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.

OPINION PIECE: The poor do not live in Cape Town. They live next to it. They service and maintain ‘the city that works for you’ but the majority of Capetonians feel as though they have no right to their city. Election after election, ‘democracy’ ends the moment the last vote is cast – all that follows are empty references to ‘consultation’ and desperate running battles over basic services and whether your self-built house will still be standing when you return at night.

The levels of inequality, poverty and injustice in our city seem to demand easy and quick answers, whether they are ‘growth’ or ‘redistribution’. There are none. These problems shouldn’t only be the concern of government officials and poor communities, everything we know about the economic prospects and environmental sustainability of the city of Cape Town demands that we are all involved in finding sustainable and creative solutions.

At the heart of the failure to tackle these problems is a persistent duality that has been around since the advent of democracy. The needs of business and middle-class are carefully catered for by the City to ensure continued economic growth and, hopefully, create new jobs. The revenue generated by this growth is then used by the City to deliver services to poor communities.

There are two problems with this pattern. The first is the difference in the experience of these two different groups when being serviced by the state. Businesses and middle-class residents are treated as ‘stakeholders’ able to and important enough to participate in processes that will shape the functioning and layout of the city. In contrast, poor communities are frequently provided services with little to no interaction with the City official making the decision. There are now innumerable examples of inappropriate or poorly positioned services dealing delivered to informal settlements, which are vandalised or neglected because the community feels no ownership over the process or results. If the city ‘gives’ me a toilet but does not consult me about its placement in my neighbourhood or its maintenance, why should I feel any sense of ownership? There is still a strong sense amongst officials and politicians that the poor should just feel lucky they are receiving services.

The second is that this pattern – growth plus service delivery – does not equal greater inequality or sustainability. In fact it feeds the divisions between different social groups and different parts of the city, and worsens the cities impact on our environment. For example, infrastructure investment around the city centre may attract business and tourists but it continues to drive up property prices. This pushes middle and working class families further and further out of the city and force people to travel further and further to work.

What is to be done? There are three spheres of response that we, as a society, need to debate. The first is that it is imperative that politicians and the middle-class recognise that informal settlements will be a feature of South African cities for the foreseeable future. They cannot be ‘eradicated’ and we should not spend our scarce resources on hiding them (such as what was unsuccessfully tried with the N2 Gateway project). They are self-help solutions created by the poor to address structural problems in our society and economy. Until these are addressed informal settlements will re-emerge irrespective of our desires.

Our challenge as a society, in the meantime, is to acknowledge these residents right to be in the city (on the land they currently occupy) and make these settlements safer and more healthy places to live. This has very real implications for changes in the policy and practices of the state from monotonous, poorly-located ‘RDP housing’ towards working in partnership with communities, and existing dynamics and assets, for the in situ upgrading of their settlements. This also signals a change in the attitude of politicians and officials to these communities and their rights. But it also requires us as a society to prioritise the use of this well-placed land and the investment of public money on creating poor yet sustainable communities close(r) to the city centre.

The second has to do with linking these communities to the benefits and opportunities to be found in our cities. This is about building more inclusive and employment-generating economies that create real opportunities for poor South Africans to begin to convert survival strategies (like small-scale hawking) into sustainable livelihoods. This requires a complex set of actions from both the state and the private sector, some of which can be found in the debate in policy document (but not the public exchanges) between the new Ministry of Economic Development, COSAU and other parts of the private sector. The distribution and densities of these opportunities make a huge difference because of the spatial separation of communities and ongoing weaknesses in our public transport system. This has implications for us all as it will involve influencing the incentive structures in the market and increasing the access of poor communities to new forms of economic support.

It also signals the need to invest in those parts of our city’s resources that connect the different parts. Leading these is a focus on transport-lead development – public investment in transport infrastructure can have a deep impact on private development, thereby increasing access to the city and also influencing the spatial development of cities. Investment in a truly useful, accessible and productive public spatial network with the poor as the primary intended beneficiaries is another unrealised possibility. Nisa Mammon reminds us that this about creating venues for people to congregate, discuss, perform, protest and interact outside of the confines of their private domains. They ultimately create room for the possibilities for personal development, societal healing, the development of social networks and access to a range of markets. “This is where social capital is produced and economic opportunity created,” she argues. “If we cannot create a spatially coherent and productive public realm we are failing those at the bottom of the economic ladder.”

