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While the pyramids of Egypt are recognised around the world, much of Africa's architecture remains unknown - something architects Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa hope to change.

They are part of the team that has recently published the seven-volume Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa. Their in-depth study encompasses buildings from earlier eras, the colonial period - like the recently renovated railway station (above) built in Senegal's capital, Dakar, in 1910 - to more modern masterpieces.

Here are 12 of the most innovative, historic and iconic entries:

1) Kasubi Tombs, Uganda - 1882

Covering hectares of agricultural land in Uganda's capital, Kampala, the Royal Complex at Kasubi is the burial place of monarchs of the Buganda Kingdom. It was predominantly built from wood and other organic materials. The interior is designed to replicate a sacred forest and is topped with 52 circular rings to represent each of the 52 Buganda clans.

Mukasa, who was born in Uganda, visited the tombs for the first time when he was 10 years old. "It was stunning," he told the BBC. "Not just the scale of it, but the entire grandeur of the building.

"[It] was constructed in the late 19th Century before the introduction of modern materials, using traditional centuries-old methods. I felt that the building had a presence. When you were inside it, it dominated you."

2) Lideta Market, Ethiopia - 2017

A contemporary entry, this shopping centre was built in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, with lightweight concrete.

The considered design includes a perforated façade that controls the flow of natural light and ventilation within.

Moreover, the cut-out pattern decorating the building's gleaming white shell imitates a traditional Ethiopian fabric.

3) Hikma Complex, Niger - 2018

Architecture studio Atelier Masōmī's Nigerien founder, Mariam Kamara, restored a former Hausa mosque that had fallen into disrepair, adding a community space and library.

Compressed-earth bricks make up the majority of the building with materials mostly sourced from within 5km (three miles) of the site in the village of Dandaji.

For Dalbai, the project is particularly impressive for its seamless blend of old and new.

"It's clearly a contemporary building that is deeply rooted in Nigerien tradition," the German architect told the BBC. "Not only culturally, but also technically because it relies on old traditional building techniques and materials."

Known as the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Maropeng is a state-of-the-art visitors' centre designed to help people learn about the early development of modern humans.

This iconic structure was designed by South African firms GAPP Architects and MMA Studio.

The building itself resembles a burial mound rising from the earth in a design that appears truly integrated with nature.

The oldest entry in the guide are these step-sided pyramids, which date back to 3,000BC, located around 200km (125 miles) from Sudan's capital, Khartoum, in Meroë in the Nile Valley.

This Unesco World Heritage Site was once the capital of the ancient Kushite empire and excavations revealed the remains of palaces, temples and royal baths.

The pyramids of this burial site were built with sandstone blocks, while elaborate reliefs are etched within their interiors.

In Lesotho, "litema" is a mural decoration involving engraving, mosaic and relief elements on the facades of houses. Built with earth brick and plaster, this house is painted in the traditional colours of red ochre to symbolise the blood of fertility and sacrifice, white to represent purity and peace, and black to reference the ancestors and the promise of rain symbolised by "dark rain clouds".

"Basotho houses have always been of interest to me in the way that they stand out in the landscape - the use of colours and the use of geometric shapes," says Mukasa.

"I always found it interesting that people would use what was around them to turn a rudimentary structure into a piece of art."

This library is often cited as one of the key works of what is known as "tropical modernism".

It was built during a period when patterned sunscreens had risen in popularity, drawing inspiration from Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier's use of "brise-soleil" - an architectural feature of a building that reduces heat within a building by deflecting sunlight.

The building was designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, who were pioneers of the Modern Movement in England. The library is part of the University of Ibadan campus - founded by the British colonial authorities in 1948 - and became an influential model for climate responsive architecture in the sub-region.

A monument to Islam, the Great Mosque is the largest earth-built structure in the world. The mosque is a symbol of the city of Djenné, which flourished as a centre of commerce between 800 and 1250.

The building's smooth sculpted walls are constructed with sun-baked earth bricks, sand and earth-based mortar and a coat of plaster.

Each year, residents of the city communally re-plaster the mosque during a one-day event known as the Crépissage de la Grand Mosquée (Plastering of the Great Mosque).

This palace is located in Ethiopia's northern city of Gondar, within a fortified compound known as the "Fasil Ghebbi" (Royal Enclosure).

The site includes some 20 palaces, royal buildings, elaborately decorated churches, monasteries and unique buildings.

The design of these buildings were influenced by the baroque style brought to Gondar by Jesuit missionaries.

10) Dominican Chapel, Nigeria -1973

Artist Demas Nwoko blends sculptural elements and modernity with a Nigerian vernacular style of architecture in this reimagined Dominican chapel in Ibadan.

The structure incorporates features such as carved timber columns and elaborate metalwork on the balustrades and gates.

Mukasa says it marked a radical break from the modernist movement that had cemented itself on the African continent to a means of expression that was "homegrown and derived from local culture".

11) Great Mosque, Benin - 1912-1935

This mosque in Benin's capital, Port-Novo, is a striking example of Afro-Brazilian architecture built in the style of 17th and 18th Century churches in the north-eastern Brazilian state of, Bahia. The colour palette of bright yellow, brown, green and blue are reminiscent of Bahia's historic architecture.

