08 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Illustration, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: design, Design Indaba, Design Indaba 2009, Marian Bantjes, typography
The last day of the Design Indaba started with Marian Bantjes who proceeded to make me most uncomfortable. She held out a vision of how life could be that I found deeply disturbing.
Work which is synonymous with love. Drawing and writing, ornament and pattern. And the promise that these are within reach if only one is willing to risk it all. More
08 Mar 2009 1 Comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, Marcell Wanders
Marcell Wanders did not so much talk as dance us through his presentation. We needed this sparking energy to revive us at the end of the long second day of the Design Indaba.
Here is another designer who’s presence dominated the occasion. He looked like a smooth and charming Lucifer, complete with casual jeans, jacket and a string of pearls. And the work he showed us spoke of a world of temptations and luxury most of us can only dream of. More
05 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, ell bulli, ferran adria
One of the great stars of Design Indaba this year was Ferran Adria, the Spanish chef.
Ferran Adria has been called the “Picasso of cooking” and “the greatest chef in the world “. His restaurant, El Bulli receives over a million reservations a year of which only eight thousand get a table. More
05 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Inspiration Tags: ethics, robots
This follows on from my post on the Design Indaba appearance of Dunne and Raby from the Royal College of Art. They spoke about robots – how we interact with them, and what they look like.
Here is an entire page of photos of existing robots. To quote from that page:
05 Mar 2009 4 Comments
in Inspiration, Myself
The first class of Multimedia students graduated from Vega Cape Town last night. They are:
02 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Bruce Mau, Design Indaba 2009, In Good We Trust, Institute without boundaries, Massive Change
Last speaker on that first Design Indaba day was Bruce Mau. A large presence and a vision to go with it.
He started off with a bang, presenting us with the core of his talk: “The status quo is not working”. If we rolled out the typical vision of the American dream way of life to the rest of the planet – we would need the resources of “at least four more planets”. More
01 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Inspiration, Myself
Continuing my habit of taking pictures of whatever catches my eye, here are my glimpses of February. My favourite for this month being Brendon’s hands over the river at Newlands forest:
So here goes with the glimpses of February, from Fareview goats to the Community Chess Carnival at Wynberg… More
01 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, incredible india, india, royal enfield, wieden and kennedy delhi
Some of the presentations were a real treat of sumptious images, rocking music and moving content: such were Mohit Jayal and V Sunil from Wieden and Kennedy Delhi. Here was another team of presenters who really connected with the audience.
They are probably best known for their “Incredible !ndia” campaign, which they took from the sublime: More
01 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: architecture, Design Indaba, green, housing, Luyanda Mpalwha, South Africa
What I enjoy above all at the Design Indaba is its buzz, all that positive energy. This is created simply by people speaking on subjects they are passionate about. And sometimes you hear about projects which really make a positive difference in the world. Architect Luyanda Mpahlwa spoke to us about his participation in the Design Indaba 10 x 10 low cost housing project. This is a attempt to alleviate our housing crisis by encouraging innovation in constructing low cost housing.
In 2008, Design Indaba invited architects to design ten low cost houses on ten sites in partnership with ten international architects, for ten families. More
28 Feb 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Design Indaba, electric car, Joule, Keith Helfet
I must admit that, although I am ordinarily not very interested in cars, I cannot continue a conversation when a Jaguar drives by. Another speaker on day one of the Design Indaba was Keith Helfet who has worked for most of his life as an automotive designer for Jaguar. One would expect him to come across as the ultimate arrogant designer, but no:
His presentation was thoughtful, wry and sincere. He was just as happy to share his designs of MRI scanners, as of the F-type Jaguar. More
28 Feb 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: Anthony Dunne, design, Design Indaba, Fiona Raby, Royal College of Art
Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby from the Royal College of Art in London were two of my favourite speakers at the Indaba. Partly, I must admit, because I enjoyed drawing Fiona. She is so deliciously caricaturable:
Before her talk, she came tripping past the P Q at the women’s loos, chirping – “I’m on next – I’m a presenter – sorry!” and vanished into a cubicle. I could not wait to draw her. More
28 Feb 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: adamsmorioka, Cape Town, design, Design Indaba, Noreen Morioka, Sean Adams
I was lucky enough to be allowed to attend the 2009 Design Indaba – and here is the first in series of posts to share what I heard and saw.
Before I get to the Indaba itself – I must revel in the goodies that came with the conference bag:
I spent the rest of the conference filling that blank book with notes and drawings. More
20 Feb 2009 Leave a comment
in Colour, Inspiration, Myself
I’ve have a new hobby: taking unimportant pictures. Just whatever catches my eye. Its sort of soothing to look over them. I want to see if I can create collections for every month of the year.
These are glimpses of January.
My favourite one is of a fun fair at the Waterfront. More
14 Feb 2009 1 Comment
in Art, Inspiration Tags: Art, doll, marina bychkova
A school of fish, a murder of ravens, and a fascination of …dolls.
When I was a little girl I played with dolls but they were not nearly as fascinating as my Lego or train set. But these days I’ve found a different world of dolls.
I’ve been searching on-line for examples of interesting dolls. I make dolls myself. I cant spend much time on them as I have to work 😦 and looking through doll maker Marina Bychkova ‘s site I must admit to a twinge or two of jealously.
07 Dec 2008 2 Comments
in Art, Inspiration
I’ve been playing a new game after reading this post by sassymonkey on Blogher . I’ve been making a list of my favourite fictional female characters. This includes Lyra Silvertongue from the “His Dark Materials” series, Titty Walker and Nancy Blacket from “Swallows and Amazons”, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, Lireal and Sabriel and so many more.
I found some interviews with authors and directors about the female characters in their stories: More
Masha du Toit 
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