While securing the right to be in and access the city are urgent first steps, they cannot be truly transformative without increased public participation in those political and technical planning and decision-making processes that shape the development of cities. This stretches from communities being able to access information about their rights and settlements, to being actively engaged by the state or private companies who seek to ‘deliver’ services, to experimenting with novel ways of involving poor communities in wider area and city scale processes of decision-making.

It is this latter aspect of participation that remains the underexplored key to shifting the patterns that dominate our cities. Unfortunately it requires a degree of flexibility and patient respect for the interests and aspirations of the poor which clash with the time-bound, technical interests of state officials, the politicising interests of local politicians seeking to score quick points or the phobic, derisory attitude of the middle and ruling classes who ‘know’ that ‘they’ can’t possibly understand the complexities of decision-making at this scale. Change that truly benefits all Capetonians requires clearer and more accessible ways for all residents to understand and debate the trade-offs that form an inevitable part of the urban development process.

While there are many aspects and steps to this process, it must begin with the urban poor’s right to shape and develop their own communities and, ultimately, their right to their city.

Visit the website at www.isandla.org.za to view publication or read more on ‘The Right to the City Dialogue Series’

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.

Read each year around the Seder table, the Haggadah recounts through prayer and song the extraordinary story of Exodus, when Moses led the ancient Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to wander the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land.

According to the publisher – Little, Brown and Company – New American Haggadah, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer, is a stunningly illustrated book that contains essays and commentary from some of the brightest Jewish literary and intellectual voices. “… Foer has orchestrated a new way of experiencing and understanding one of our oldest, most timeless, and sacred stories, with a new translation of the traditional text by Nathan Englander and provocative commentary by a collection of major Jewish writers and thinkers – including Howard Jacobson, Lemony Snicket, Alain de Botton, Judith Shulevitz, Simon Schama, Tony Kushner, Michael Pollan, and others. Ravishingly designed and illustrated by the acclaimed Israeli artist and calligrapher Oded Ezer, New American Haggadah is utterly unique and absorbing.”

“Jews have been designing Haggadahs for more than one hundred generations”, says Oded Ezer, “Deliberately, or not, these designs have inevitably reflected the time in which they were made. The notion behind the design of this book was to merge, visually, the history of the Jewish nation with the traditional text of the Haggadah. Toward that end, the letterforms on each page reflect those used in the period reflected in the timeline at the top of the page. In this way, the book is a graphic record of Jewish history.”

Pages from New American Haggadah:

New American Haggadah, was launched in March 2012 and attracted laudable commentary in influential publications:

“A superb example of Oded Ezer’s work” – étapes International

“The book’s minimalist design, by Oded Ezer, looks like a catalog for a MoMA typography exhibition” – The New York Times

“The serious commentary is leavened by the handsome design which has Hebrew letters floating across the pages” – NY Daily News

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Visit http://www.odedezer.com/info.html for more information about Oded Ezer’s current and previous projects.

All images courtesy of Oded Ezer

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’.Similar to what the UK Design Council did following its formation in 2011, the BCSA has set its first 100 days as a timeframe for measurable achievements, with McCoy describing the roll-out of their action plan as ‘aggressive and exciting’. Some of the targeted interventions include launching a brand barometer and educational initiative, meeting with relevant government departments, securing funding, and holding events and workshops including supporting the hosting of an Icograda event to coincide with WDC2014 in Cape Town.

In making the BCSA’s framework for delivery public, McCoy emphasised their commitment to action, saying that a key driver was the need to change from an industry body that had been focused on protecting its member base to an industry that had a higher purpose based on the benefits of its collective work. “This requires focused energy,” he added, “and it will materialise in various business and social initiatives including the development of intellectual property, supporting and guiding industry education, industry regulation and defining quality standards for excellence and compliance.”

“Brands create value,” he added, “and the Council was founded on the premise that the professional practice of branding can contribute distinctive, sustainable and long-term economic and social value to the nation. We aim to be an active catalyst for this growth – with the emphasis on ‘active’ – to ensure that we add value to business and society by developing our practice and creating a greater awareness and appreciation for its importance.”

