ABC Analysis Q4 2012: The biggest-circulating consumer magazines in SA

The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period October 2012 to December 2012 (ABC Q4 2012). Here are a couple of consumer magazine ABC numbers that popped out for us. We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA!

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter!

Not a good quarter for Entertainment & Culture

Music title Huisgenoot Tempo (Quarterly) lost its happy tune by falling from 62,928 total circulation in the previous corresponding reporting to 39,991 in the latest reporting period. heat kept up its decline – will it ever hit bottom? – to 27,945 from 31,753 (and down from 28,316 in Q3 2012). TV Plus (Afrikaans) fell to 37,667 from 41,551 and its English language edition tanked to 41,889 from 48,211. Drum declined to 118,793 from 138,479 and Huisgenoot fell to 270,310 from 283,355. YOU saw a significant decline to 155,125 from 172,403 (and from 162,689 in Q3 2012).

People kept steady at around 85,978.

Bona is up slightly to 97,190 from 95,261. Readers’ Digest climbed to 40,269 from 35,833 (but gave away 7,562 copies for free).

Oh and missing in action: Rolling Stone magazine. Last seen Q2 2012 with a paid for circulation of 3,782.

Business and Financial holds steady

FM dipped slightly from to 23,595 from 24,515. It will be interesting to see how the magazine weathers the recent resignation of its respected editor, Barney Mthombothi, when the next set of circulation figures is released. Finweek fell significantly to 23,456 from 26,241. In terms of paid for circulation (i.e. excluding freebies and bulk) FM is narrowly ahead at 21,510 to the 20,740 of Finweek. By comparison newspaper Business Day stands at 35,149 (down from 35,558). Forbes Africa climbed to 17,538 from 14,462 (total paid 7,586).

Circulation heads back to Home

In the home section the trend seems to have been towards a slight increase in circulation compared to the same period last year. Conde Nast House & Garden climbed slightly to 45,144 from 44,660. Elle Decoration climbed to 23,630 from 22,130. House & Leisure rose to 44,630 from 38,338 (with 9,634 freebies). SA Home Owner is up to 37,824 from 34,935. Die Tuinier jumped to 22,184 from 19,678. Tuis/Home grew its circulation to 82,430 from 76,909.

Food and Home Entertaining fell to 32,672 from 34,432 and Sarie Kos declined to 50,496 from 52,009.

The guys aren’t reading (magazines) no more

Playboy is up to 13,309 from 12,428. In the previous quarter (Q3 2012) it had collapsed to 3,839 from 10,818 for the same corresponding period a year earlier (and 16,299 in the 2012 Q2 reporting period). The figures don’t make sense. A request for comment to Playboy last time round did not solicit a response.

FHM must be on the Media24 emergency watch list – it fell to 29,382 from 38,873 (and 37,444 in the Q3 2012 reporting period). Media24 have pulled the plug on better faring titles frankly. In 2005 it was selling 117,365 copies per issue. Anybody care to call it?

GQ – down to 28,084 from 30,036. Men’s Health – down to 61,663 from 66,828. Popular Mechanics wasn’t spared either – it fell to 43,863 from 50,585. Stuff – down to 25,317 from 26,018.

Only upside in this category came from Destiny Man (up to 19,251 from 18,869) and Braintainment (up to 12,525 from 11,666).

And not car magazines either

CAR magazine saw a significant decline to 81,114 from 91,505. TopGear declined to 29,187 from 35,122. Topcar fell to 17,548 from 19,709. Bike SA fell to 23,425 from 28,955. Speed and Sound fell to 40,932 from 42,318. Leisure Wheels – down to 18,035 from 24,498.

Other circulation jumps and declines

SA Hunter/Jagter climbed to 38,616 from 35,155 and African Pilot climbed to 36,756 from 33,039. Compleat Golfer fell to 14,380 from 20,376. Getaway fell to 45,347 from 54,519 and Weg/Go declined slightly to 73,949 from 75,781.

Fair Lady … actually up (yeah we checked twice)! Kuier through the roof.

