What happens when you grab a bunch of juicy Gauteng students and team them up with renowned graphics guru and self-confessed wino Ken Cato? A cellar's worth of wine label designs that are worth drinking to, that's what!
Design Indaba's latest educational workshop could have been a rather boozy affair, with wine, wine, wine and more wine being the core subject. But instead of debating the merits of a cabernet over a merlot, the workshop was aimed at reinforcing the concept of diversity in the wine industry in South Africa.
Bringing the Cape's winelands to Jozi, Wines of South Africa (WOSA) and Woolworths, together with Australian graphic designer and DI alumni, Ken Cato, hosted the recent workshop at the University of Johannesburg with the aim of developing design talent in Gauteng. Final year graphic design students from the AAA School of Advertising as well as students from the department of Graphic Design from the University of Johannesburg participated in the five-day workshop, which ran from the end of September into October 2005.
Part of the workshop's focus was to determine how young local designers see South African wines being portrayed, and to creatively stimulate this upcoming generation of designers, who will soon be responsible, as they go out into the workplace, for helping to promote the South African wine industry internationally.
These students had the opportunity of learning from the workshop facilitator Ken Cato, a designer with a significant international reputation and the Chairman of Cato Purnell Partners, the largest design company in the southern hemisphere. Part of the workshop consisted of the students producing their own wine label designs. WOSA will present selected examples of this work at the 2006 Wine Diversity Conference. Here's a sneak preview…