Design Indaba Emerging Creatives Programme 2018
The latest crop of South African Emerging Creatives will break ground at Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018
Want to witness the future of South Africa’s design industry? Look no further than the Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018 where exhibitions of work by Emerging Creatives will be staged in both Cape Town and Joburg from 21-23 February 2018. The Emerging Creatives exhibition in Cape Town will be open to the public for free from 17h30 on Design Indaba Open Night 2018, which takes place on Wednesday 21 February 2018 to mark the official opening of this year’s Design Indaba Festival of Creativity.
The Design Indaba’s longstanding Emerging Creatives Programme, founded in 2005, has helped launch the careers of celebrated and vibrant young designers such as Laduma Ngxokolo, Katherine-Mary Pichulik, Daniel Ting Chong and Andile Dyalvane. Be there for the class of 2018, to see fresh new talents across a multitude of design sectors. Young architects, fashion designers, illustrators, furniture designers, jewellers, graphic designers and multi-discipliary mavericks have all been selected based on the quality and originality of their work and its ability to stand alongside world-class designs.
This year, you can get to grips with fascinating projects by 50 young designers, 40 of whom will showcase their work in Cape Town at the Artscape Theatre Centre, with a further 10 showing at LISOF, as part of the Design Indaba Johannesburg Simulcast 2018. This is the first time that the Emerging Creatives programme will have a wider national footprint allowing more creatives to participate in varying capacities. Cape Town participants will be sourced from all over South Africa, including Gauteng, while the LISOF participants will be solely Joburg-based.
Some of the highlights to watch out for include prototype appliances such as a manual washing machine from promising young idustrial designer George Gibbons; colourful camera straps from Lunar Straps founder Tyla Stallbom; an intriguiing “wonderverse” by image-maker Sizwe Mbiza; a new wave of Muslim fashion designs for hajibs by Ra’eesah Hoosain; and too many more to mention…
But the Emerging Creatives is not merely an exhibition of exciting work that acts as a career launching pad for the participants. The full programme provides support, education and mentoring for South Africa’s future designers and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that includes attending the Simulcast, participating a workshop, as well as networking at the prestigious Design Indaba social events. Participants receive return flights to Cape Town, accommodation for the duration of Design Indaba Festival 2018, a profile on designindaba.com in the Designer Directory and a year of prolonged national and international media exposure including online video, web articles and social media posts.
“What the programme did and is still doing for my business I could have never imagined,” says rising fashion designer Abongile Gwele of Apples & Oranges, who was part of the 2016 Emerging Creatives programme and has since gone on to collaborate with ex-Rhythm City actress turned producer Nolo Phiri on her clothing line.
All of this is supported by the Design Indaba in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture. Design Indaba founded the platform to help young creatives who have relatively little industry exposure. The programme was established because of a strong belief in nurturing this new creative talent and knocking down the barriers to entry for those just getting started.
The programme provides the opportunity to be inspired by the best designers in the world and the selected participants will get to meet leaders in the local and international design industry. Emerging Creatives will have their work shown to retail buyers and media nationally and internationally – not to mention members of the public!
The Cape Town Emerging Creatives exhibition is free to the public on Open Night on 21 February 2018. Alternatively, to view the exhibition, please book to attend the Design Indaba Conference or Simulcast, running from 21-23 February 2018. Conference and Simulcast delegates will receive complimentary access to the Emerging Creatives, as well as to the two nights of the Nightscape at Design Indaba music festival, taking place on Thursday 22 February 2018 and Friday 23 February 2018, with a different line-up for each night. Nightscape ticket holders will also be able to view the Emerging Creatives exhibition at no extra cost.
Members of the public can book separately to attend Nightscape alone and needn’t be conference ticket-holders to experience Nightscape. The Nightscape music and performance programme is especially noteworthy for its stellar acts sourced from across the African continent, and for the fact that you will not be able to see these made-for-the-purpose acts anywhere else.
Booking for the Design Indaba Conference, Simulcast, and Nightscape is via Webtickets. There is no need to book for the Design Indaba Open Night on Wednesday 21 February 2018, as entrance is free.
For updates on the Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018 and for ticketing information please visit www.designindaba.com/festival.
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