Along the West African coast, it is one of many Afro-Brazilian mosques built in the early 20th Century by returning descendants of freed slaves.

"It shows the many layers that are specific to western Africa's architectural heritage - the intercontinental connections between Europe, South America and the West African coast in the bay of Benin at a time when there were many exchanges," says Dalbai.

Located in a rocky landscape within Mapungubwe National Park, this centre won South African architect Peter Rich the 2009 World Building of the Year Award at the World Architecture Festival.

The celebrated design is constructed with "a long-forgotten vaulting technique that bricklayers from North Africa took to Catalonia, and which was used by architects such as Antoni Gaudi", according to Rich.

Mud bricks were formed using soil from the construction site and only 5% of additional cement to create a clay mixture.

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Around the BBC

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Africa's iconic architecture in 12 buildings

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While the pyramids of Egypt are recognised around the world, much of Africa's architecture remains unknown - something architects Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa hope to change. They are part of the team that has recently published the seven-volume Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Graphéine - Agence de communication Paris Lyon

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Making a good impression

At first glance, graphic design is rarely related to Africa. For cultural and historical reasons. The importance of the oral tradition and the recent dominance of European languages by colonialism led to the idea that African languages as a whole had no written forms or that they had been designed very recently.

We usually associate the origin of graphic design with the discovery of Gutenberg printing process back in the fifteenth century. Lacking sufficient printing and industrial structures, the printed materials were never really able to bloom in Africa. Therefore, the Roman alphabet and with it the entire Western graphics have been spread in African cities through advertising.

From Ghana's Adinkra symbols that are centuries old, to geometric decorations painted on the walls of houses by South African women... through the alphabets designed in the early twentieth century in Guinea to the patterns of wax fabrics worn in West Africa, the African continent is actually filled with writing systems and designs of its own. A new generation is emerging thanks to this graphic legacy and the impulse of Saki Mafundikwa. For the record, we took the opportunity to talk about his TED conference in our playlist.

Evolve or die !

In 1997, Saki Mafundikwa puts an end to his brilliant career as a designer in New York and flies back to his native Zimbabwe to open the first graphic design school and new media of the country: ZIVA (Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts). Clearly underlined by the slogan "Evolve or die" on the school site home page, his ambition is nothing less than to initiate an "African renaissance". As he recounts in detail in his book Afrikan alphabets (check out his TED conference, on the ingenuity and elegance of the ancient African characters), the African continent is full of alphabetical scripts, syllabic hieroglyphics, ideograms, either very old or newer.

We know better where we go when we know where we come from. It is probably with this saying in mind that the Zimbabwean designer crossed Africa from East to West, in search of those records. He followed the footsteps of the African diaspora beyond the Atlantic, to Cuba and South America. Some alphabets he transcribed are very old, such as the Tifinagh of the Tuareg people.

Above: Afrikan alphabets book cover - Graphic design of the music album "Proud to be afrikan" by Saki Mafundikwa.

Above: ZIVA School's website home page. The school was founded by Saki Mafundikwa.

To learn more about Saki Mafundikwa and his practice of typography, check out his interview on Another Africa.

Here's a chosen extract:

"I see Afrikan alphabets offering a breath of fresh air that can rescue the Roman alphabet from the vagaries of style and trends. As a typographer, and more importantly as a designer, I am in the business of the creation and peddling of 'Beauty'. [...] Afrikan alphabets offer a more aesthetically pleasing perspective and alternative. The deconstructionists could care less about 'legibility' instead they care more about the "expressive" nature of typography. Afrikan alphabets straddle those two extremes comfortably."

And here are some examples of alphabets transcribed by Saki Mafundikwa in his book Afrikan alphabets:

T for Tuaregs and Tifinagh

Tifinagh is an ancient form of Berber script used by the Tuareg from Algeria and Libya, to write the Tamashek language. Originally composed of consonants only, vowels were lately added. Written words follow each others without spaces in-between, and can be read either vertically or horizontally. Their geometric outline allows them to be set in stone or secretly drawn in a hand palm. From one region to another, the Tifinagh characters are slightly different, each group using specific characters. The text below was written by Aboubacar Allal, a goldsmith Tuareg from Niger that Mafundikwa met in New York.

For a deeper approach, the French typographer Pierre Di Sciullo designed between 1995 and 2003 four fonts that allow to transcribe Tifinagh: the .

The Bambara alphabet

The Bambara alphabet was transcribed by Woyo Couloubay around 1930. This language is spoken by more than 3 million people in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.

Nsibidi alphabet (South Nigeria)

Dating back from the eighteenth century, the Nsibidi script was originally invented by Ejagham people from south Nigeria. This language has been developed prior to the "Ekpe men" or "Leopard" secret societies. The signs are engraved on objects or painted on clothing using the bogolan technique (dyeing technique based on a decoction of birch leaves, mpécou bark, fermented mud and a mixture of soap and chlorine).

Syllabic Loma alphabet

This alphabet, meant to be read from left to right, was created in the 30s by Wido Zobo Liberia.

