You know those lists of the best blog designs, your favourite design sites, the hottest creative minds? Yeah. Well guess what – we are going one better. Our favourite SA interactive designers will be featured on MarkLives during the course of the next few months with interviews and samples of their best work. Because substantial designers deserve substantial coverage. Soweto based Reggie Legoale marries protest to design to create work that is both substantial and beautiful.
Mark: Please give us a short overview of you career.
Reggie: I completed my studies in Graphic Design at Inscape Design College. Ironically I am the only student that did not graduate in the class – at the time I focused more on my job working as a Junior Designer than on my college work. I did eventually get my Diploma, slaved for a number of Advertising Agencies and Design Studios in and around Joburg, and eventually decided to go on my own.
I felt I was not in control of my life. I broke away from the system and I ended up seeing myself working in India and that’s where I broke my chains of slavery.
Mark: What inspired the design of your personal web site?
Reggie: Freedom. Amandla Ngawethu! In retrospect to all the adversities I have personally lived through in the industry I feel it’s my purpose and right to stand up for what I believe is right. There are people who stood up against the system and died for our liberation, who we still mourn today. I am carrying on with that [protest] tradition – I want to be in control of my Life. I want my Freedom in every aspect.
I live, play and love Soweto and this was the inspiration behind my website.
Mark: Which are your 5 favourite websites/blogs? 
Reggie:
http://www.designindabamag.com
http://www.artsouthafrica.com
http://www.bizcommunity.com
http://www.swikiri.com
http://www.newwebpick.com
Mark: Are you getting a lot of work coming out of Soweto?
Reggie: It’s not a lot at the moment but I am certainly getting briefs. I recently designed Soweto’s Imilonji KaNtu Choral Society website.
Mark: Tell us about your design process?
Reggie: It is involuntary – I use my creative imagination and also do the usual orthodox doodling. Once I have imagined what I want to see on I put it on paper. I do a lot of sketching before I use the computer.
Mark: You say that you like what you design, how free is your creative process really, considering client involvement? 
Reggie: True. In fact it’s a pun. If creative directors don’t like what you do, they say they don’t like it. Hence I like what I design. A clients’ need comes first and it’s the drive to the outcome of what I do. I make by all means that I understand what the client needs.
Find his website @ http://www.reggielegoale.co.za
