With the world setting its cool compass on South, there is no better time to put on a show of South Africa's best. Exhibitors, handpicked by the Design Indaba Expo advisory panel, have been chosen for their innovative and essentially South African work and include top names in the creative industries. Cecile and Boyd, Egg Design (winners of The Elle Deco International Design Award), Life (nominee for The Andrew Martin award), Stoned Cherrie (winner of the Catherine Award), Hip Hop, Black Coffee, Gavin Rajah, The Bat Centre, Monkeybiz, Brett Bailey, Bell Roberts Gallery, Peet Pienaar (with all-new sure-to-be cult magazine Afro), VISI, architects Silvio Rec of North Island fame, Andrew Makin and Stefan Antoni are among a few of the exhibitors.
Far from the current offering of a grid pattern of stands, Design Indaba Expo's floor has a unique layout and a number of features to add interest to the Expo. The centrepiece of the Expo is a 6m high 10m in diameter wire tree (as an Indaba is traditionally held under a tree) with a champagne bar beneath it. Each area, be it interiors, media, craft or visual art hovers around nodes areas where visitors can relax to the sounds of South African lullabies in our numerous languages; languish in nature or to take in a fashion showing. Ace producer Jan Malan will choreograph the 16 daily showings on the half-hour. In addition to these salon-style showings, there'll be a fashion exhibition in the fashion area that will detail the designers signature and explain how each piece is moving towards a South African design signature. A custom-built film studio will show South African film features, ads, music videos, documentaries and shorts and South Africa's top advertising agencies (The Jupiter Drawing Room, O&M, King James etc) will create an ad a day for SMME's and charities at the Design Indaba Creatathon.
Wins include a R70 000 room makeover from Woolworths and the use of an Audi A4 cabriolet for three months. International high-calibre guests like Nicole Farhi, who sources South African through Jenny Gifford and Neville Trickett, are flying into Cape Town for the event and will be briefing exhibitors on what it is the world's after creatively speaking at Expo exhibitor sessions in the mornings before the show opens.
Design Indaba Expo aims to leverage South Africa and South Africanism in a celebratory, savvy manner and to herald this as the world's choice brave new world.
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