Vaï alphabet

Listed in 1820 by Dualu Bukele, it is based on signs used by the elderly added to different pictograms used in certain rituals. The Vaï alphabet comes from Liberia and Sierra Leone regions. It contains 190 phonemes (a phoneme is the smallest sound unit of a language spoken). On a side note, transcripts of the Bible and the Koran into Vaï have allowed the diffusion / assimilation of new monotheistic religions throughout Liberia, that are today practiced by around 105 000 Vaï people.

Bantu / Ndélélé alphabet

The pictorial writing system of the Ndebele is quite similar to the Bantu alphabet, and come from Southern Africa. Ndelélé women are known to use this system to skillfully decorate their house walls, mixing highly colorful symbols and geometric patterns. Their houses and by extension their culture, is now classified cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Recently these patterns have been declined on all types of contemporary objects or have been used as graphical object to create visual identities.

These non-profit objects reflect a willingness to adapt symbols assigned to a specific culture into a kind of graphic quote for new contemporary media.

Above: Creation of the visual identity for beauty products line by Cécile Johanet : " I wanted to graphically dig this track and I proposed a young entrepreneur who makes natural cosmetics for Afro hair and skins to integrate these symbols in the visual identity of the brand."

Adinkra alphabet (Western Africa)

Some Adinkra ideograms were discovered engraved on tiny gold weight used by the Ashanti, long before colonization, making it difficult to put a date on their origins.

Still used today, these signs are associated with proverbs, sayings, recommendations, which constitute the cornerstone of the Ashanti culture. These can be: advice on education, sustainability (how to use the long-term natural resources), politics with the definition of democracy or the sharing of wealth. Symbols are classified according to their graphic meanings.

In Ghana, Vodafone borrows local traditional signs by decorating sim cards and shops using Adinkra symbols.

Facebook post from Vodafone Ghana, inviting locals to answer a quizz on Adinkras. Doesn't this symbol remind you of the Carrefour logo ?

Today, African designers readapt these symbols to create local business logos. Conversely, international firms use these cultural landmarks as decorative trim on their products to meet the local market. This usurpation of traditional symbols by multinationals engages some rising resistance from local people ...

In big cities and small villages in Ghana, some companies allow themselves to use the walls of private homes and community spaces for their own advertising. In many cases, they vaguely promise of small amount of money or free mobile phones to the families.
The public space, once belonging to communities and families, is now privatized with logos that significantly alter the urban landscape.

Charlie Michael took action in this context. He stamped once again over a home facade with a series of Adinkra symbols in an arrangement that imitates the Vodafone logo. This subversive act claims ownership of private space by the inhabitants.

Below: Logotypes of three Ghanaian banks inspired from Adinkra symbols.

Direct diaspora (Africans living outside Africa) and indirect (several generations descendants) were the first to use Adrinka ideograms in their communication.

Today Adrinka, Bantoun, Ndélélé and other acronyms are considered as "African pictograms." Since 2010 the website thenounproject.com collects and compiles visual communication symbols just as an image bank. Many graphic designers from various countries play a part in this project.

Above: The effigy of Jacques Chirac on a wax cotton shirt. Personal collection from Bonjour Bintou

Wax is the new black

It's impossible to speak about African graphic design without mentioning wax cotton. This alternative visual language is very popular on the continent. It offers a variety of patterns printed with wax technique on fabric measured in loincloth (1 loincloth = 1 yard of fabric).
Originally designed and produced in Indonesia, wax cotton was brought over by the renowned Dutch company Vlisco in the XXth century. These loincloth rapidly got close to the heart of African women, thus making its distribution easier throughout the continent. Fast enough, patterns evolved with African habits and customs, narrating History, political life, social relations, saying etc...

It's almost impossible to guess who's behind this or that design. However, experts can usually shed light on their meaning when needed. These patterns depict daily life objects, symbols, animals or even leading figures such as singers, religious icons (Jesus, Maria, priests, saints) or presidents (François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande have their own wax cotton pattern).
Each region has a meaning of its own; this symbol or animal can illustrate a saying in a country but a quality in another. Vlisco invites wax cotton connoisseurs on their participative website to unveil the meaning and stories of deep buried symbols with uncertain origins.

For a long time, Beninese and Togolese women sold wax loincloth on the market. Taking advantage of the growing craze for wax cotton, some of them made a fortune and were able to show off in Mercedes, earning the nickname " mama benz ".

Above: 1/ Roller skates. 2/ Pattern inspired by an advertisement for Korean Airlines, in which the outline of a plane stands out from the sky and tree branches bloom over the moon. 3/ Pompi togo. 4/ Obama tree. 5/ Myriam Makeba, south-african singer. 6/ The head of family holding a baby and a young boy in his arms, siblings at his feet (3 girls in red coats, the eldest boy standing on the left). 7/ Detail of a Korean Airlines loincloth: the swallows symbolize luck, and the pattern alternatively means in Togo 'asking a favor', such as a young woman's hand. This pattern is also known as "Air Afrique" because it was used for the uniforms of Air Afrique air hostesses. 8/ Buses.

Wax cotton is used to create everyday and special occasion clothes. Some people, mainly the young ones, usually go for international/occidental clothing (jeans, T-shirts) but when comes a special occasion they certainly put on they wax garment. For wedding or funerals, the inviting family chooses the leading pattern design which will be used. The guests are then expected to use these wax designs on their specially crafted outfits.

