Design

Indaba An indaba (; ) is an important conference held by the izinDuna (principal men) of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bou ...

is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, it is most widely known for its annual festival held in South Africa, in particular the flagship three-day conference hosted in Cape Town. The Design Indaba Conference is also broadcast live to various cities, most recently including

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city prope ...

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and ...

and

Lausanne Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

. It has also been referred to as the "Conference on Creativity".

History

Design Indaba was founded with the inaugural conference in 1995, which hosted 11 speakers over two days. It has since grown to host over 30 speakers from all over the globe and has been named by many to be one of the best creative conferences in the world. In its list of top "52 Places to Go in 2014",

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

touted Design Indaba as "the annual visual arts spectacular" and part of the city's creative renaissance.

Design Indaba Festival

The Design Indaba Conference is just one part of a weeklong creative festival, known now as the Design Indaba Festival. In its entirety the Design Indaba Festival comprises the conference, a film festival, a series of exhibitions including the annual Emerging Creatives programme , and various music events and other performances. The main event takes place in Cape Town, most recently at the Artscape Theatre Centre, and various cities in Africa and Europe also host a simulcast of the conference and peripheral exhibitions and events.

Design Indaba Conference

The Design Indaba Conference has been held in Cape Town since 1995, biannually until 2001 and annually since then. Speakers at the conference represent a broad spectrum of design and the creative industries, with a focus on international thought leadership and innovative problem solving, in keeping with the company ethos of "A better world through creativity". Alongside professionals from traditional design disciplines such as

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

product design Product design as a verb is to create a new Product (business), product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is ...

, graphic and communication design, fashion, furniture design,

design thinking Design thinking refers to the set of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures used by designers in the process of designing, and to the body of knowledge that has been developed about how people reason when engaging with design problems. De ...

and design education, the programme of recent years has included chefs, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers and founders of creative businesses on the list of Design Indaba speakers. Together the three-day Cape Town conference and simulcast host 4,500 people.

Design Indaba Do Tank

Largely funded by the Design Indaba Trust and independent sponsorships, Design Indaba Do Tank consists of projects and initiatives designed for the greater good. These include the Your Street Challenge, the 10x10 Low-Cost Housing Project, Another Light Up, Sonop and Arch For Arch monument in honour of Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...

References

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External links

Design Indaba's WebsiteInteractive Africa's Website
Online publishing companies Business organisations based in South Africa Conferences