Cosmo is up to 86,885 from 81,406 while Elle is up to 43,820 from 38,891. Fair Lady, after what felt like a never ending descent – is up to 57,522 from 48,789. Good Housekeeping / Goeie Huishouding is up to 70,932 from 59,814. New weekly Grazia came in at 23,182 (up from 20,745 in Q3 2012). Ideas/Idees up to 91,905 from 88,452. Kuier up to 94,926 from 58,672 (and 78,896 in Q3 2012). Marie Claire up to 41,137 from 37,439 (with over 11 000 freebies). Real magazine is up to 54,055 from 50,890.

Rooi Rose kept stead at 112,381 (112,905 previous corresponding period) while Sarie fell quite dramatically to under 100 000 (to 93,473 from 114,452)

Destiny declined to 27,822 from 30,082 and spare a thought for Essentials down to 33,681 from 41,406. Finesse down to 72,661 from 77,175. Glamour down to 71,096 from 79,601. Move fell to 113,500 from 136,766. Soul is down to 38,508 from 46,959. True Love – 68,146 from 81,963. Your Family fell to 53,363 from 67,480. Finesse fell to 72,661 from 77,175.

The MarkLives Big Magazine list*

1. Huisgenoot 270,310 –
2. YOU 155,125 –
3. Drum 118,793 +1
4. Move 113,500 -1
5. Rooi Rose 112,381 –
6. Woman and Home 100,310 +2
7. Bona 97,190 new in top10
8. Kuier 94,926 new in top10
9. Sarie 93,473 – 3
10. Ideas/Idees 91,905 -3

Cosmopolitan 86,885 out of Top 10 (prev no 9)
People 85,978 out of Top 10 (prev no 10)
Tuis/Home 82,430
CAR 81,114

* By total circulation. Must have a cover price. Annuals Excluded.
Movement on the Big Magazine list compared to 2012 Q3 data.

For the latest ABC figures for newspapers see ABC figures for Q4 2012 show the massive challenges facing Survé at the Indie by Gill Moodie

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Design Indaba 2013: The work of Nicholas Hlobo

Design Indaba 2013 Nicholas Hlobo is a Johannesburg based artist whose work was included on La Triennale 2012 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and on the 18th Biennale of Sydney. He was the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2009 and the Rolex Visual Arts Protégé for 2010/11. Hlobo is a speaker at the annual Design Indaba conference currently taking place in Cape Town. This is a collection of some of his work. All images are courtesy of the artist and the Stevenson Gallery (Cape Town and Johannesburg).

iimpundulu zonke impundulu ziyandilalndela
2011
Rubber, ribbon and mixed media
225 x 460 x 3125cm
Sound recorded by Ndindodwa, Izulu lindila.band, Duration 23 min, 25 sec

Gqabhuza
2012
Mixed media on Belgian linen canvas
180 x 120cm

Ingangamsha
2012
Mixed media on Belgian linen canvas
150 x 100cm

Ugqatso
2012
Mixed media on Belgian linen canvas
120 x 180cm

Imnkile
2012
Mixed media on Belgian linen canvas
120 x 180cm

Balindile II
2012
Inner rubber tube, ribbon, hosepipe, steel
160 x 50 cm (dimensions variable)

Tyaphaka
2012
Rubber, ribbon, hosepipe and packaging material
300 x 400 x 30 000cm
Installation view of the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012) at Cockatoo Island. Photograph:
Sebastian Kriete

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Design Indaba 2013: John Maeda on the dissipating disconnect between art and technology

by Herman Manson (@marklives) John Maeda (@johnmaeda) describes himself as a “humanist technologist.” Through his love for art and technology, and his belief that together they can advance technology that acknowledges our humanity, Maeda has emerged as an important thinker in our approach to both.

Currently president of Rhode Island School of Design, Maeda is a leading proponent for expanding our focus from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to STEAM (by adding Art).

Formerly a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he has published five books including The Laws of Simplicity (2006) and is an acknowledged artist and graphic designer. Maeda also sits on the board of ad agency Wieden+Kennedy amongst others.

Maeda is visiting South Africa as a speaker at the annual Design Indaba conference taking place Feb 27 – March 1. MarkLives spoke to him prior to his arrival in South Africa.

Tell me more about the importance of being a “humanist technologist.”

I consider myself a humanist technologist – which is how I describe caring about the nature of being human, and the nature of technology, and reconciling those. It’s important because today it’s technology that connects people, but it’s people that matter. Design is key in that reconciliation.

How can we carry over our need for simpler, more tactile experiences, to a digitised environment?