Dressmakers demonstrate great skills in making dresses, suits, tunics, suits, trousers, etc. It must be for this reason that one can find a couturier on each street corner in Western Africa!

Nowadays, wax is starting to gain more and more of non-African designers' attention. Patterns on furniture, leather goods, shoes, jewels and everyday life objets (cars, phone cases etc) are becoming increasingly frequent.

Above: "So wax Chateau Rouge" collection from Merci.

Above: As a nod to wax, 'Les couleurs du Pont de Flandres' association painted a large fresco with wax patterns in Cambrai street, in district 19, Paris. This wall painting was created to celebrate the opening of the new RER station; Rosa Parks.

Below: Panafrica shoes, a french brand committed to Fair Trade which uses wax as main material.

Through their meanings, with their colors and designs, these wax patterns are extremely rich. All the more so as they constantly evolve, encompassing elements of contemporary African daily life. Cellphones, fans and computers have already been part of wax design for a decade.
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Afropolis

One year ago, the Vitra Design Museum dedicated a profuse exhibition on contemporary design techniques in Africa: Making Africa - A continent of Contemporary Design. In this daring exhibition, artists, designers, researchers and intellectuals illustrated that Africa is once again a land of innovation.

In 2050, a quarter of the population will live in Africa. It's the most dynamic region in the world in terms of growth and mobile phones market. Not so long ago Africa had a limited access to technology. Nowadays, the digital revolution is an open door to the continent.

This exhibition helped to take a fresh look at contemporary design in Africa. Far from being solely limited to handcrafting productions for exotic purposes, Africa now stands as an experimental land of new approaches and solutions spread worldwide.

Above: Some artworks showcased at the Vitra Design Museum.

Pierre Christophe Gam is an ambassador of this new generation. Considered as the designer of the "African renaissance", he graciously combines many roots : Egypto-Chadian on his mother's side, an African art collector, and Franco-Cameroonian on his father's side, a diplomat.

To embody this new Africa, Pierre-Christophe Gam finds his inspiration from his designer/set-designer experience in the luxury industry in London, Beijing or Bangkok, for Kenzo, Maison Martin Margiela, or the design agency Emotion (a Publicis subsidiary). Graduated from Central Saint Martins School (the famous Arts and Design London-based school), his inspiration comes from his journeys in Asia where he discovered manga art and more broadly the effusive oriental artistic contemporary scene.

In 2002 he renewed with his roots during a 7 months old travel, ending up in Cameroun, his ancestors' land. Thirty years old at that time, the young man started an artistic project which still continues to this day: Afropolis, an "Afropolitan" virtual city, symbol of the renewal of a continent where contemporary artistic creation blossoms without restraints. From fashion to music clips, aesthetic codes combine African-Asian cultures in bright graphic references.

There is not enough Africa in computers

While writing this article a famous quote of Brian Eno comes to my mind, " There is not enough Africa in computers ". He stated so in an interview for Wired in 1995, when asked to share his view on the future of electro music.

"Do you know what I hate about computers? The problem with computers is that there is not enough Africa in them. This is why I can't use them for very long. Do you know what a nerd is? A nerd is a human being without enough Africa in him or her. I know this sounds sort of inversely racist to say, but I think the African connection is so important. You know why music was the center of our lives for such a long time? Because it was a way of allowing Africa in. In 50 years, it might not be Africa; it might be Brazil. But I want so desperately for that sensibility to flood into these other areas, like computers."

Nigerian born artist Above: Laolu Senbanjo takes his inspiration from Yoruba tribal art.

The end of exoticism?

Once fashion trend or marketing strategy, it seems that African influence is back. It would be valuable that we, European designers, start considering African creation out of the exotic prism. Nowadays, with the rise of the digital craze, things are starting to change. Young people start to have more and more interest for graphic design and end up developing their own peculiar style.
This new generation gives birth to symbols, patterns... a whole traditional graphic culture. This new creativity deserves our greatest respect, and we welcome this new inspiring approach.

Above: Dicky Jr is a multimedia designer from Nairobi, Kenya. His Adobe Creative Suite splash screens are inspired from african patterns.

Black is beautiful

To conclude this article, we most welcome the editorial initiative of the Danish design studio Waait which created the magazine . This project grew out of two ideas combined together: cutting edge design innovation comes from Africa, and all design styles are crucial to create a brighter future.

Ogojiii brings together African communities from fashion, architecture, crafts and digital design backgrounds together in a web acting as a catalyst for entrepreneurship innovation dynamics. Ogojiii aims at revealing a new African élite wanting to enhance design perspectives as a lever for action for companies and industry.

To put the icing on the cake, this magazine is splendid on bothform and substance. Sadly, it is quite hard to find in newsstands.
If, like me, you've had a crush on this magazine, I'd recommend you to buy it directly online.

You can learn more on this editorial project, and about the origin of its mysterious name in the video below:

Illustrations for Ogojiii magazine by Russell Abrahams, South-African designer.

Below: Font created by studio Waait for Ogojiii magazine

"Afri-typographic" inspiration

Martin Mirucah, student of Saki Mafundikwa based in Kenya, conceived the playful Mistari font. We took inspiration from his work to develop this quite Afri-graphic clip: Graphéine Say Africa !