The BCSA’s identity was also unveiled – a bold stylised ‘zig zag’ emblem designed by Grid. Nathan Reddy, member of the BCSA board and spokesperson for the logo designers said that as the ‘home of brands’, the Brand Council should embody creativity, intelligence and commercial viability – and that the angularity of the zig zag which was such a central image in African art, had been the perfect source from which to develop a truly memorable and commanding presence.

The BCSA incorporates the Brand Design Council (formerly known as THINK) and has board representation from ACA, Brand Leadership Group, The Brand Union, Grid, HKLM, Interbrand Sampson, It’s a Go, The Switch Design Company and Yellowwood. Jeremy Sampson and Thebe Ikalafeng have been appointed co-vice chairpersons.

Visit brandcouncilsa.org for further information

As a partner of the International Design Alliance (IDA), Icograda’s members believe in interdisciplinary collaboration and the effectiveness of a collective voice to represent the design industry.

The position of Icograda Managing Director is a 3-year appointment (with an option for renewal based on an agreement by both parties) accountable for the day-to-day operational and administrative management of the Montreal-based Secretariat, overseeing overall business operations.

Qualifications:

Education

• Degree in design, business, international relations, journalism, publishing or any of the creative industries. Advanced degree an asset.

Professional Background

• Management experience within non-governmental and/or international organisations
• Leadership experience with cross-cultural staff and/or volunteers teams and/or boards
• Financial management experience for an annual budget of CAD $500,000.00 or more
• Experience within the design, creative or INGO sectors at a management or leadership level
• Strategic planning experience
• Event management experience

Other considerations

• Superior communication, lobbying, negotiation and networking skills
• Excellent English with additional bilingualism (spoken, written, read), French would be beneficial but are not a requirement
• Must be available and able to travel internationally for Board Meetings and other assignments requested by the Board

Responsibilities:

• Strategic operational and administrative planning and policy implementation authorised by the Executive Board
• Supports the Board in carrying out its governance functions
• Financial management and partnership development – a critical operational function
• Programming development and implementation
• Communications and promotion
• Membership support and development
• Human resource management

Reporting:

The Managing Director reports to an Executive Board elected by the Icograda membership for a two-year term.

Compensation:

Compensation commensurate with experience. Icograda offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, life and travel insurance.

How to Apply:

Please submit a detailed CV and a brief cover letter including salary expectations by 30 March 2012, 12:00 EST (noon in Montréal) to search@icograda.org. Forward questions regarding this position or request further information to the same address at least one week before the final submission deadline.

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.

The congress theme was ‘Design at the Edges’ which implied the following meanings among others:

• the edge between the design practices and other fields having a stake in design, including science, technology, government, business and non-governmental humanitarian organisations;
• the edge between design disciplines, especially industrial, communication and interior architecture/design – what do they share and have in common, and what sets them apart;
• ‘cutting edge’ work and ideas in design and in other fields: radically new, controversial, experimental, pushing the boundaries of the discipline.

Topics
Interdisciplinary integration can inspire creativity, create business opportunities, advance culture and meet the needs of the future. With this in mind, five topics were explored during the three-day congress: Economic Development (business), the Internet (technology), Biotechnology (health and the environment ), Urbanism (humanity and society) and  International Migration (civil society). The topics were designed to provide delegates with varied points of view and new opportunities.

Each day dealt with one or two of the main congress topics, starting of with a plenary session followed by parallel-running design salons, design practice sessions, education forums (moderated papers), regional reports and design explorations targeted at students.

Day one of the IDA Congress addressed the topic of Economic Development. Presenting the first keynote address via a video broadcast was Esko Aho – a former Prime Minister of Finland and current Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility at Nokia – who aimed to discus national innovation systems and creative economies from a governmental and business perspective.

Aho highlighted how countries have increasingly become reliant on competitive productivity and innovation. However, Aho unfortunately shunned the paying delegates, IDA Congress organisers and loyal Nokia customers by not attending in person as he opted to rather participate in a Nokia exco meeting – no wonder that most designers prefer iPhones and Blackberrys. Aho sent a video presentation in which he heavily punted Nokia’s business tactics rather than addressing the topic in an objective manner. This was an unfortunate choice for an opening keynote address and the IDA hopefully learnt from this mistake: Never trust a politician who have turned into a corporate agent. Aho’s presentation was blatant Nokia propaganda. His presentation was slick but he never effectively addressed the core theme – Economic Development – other than that of Nokia as a global power.

