Design Indaba Exhibition

Craft South Africa

Location of Conference

The exhibition is usually held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre ( CTICC) in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Design Indaba Fashion Show

In one section of the exhibition there was a permanent fashion ramp with 3 massive screens behind it, and a lounge area and bar alongside it – very nice! Throughout each day of the exhibition there was non-stop fashion shows from local designers, followed by short films made locally. When you got tired from walking around you could get a drink of your choice and sit down and watch a fashion show or short film – nice!.

Design Indaba Fashion Show 2010

Designs from Recycled Materials

Many of the designs at the exhibition were constructed from recycled materials, and were really well made. My favourites were:

Bousquet designs (www.bousquetcollection.com) for lighting, which included individual WALL-E -like characters made out of used metal parts.

Bousquet designs, Wall-e like lamp
Bousquet designs
Bousquet designs light 2

Recreate Recycling Designs

Recreate (www.recreate.za.net) whose recycling designs include chairs/sofas made from old suitcases and a wall clock made from a dustbin lid. You can even give them your old family/favourite suitcase from which they will make your chair.

Recreate sofa
Wall clock made from a dustbin lid

Whichcraft Designs

Whichcraft (www.whichcraft.co.za) whose products include a portfolio over-shoulder bag constructed from straw place mats.

Whichcraft over-the-shoulder bag

Change Room Design

Glenn (Email: changeroomdesign@gmail.com) makes rugged belts from car tyres and wallets from inner-tubes.

Rugged belts from car tyres
Rugged belts from car tyres

Local Community Designs

There were a large number of products that were hand crafted by local community groups. Bootkidz supported the local community by purchasing stock for sale on this website. The hand crafted paper-clay jewellery created by one of these community groups will soon be available through the Bootkidz website.

Homeware Designs

Raw (www.rawstudios.co.za) design and build cupboards, filing trays and any storage you wish entirely from plywood – even the hinges! Exhibiting with Raw was an illustrator who has recently added her humorous designs to tableware.

Rawstudios build cupboards, filing trays and any storage you wish entirely from plywood
Rawstudios build cupboards, filing trays and any storage you wish entirely from plywood

Gauteng Design Council

A group of designers supported by the Gauteng design council included many fantastic designs that included a felt hat and 'summer scarf' combo, and a crocheted handbag. There were 2 voluptuous shaped vases based on the body of 'Anna', created by an established artist. I saw the work of a well known graffiti artist known as Faith47 – loved those!

Knitted scarf and hat made from felt	Crocheted bag
Carved Wooden Vase Guateng Design Council	Graffiti Artist Guateng Design Council

Eco-Fashion

In the area of eco-fashion design there was this pretty sculptural felt dress exhibited with the Gauteng Creative Council.

Eco Design showing mannequin

Low cost design boots

One concept I thought was great – something all major design shows should do – a long row of small booths (about 30 booths) – probably only 3ft x 7ft – for emerging creatives – thats all you need!  Any emerging creative who has looked at the charge for space at Milan or London design show at Earls Court will know how difficult it is to exhibit at those shows unless you join a group or an organization.

Design booths at the design indaba

External Links

• Design Indaba - home page of the Design Indaba.
• Indaba - an important conference, the word means "business" or "matter" in Zulu
• CTICC - Cape Town International Conference Centre, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

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