A word of thanks from the Design Indaba

The 1 500-seater auditorium at the Cape Town International Convention Centre positively strained at the seams to accommodate the delegates who had gathered to listen to some of the world's creative masterminds.

The Indaba kicked off with the Jupiter Drawing Room's Graham Warsop at the mic, whose wry sense of humour warmed the audience up for Fernando Gutierrez's quirky and engaging presentation. Then came Ross Lovegrove's multimedia presentation - who can forget his "wall of inspiration", a mixture of personal mementos and models of everyday items that he aspires to produce in full size? We can all take a page out of Lovegrove's book and surround ourselves with items that spark off our creativity.

Master of Ceremonies Garth Walker, himself a Design Indaba veteran, never missed a beat in introducing the speakers, each of which had a unique and robust view on the role and direction of design in society and their lives. Alexander Gelman focused on the role of context in visual communication, while Japan's Shigeo Fukuda had the audience burst out in spontaneous applause with the visual acrobatics of his artworks - what he calls "my visual trick method". Mary Lewis's sophisticated branding philosophies gave local creatives food for thought, as did India's Elsie Nanji presentation on holding on to one's cultural identity in an increasingly homogenous world.

In the spirit of development, the international speakers were also kind enough to share their experiences with local students in student question-and-answer sessions, while Workshops run by local and international creatives gave young delegates a taste of the real-world creative process.

Between Dan Pearson's vision for landscape design, Shubankar Ray's counter-materialist marketing ethos, Bob Sabiston's animated alternative reality and more, there was something of interest for everyone at this year's Design Indaba.

What some delegates said about the 7th International Design Indaba:

"Well done! Viva design! Indaba Viva!"
Ngamntwini Unati, Office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Bisho

"Now that it's over, I feel exhausted and frustrated, because I just got started. There were so many people at Indaba to whom I would have liked to talk to longer and quite a few to whom I didn't get to talk at all. So much great work to see, it makes you think about how to improve your own. And that's the best a design event can do - to stimulate and to set off thought process."
Christine Moolman, Novum-World of Graphic Design, Germany

"Altogether, absolutely brilliant! Very insightful, different and oozing creativity. I leave, inspired by the speakers who have presented. Their drive, dedication, focus and passion for their work, and where they are today (because of both good and bad experiences in their pasts), is extremely encouraging."
Diann Selman, AAA School of Advertising, Cape Town

"The most interesting thing I found about the Design Indaba is the broadness of the range of speakers and content. Your concept is absolutely fantastic."
Solomon Ikhioda, Sobeck Ltd, Nigeria

The International Design Indaba would simply not have been possible without the steadfast support of our sponsors, suppliers and partners - a huge thank you to you all! We hope you enjoyed the Indaba as much as we did.

Founding Sponsor

interactive.africa

Official Sponsors

Woolworths
South African Airways
SABC 3
Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel Cape Town
HP Invent
Sappi
Department of Arts and Culture
Audi

Official Suppliers

Wireframe
The Jupiter Drawing Room, CT
City of Cape Town

Official Media Partners

Design Week (UK)
Novum (Germany)
Creative Review (UK)
WOW Magazine (Mexico)
Form (Germany)
I.D. Magazine (New York)
ADvantage, SA
ENjiN Magazine, SA
THISDAY (SA)

Developmental Partners

British Council
Adobe
Transnet Foundation
CreateSA

Special Thanks

Shift (Japan)
Bizcommunity
MFSA
Po Na Na
Video Lab
Cellucity
Karoo
Cape Institute of Architecture
Core Group
Graham Beck
Absolut Vodka
Royal Netherlands Embassy
Omnigraphics