. After wowing the crowds at Design Indaba 2003 with his theatrical multimedia performance, he now returns to the Design Indaba big top. Get ringside seats for Javier Mariscal at Design Indaba Conference 2009, from February 25 to 27.

Download Javier Marsical’s iGoogle theme

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

DUNNE & RABY challenge the future at Design Indaba 2009

The shift from thinking about applications to implications creates a need for new design roles, contexts and methods. For Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby it’s not just about designing for commercial, market-led contexts but also for broader societal ones. It’s not just about designing products that can be consumed and used today, but also imaginary ones that might exist in years to come. And it’s not just about imagining things we desire, but also undesirable things — cautionary tales that highlight what might happen if we carelessly introduce new technologies into society.

Dunne & Raby use design as a critical medium to explore fields of science such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Evidence Dolls playfully probes the implications of DNA knowledge between lovers, while Designs for Fragile Personalities in Anxious Times continues their obsession with the psychological impact of an atomised society. It celebrates humans as contradictory, complex and psychologically flawed.

Meet the future with Dunne & Raby at Design Indaba Conference, from 25 to 27 February 2009.

    

“As designers we have an unthinking optimism about the future. We automatically assume that what we design is neutral and implicitly good. There is a deeply embedded ideology that the role of design and architecture is ‘to make the world a better place’. But how do we acknowledge our contradictions, our inconsistencies and celebrate a humanness which, if we admit it, is deeply flawed?" they ask.

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

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Green Tees from Vida

The Green-T Project is an experiment in recycle, redesign, fashion and photography.

Young fashion designers were given old clothes that were donated by customers of Vida E Caffe and they were created into works of art, designers include: Jule Visnjic (Unknown), Marina Geldenhuys (Sew-Sew), Natasha Liebenberg (LiebenCut), Elmin, Ludwich Olivier.

The recycled garments will feature in a series of images created by rising photographic talents that include Brett Rubin, Natasja Fourie, Carey Niqa Wiehahn, Jesse-Leigh Elford and Justin Badenhorst. A cast of musicians and creatives that include Inge Beckmann (former lead singer of Lark), Jeremy de Tolly (lead singer of The Dirty Skirts), Ellenie Eloff (one-person band Catwalktrash), Lauren Fowler (Illustrator/Graphic Designer) and jewellery designer Philippa Green will star in the images.

The complete collection of images will be presented at vida e caffé, Wembley Square, Gardens on Thursday, 11 December 2008 at 19h30.

The fabulous Marcel Wanders at Design Indaba 2009

Image courtesy of Marcel Wanders Studio

There’s very little in design that is bigger than Marcel Wanders. If his Knotted Chair and Crochet Series are his most iconic, then his most notorious must be his Airborne Snotty Vases, and his most anticipated, the new Mondrian South Beach hotel. The hotel is said to be an extension of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale – when we open our eyes after 100 years, everything will look fabulous!

“Throughout the 20th century, architects and designers strived to produce products that could be made by machines and that would help create welfare, equality and a political foundation for democracy. They created works that celebrated the poor possibilities of the available machinery. In this period bending metal tubes and cutting wood with a machine were considered small miracles,” he wrote in the foreword to 21st Century Design.

See, Wanders believes that machines should heed to humans and that we should all live like princes and princesses – and that’s not a conceited statement. We have the technology, we have the imagination, so what’s stopping us?

Liberate your fabulousness with Marcel Wanders at Design Indaba Conference 2009, from February 25 to 27.

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

Friday, December 05, 2008

Poster design competition

WORLD BOOK DAY: 23RD APRIL 2009

Prize Money for winning design: R2 000

1. Background to World Book Day
World Book Day and Copyright Day, 23 April, was instituted by UNESCO in 1995. The Centre for the Book acts as the national co-ordinator of a poster campaign involving schools, libraries and bookshops. The poster is to create awareness and encourages events all over South Africa.

2. Theme for 2009
“UNLOCK YOUR MIND, READ BOOKS”

3. Poster requirements
a. Theme to be included on poster
b. 2009 not to be included – only 23 April
c. Image can be photographic or illustrative
d. Conceptualisation to be directly linked to the theme “Unlock your mind, read books.”
e. Poster to be printed in full colour, size A2
f. Only second part of Theme (“unlock your mind, read books”) to be translated into all official languages.

4. Contact
Please e-mail your poster in either pdf or jpeg format to samantha@publishsa.co.za with your contact details.

5. Deadline
Friday, 16th January 2009

Flat-pack Xmas at the KZNSA Gallery

In collaboration with Design Indaba, the Suss't exhibition at the KZNSA Gallery has some fabulous sustainable design options for festive cheer and pressies. I love this self-assembly flat-packed christmas gear cut from birch ply by designers Richard Stretton and Angela Shaw...

KZNSA GALLERY
166 BULWER ROAD GLENWOOD DURBAN
031 277 1703; WWW.KZNSAGALLERY.CO.ZA

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Keep it clean with Design Indaba 2009

Communication through promises, missions, brand DNA and value creation has become relatively risk-free. After all, the medium is the message, right? But in the end, the conglomeration of words and ideas must realise measurable results. So what is the message? AdamsMorioka maintain that a certain level of courage is necessary to produce something real. That courage requires facing fears, but also finding a level of fun. Adams and Morioka approach this with these questions:

  • What is the difference between fearless and foolish?
  • Why do we do this?
  • Where do we want to go?

Beginning as a two-person design firm in the early 1990s, AdamsMorioka have had a meteoric rise in the industry, based on their philosophy of clarity, purity and resonance. Brands such as ABC, Adobe, Gap, Frank Gehry Associates, Nickelodeon, Sundance and the Walt Disney Company will attest to it.

But most importantly, AdamsMorioka don’t just talk, they make the message real.

Get the message at the Design Indaba Conference 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.