This year, in the second edition of its Africa Is Now project, Design Indaba traces the contours of an uprising of grassroots creative collectives on the continent.

From Egypt to Senegal and Angola to Kenya, artists are organising themselves into groups driven by a common commitment to social activism, creative freedom and skills sharing.

Africa Is Now 2015 presents five creative collectives that embody a new generation of outspoken, creative polymaths. Each embodies a node of creative energy in the North, South, East and West of the African continent:

• Darb 1718 (Egypt)
• Les Petites Pierres (Senegal)
• Beyond Entropy Africa and Colectivo Pés Descalços (Angola)
• The Nest (Kenya)

We sent out a challenge to some of South Africa’s most exciting artists and creatives to take Leg Studios' three-legged, flatpacked birch Carry Tables and transform them into works of art. Join our #Make.Change campaign for 2015 when we auction off these customised tables to raise funds for the Kannemeyer Primary School in Grassy Park.

Paper Planes – a talent-packed group illustration exhibit – sees an all-South African talent pool of creatives explore the theme of Southern African mythology and folklore from all of our diverse cultures.

The exhibition includes over 40 once-off illustrations representing the illustrators' favourite local stories, and actual print sales in poster and postcard. Audience participation by way of a massive collaborative comic will also serve as a vehicle for mini-workshops with the public. Look out for work by top young creatives such as Adam Hill, Anja Venter, Chris Valentine, Muti, Toby Newsome and Hylton Warburton.

Image credit: Illustrations by Hylton Warburton and Jono Garrett

Take 2: Second Life of Objects, a Design Indaba project, is a curated selection of furniture and functional homeware designs, both local and international, that celebrates designers' ability to breath new life into old things.  

Each element on this exhibition stand – even the stand itself – is an embodiment of the designer's vision to give an object that is defunct, redundant or discarded, a second life through reconceptualising its function or reprocessing its material. 

From Quazi Designs’ cluster of pendant lights made from old newspapersto The Red Dog Designs’ lounge chair made from an old trolley, the work represented here makes us stop to consider our endless consumption of so-called "new and improved" stuff.  Begging the questions: Do we need more new when the old present such endless possibilities? How do we conceive of products that already contain the DNA of reincarnation in their first life?

Visit Take 2 at Design Indaba Expo 2015 and help answer the question – is trash the new raw material?