The Web is a technology that would have no meaning without the context of human expression. Computers should be a more emotional experience. When people say imperfect, they may be thinking “flawed.” When I consider the term imperfect, to me it means that something has more taste – like an older building. When something is brand new there is little feeling, no taste. It’s perfect—but it does not feel real.

This tactile experience, this feeling, must carry over to the digitized environment for that environment to connect with humans. Technology is wonderful, but we’ve been stuck in an infinite loop. We can look to design to understand the power of this technology – which lies within the relationship between form and content. It takes the possibilities to the next level – ironically, back to humanity. Artistic and design thinking and practice – grounded in humanity and dirty hands – gives technology the nuance, depth, and texture it lacks.

What opportunities exist for greater collaboration between art (and artists) and technology (and technologists) and how can it impact on the work they create?

Collaboration potential abounds. All it takes is creativity and imagination to see where and how they intersect, where the sum effect can become even greater than the parts. For the past several years, I have been arguing that we need to add the “A” for Art to turn STEM to STEAM. Art and design are needed to maintain economic competitiveness in this new century, and to generate new innovations.

STEAM is gaining traction as a movement in U.S. government and research circles as well. A U.S. House Resolution, introduced by Representative Jim Langevin “Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that adding art and design into federal programs that target Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, encourages innovation and economic growth in the US.”

Culturally speaking, there’s been a disconnect between art and technology that is dissipating. Twenty years ago when I was talking about software as art to museum folks, they ran me out of their houses (literally). Now, institutions like the Guggenheim may hold a symposium on software as art, and we think nothing of it. Gradually, change is happening.

Our Digital + Media program at RISD takes a conceptual approach to using technology as a creative medium. The students’ work is deeply varied. As an example, student Sang Un Jeon (DM 2013) is both an artist and designer, who performs social network and media reflection in unexpected material forms. He recently created a visualization of the Internet itself as a city, in the form of a keyboard. Also, Clement Valla, a RISD alum who now teaches in the department, did something last year that was a new and different intersection between art and technology: Postcards from Google Earth.

Last year in Wired you wrote “Design is no longer the killer differentiator”. What is then?

Art. It goes beyond the technology, beyond the design, and speaks to us as humans. Design can be used to communicate complex information, visualize huge data sets – and then the artistic approach takes it one step further to make us care enough to do something about it. Scientific data shows global warming. But how do we get people to care? Art. The critical thinking of artists and designers when added to STEM leads to new discovery, innovation and action.

How would you describe your leadership style and what do you think are the keys to effective leadership.

I would describe it as “Creative leadership.” The traditional organizational hierarchy has been disrupted, and has been replaced with what I call a “heterarchy,” where power resides everywhere. It can sometimes be awkward. Traditional leaders wants to be right, to avoid mistakes. Creative leaders hope to be right, to learn from mistakes. It’s an ambiguous space, and artists and designers have a lot to teach us here. Leadership and connecting people in this new world, where anyone can “friend” the CEO, is really a design challenge of sorts. It’s the challenge of the leader to find connections, and design can help.

How can the arts be made relevant in such a socially unequal society as you find in South Africa?

Art gives us hope, it allows us to imagine beyond our constraints. Creativity and economic prosperity are bound, and if you are bold enough to have a vision and take risks, you can make a difference anywhere in the world.

We have examples on www.stemtosteam.org – case studies from RISD and beyond – of art and design combining with other disciplines to create social change and address global issues.

STEM to STEAM: Join the Movement from STEM to STEAM on Vimeo.

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Design Indaba 2013: Masashi Kawamura on merging storytelling with technology

By Herman Manson (@marklives) Design Indaba 2013 Masashi Kawamura (@masakawa), one of Fast Company’s “100 most creative people in business 2012,” is visiting Cape Town as a guest speaker at the annual Design Indaba conference.

The nod from Fast Company is just one of many – Kawamura seem to have won a near endless stream of awards and accolades. Currently

creative director at ‘creative lab’ PARTY (which he co-founded) Kawamura is well known for his music videos featuring deceptively simple tech with which he achieves extraordinary results.

MarkLives caught up with Kawamura before he arrived in Cape Town.

MarkLives: How did you enter the design world and then get into advertising?

