Design Indaba Festival 2015
Cape Town, South Africa is about to see the annual Design Indaba Festival come to life.
The Design Indaba Festival includes Design Indaba Expo, FilmFest, Music Circuit, and a range of conferences and events.
Design Indaba Expo
Among the exhibits displaying at Design Indaba Expo, is Take 2, which will showcase designers who have turned waste into inventive, high-quality products with fashionable designs through up-cycling. A characteristic of up-cycled products is that the structure of the former product remains apparent in the new design, giving each piece a personality. Ryan Frank, Adriaan Swanepoel, Philippe Bousquet and Carrie Pratt will be among the designers presented.
Another exhibition at the Design Indaba Expo is Metal Mesh, which will see Johannesburg-based design studio, Mema Designs, unveil a refined model of the Ukhamba lamp prototype presented at Africa is Now 2014. The lamp is handmade from fine woven, veil-like aluminium fabric, which gives the lamp a dynamic characteristic.
The annual display of South Africa’s emerging top fashion designers will also feature as part of the Expo. 3D printing, community art projects, children’s books and contemporary sewing inspired many of the pieces selected this year. Among the innovative designers are Rich Mnisi, Kiara Gounder and Lukhanyo Mding.
Design Indaba Conference
Design Indaba brings a range of conferences and inspiring international and local speakers. Among the speakers are South Africa’s most internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge, co-founder of the Missoni empire Rosita Missoni, activist architect Santiago Cirugeda from Seville in Spain, and New York City-based graphic designer Michael Bierut. Presenting at the Indaba Conference are Stanley Hainsworth, the mind behind the brands of Starbucks, Nike and Lego as well as iconic Italian designer Stefano Giovannoni.
Design Indaba Music and Film
Design Indaba also features a Filmfest showing films like Saint Laurent, Dior and I, Big Eyes by American director Tim Burton, and Kenyan film Stories of our Life.
The music circuit will include performances by Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, Nongoma, Sakawa Boys, British DJ Jumping Black Slash, Anthea Duce, and DJ Zulufunk.
Make.Change.
True to the ethos of Design Indaba – A Better World Through Creativity, the creative campaign for 2015 is Make.Change. It encourages African designers and artists to engage in projects that better someone’s life, beautify a street, uplift a community or make someone smile.
Inspired by initiatives like Cape Town’s Street Sleeper where old PVC boards were up-cycled to function as survival sleeping bags, the campaign supports design activism as a driver of real change.
To be part of Make.Change participants are encouraged to find something that needs bettering, beautifying or repairing, come up with a creative way to do it, document their #MakeChange moment and share it with Design Indaba on their Facebook page.
Design Indaba Festival will take place from Friday 20 February 2015 – Sunday 1 March 2015. Download the official event app for iPhone or for Android.
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