We trully hope this topic will give you the taste to study more deeply the richness of graphic design in Africa, and who knows, you might be inspired for your next creations?

Credits:Writing: Cécile Johanet / Jérémie Fesson
Re-reading and translation: Tiphaine Guillermou
Motion: Philip De Canaga

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Graphic design in Africa. From the first alphabets to contemporary issues.

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As a child, drawing captivated Kobie Nieuwoudt. Her parents and educators praised her skills as a young artist, which prompted her to pursue a career in illustration.

After she completed a degree in graphic design from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Niewoudt said the exposure to the commercial side of design through studying was invaluable. Despite the education in design, she still felt "voiceless" in the world of art. She had hoped that her years at university would cultivate her artistic voice.

Niewoudt believes that having a particular style is beneficial when approaching potential clients for work, as they know exactly what to expect. On the other hand, being versatile is personally rewarding. It all depends on who your target audience is, Niewoudt says.

Illustration was essentially a personal outlet for her during her studies, "a means to escape the formal requirements of commercial design briefs" Niewoudt says. Encouragement to further her passion for drawing came from a lecturer at CPUT and Niewoudt, enrolled in a post-graduate course in illustration at the University of Stellenbosch. This decision allowed her to experiment and develop her voice as an artist. "Looking back, I now enjoy the illustration for the same reasons as when I was a child, for the solace and focus it provides," says Niewoudt.

In her latest series of illustrations and GIFs, called "The Performative Nature of Tsotsitaal", she explores the communicative nature of "Tsotsitaal" - the language used by gangsters in South Africa's townships. She illustrates the various terms used between youths in the townships and explores the social functions this slang-based language serves in contemporary South Africa.

For Niewoudt, the way in which people communicate verbally and non-verbally is immensely interesting.

Growing up in an Afrikaans household, Niewoudt wanted to investigate a form of communication that differs greatly from the culture and language she knows. She also wanted to communicate it through a medium she knows well.

Alongside her favourite mediums like pencil sketches, gouache and collages, Niewoudt added a digital medium to her repertoire after she was introduced to

GIF making. "I usually give myself the challenge to create an expressive, entertaining GIF out of the least amount of frames. I enjoy a challenge," she says.

Niewoudt says her motivation to create stems from her strong opposition to the idea of the "creative block". According to her, when she has an idea for a project she can't let it go until it's completed. "I stopped believing in the 'creative block' because once you say you have a creative block it makes it worse and you start believing it," she says.

Kobie Niewoudt was one of Design Indaba's Emerging Creatives in 2016.

Applications for 2020 are open. APPLY NOW.

Read more:
Thaakierah Abdul exhibits Cape Malay culture at Emerging Creatives 2018 Watch the QnA with Emerging Creative, Chris Saunders
Laduma Ngxokolo's timely move into wearable tech

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illustrative language of tsotsis. tsotsitaal

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design indaba media campaign for south african designers

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Illustrating vernacular South African terms | Design Indaba

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As a child, drawing captivated Kobie Nieuwoudt. Her parents and educators praised her skills as a young artist, which prompted her to pursue a career in illustration. After she completed a degree in graphic design from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Niewoudt said the exposure to the commercial side of design through studying was invaluable.

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This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

The emergence onto the global stage of a contemporary African aesthetic over the last decade is a result not of the modernisation of Africa, but rather the world's growing acknowledgement of the continent, and its enormous diversity, as a design force that's part of the global collective.

For too long, the continent has been treated and viewed as 'other', with its design heritage seen through the lenses of curiosity and craft, rather than as an equal and valued contingent of the design world at large.

Somewhat contradictorily, Africa is now asserting its own identity and status as a major player, precisely by emphasising its global relevance and universality, even within an African context. The work being produced now, particularly by young makers and creators, demonstrates the confidence and multilayered world view of this new generation of designers, rather than the myopic perception of Africa so often displayed outside its borders. In South Africa, this drive towards celebrating and shining a light on the diversity and depth within the design community is in full swing with young designers, in particular, determined to position the continent in a more accurate and layered light.

Products by Thabisa Mjo of Mash T Design Studio (Photo credit: Sarah de Pina)

Thabisa Mjo, award-winning product designer and founder of Mash T Design Studio, who has shown her work at Milan Design Week, agrees. "A design is African because it's made in Africa by Africans. I think the stereotypical perception that people might have had about our design aesthetic is antiquated. There are many young designers who are working hard to craft a contemporary South African design aesthetic that resonates on a global stage." Mjo, like many designers of her ilk, doesn't think of herself merely as an 'African designer', but rather as a designer who happens to be from South Africa. "I live in a global world, and my inspiration is not limited to the continent," she says.

That's not to say this approach requires eschewing heritage and culture. In fact, Mjo's acknowledgement of tradition and culture are central to her designs, with the Mash T philosophy founded on the value of narrative-driven work. Her studio's philosophy is to celebrate heritage through design, and this thinking as well as the designer's lived experience influences her work. "The idea of sharing and celebrating craft, especially traditional craft, is at the heart of what we do," she says. "We meld traditional crafts with technology to form a really contemporary design aesthetic." This meeting of past and future is at the heart of this emerging face of 21 st century African design and designers.