Masashi Kawamura: I never studied design, but used to study coding until I met my mentor Masashiko Sato at University. He didn’t teach how to design, but more about creative thinking. I collaborated with him at his lab on design projects such as the 3D picture book “Arbitrary Point P” and TV show “Pythagora Switch,” and that got me hooked on design and film. From there I went on to work in a Japanese agency called Hakuhodo as my first proper job. Advertising felt like a right place to use my skills in meaningful ways, and hopefully transform the streets, TVs, and computer screens into a more fun place.

MarkLives: You explore creativity in different mediums beyond advertising. How does this impact on your commercial work creatively?

Kawamura: To me this is very natural, because the idea always comes first before the medium and purpose. I don’t necessary separate advertising work from all the other [work], because I believe that I work in a wider area of designing communication, but I do feel that there are so many different ways to do this more efficiently than just the traditional methods of “advertising.” Because of the various mediums I’ve worked on, I feel I can be more liberated from these confines and rules of advertising.

Another important thing about “doing your own thing” is that you train yourself to find the problem that needs to be solved yourself. I define design as solving problems, and many times, it’s more difficult to find this problem than to solve it. When you work on advertising, many times you are given the problem from the client or the planner in the form of a brief. But many times, the real problem actually lies somewhere else, and the creatives must find this by themselves in order to create truly effective and entertaining solutions. By working on my own projects, I feel I am constantly training the skills to find these problems by myself, which helps me to convince our clients to look at the issues they may have overlooked.

MarkLives: I know you did ‘Hibi no neiro’ (by Sour) a while ago but I still think it’s amazing. How did that video change your career and why do you think the response has been so phenomenal?

Kawamura: This was the first project that I consciously tried to merge storytelling with technology, which kind of became my signature style. I think the response was great for several reasons. It had the right amount of technology (video chat) but I didn’t want to make it too tech driven, and tried to maintain the raw human touch. It visualized the “social connection” that everyone was feeling but wasn’t expressed in this manner before. I guess also the fact that it was done for $0 added to the myth behind the video. The video definitely changed my career, and gave me more chances to explore my skill as a film director, which I serve in about half of my projects.

MarkLives: You really play around with technology in your work. Has it become a bit of a trademark?

Kawamura: I guess so, but I don’t want the technology to overpower the craft and storytelling. You don’t have to use the latest technology unless the concept demands it. The work should never become a tech demo, and I always try to be careful about it. What I like to do is to merge the analog with the digital. Using the digital technology, I want to enhance the human connections and emotions somehow.

MarkLives: Tell us about the creative processes you experiment with at PARTY.

Kawamura: We pride ourselves as a creative lab, where we constantly experiment with the way we make things. This is a benefit of being a small company. One example is that we work in pairs of Creative Director and Tech Director, instead of Copywriters and Art Directors. Both are responsible to come up with ideas, but one is in charge of the storytelling and craft, and other is in charge of the technology and feasibility. With this team, we prototype the hell out of our ideas to make sure we have the best combination of engaging story, and innovative use of technology.

MarkLives: Which of more recent work/projects have you found particularly exciting and why?

Kawamura: Usually the project I’m currently working on is the most exciting for me, which is for Google, but I can’t tell you the details yet. This will be launching end Feb to beginning March, so hopefully I can share it at Design Indaba.

I think the memorable projects are “Backseat Driver” and [the] androp [music video] “Bright Siren.” The Backseat Driver was the first project we did as PARTY. I remember coming up with the idea on a cab from Manhattan to JFK on the way back to Tokyo.

It’s a good example of how I enjoy merging the real world with the digital world through using simple technology like GPS.

The “Bright Siren” was also the first music video I made at PARTY, and we controlled 250 cameras & strobes to create a light animation. This one’s really memorable, not just because I had to solder 250 cables for 4 nights straight, but also because it’s an example of how we use technology as a tool to invent new experiences. I always say by inventing new ways to make things, the output will always become different. This video feels like a good demonstration of that.

MarkLives: What was the greatest challenge in getting your agency off the ground and what advice would you give creatives wanting to do something similar?

Kawamura: The greatest challenge was, and still is, getting the right people together. There are only so many people that have the right motivation and the right amount of passion to work with us at the pace at which we make things.

I love it when I meet these people whether they are our own staff, or a production partner, or the client. People are what make the magic happen. So my advice is to find good people. And don’t think of things other than “making good work.” The rest will follow as long as you keep on making interesting work.

