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by Uno de Waal (@Unodewaal) Today’s Design Annotator includes:10and5

  • An interview with photographer Jody Brand, whose work is a raw glimpse into South African youth culture
  • The British Council’s Connect/ZA programme of creative events, projects and initiatives
  • Sculptures by Jonothan van der Walt that blur the lines between kitsch and fine art
  • Disorienting photographs of ordinary things by Kent Andreasen
  • Turning data into art with NumberPicture
  • Two South Africans traversing the US in a campervan dubbed ‘Dora’
  • 10 Inspiration tumblrs by some of our favourite local creatives
  • Nokia Lumia at the InAWE Residency
  • A final wrap up of Cannes 2014

Young South Africa: Jody Brand

Jody Brand

Born and raised in Cape Town, Jody Brand studied History and Media at UCT with the intention of becomming a journalist. It was out of an unrelenting desire to make things that she started styling her friends and doing shoots for fun. “Somehow,” she says, “I then began assisting the legendary Richard de Jager and it occurred to me that I wanted more ownership of my images as an art director.” This is how Jody’s focus shifted to finding her expression in her current medium of photography.

Predominantly photographing her friends, Jody’s pictures offer a raw and unflinching look into South Africa’s youth culture. With this in mind we knew she’d make a brilliant addition to our Young South Africa series this year and so, we spoke to Jody to find out more.

Young South Africa: Connect/ZA | An Interview with Tom Porter

Connect ZA

Tom Porter is the Head of Arts for the British Council in South Africa. As such, he is the man at the helm of the Connect/ZA programme of creative events, projects, initiatives and exchanges between South African and UK young creatives that is currently in full swing and having a considerable impact on the local creative scene.

Tom’s background includes many years organising cross-cultural creative events and projects with a focus on youth engagement. This thorough understanding of the role young creative entrepreneurs play in the current cultural milieu underpins the Connect/ZA programme, which aims to foster lasting connections and partnerships between the creative economies of South Africa and the UK. Tom very kindly agreed to share some of his insights and experiences of Young South Africa with us for this series.

Young South Africa: Jonathan van der Walt

Jonathan van der Walt - 'Next Level $hit', painted bronze cast (1)

Born into a creative and cultured family, a career as a fine artist was a natural choice for Jonathan van der Walt, who is currently studying towards his Master’s Degree at NMMU in Port Elizabeth. With sculpture as his discipline of focus and using the art world in which he produces as his primary subject, Jonathan examines the blurred relationship between kitsch and fine art.

This year two of his sculptures, The Warhol Affects and Marvel at the Avante-garde, were accepted into the national top 100 for the ABSA L’Atelier competition and will be on show from July to August this year at the ABSA Gallery in Johannesburg. Later on this year, he will also be participating in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum Biennial. For our annual Young South Africa series, we spoke to Jonathan to learn more.

Disorienting Photographs by Kent Andreasen

Kent-Andreasen-191-620x930

Cape Town photographer Kent Andreasen produces outstanding work at an alarmingly frequent rate. Referring to his often mundane choice of subject matter, Kent describes his work as “simple to the point of being misunderstood.” Looking at his images you’ll find plenty of fences, railings, cords, people looking a bit lost, broken things and things seeming generally out of place. However, because he has the enviable ability to make these ordinary things seem completely bizarre, Kent’s work is disorienting in the best of ways.

Take a look at more of Kent’s work and learn about his process.

Self Starters: Finn Fitzsimons | Information Design by NumberPicture

Finn Fitzsimons is a creative self-starter and graduate from Vega in Cape Town, whose innovation in the field of information design has found him establishing his business footprint in Bulgaria. Specifically, he is doing this through his start-up company NumberPicture – the main component of which is an app that enables anybody to create beautiful charts using their own data.

Describing himself as just “a person with ideas”, Finn is currently mastering the art of turning these ideas into a reality as he continues his path in entrepreneurship. We caught up with the talented young South African to find out more about what it takes to be a self-starter in the field of creativity and the unseen.

