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Do it yourself with Design Indaba magazine

Posted on November 25th 2010

Doing it yourself has never been this trendy, and this time it’s supported by the world’s top designers and thought-leaders.

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DIY is not only cool, it’s also crucial for the sustainability of our planet. The latest edition of Design Indaba magazine imagines a near future of post-consumerism where, through collaboration, a creative economy determines our quality of life and reduces our reliance on non-regenerative resources.

Looking to design thinking that improves education, builds communities and promotes citizenship, Kiran Bir Sethi talks about how she’s working to revolutionise school education in India. Meanwhile, in the USA, Emily Pilloton is using scalable design solutions to nurture creativity and improve the lives of communities in one of the poorest regions in rural America.

Bicycles are peaking on the design radar and Sean O’Toole examines the renewed popularity of this eco-friendly mode of transport. Another trending design field, game design relies on intensive collaborations and open source possibilities, writes Michael Edwards.

Open source everything is a key characteristic of a creative economy. Afronaut and entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth talks about the final frontier of open source software, and the role design plays in spreading it to the masses. One of the key drivers of the Google Creative Lab, Robert Wong, attempts to explain the Google phenomenon by comparing it to breathing air.

Also read about Alejandro Aravena’s social housing initiatives and his commitment to employing architecture as a way of promoting social welfare in Chile. Back in South Africa, Malcolm Worby teaches people to build energy efficient mud brick houses.

Adélia Borges looks to the streets of Brazil for design solutions, by ordinary people, resulting from desperate need. And Beth Peterson looks to the discipline of biomimicry as a natural guideline for sustainability, in nearly all spheres of life.

The regular design snippets and book reviews cover everything from Anton Kannemeyer and the London Design Week, to a Mexican designer that turns guns into useful garden implements. And of course, a photoshoot that gazes to the nostalgic artefacts of a second life.

Design Indaba Q410 “Do It Yourself” is on sale now. It’s available at selected Exclusive Books, Woolworths and other stockists, or online.

Robert Wong

Creative director of Google Creative Labs, Robert Wong was born Chinese, grew up Dutch, was Canadian, and is now American. While practicing accounting in Toronto, he woke up one day, flew to New York, and became a graphic designer instead.

Kiran Bir Sethi

Kiran Bir Sethi is a designer who became a teacher, a principal who grew into an education reformer and subsequently morphed into a social entrepreneur. A trained graphic designer, she comfortably uses the language of design – iteration, prototype, design specs – to develop not only curriculum innovation, but also community-based social programmes.

Alejandro Aravena

Alejandro Aravena is the principal of Alejandro Aravena Architects and the executive director of Elemental, a do-tank focusing on projects of social impact.

Michael Edwards

After receiving his Masters of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design, Michael Edwards joined the school’s research faculty. He is charged with designing social networks and games with public and educational interest in mind.

Sean O’Toole

Born in 1968 in Pretoria, Sean O’Toole is a Cape Town-based journalist and writer. Currently editor of Art South Africa, a quarterly print magazine focusing on contemporary South African and African art, he also writes a weekly column on photography for the Sunday Times and a biweekly art column for the Financial Mail.

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth is the founder of the Ubuntu Project, a popular Linux-based operating system that is freely available worldwide with desktop and server editions. Ubuntu aims to be beautiful, easy to use and precision engineered for consumers and large-scale enterprise deployments alike.

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