See more of our Design Indaba 2013 coverage here
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Shelf Life: Red, red wine… and coke?!

Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.

The world’s most famous cookie gets a new pack size; Pakco aims to turn you into a master curry chef; designer commuter shelters provide new brand opps; and a new wine cola drink we’re not quite sure of…

Cookie with a twist

The launch of a new pack size for Oreo cookies was an opportunity for a sampling campaign to allow consumers to experience Oreo’s “twist, lick, dunk” characteristics.

Oreos have long been associated with being dunked in milk to create a unique flavour combination and this is what promoters encouraged consumers to do in supermarkets in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and North West Province. The core aim of the campaign orchestrated by Provantage, was to drive awareness of the new pack sizes: the 44g snack packs in original and chocolate crème; and the 176g family pack.

Another element of the campaign was a dunk and win competition, where consumers had to ‘dunk’ a foam Frisbee in the shape of an Oreo cookie on a game board. Prizes ranged from branded Oreo lunchboxes to branded tumblers.The campaign ran over two months.

Spice up your cooking

Fountainhead Design recently assisted Pakco in repositioning their Curry Made Easy range as an easy to use, pre-made sauce that will bring out the “curry expert in all of us”.

The humorous packaging tone was combined with new photography to ensure the product “jumps off the shelf”. The launch was accompanied by a trade presenter which made use of custom illustration and fun graphics.

New ‘heat icons’ enable customers to choose their degree of curry spice with the ‘Tame but not lame’ mild variant, ‘Spicy but nice’ medium and ‘On the spot’ hot.

Billing themselves as the curry masters since 1948, Pakco want to bring out the internal Master Chef in all of us by showing us how to produce authentic Indian cuisine with a dash of spice.

Designer shelters

Stylish new commuter shelters with advertising incorporated into the shelter design have been launched in Alexandra in Gauteng by Public Transport Media, a JV between Provantage and the Taxi Operating Investment Companies.

They will be rolled out across the Johannesburg municipal transport hub (from Midrand to Ennerdale and Soweto) in spots where additional shelters are needed, before eventually replacing all the current shelters too. They provide an attractive new design to the urban landscape, complete with advertising opportunities for brands.

Advertisers have the opportunity to provide a continuous design on the larger shelter, and on the slimline version, there is the addition of an upright alongside the shelter which allows for additional space for advertising.

Public Transport Media have the branding rights for the next 12 years.

The shelters were manufactured in South Africa and designed by Brian Steinhobel. The whole structure is made from recyclable material and some will be illuminated using solar powered LED lighting technology.

Steinhobel explains that they had to cater for SA conditions and protect people from the elements. “It is cool in there and cool to sit in.”

Inspiration came from the curves of the acacia tree and the protective space of a cave.

“Good design doesn’t happen by mistake. A thousand things have to come together.The most important word in a design like this is ‘appropriate’.

Red, red wine… and coke?!

[This story contains a health warning to readers resident in the Cape winelands. Fit of snobbism highly likely. – ED] Stellen Fine Wines has launched a new sparkling red wine product with cola added, called Colathemba.

They claim to be giving South Africans “a refresher they really want”.

We asked why anyone would want to add coke to red wine?

But apparently this combination is “very popular” in Europe and South America and was originally brought to Africa by the Portuguese and is a favourite mix enjoyed by “many South Africans”, including on student campuses.

While we have yet to meet anyone who would do that to wine – they have listed in Pick ‘n Pay and initial tastings have apparently gone well, with South Africans finding it a refreshing cold drink, says Rudolph du Toit, the company’s marketing and sales manager.

“As a young innovative company, Stellen Fine Wines is leading by example with new, stylish and trend-setting drinks. We jumped at the opportunity to create a sun-kissed cooler with an African twist for the local market. Colathemba is a cooler with a strong South African identity. Themba is the isiZulu word for trust.”

The 8% cooler is marketed in PET bottles with a six-month shelf life and is available in 1litre as well as 1.5 litre bottles, retailing at R14.65 and R20.65 per bottle respectively.

– Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com.

– Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.

Louise Marsland has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25 year media career as a former Editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing; as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the co-founder and Publishing Editor of SA’s newly launched industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.