‘Esko Aho’

Aho’s address was followed by an engaging and informative panel discussion chaired by the exceptionally eloquent Kohei Nishiyama. Panel members included Emily Campbell, Nila Leiserowitz and Valery Jacobs. Campbell stood out as one of the most intelligent commentators on this panel.

‘Emily Campbell provided some of the most useful comments during the plenary panel discussion on the topic of Economic Development.’

Day two of the IDA Congress focused on The Internet and Biotechnology. Barry Lam lead the first keynote session. Lam has been described as a maverick among Taiwanese businessmen. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he moved to Taiwan to attend university. He started Quanta in 1988. Lam’s keynote presentation focused on connectivity advancements, its impacts on Generation C and the thinking behind the ‘era of disruption.’

The most compelling theme and presentations at the IDA Congress dealt with Biotechnology. The enigmatic Dr Vandana Shiva presented this keynote address which was surely the highlight of the Congress.

The session addressed ‘The Green Revolution and Genetic Engineering: A Design for Hunger and Ecological Disruption’. The speakers looked at how we grow our food is an issue of how we design agriculture including the landscape, plants and animals. The Green Revolution and Genetic Engineering are based on designing agriculture on the principles of monoculture on toxic chemicals and re-engineering plants with toxic genes. These have consequences for food security and the environment. Among the consequences are the deepening of the hunger crisis and the impoverishment of ecosystems. Soil pollution, water pollution and genetic pollution are inevitable outcomes of a toxic design of farming.

Dr Vandana Shiva said that “We can design food and agriculture systems differently. This is what we do in Navdanya [an organisation that she established]. Our design is based on biodiversity. It is based on co-creation and co-production with nature. The ecological design increases food output while decreasing ecological costs.”

Keynote address by Dr Vandana Shiva.

Comments by panelist,  Susan Szenasy, Chief Editor, Metropolis Magazine.

The next session focused on Urbanism.

Shaping Cities through Urban Design Strategies

By 2050 over 80% of the world’s population will live in cities. Cities can be exciting, creative and liberating. They can also be cruel and inhuman. It is only by the thoughtful weaving together of strategies for transportation, climate change, housing and public space that we can create cites which will be economically successful, beautiful and socially cohesive. Urbanism can bring together all of the design disciplines to create cities which are designed at human scale around the needs of the citizen.

Peter Bishop, keynote speaker at the IDA Congress explored examples where cities are beginning to creatively tackle these issues and define an approach to urbanism that could set the conditions for successful urban growth in the challenging 21st century. Bishop was joined by Marco Steinberg, Michael Murphy and Fred Gelli during the panel discussion on Urbanism.

‘Marco Steinberg commented during the plenary panel discussion on Urbanism.’

‘Michael Murphy commented during the plenary panel discussion on the topic of Urbanism.’

‘Fred Gelli commented during the plenary panel discussion on the topic of Urbanism.’

The concluding session of the IDA foccused on the topic of International Migration. International Migration: by design? The keynote presenter for this session was Bob Elton from Canada who is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Skills Gap, which deals with issues around talent mobility and immigration. He is also Chair of the Immigrant Employment Council of BC, and Chair of Simon Fraser University Board of Governors. He presented a case study of migration in Canada to contextualise the topic:

Context
People move because of economics, oppression, hope, fear. etc The facts: More than 300 million international migrants; trends in movement;  Their own lives are wrenched, and migration can cause dislocations and tensions in the host countries. Historical perspective – do countries regret accepting migrants, or regret losing them?  Canada: role model?

There is a great opportunity: At first separation means that groups can learn from each other, become aware of their differences, etc; which is good provided the tensions can be managed.
Then fusion means that something greater is created – families, communities, economies;
And finally assimilation might take place, which may be highly controversial.

How can countries and communities deliberately take advantage of the opportunity?

Cities
Daily life
Families
Economy

The idea behind introducing this topic was/is highly relevant but it was not presented in the context of the design ecology. The Canadian case study was vague and biased and led to anyone coming from a developing country feeling quite dispossessed because critical issues such as brain-draining and the complexities of migrating were comfortably ignored. Elton’s take was purely based on the benefits gained by the recipient country and some minor observations related to Othering.

