Who has the right to your city?

The Right to the City Dialogue Series has been a year-long process, focused on contextualising and providing momentum to the Right to the City concept in South Africa. As discussions were held between a number of organisations, including representatives of the urban poor and NGOs, a number of priorities emerged.  It was clear that the poor have a fundamental right to participate in the making and shaping of their city, and to claim the benefits of being urban citizens. These priorities were presented to national government in a round table discussion. The kinds of priorities, activities and partnerships that are required to ultimately enable the urban poor to be part of their city, rather than living alongside it, were candidly discussed.

Tristan Gorgens, Mandela Rhodes Scholar and policy researcher at Isandla Institute – one of the partner organisations in ‘The Right to the City Dialogue Series’ project – has some valuable information to share. The work has impact on the future, not just of Cape Town, but of cities around South Africa. When Cape Town was named the World Design Capital for 2014, it began a process of re-envisioning the urban landscape of the country as a whole. Continue reading

Oded Ezer designs the New American Haggadah

Israeli graphic and type designer, writer and design educator, Oded Ezer, is a pioneer in the field of 3D Hebrew lettering and a typographic experimentalist who coined the terms Biotypography, Typosperma, Skype-Type and more. Ezer’s projects, posters and graphic works are showcased and published worldwide.

Ezer’s latest tour de force is the design for the New American Haggadah, which gives a fresh visual interpretation to an ancient book.

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Brand Council of South Africa officially launches at Design Indaba

Coinciding with the Design Indaba, The Brand Council of South Africa (BCSA) was launched on 1 March, with a commitment to deliver on its manifesto promise of enabling positive growth in the economy and supporting South Africa’s ability to compete as a nation.

The launch follows years of planning and is a major stride forward in uniting and developing the industry around a common purpose and direction, but the BCSA chairman, Sean McCoy of the HKLM Group said it was now time for ‘action, activation and accountability’. Continue reading

Icograda embarks on a search for a new Managing Director

Icograda is the world body for professional communication design. It is a non-profit, non-partisan, member-based network of independent organisations and stakeholders working within the multidisciplinary scope of communication design and expanded media. Founded in 1963, Icograda actively promotes the value of design practice, thinking, education, research and policy, representing more than 200 organisations in 67 countries and regions globally.

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IDA Congress 2011: There is no way that design can sustain its current trajectory

The design sector has evolved dynamically over the past decade. Yet, almost all of the speakers and delegates participating in the inaugural IDA (International Design Alliance) Congress, which took place in Taipei from 24 to 26 October 2011, agreed that the despite rapid changes, the sector can’t sustain the status quo trajectory.

Issues such as climate change, socio-economics, geopolitics, technology and many other factors have contributed to the evolution in the sector but no other factor has become more prevalent than the increased need for introducing more humanism in design thinking, processes and products.

The aim of the 2011 IDA Congress was to bring together the unified voice of designers from various disciplines and from around the world in a themed framework to advance the vision and mission of the IDA by engaging with government leaders (commerce, trade, culture, etc.), INGOs, businesses, science and technology, education and the social sciences.

The IDA’s primary objectives for the Congress were:

  • to promote the value of design-based collaboration between designers and non-design stakeholders;
  • to provide an engaging and educational experience for the memberships of the IDA partners and to promote interaction among the memberships;
  • to position the IDA as the global voice of design and an enabler of innovation.

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Ayoba! Cape Town is World Design Capital 2014

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) announced that the City of Cape Town has been designated the World Design Capital® (WDC) 2014. The designated city was revealed on the closing day of the International Design Alliance Congress in Taipei on 26 October 2011. Cape Town is the fourth city to hold this biennial appointment and marks the first for the African continent.
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Cross Colours: A new identity that’s in with the new

Barely 17 years ago, three young ladies by the names of Adelle Wapnick, Janine Rech and Joanina Pastoll formed Cross Colours. Working out of a quaint (or as new staff members saw it, tiny) flat in Yeoville, the first corporate identity reflected what the agency stood for at the time – eclectic and visually very appealing.

The old identity was a striking mixture of objects representing crosses that illustrated Cross Colours’ desire for both diverse media and diverse projects. It was so successful that it now features in the permanent collection of the New York-based Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, which forms part of the Smithsonian Institute. However, a justification for change is evident upon revisiting a single key word in that last sentence: ‘museum’.

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Innovative design contributes to campaign to end violence against women

Acclaimed Cape Town ceramics company, Zizamele, is set to unveil their unique Bambanani Bench at the Free World Design Centre in Cape Town on 4 August 2011. The bench is one of several commissioned to form part of the Safe Spaces initiative, a campaign to reduce violence against women and girls and create safe spaces for them across the country. Continue reading

Green Point Biodiversity Showcase Garden


Cape Town is internationally known as a biodiversity hotspot with many species occurring nowhere else in the world but we also have one of the highest rates of biodiversity loss. The Biodiversity Showcase Garden is therefore a vitally important tool in creating awareness about the importance of Cape Town’s unique biodiversity and how to manage it appropriately. Continue reading

Architecture conference probes back-to-basics and future alternatives

Has architecture become a fast food art form? Architects from as far afield as Barcelona, Brazil and Peru will be probing the zeitgeist of our era and debate new directions at  the 2011 Conversation on Architecture (COA).

Conversations on Architecture Joburg will take place at Decorex Joburg on Friday 5 August at Gallagher Convention Centre. The Cape Town leg of the seminar will be hosted on 11 August at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.  The seminar is sponsored by Caesarstone and facilitated by Hugh Fraser. Continue reading