Andile Dyalvane (Photo credit: Adriaan Louw, courtesy of Southern Guild and Friedman Benda)

Celebrated ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane has become known for the deeply moving way he channels his Xhosa ancestry through his work, with each collection an homage to an aspect of his cultural heritage. His latest show, , presented by iThonga Southern Guild in South Africa and Friedman Benda gallery in the US, comprises 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches, exhibited in the custom of Xhosa ceremonial gatherings. These stools are placed in a circular arrangement around a fire hearth and herbal offering. iThongo , meaning 'ancestral dreamscape' in Xhosa, and refers to the medium through which messages ( uYalezo uLwimi lwabaPhantsi ) are transmitted from the ancestors. The intricate form of each piece is based on a single pictogram or glyph from a series of close to 200 symbols that Dyalvane has designed to denote important words in Xhosa life, such as entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum), umalusi (herdsman) - and which also relate to the natural world and more universal human themes and concepts. Dyalvane's symbolic lexicon has been an ongoing project, born of his interest in preserving traditional Xhosa knowledge, cultural practices and language.

Andile Dyalvane latest show, iThonga

Sifiso Shange, founder of Afri Modern, echoes this desire with a bold aesthetic that is unmistakably African, and yet equally, universal and timeless in its simple graphic appeal. "I strongly believe what makes contemporary African design is the sense of Africanism existing in contemporary design in perfect harmony, where the African aesthetic is celebrated in a contemporary vehicle."

Like Mjo, he also channels his identity through his pieces. Proud of his Zulu heritage, his work communicates this in highly relevant fashion via an aesthetic deeply rooted in a blend of minimal and bold African Zulu beadwork motifs and compelling shapes and forms. "African design is distinctive and carries a strong sense of the people or stories it represents," says Shange. "My work is a celebration of modern African Zulu culture by storytelling through design. A commitment to preserving it, and a heartfelt tribute to Africa, the place I call home. My designs aim to share stories that transcend time with me as a bridge between the past, present and future."

Frances Van Hasselt, founder of mohair design studio Frances VH, also takes traditional craft and techniques, and interprets them in a modern way. Her recent collaboration with ceramicist Eva Shuman, with visuals produced by an all-female creative team, takes the landscape of the Karoo, a vast, arid and beautiful region in central South Africa, as inspiration. This honouring of the physical makeup of 'home' is a universal concept, and while the source of the inspiration is typical of this part of the world, the pieces supersede any cultural boundaries.

"I think the world's perception is moving from a narrow perspective of African design to a much wider, more varied and inclusive understanding of design from the continent," says Van Hasselt. "African designers, too, are creating from a place of personal inspiration and creativity without a preconceived, external criteria of what defines African design." South Africa, and more specifically, the Karoo, is also home to most of the world's mohair farming - one of the world's most ancient, exclusive, luxurious and sustainable natural fibres. "Mohair should ultimately be recognised in the same way cashmere is in Scotland or Alpaca in Peru," she says. "To do this, we need to create exceptional, locally made, finished products that celebrate mohair's distinctive characteristics and African heritage." Frances VH mohair rugs not only achieve this, but also help to preserve traditional craftsmanship and provide sustainable employment for skilled artisans in rural South Africa.

By Frances Van Hasselt of mohair design studio, Frances VH

Shange believes the world's increasing curiosity in South Africa, and what it has to offer is catalysing growth in design from the continent, and South Africa. "I feel there's a strong sense of wanting to know more about the diverse aesthetics, techniques and traditions that embody Africa. The perception on African design, to me, feels positive as the world is now being introduced to a new Africa that it has never seen before, being shared in a new way."

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Modern African Design: "Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!"

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This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

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Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement.

Osborne Macharia
This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

A recent commission from Marvel saw him produce a series of images for the Black Panther cinema release, bringing together Maasai traditions and science fiction.

Diébédo Francis Kéré
Many people will be familiar with Kéré, as the designer of last year's Serpentine Pavilion. But this architect, who grew up in a small town in Burkina Faso, has also completed a range of other acclaimed projects, including numerous schools in his home country.

His aim is to show that traditional building methods and materials can be combined with high-tech engineering.

Selly Raby Kane
This Senegalese fashion designer is known for her surrealist streetwear, which merges traditional African prints with contemporary cuts.

Many of her sci-fi-influenced collections reference her home town of Dakar, and she counts Naomi Campbell and Beyoncé among her fanbase.

Yinka Ilori
Ilori is a London-based designer who specialises in upcycling unwanted old furniture - a reaction against today's consumer culture. He references the patterned fabrics of his Nigerian heritage in his bold, colourful designs.

He also frequently hosts maker workshops, to encourage people from different backgrounds to engage in design.

Kunlé Adeyemi
An OMA protégé, Nigerian architect Adeyemi founded his own studio NLÉ in 2010. Shortly after, he made a big impression with his design for a floating school, designed to facilitate education in African regions that, due to flooding, have little permanent infrastructure.

He is also now working on plans to build a school in Tanzania that combines regional traditions with contemporary learning.