Overall, the inaugural IDA congress with its multidisciplinary offering was an interesting experiment. It was definitely very different from any design event in recent years as it introduced new themes, new faces and new perspectives in one package. Many die-hard design circuit conference delegates wondered how the new format for an Icograda/Icsid/IFA joint congress would pan out.  Ultimately, most of it worked surprisingly well. There were very few show-and-tell presentations, the introduction of speakers from disciplines that are traditionally considered to be ‘outside of the design ecology’ were well-received  and the overall level of discussion definitely contributed to the development of design discourse. However, Communication Design metaphorically drew ‘the short straw’ amongst the overwhelming dominance of other disciplines, particularly Industrial Design and Architecture.

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.

‘Jubilant South African delegates celebrate the moment of announcement.‘

Awarded to cities based on their commitment to use design as an effective tool for social, cultural and economic development, the WDC has become more than just a project or a programme. Today, it is a global movement and serves to acknowledge that design can, and does, impact the quality of human life. Speaking on behalf of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) – the WDC project lead – President and Member of the Selection Committee Dr Mark Breitenberg stated, “It is encouraging to see how Cape Town plans to use design as a tool to solve urban challenges. I am confident that this new member of the WDC family will demonstrate to the world how design is expanding in application and influence.”

For Cape Town, the WDC appointment comes exactly two decades after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. “2014, then, is the moment when the past and the future will come together for Cape Town, in contemplation and in action,” stated Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille. “It is a reflection of how the city has socially and physically reinvented itself.” Cape Town’s vision of design is based on socially responsible design, sustainability and innovation. As part of their bid, the theme ‘Live Design. Transform Life’ was introduced in support of Cape Town’s objective to focus on enhancing the city’s infrastructure to make it a more liveable African City.

Shortlisted candidate cities, Bilbao (Spain) and Dublin (Ireland) also mounted compelling bids. “The decision for the Selection Committee was not easy given the high calibre of the bids that were considered amongst the final candidates,” added Breitenberg. “The promise of Cape Town’s approach to broaden the scope of the World Design Capital and shape the future of this initiative, were the deciding factors that ultimately led to the city’s appointment for 2014. The story of transformation is about sustainability, urban development and embracing a global community in light of its drive to improve its social and economic environment. We expect tangible benefits will be reaped to help reposition Cape Town on an international scale.”

Cape Town is a growing and vibrant city, where design has for decades been a significant factor in its desire to build an open city. The marriage of need and innovative design has resulted in unique solutions to address the issues of a developing city. Design in Cape Town is also reaching beyond city limits by aspiring to become one of the most important design hubs on the African continent.

Ms De Lille concluded her acceptance of the WDC designation by saying, “We are grateful for the World Design Capital bid process and title. It has helped to bring different initiatives together and has made us realise that design in all its forms, when added together, creates human and city development. We look forward to learning from other cities that are using design as a tool for transformation, including designated cities Torino, Seoul and Helsinki and our fellow shortlisted cities, Dublin and Bilbao. We are honoured to have been considered with them.”

‘Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille’

Speaking at the first press conference after the announcement of WDC 2014, de Lille said that the designation is not only important to the Cape Town and its people, “…it is [also important] to the whole of South Africa and the continent of Africa that we are putting on the map today.” She continued that “We will certainly be working with other cities in Africa and will encourage other cities to participate.”

Commenting on her participation at the first IDA Congress in Taipei, de Lille said that “Attending this conference, design has taken on a whole new meaning to me. With design we will be able to build and inclusive city.” She said that design has the ability to re-address the artificial divides of the political past imposed on South Africa.

The City of Cape Town will follow the examples past World Design Capitals to develop an engaging programme for 2014.

About the World Design Capital® (WDC) – www.worlddesigncapital.com
While there are many awards that recognise individual accomplishments in design, the World Design Capital designation is unique as it aims to focus on the broader essence of design’s impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens. The designation provides a distinctive opportunity for cities to feature their accomplishments in attracting and promoting innovative design, as well as highlight their successes in urban revitalisation strategies.

The WDC designation is an anchor IDA project lead by the International Council of Societies of Industrial design (Icsid). The IDA partners are Icsid, International Council of Communication Design (Icograda) and the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI).

Past cities to hold the title include Torino (Italy) in 2008  and Seoul (South Korea)  in 2010. The City of Helsinki (Finland) is currently preparing to unveil its programme for 2012 under the theme of Open Helsinki: Embedding Design in Life.