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Design Indaba 2013 WATCH THE WORK: Masashi Kawamura

Design Indaba 2013 Watch these two innovative music videos produced by Masashi Kawamura for Sour (‘Hibi no neiro’) and androp (‘Bright Siren’).

‘Hibi no neiro’ (by Sour)

‘Bright Siren’ (by androp)

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Design Indaba 2013: Scary Beautiful – what lies beyond perfection

By Herman Manson (@marklives) Design Indaba 2013 Leanie van der Vyver, a South African designer who recently graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, will be participating at the annual Design Indaba Conference (running from Feb 27 – March 1) as part of their Pecha Kucha initiative to give young designers a platform to talk withtheir peers.

She gained international media coverage for her graduation project, Scary Beautiful, which investigates and questions our quest for beauty and how this skews our view of our bodies. The video of the project, in which she made a pair of high heels whilst applying critical design theory, has gained millions of views. We tracked Leanie down before her talk to ask her some questions about the project.

What was the inspiration behind your ‘Scary Beautiful’ project?

Leanie van der Vyver: I worked in fashion for seven years and am well aware of the manipulation images in fashion suffer for a perfect result. I still compare myself to them [those airbrushed images] and other current beauty ideals. My frustration with my own inability to over come these feelings of inadequacy was what brought Scary Beautiful in to fruition.

Trendhunter picked up on your work – pretty cool – but talks about it displaying the ‘grotesque side of beauty’. Was that part of the intention?

The conclusion of my thesis investigation was that people are not satisfied with what they look like and that perfection according to beauty and fashion standards has reached a climax. Humans are playing God by physically and metaphorically perfecting themselves. Beauty is currently at an all time climax, allowing this project to explore what lies beyond perfection. Scary Beautiful challenges current beauty ideals by inflicting unexpected new beauty standards.

It feels less like a fashion project than a comment on how we cosmetically alter our bodies?

I’m going to refer you to the introduction of my thesis: “Just being human is not good enough anymore nor has it ever been. What is very clear is that people are not satisfied with what they were naturally born with. Neither the prehistoric cave dweller nor modern man has ever considered the human body aesthetically satisfactory. It is human nature to want to be more than what we are, and from the beginning of time we have gone to extreme measures to express on the outside how we desire to be perceived. On the surface, we are physically turning into ideal dream versions of ourselves. Being born a certain way is no longer a life sentence. We can choose exactly who we want to be. What are the possibilities of this new God-like control we have over our bodies?

Right now you can truly become more than just yourself, more than human. It’s almost as if we have shifted from reality into fantasy. The sky is the limit when it comes to controlling our own image. Being online is considered a trusted version of yourself. We are behaving as if we have robotic extensions and we can now generate body parts and also have access to the technology to obtain super powers. We now have complete power over our own image and abilities. What is currently being done and where might these God-like powers potentially lead? “

What’s our problem with the way we look?

We have terrible impressions of ourselves fueled by current beauty standards.

Read more of our Design Indaba 2013 coverage here

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TEDActive 2013: Knowing is Obsolete

by James Yeats Smith, filed from TEDActive 2013, Palm Springs. Tuesday, 26 February

Today was the official start of the TED 2013 conference in Long Beach, California that will see more than 72 speakers share their ideas over the next four days.

The campus was twitching with anticipation as over 700 Tedsters in Palm Springs descended on the theatre for the live simulcast and an immersive day of ideas, hypotheses and discussion. There were several impressive presentations ranging from neuroscience to robotics, to the discovery of giant squids, but the recurring theme across all three sessions was undoubtedly the need to redefine education and reinvent the way teachers teach and learners learn.

Academic innovation took center stage in the final session of the day as the revered educationalist and TED super star, Sir Ken Robinson introduced the one million Dollar TEDPrize winner to a rapturous applause from both TED audiences in Long Beach and Palm Springs.

Professor Sugata Mitra, an educational technologist from New Delhi, stepped up and instantly jolted everyone out of their contemplative stupor (15 back to back talks have a way of sucking you deep into your own theoretical vortex) by posing the question; ‘In an age where anything you want to know is a search term away, has knowing become obsolete?’

