Cherryflava

Is Cape Town a design city?

As part of this year's Design Indaba, Creative Cape Town had a stand to which they invited a host of speakers to discuss the topic of whether Cape Town is a design city. [Whoever designed the highways should have been hung, drawn and quartered.]

We were also involved and created a series of video podcasts, which are all posted for your viewing pleasure on Youtube if you missed the lineup live at the expo.

Amongst others; Alistair King, Andrew Boraine, and Mariette du Toit Helmblod [CEO of Cape Town Tourism] gave their spin on things.

Link: Creative Cape Town Channel - Youtube

O Captain! My Captain! - El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià will be at this year's Design Indaba

It's no secret that we have a running tab over at the Yuppiechef store...or that along with the DVD movies like Bloodsport, The Bourne Ultimatum and Shrek 2 sitting on the office shelves we also have the first season of chef Anthony Bourdain's culinary trip around the world, sampling things sewer rats would question eating.

So when hearing that celebrated chef Ferran Adrià from the no. 1 rated restaurant in the world El Bulli will be speaking at this year's Design Indaba - there was excitement and weeping all round.

This guy literally uses food like blocks of Lego - completely disregarding their original purpose God intended to create things like pea ravioli, fried rabbit's ear sandwiches and squirrel tail ice cream. Yummy!
A chef...no. A creative gastric madman...indeed.

Here's a video of what we know...



[Video link]

It should be damn interesting.

The Cherryflava Show 3: Bill Moggridge from IDEO

We spoke to Bill Moggridge from IDEO about brainstorming techniques and relevance when taking on any business project.

Website: IDEO

[video link]

The Cherryflava Show 2: Oscar E Pena

Oscar E Pena is a Spanish industrial designer who works for Philips. His main message - the future is all about simplicity.

[video link]

The Cherryflava Show 1: Chatting with Airside

Airside is a multi-platform design and media agency who are responsible for creating woolen adoptable creatures called Stitches which we chatted to them about.

Most important point here - true business innovation is not about the idea itself, it's all about the intention behind and detail of how it gets executed.

Website: Stitches

[video link]

DJ Skooky - engineering the rebirth of a nation

New York-based DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller describes himself as an independent artist, writer, producer, and musician.

While most of Thursday's speakers at the Indaba we're very focused on visual arts, Mr Spooky has a strong audio design background.
We particularly enjoyed his sound recordings and film featuring melting ice shelf in Antarctica. [see it here]

Best presenter on the day.

Check out his site: DJSpooky.com

Electricty saving winning print ad

Ta da - the winner of The Times Young Creatives Competition held at Design Indaba has been announced...and here's the winning ad.

No T&A, no unnecessary stunts, no excessive Photoshop work...in fact no electricity-using computer generated design at all, just a pencil and a simple sheet of paper, all of which took 2 hours from brief to final ad to create.

Jennifer Macfarlane, art director, and Cuan Cronwright, copy writer, of Ogilvy Cape Town who won the competition created their hand-drawn ad without using a computer or any other electrical equipment. The ad was stylishly hand-crafted with a simple pencil and the copy highlighted that 350 watts of electricity was saved by switching the computer off for two hours.

Simple, but thought provoking. The winners head to Zanzibar, and Ogilvy score a full-page in The Times for another pro bono client. [thanks Alison]

Most beautiful object in South Africa in 2008 is...

...this Nested Bunk Bed, designed and developed by Cape Town-based Tsai Design Studio.

What is it - you may wonder....well as the name cunningly describes, it's a bed design specifically to offer a space solution for overcrowded, low-cost houses in the developing world.

When not being used for sleeping purposes, it also doubles up as grandstand seating for the all important Stormers vs Crusaders game or the upcoming Oscar del la Hoya bout with Floyd Mayweather.

Living space is at a premium in South Africa's townships - it's not unusual for six to eight people to share 36 square metres of space. The Nested Bunk Bed offers a space solution for overcrowded, low-cost houses.

Sections of the Nested Bunk Bed can be pulled out to serve a number of purposes, such as a sofa for two, grandstand seating, or five beds that can be packed away into a standard bunk bed area. When fully extended, the bed system can sleep 20 children in a tight space of 50 square metres, as well as providing play space when the beds are retracted.

A worthy winner we think...let there be more.

Website: Tsaidesignstudio

Pop Up houses for the idle rich

At this year's DI Expo there is a 'livable' version of a pop up apartment made from a shipping container. Clearly it looks very flash when attacked by a talent flush interior designer, but with such thin metal walls for protection against the elements it's still amazing to think that living in this kind of box can in any way be practical.

To do: This year's Design Indaba Expo

Even if you're not lucky enough to be going to this year's Design Indaba conference, you can still get a good dose of creative inspiration from the Design Indaba Expo held at the CTICC.
And it's not just for designers and people whole trade as creative types. And if you make your Rands by having the letters BSc or LLB behind your name, it's stil a wealth of inspiration and a worthwhile day out.

DESIGN INDABA 2008

Design Indaba will fortify as the South African Design Week in 2008, with the expo and conference programme running over a week from Saturday 23 February to Friday 29 February 2008.

DESIGN INDABA EXPO

For the fifth time, the Design Indaba Expo will offer a curated commercial platform for South African designers to showcase local goods and services to the global market. Based on the success of the 2007 event, which played host to more than 20 000 visitors, the 2008 event has been extended for an extra day, running from Saturday 23 to Tuesday 26 February, 2008. The Expo will also be even bigger than before with more floor space, a host of new exhibitors and a brand-new dedicated fashion arena with day-long shows and movie festivals.

The details:

Venue:
Cape Town International Convention Centre, Halls 1a, 2 and 3

Public opening hours:
23 to 26 February 2008
Saturday – 10am to 6pm
Sunday – 10am to 6pm
Monday – 11am to 6pm
Tuesday – 11am to 6pm

Tickets:
No pre-booking is necessary, and tickets are available at the door at a cost of:
R45 – adults
R25 – students and pensioners
R15 – children under 12
Children under 5 are free