About the WDC 2014 Selection Committee
The international selection committee for the 2014 designation consists of Dr Mark Breitenberg, Icsid President and Provost at California College of the Arts (USA); Edna dos Santos-Duisenberg, Chief: Creative Economy Programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Jeremy Myerson, Director and Chair of the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art (United Kingdom); Kohei Nishiyama, Founder and CEO, elephant design co. ltd., Founder of CUUSOO.com (Japan) and Jussi Pajunen, Mayor of the City of Helsinki (Finland).

For more information contact:

Dilki de Silva, Icsid Secretary General
t: +1 514 448 4949 ext. 227  |  e: ddesilva@icsid.org

Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, Managing Director: The Cape Town Partnership
t: +27 (0)21 419 1881  |  e: bulelwa@capetownpartnership.co.za

Images and videos in this post are courtesy of DESIGN>MAGAZINE ©, an official media partner of the IDA Congress, Taipei, 2011.

View the official bid video here:

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’.

IMAGE: Cross Colours’ old identity.

Letting Go

After many subtle jibes such as “you’re old, let it go”, especially at Adelle, from the new blood at Cross Colours, the ladies at the top decided to relent. Despite the pressure of having to outshine the previous CI, the agency came up with a concept that captures the character of Cross Colours and its team.

As the business has grown, a people philosophy has entrenched itself at the core. The new CI was designed using a highly collaborative and people-centric process – drawing from each individual’s personality and style to generate eye-catching artworks.

Work that Works

As a multidisciplinary advertising agency committed to ‘work that works’, Cross Colours prides itself on offering cutting edge creativity with strategic depth. This is energised by the various flavours of people, with different skill sets, personalities and nationalities, some even with valid work permits. This is the fundamental principle behind the dynamic new ‘look’ of Cross Colours. Led by a close-knit team of highly creative personalities, the agency has unveiled its visually compelling and ‘people’ inspired corporate identity (CI).

IMAGE: Application of the new CI

Paint-by-Personalities

In creating the new CI, everyone in the agency recorded a personal sound and chose a set of colours that resonated with their character. An installation that housed a speaker system was then custom built. The final step was to place a mix of colours above the speaker and play the sounds.

The result was a unique image every time that reflected each individual’s personality, their mark on the company and the nature of their work.

The images will be incorporated into the company stationery, including business cards, email signatures, letterheads, etc.

To create the company logo, they mixed a set of colours with every person saying ‘Cross Colours’. This produced an unusual but mesmerising pattern that reflects the agency’s unconventional and original style.

To view more, click here.

Cross Colours on YouTube

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.Conceptualised and coordinated by women-focussed NGO Rockgirl, the Safe Spaces campaign has commissioned several well-known artists and design houses to design a bench in their signature style that will be installed in public locations across Cape Town.

Zizamele Ceramics received R10 000 for their winning proposal to design and complete two benches to be ready for National Women’s Day on 9 August 2011. They have since been commissioned to produce ten more benches, with five different designs. Other notable artists, designers and architects involved in the project include Lovell Friedman, Snapp Designs, Willard Kambeva, Aram Lello and Igneous Concrete.

The Bambanani Bench is designed to symbolise the spirit of unity and ubuntu. “It carries a message of hope that together women are stronger united than they are as individuals,” says Zizamele owner and founder, Toni Burton.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the design of the Bambanani Bench is modelled on Zizamele’s best-selling Bambanani Bowl. ‘Bambanani’ means ‘friendship’ in isiXhosa.

The Bambanani Bowl is an African version of the Friendship Bowl, also known as the Ubuntu Bowl. The iconic image of a group of Xhosa women holding hands encircles the bowl. “The image of the women holding hands in a circle is universal and represents women supporting women,” Burton says.

Burton adds that, “I always wanted to create a life-sized Bambanani Bowl as a public sculpture, so I jumped at the chance to design a Bambanani Bench!”

IMAGES: TOP: Zizamele Ceramics founder, Toni Burton, and her team of designers and ceramic artists. CENTRE & BOTTOM: The Bambanani Bowls which inspired the winning design to create the Bambanani Bench.

According to Rockgirl spokesperson India Baird, Zizamele Ceramics was chosen to create the Bambanani Bench because they “have an excellent reputation that is proudly South African and very community-focused.”