His hypothesis describes the future of learning as the product of educational self-organization: teachers merely offer a question and then step back and allow the learning to happen organically, championing a curriculum of big questions not a syllabus of facts and formulas. The research that earned him the prize was the product of 15 years of remarkable experiments in the slums of India that culminated in an initiative named SOLE, or Student Owned Learner Engagement. By placing computers in poor areas and leaving the children to their own devices, he proved that Tamil speaking 12 year-olds could teach themselves the fundamental biotechnology of DNA replication, in English, from a street side computer, in six months.

Prof Mitra’s mandate is to build a school in the cloud that not only disrupts the way we’ve been schooled for the last 300 years, but also makes quality education accessible to children from low income families that could otherwise never afford schooling as we know it today. You can read more about his initiative on the TED site.

It’s safe to say the entire conference was unanimous in their endorsement of the winning candidate and the TED community immediately reached out to Prof Mitra with tremendous zeal, making services and resources available to him and his organization.

A paradigm shift in education, indeed. I hope to have a few discussions later this evening on how this can be implemented back home in South Africa and what the most effective way would be to support and implement it.

Time to head out to an Old Town Square Fiesta before returning to La Quinta for something a little lighter; a TEDActive pillow fight, then I’ll hit the sack.

Find what you love and let it kill you. JYS.

– For more stories for TEDActive 2013 be sure to check back tomorrow

– James Yeats Smith is an award winning Creative Director and writer focused on the convergence of marketing, entertainment and technology. He is based between New York, Cape Town & Johannesburg.

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Design Indaba 2013: Oscar Diaz on our innate understanding of objects

By Herman Manson (@marklives) Design Indaba 2013 London based product designer Oscar Diaz (@OscarDiazStudio) has made a name for himself thanks to his innovative and creative work in on a broad range of products and services including furniture, shop window installations (see Alphabet shoes for Terra Plana below) and limited edition objects like his widely lauded RGB vases.

Diaz studied design at the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Bordeaux in France and took an MA in product design at the Royal College of Art in London. Diaz has worked in Japan and the UK.

This week Diaz is in Cape Town to give a talk at the annual Design Indaba Conference (running from Feb 27 – March 1). We tracked him down before his arrival to ask him what draws him to product design.

MarkLives: You started studying fine art but ended up with a Master’s in Product Design at the Royal College of Art in London. What about product design grabbed you?

Diaz: I discovered that people have an innate understanding of objects that they don’t necessarily have when it comes to art. Art is much more hermetic and needs a bit of knowledge to be appreciated.

It was the accessibility of design, which made me want to change field.

MarkLives: Tell us more about your approach to finding design solutions?

Diaz: I usually start by clearly defining the context of the project, and then try to see how can add value on both the cultural and commercial side of the project. I don’t believe in style, and so the first thing for me is to identify why is the project worth doing it.

MarkLives: Collaboration is increasingly a feature in all sorts of design initiatives. Is it something you believe in and actively pursue or do you prefer a more individualist approach to design work?

Diaz: I have collaborated with other designers in the past, especially when I have found their work and expertise could be complementary, but is not something that I pursue actively. It just happens sometimes when things align.

I nevertheless collaborate all the time with people from other fields, engineers, copywriters, craftsmen, wood turners etc.… each one contributing to the end result with their skills.

MarkLives: I read somewhere you still prefer a pen and paper when you formulate your initial design ideas. Is this

significant – I mean does it offer you some advantage going straight onto a computer does not?

Diaz: I like paper because it is immediate, and don’t need to rely on electricity. If I am thinking of an idea it is much quicker to grab a pen and a piece of paper that to open the computer. A drawing on paper encloses also a certain degree of emotion, the thickness of the line and the pressure on the paper can help me record my state of mind, or emphasize a particular feature. The computer lacks that tone of voice.

MarkLives: Who are your design heroes and why?

Diaz: I especially like the work of Bruno Munari, Achille Castiglioni, and Enzo Mari. They all seems to have a sort of “beginner’s mind” approach, which makes their projects obvious yet unexpected. It is like if they knew exactly how to give ideas the space to grow in the right direction.

MarkLives: What is the essence of the talk you are giving at the Design Indaba 2013?

Diaz: I will be mainly taking about my design process. Taking people from the stories behind the initial ideas, to the challenges encountered while making them happen.

