Every year around the last week/end of February, cool kids pack up and road trip to Durban for the Metro FM Awards, but, the coolest go on a pilgrimage to Cape Town for Design Indaba, the Mecca of all things (A)dvertising, (B)eer, (C)reativity and (D)esign, excerpt we don’t have to pray 5 times a day, facing East. So this year I graduated from cool to cooler, I missed the Metro FM Awards, flew out to the Mother City instead, a pen and a notepad in hand, ready to learn and expand my mind, a more meaningful exercise than pretending to be happy that Cassper Nyovest won, while secretly, you are just happy AKA lost. That’s boring.

 

What’s not boring is sitting in and listening to 36 briliant minds talking about the importance of collaboration, creative innovation, design mentality and how to build and grow the biggest independent advertising agency in the world. Yes Dan Wieden from Wieden + Kennedy was in the building and he is the epitome of advertising superstardom, his philosophy resonated with me, and everyone in the room, judging by the gasps, the appalauses, the loud cheering and the standing ovation. Dan Wieden is not into pretty-little-neat things, he hates order, he wants drama, he wants chaos, he believes that chaos is the only thing that wants you to grow, the only thing that demands that you make shit that matters. This is the guy that gave us the line “Just Do It”, one of the greatest copywriters of all times, being in the same room with him is totally surreal. When he got up on stage, the first thing he said was…”Whatever this thing is, it’s amazing” and that was a stamp of approval, not that Design Indaba didn’t already have that kind of credibility, Ravi Naidoo and his team at Interactive Africa have been doing this for 20 years.

 

Xolisha Dyeshana and Pepe Marais from one of the best independent advertising agencies in South Africa, Joe Public, opened the conference with a Michael Jackson dance tribute, they went on to talk about purpose driving change in black and white, their talk seemed to discourage the industry’s fixation with awards, arguing that agencies ought to focus on exponential growth for their clients, and I agree. Another noteworthy speaker besides Casey Neistat or William Kentridge (not taking anything away from the other speakers, they were all amazing) was Emily Oberman, she spoke on the third and last day of the conference and she spoke about what she had learnt about life and graphic design while working on Saturday Night Live, some of the lessons are; reinventing something is hard but very rewarding, time is of the essence, you need to use every tool at your disposal to create a complete world, and that even great clients don’t always choose the best options.

 

This year, the Design Indaba Expo was the biggest in 20 years, the highlight of course being David Tlale showing his Spring/Summer collection, tribal inspired prints that are quite modern, authentic, edgy and chic. His bouquet skirts and super high bum shorts were paired with white blouses, because apparently a white blouse is going to be the hottest thing next summer. The man himself took to the ramp for a Q & A with young aspiring fashion designers, mostly high school kids, and they asked him questions like; why does he only wear black? Is he Illuminati?

 

The Design Indaba Film Festival was also moving and refreshing, it kicked off on Friday the 21st of February at The Labia Theatre with a biographical comedy-drama titled ‘Big Eyes’ about the life and work of acclaimed American artist Mar garet Keane, directed by Tim Burton. I didn’t get to see every film at the fest because the beers wouldn’t drink themselves, and I also had to go to Cape Point to go see where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean, plus I had to hike up Lion’s Head. But, I did see ‘Stories Of Our Lives’, a series of dramatised shorts on the experiences of marginalised LGBTI communities of Kenya. There are two film I regret missing (1) ‘Tomorrow We Disappear’, a short documentary film about the lives of a fading community of Indian puppeteers and performers, (2) ‘Art and Craft’, the story of one of America’s most prolific art forgers, Mark Landis. I guess even the coolest kids do miss out on somethings sometimes, much like the cool kids who’d rather go to the Metro FM Awards instead of Design Indaba.