The Design Indaba, held annually in Cape Town, is the premier design event for South Africa, covering all bases from fashion and textiles to interiors, advertising and graphic design. The Indaba features a conference (which I missed – maybe next year) and expo which I did catch. The organizers have obviously gone out of their way to get a cross-section of SA creativity with work ranging from the high-end furniture you might see in Wallpaper to township influenced recycled art (which was frankly a lot more fun not to mention affordable).

I was impressed with the graphic design/illustration work coming out of Cape Town in particular. I used to really struggle to source creative work along these lines when I worked in the London – Cape Town has a plague of hipster graphic artists (and their day rate is roughly the hourly rate of UK designers! Thought for the day: outsource to Africa).

Here are some quick examples:

Street art influenced graphics from the Am I Collective:

Blaxploitation psychedelia for the Afro Coffee brand by Daddy Buy Me A Pony:

Contributed by Dan Pinch

The Design Indaba, held annually in Cape Town, is the premier design event for South Africa, covering all bases from fashion and textiles to interiors, advertising and graphic design. The Indaba features a conference (which I missed – maybe next year) and expo which I did catch. The organizers have obviously gone out of their way to get a cross-section of SA creativity with work ranging from the high-end furniture you might see in Wallpaper to township influenced recycled art (which was frankly a lot more fun not to mention affordable).

I was impressed with the graphic design/illustration work coming out of Cape Town in particular. I used to really struggle to source creative work along these lines when I worked in the London – Cape Town has a plague of hipster graphic artists (and their day rate is roughly the hourly rate of UK designers! Thought for the day: outsource to Africa).

Here are some quick examples:

Street art influenced graphics from the Am I Collective:

Blaxploitation psychedelia for the Afro Coffee brand by Daddy Buy Me A Pony:

Contributed by Dan Pinch