For more Design Indaba 2013 coverage click here
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Ad of the week with Oresti Patricios – State of the Nation #brothersunite

MarkLives Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – State of the Nation #brothersunite

Near the Eastern Cape in town of Gcuwa, which used to be known as Butterworth, a 110-year-old, partially-sighted woman is struggling to come to terms with a brutal attack that was perpetrated against her on the night of Saturday 09 February 2013.

Daily Dispatch reported recently that the aged grandmother was alone, sleeping in her mud home in the village of Jojweni when she was raped. “I was sleeping when the man entered my house,” said the granny. “He did not say a word. I just felt his hand reach over my left leg and he pulled me from my bed to the floor. I hit my head against the cement and I started screaming and asked him what he was doing. By then he was on top of me and he put his left hand on my mouth as he used his other hand to undress me,” the grandmother to 21 children, and great-grandmother to six more told Daily Dispatch journalist Zwanga Mukhuthu.

The attacker fled when the grandmother’s family came home. Upon finding her the family told the newspaper that the elderly woman was trembling with fear and shock. “I have lost my appetite, my heart is heavy and I constantly feel like throwing up,” the granny told Mukhuthu. “The medication from the hospital makes me sick,” she added.

The terrible story which featured in Daily Dispatch last week is no anomaly. If you follow the news closely, as I do, your heart is likely to be broken daily with stories of rape committed against our sisters, our mothers, our children; and at times even our brothers or fathers.

Rape has reached epidemic proportions in this country and demands a well-orchestrated, concerted societal response. We need to understand what drives rape, and what can intelligently be done to rid our country of this heinous scourge.

That’s why I was so heartened this week to hear about the work that Joe Public are doing to support Brothers for Life, an organisation launched in 2009 to address issues of gender-based violence together with other issues related to health, sex and violence.

A collaborative effort led by heavyweight health and civic activists, those backing this initiative include South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), the Department of Health, USAID/PEPFAR, Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), Sonke Gender Justice, UNICEF, IDMT, the United Nations System in South Africa and more than forty other civil society partners working in the field of HIV prevention and Health.

A new ad created by Joe Public for Brothers for Life (@_B4L_ )shockingly reveals statistics showing that some 18 women were likely to be raped during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, which ironically took place on Valentine’s Day, Monday 14 February 2013 this year.

What’s important about this ad is that it is not just about awareness, but is backed by a campaign that is demanding that men no longer be silent about the rape epidemic, and that they seek help from the Stop Gender Based Violence helpline (0800 150 150) if they are emotionally, physically or sexually abusive.

The advert is simple, yet striking. A full page ad that featured in the Sunday Times, it shows text of Zuma’s State of the Nation Address in clear black, and white type, but then is interspersed periodically with the words ‘1 woman’ in white type, reversed on red. The effect is as visually arresting as it is disturbing.

The advert ends with a strong statement, which reads: “During this state of the nation address, 18 women were raped in South Africa. What does that say about the state of this nation?” In that sentence the words “18 women” appear in white type on a red background.

The campaign features the hashtag #brothersunite to create a social media platform that can draw all people, not just brothers, into a conversation to try and target gender-based violence.

Joe Public need to be congratulated for taking on this work, something that some commercial brands might shy away from because of the sensitivities and controversies that surround rape in South Africa. Rape, however, has reached such epidemic proportions that society can no longer disengage. We need to consult intelligently with experts in the field, and civic organisations that have long waged war on gender violence, to see what contributions can be made.

But then Gareth Leck and Pepe Marais have always taken a smart approach to social development, and the advertising agency is behind the One School At A Time initiative that helped realise a change in the Matric pass rate at Forte High School from 52% in 2007 to 82% in 2011. The idea behind this project is to adopt a school and then turn that school around, and then replicate the system to other schools.

Speaking about the ad, Joe Public’s Executive Creative Director Xolisa Dyeshana (@XolisaDyeshana) said: “A woman is raped every four minutes in South Africa and our rate of sexual violence is amongst the highest in the world.”

Dyeshana said the agency’s aim is to unite South African men as people who actively oppose violence against women and children. “After all,” she said, “alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much.” Dyeshana is of course right. This is not a women’s problem that must be solved by women. This is a human tragedy that we all need to do something about now.

Ad of the Week is published on MarkLives every Wednesday. See past selections here.
Oresti Patricios is the CEO of brand and reputation analysis company Ornico.

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