“South Africans have the capacity to change their collective attitude about violence against women. Violence against women and girls affects all races and all income levels, says Baird.

Each bench will have a sister bench located in a disadvantaged community. The Bambanani Bench will be located next to the Fan Walk in Cape Town and its sister bench will be installed at the Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha.

“By contributing to a cause specifically for the empowerment of women and girls this initiative has great meaning for us as a team,” Burton adds.

Zizamele’s job creation initiative

Zizamele Ceramics was founded as a job creation project for unemployed artists from the township of Masiphumulehle and has grown into a sustainable business under the passionate direction of founder Burton. The company employs only women apart from one male painter, and exports their unique creations to a growing base of international clients.

“Job creation is at the heart of Zizamele’s mission.  We would love to see more economic independence amongst the women in our area,” Burton says.

According to Burton, “Hopefully one of the benches will be situated in Masiphumulele as a symbol of what can be achieved with perseverance and hard work!”

Zizamele’s message for Women’s Day is that, “We are living in a time where women can really stand up and be counted. Women bring unique value to this world and it is crucial that our young girls are given opportunities to flourish,” Burton says.

To learn more about Zizamele Ceramics, visit www.zizamele.co.za

Information about the Rockgirl initiative can be found at www.rockgirlsa.org

Written by Megan Diener

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.

Capetonians visiting the Biodiversity Showcase Garden situated within the Green Point Urban Park will learn about all the elements making up biodiversity through a series of themed gardens. Instead of learning by being bombarded with wordy information boards,  the design of these gardens incorporates appropriate planting schemes and visual displays that highlight the different elements of biodiversity through a combination of interpretive signage and public art which has been provided by local artists.

The Biodiversity Showcase Garden is surrounded on three sides by lakes and on the forth by the Little Common. The garden comprises of three ‘themed’ gardens which are interconnected. There is the People and Biodiversity section which incorporates the historical and cultural elements in biodiversity. Food historian, Renata Coetzee, was involved in this section as well as Stephen Lamb who was responsible for the Khoi Khoi inspired huts which are dramatically juxtaposed in front of the Cape Town Stadium.

One then moves into “The Biodiversity Trail” which is an educational route answering questions such as: What is Biodiversity? What is so special about the Cape? What are the threats to Biodiversity? Instead of having to read these answers on boards they are presented instead through a combination of specific planting schemes (according to what is indigenous and endemic to the region), accompanied by educational art such as beaded wire creatures by Streetwires and steel animal cutouts by Roddy McGuffog to name a few.

The path then guides one over a bridge and either on towards the Mouille Point Lighthouse which has been made a prominent feature with the strong pedestrian link connecting Somerset Road to the ocean, or one can wander into the “Wetland Garden” which is a system of three large lakes where indigenous wetland vegetation has been reintroduced.

You may ask yourself whether it is appropriate to have a wetland park in this area but the Green Point Common was originally a seasonal wetland where people used to sail and canoe until the onset of development. A sustainable and cost-effective use of water has been achieved by diverting natural spring water from the Oranjezicht Springs traditionally transported underground in a series of stormwater channels that eventually drained into Table Bay. It now flows into the lake system of the Wetland Garden as well as provides water for irrigating new plants. This system not only educates people about more sustainable ways to generate electricity with the inclusion of a water wheel in the park but also reminds Capetonians that these natural springs were the main reason the Cape was established in 1652.

As one moves through the “Biodiversity Showcase Garden” one is greeted by the 360 degree views which range from the curves of the new Green Point Stadium, to a direct visual link with Mouille Point Lighthouse to Signal Hill with Table Mountain lurking behind. Capetonians will be surprised at how much green space there is in the middle of the city. It is a beautiful garden that is a vital part of the greater Green Point precinct and indeed the entire Central City. The Green Point Urban Park has huge potential for being a major sport and recreation hub with the linking of already existing sports facilities with the Sea Point Promenade and the pedestrian link into the heart of the city. With the Biodiversity Showcase Garden linking directly to the Little Common as well as the Tot Lot, Adventure Play area and open air amphitheatre, it is not only going to be fantastic outdoor space for Sea Point and Green Point residents to visit daily but it is also going to be a major destination for the larger Cape Town community.