Peter Mabeo
This designer and carpenter from Botswana launched his own furniture brand in 2006, and has since worked with designers including Luca Nichetto, Patricia Urquiola and Claesson Koivisto Rune. The brand, named Mabeo, aims to show how African design can appeal to a global market.

Cyrus Kabiru
This artist from Nairobi, Kenya, specialises in creating new objects from waste. One of his best-known projects involved transforming junk he found on the streets of his hometown into a series of sculptural spectacles.

Lisa Folawiyo
Nigerian designer Folawiyo built her global reputation on her modern transformations of Ankara, a traditional West African dress cloth.

Combining contemporary prints and complex embellishments, her garments have been worn by the likes of Solange Knowles and Lupita Nyong'o.

Atang Tshikare
This South African artist and designer runs a studio called Zabalazaa Designs, which specialises in surface design and illustration. But he has recently branched out into furniture, with designs including a chair that combines scorched timber and woven grass and tables inspired by African mythology.

Christian Benimana
Benimana runs the Rwanda office of Mass Design Group, a research-focused architecture studio that frequently teams up with local governments and NGOs on socially driven projects.

He is also the director of the African Design Center, an organisation that is championing the next generation of designers from the continent.

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10 African architects and designers championing afrofuturism

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Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement. Osborne Macharia This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

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Editor's Note: Wherever possible, we have honored spelling consistency based on the source material at hand: direct quotes reference the African spelling (with a k) while both the author's and editorial voices maintain the Western spelling. Our editors wish to thank Chuba Ezekwesili for his editorial support.

As a white European liberal I like to think I'm free of irrational prejudices of all kinds. But I'm also a graphic designer. Can I say that I'm free of prejudice or bias in this area? Do I, for example, value contemporary African graphic design as much as I do its European or American counterparts? Only a white supremacist or someone with the aesthetic sensibilities of a dung beetle would fail to see the magnificence of African art, and the same goes for African costume, textiles, and fabrics. But can contemporary African graphic design be held in equally high esteem?

This question was prompted by two recent encounters. First, an urgent call within academia (and increasingly within the practice of design itself) for the decolonization of our discipline; and second, the discovery of the Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI)-an institution that seeks to, in their words, empower design professionals and facilitate growth in the Afrikan design industries, as well as promoting design education as an essential profession required for the 21st Century.

For those of us steeped in the Western tradition and involved in the teaching of design, it's no longer appropriate (or sustainable) to approach our discipline as a single, monocultural entity. There is an immediate, global need to reappraise our attitudes and reassess our practice, something that current students demand and future students expect. (I owe my awakening on this topic to my students.)

In a recent essay in the publication Graphic Design In Conservative Times, designer and educator Ramon Tejada explores precisely this issue. "I found an urgent need to start asking pointed questions," Tejada writes. "To use my voice and begin to puncture through the sanitized veneer of Design, its Traditions and its preference for privilege, homogeneity, exclusivity, wealth, and elitism. From my current perspective, many of these Traditions uphold the status quo, and in essence harken back to the 'good old days'."

Tejada's use of the word puncture is apposite. The Providence-based designer-who self-identifies as an independent "New Yorkino/Dominican/Latinx/ Black + Brown/Afro Caribbean/American designer and educator"-pierces the blanket of delusion that so many of us wrap around ourselves. "The irony is of course," he writes, "[these ideas] are often espoused and propagated by people who would be horrified to be called or to be associated in any way, shape, or form as politically conservative." (Ouch.)

To get a better understanding of the current state of African graphic design, I spoke to Felix Ofori Dartey, PADI's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The son of a Ghanaian design academic, Ofori Dartey studied in the UK where he completed his MA at the University of Leeds. While a student, and in an attempt to ensure that his own practice included a professional dimension, Ofori Dartey's tutors encouraged him to take part in various graphic design awards schemes. This, in turn, inspired him to set up an awards scheme for Ghana. But when he showed the entries to his UK tutors they were puzzled. "Are you sure this work was made in Ghana? It's too Eurocentric. Where's the African design identity?"

This observation led him to consider what an African design identity might be: "Talking about it with friends," he says, "we quickly realized that we can't come up with just one identity. We can't even say what a Ghanaian design identity is-there are so many different aspects-so how are we going to do it for fifty-four countries in Africa, all with different cultures?"

PADI itself emerged from the realization that what was needed was both a platform and a forum for the advancement of African design identities, plural. By acknowledging the natural plurality of identity, Ofori Dartey and his colleagues could begin to address the vast spectrum of creative expression within the African continent. "The more people who share ideas," he observes, "the more it stimulates others to come up with something."

But can African design identities emerge at a time when global capitalism seeks the "homogeneity" and "sanitized veneer" that Ramon Tajada so rightly opposes? Surely commercial imperatives will result in the extinguishing of indigenous elements for fear that they might not travel across national boundaries. At the group's first Afrika Design Day, in February 2020, speakers boldly advocated resisting this dilution and emphasized the need for "harnessing the accumulated knowledge held in local communities that might otherwise be ignored or lost". This is often referred to within the larger rubric of what are called Indigenous Knowledge Systems, or IKS.

