Van 25 tot en met 27 februari stond Kaapstad in het teken van de Design Indaba Expo. D'Afrique is er ook, op zoek naar nieuwe opvallende en verrassende creaties van Zuid-Afrikaanse ontwerpers.

Van 25 tot en met 27 februari stond het Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) vol met Afrikaans design. Design in de meest brede zin: architectuur, interieur, accessoires, grafisch ontwerp, industrieel ontwerp, film, sieraden, nieuwe media, fashion, kunst... Het was er allemaal.

Billionaires are not as rare as they used to be. When one sits on the stairs next to you at Design Indaba (he came in late and could not find a seat) the rebel in you smirks.

During this year's Design Indaba in South Africa, WGSN-homebuildlife came across the work of new design brand Indigi Designs. We loved their mix of traditional South African colour and pattern with characterful, contemporary forms, and we spoke to Indigi Design's founder Natalie Du Toit to find out what inspires her collections.

Another reason was that after seeing the Global Africa Project, Ravi Naidoo who heads up The Design Indaba in Cape Town, had invited its curators, Lowery Sims and Leslie King Hammond, to address both the prestigious Design Indaba Conference as well as make a presentation to Expo participants at the February show.

African-born architect Francis Kéré gets big results by mixing a little mud with a lot of heart.

As usual, the exclusive South African expo managed to collect the most inspiring leaders of contemporary art and design from around the world. One of the most memorable speakers for me was our own Laduma Ngxokolo.

Wallflowerᵀᴹ Vertical Garden, designed by Haldane Martin, is a modular planter system designed to enable city dwellers to grow veggies and other plants on vertical walls – greening the concrete jungle!

Design Indaba Expo 2011 was more than a showcase of local creativity, it was a celebration of design, culture, innovation and fun.

The annual Design Indaba is always a place of innovation and creative discussion and this year’s (2011) was no exception with a host of fascinating keynote speakers, a film festival and the Design Indaba Expo – a hotbed of activity for many a creative and retail talent.

Design Indaba, the hands-on, break-out fashion and lifestyle expo, keeps the youth, energy and optimism of the “new South Africa” relevant nearly two decades into the country’s new era.

Professional designers learn early to work within constraints: time, budget, materials, price. But the team at the London graphic arts firm hat-trick design has a special knack for a particularly daunting creative challenge: delivering big design on a tiny canvas.