The City of Cape Town would like all Capetonians to know that the Green Point Urban Park is open and accessible for public use.

While entry into the park is free, patrons are required to adhere to a few critical Conditions of Use for their own and others pleasure and safety, for further details on these go to Cape Town Partnership.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Alex Jongens and Marijke Honig

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.The diverse line-up of  industry players from South Africa and abroad will put the searchlight on contemporary issues in their fields. For the first time students in architecture will also join the forum bringing a next generation into the fold.

Speaking at Joburg and Cape Town is the Peruvian architect Javier Artadi of Artadi Arquitectos, internationally renowned for his modern architecture echoing the landscape characteristic of the desert coast of Peru. His presentation at COA entitled ‘The Cube in the Dessert’ looks at modern architecture inside this very singular natural context. A professor for Architectural Design Studio in the Faculty of Architecture of the Peruvian University for Applied Sciences – UPC, Artadi travels the world to present and display his work at architecture events.

Bringin his international perspective to the Joburg seminar is Spanish architect  Fermin Vazquez of b720 Architects, based in Barcelona. Combining practice with teaching, he teaches at the European University of Madrid (UIM) and gives  lectures at universities and institutions all over the world. His presentation topic  is ‘Landscape in Architecture’.  “To plan buildings on a landscape is to design the landscape. In fact, the landscape is always a human work, to some extent, since nothing exists beyond man’s gaze. The landscape is created by observing it. Our intervention forms it and transforms it.”

Speaking at COA Cape Town is the Brazilian architect Mariana Simas of Studio mk27 in São Paulo. She is a great admirer of Brazilian modernism with its pure forms and clean details. Her presentation will focus on São Paulo and the studio’s recent projects, renowned for its formal simplicity, details and finishing.  Studio mk27 has won several international awards, such as the recent Wallpaper Design Awards, the D&AD ‘Yellow Pencil’ Award two years running, the Dedalo Minosse in 2008 and the Barbara Cappochin of the Padova International Biennial in 2007.

South African luminaries speaking at Decorex Joburg include Pierre Swanepoel of studioMAS whose presentation ‘An architecture less bad and more good’ is bound to create as much interest as the studio’s iconic buildings known to reconnect with the street. Morne Pienaar of Holm Jordaan will look at the tradition of making architecture, stating that architecture has become a fast food art form. His talk deals with different modes of design in architecture, primarily with the handmade.

Karlien Thomashoff  of Thomashoff + Partner Architects  will discuss recent projects, rounding of her presentation on a lighter note with WitOpWit, a company specializing in creative product and event design. For her the satisfaction of being an architect lies  in the sense of freedom and accomplishment it brings. “Also, you also get to use coloured pencils and tracing paper almost whenever you want.”

Joburg will also see celebrated young architect Ruann van der Westhuizen, winner of the prestigious Hunter Douglas Award at Archiprix International 2011, take to the stage.  He will be joined by the other new kid on the block Franco Enrico of Tswane University of Technology who will be presenting his project ‘Slice of Earth’.

Talking in Cape Town is Mokena Makeka of Makeka Design Lab, a laboratory that designs innovative design solutions at the urban, architectural, cultural and installation scale. He believes that good architecture is a basic human right and that design possesses the power to change not only the spaces that people inhabit but that people who inhabit them.  He will be joined by Stefan Antoni of Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects, widely regarded for his role in setting a new standard of design and professionalism in his field.

The new guard of up-and coming graduates and students presenting their views on architecture and the built environment are Loyiso Qaqane, Andrew Moerdyk, Temba Jauch and Ruvimbo Moyo – all from the University of Cape Town.

Conversations on Architecture is aimed at design and building professionals, including architects, lighting specialists, interior designers, interior architects, electrical engineers, consulting engineers, urban planners and other trade professionals with a serious interest in the field of design and architecture.

The South African Institute of Architects is in the process of assessing and validating the conference for between 0.5 and 1 CPD credit.

Conversation on Architecture: Joburg
Date: Friday 5th August
Time: 09:00 – 16:00
Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre – Midrand, Johannesburg

Conversations on Architecture: Cape Town
Date: Thursday 11th August
Time: 09:00 – 16:00
Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre

Rate: R969.00 incl VAT

For more information on speaker line-up or online-bookings visit www.decorex.co.za

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IMAGE: DBSA, Vulindlela Training Academy.