Out The Office: Two South Africans Traversing the US in a Campervan

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (2)

With a shared love for spontaneous adventure and armed with a camera each, Patrick John and Chloe O’Doherty are newlyweds currently traversing the United States in a 1995 Chevy campervan dubbed ‘Dora’.

Chloe’s background is as an art director for an advertising agency in Johannesburg, while Patrick worked in sales and marketing at an engineering firm. After leaving their day jobs, the pair travelled over 34 000 kms through 6 African countries – the first leg of what is to become a journey around the world. Since arriving in the US in May, they  have made their way from Michigan to California, blogging about their experiences on their tumblr Out The Office. In a quick Q&A with Chloe and Patrick, we learn a bit more about the trip so far.

10 Inspiration Tumblrs by South African Creatives

Sebastian-Borckenhagen-tumblr

While the question “what are you inspired by?” is one that is commonly asked of creatives, it’s also one of the most difficult to answer. Most will agree that when it comes to inspirations, style or aesthetics – images say it best. In the light of that we dug deep into the vortex of tumblr to find out where some of our favourite South African photographers, illustrators, designers, artists, and so forth collect their inspirations. In each case we’ve also paired the tumblrs with examples of the creatives’ own work to see the correlations, and differences, between the two.

So, if you’re in need of a little inspiration yourself, have a look at 10 inspiration tumblrs by South African creatives.

Sebastian Borckenhagen
Inspiration: www.lijkljlkj.tumblr.com
Work: www.sebastianborckenhagen.tumblr.com

Caroline Mackintosh
Inspiration: www.carolinemackintosh.tumblr.com
Work: www.carolinemackintosh.com

Rouleaux van der Merwe
Inspiration: www.kliterati.tumblr.com
Work: www.rouleaux.co.za

Daniella Mooney
Inspiration: www.daniellamooney.tumblr.com
Work: www.daniellamooney.tumblr.com/SelectedWorks

Gabrielle Kannemeyer
Inspiration: www.gabriellekannemeyer.tumblr.com

Sam Wells
Inspiration: www.adeadbeatsummer.tumblr.com
Work: www.samwells.co.za

Jess Sara Wright
Inspiration: www.wwfk.tumblr.com
Work: www.jesssarawright.tumblr.com

Katherine-Mary Pichulik
Inspiration: www.pichulik.tumblr.com
Work: www.pichulik.com

Bee Diamondhead
Inspiration: www.bee-diamondhead.tumblr.com

Thomas Pepler
Inspiration: www.myluckyredundies.tumblr.com
Work: www.myluckyundiesarered.blogspot.com

Nokia Lumia at the InAWE Residency

Nokia Lumia at the InAWE Residency

The InAWE Residency is our World Design Capital 2014 artist residency project in collaboration with InAWE Stays. Together we’re inviting eight local creatives to stay at InAWE Stays, a beautiful house right in the centre of the Mother City.

As one of World Design Capital 2014′s Headline Sponsors, Nokia joined the InAWE Residency too, and it’s a great fit since they’re renowned for their focus on visual storytelling. Nokia is providing a Lumia 1520 for the artists during their stay, which they’ll use to complement their creative process.

See what Fort Rixon, Lucie de Moyencourt and most recently Sebastian Borckenhagen got up to during their stay and find out more about Nokia Lumia at the InAWE Residency.

 

Another look at Cannes 2014

Cannes Lions 2014 logo

If you missed out on Cannes last week, we’ve got you covered! One of our very own attended the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity this year and put together daily field notes with all the highlights for day 1, day 2, day 3, and days 4/5.

We’ve also rounded up all the winning SA work from Cannes, in the categories of Radio, Design and Press, Outdoor and Media, and Film and Film Craft.

 

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Published by Herman Manson

MarkLives.com is edited by Herman Manson. Follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/marklives

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