Drawing the line at serious fun

Both the local and international speakers at Design Indaba 2008 all concurred that design needs to tackle serious issues – but have fun while doing it. The newest edition of Design Indaba magazine, “Line Drawing”, does just that – sideways.

“Binding the magazine on the top was just a fun idea and we thought, why not?” design director Richard Quintal explains this edition’s format of flipping open like an exam pad. “Inside, the landscape shape gives the magazine a completely new feel and will undoubtedly change the reading experience,” he goes on.

The cover itself was designed specially for this post-conference edition by New York design duo Karlssonwilker inc. Inspired by their adventures in South Africa, the layered images offer a frank, quirky and often controversial interpretation of our national icons.

	DI Magazine - Page 55-56

This utilitarian approach to the social contribution of design is continued inside the magazine, fuelled by the Design Indaba 2008 coverage. Editor of Creative Review, Patrick Burgoyne weighs in with a review of the conference; Portuguese design journalist Frederico Duarte visits the Design Indaba 10x10 Housing Project; British creative industries entrepreneur Eckhard Thiemann shares his impressions of the expo, and editor of Designtimes, Mark Rosenberg visits Design Indaba’s newest offspring, the Creative Companies Conference in Amsterdam.

Featured speakers include hot conference-favourite Shin-ichi Takemura, who revisits his assertions of a new era of mass media and describes his projects in more detail. In turn, jeweller Christoph Zellweger interrogates the future of the body image, while South African automobile stylist Oona Scheepers explains how she is inspired by nature. Acclaimed local fashion designer Amanda Laird Cherry shows how her work is intertwined with the recent history of South Africa.

DI Magazine - Page 62-63

The interview with Laird Cherry also introduces a city focus on Durban design. Besides features on architect Ruben Reddy, illustrator Kim Longhurst and city rejuvenation project Cascolands, there is also a fun R50 Buck Design special, which invited Durban creatives to select the best design to be bought in the city for less than R50.

A chockablock news section includes Jason Bruges’s new Memory Project, Andrew Makin’s Motel Mo Pi Chi, South Africans at the Milan Furniture Fair, the second Open Lab, the Verge Digital Conference and Cape Town’s newest design space – Curious, Whetstone and Frankley. Readers also stand the chance of winning a R750 hamper of “indie undies” from Ruby and Men United, or one of three copies of Along the Way by Disturbance Design.

See, serious fun.

DI Magazine - Page 34-35

Design Indaba, Q208, “Line Drawing”, is available in selected Exclusive Books stores, Melissa’s and other outlets.