Among the speakers was Professor Saki Mafundikwa, who both questioned and clarified the importance of national identity. "After interrogating the concept of Afrikan Design, we concluded that what Afrikan designers lack is confidence in their work," he observed. "This is mainly caused by the widely held notion that design is a Western concept."

Mafundikwa went on to say that in light of Africa's own rich pre-colonial history, African designers had no reason to lack confidence: "Afrika invented writing! Afrika invented civilization!" he insisted. "Ancient Egypt was ruled by Afrikans who are responsible for all these achievements. This knowledge spread southward to Nubia and much later to the other parts of Afrika. There are monuments in different parts of Afrika that are visible evidence of this. On top of this," he added, pointedly, "Timbuktu gave humanity its first university and there were manuscripts that survived up to this day that attest to this feat, but unfortunately, many of them were burned and destroyed by Islamic extremists."

In general, no matter where you are, where aesthetics are concerned, our personal preferences tend to prevail. We admire what we like, and dismiss what we don't. We are groomed to seek fluency in criticality-the art of critique as the pursuit of excellence-but when we pass judgement on the work of others, our own biases are summarily activated. In the case of African design, what are deemed appropriate criteria for judging? Is it justifiable to apply Western aesthetic principles? Are non-African designers even qualified to express an opinion on what constitutes excellence, or novelty, or innovation in African design? Some would say not: such judgment smacks of Colonial-era oppression, of cultural supremacy and racial ignorance. Yet conversely, might there be space for broader, more timeless notions-sacred geometry or Jungian archetypes, for example-that allow us to override the complex tapestry of cultural biases we inevitably bring to any aesthetic verdict?

Felix Ofori Dartey takes the view that "design knowledge is universal." He notes that "European, American and Asian elements have found their way into contemporary African design. And if we use graphic design as an example, we can't say we will forego word-spacing, kerning, and white space, and only come up with our own ideas. But I believe we have elements that we can add-African patterns and colors, for example."

The work of designer Simon Charwey-secretary of DesignGhana, a member of PADI, and the designer of the group's logo-provides resonant examples of how West African symbology can be used in modern communications. In an interview on the LogoCreative website, he describes how he draws daily inspiration from the "great ancestral marks like the West African (Ghanaian) Adinkra symbols, emblems, regalia, cherished monuments and well-esteemed artifacts, which are over 200 years old. Emphasizing that, much of my inspiration or design process is driven by research and, love and appreciation for African culture." The PADI logo, Charwey told me, was inspired by the Adinkra Nkyinkyim Adinkra symbol and other similar ones. "Almost 99.9% of my logos for clients and the 1000 symbols I created were inspired by indigenous African design and African symbology." (Charwey is currently at work on a book of African logos inspired by indigenous African iconography.)

It bears saying that African cities are amongst the fastest-growing in the world. The introduction of new technologies is allowing Africans to bypass the traditional obstacles to prosperity, and the African Development Bank has predicted rapid recovery from the continent's worst economic recession in half a century, brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this bodes well for African design. The efforts of PADI and other organizations encourage us to think that African designers will continue to craft vibrant design identities that retain indigenous resonance and value, resisting the neutrality and blandness that almost inevitably accompany commercial prosperity. And that is something that all designers could take inspiration from, including-and especially-in the West.

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Editor's Note: Wherever possible, we have honored spelling consistency based on the source material at hand: direct quotes reference the African spelling (with a k) while both the author's and editorial voices maintain the Western spelling. Our editors wish to thank Chuba Ezekwesili for his editorial support.

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What is the South African design aesthetic? A look at the current crop of local homeware designers gets us closer to the answer.

"As soon as I start designing, I always go back to my childhood for inspiration, and when people see the result, when I tell them the stories that inspired the pieces, they always get excited, especially people who can identify with that childhood, growing up in the township and playing those games. It seems to resonate with them and that makes the work more appealing. I take that history and try to interpret it into what's happening now. I feel like I'm more of a storyteller than I am a designer. But I use design to tell that story," said designer and founder of Mash. T Design Studio, Thabisa Mjo, when I interviewed her at Apartment 2B, a retail space she shares with two other design brands in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Back in 2012, Laduma Ngxokolo launched MaXhosa, a knitwear range with patterns inspired by "Xhosa beadwork patterns, symbols and colours". Having gone through the traditional Xhosa custom, where boys go to the bush to be initiated into manhood, he questioned why the post-initiation dress code always included knitwear that featured patterns with English and Scottish roots, such as argyle, when there are so many South African patterns.

Seven years later, MaXhosa is a multi-award winning and well-known brand in South Africa, with a presence in international markets. The MaXhosa website lists 11 stockists in South Africa, three in the US, two in Europe, and one in Turkey. And then of course there are the coveted celebrity nods. His threads have been worn by the likes of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz. In 2016, Beyoncé posted on her website a picture of two looks from the MaXhosa collection that were on exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design museum in New York City. In August 2019, at 100% Design South Africa, Ngxokolo added a homeware collection to the MaXhosa offering.

The typical MaXhosa patterns, on the wallpaper, on rugs, on cushions, on armchairs, gave a great effect to his stand at 100% Design SA. This offering is the latest in a growing landscape of contemporary homeware design rooted in South African stories and cultures.

At Design Indaba in 2018, the Mvelo Desk designed by Siyanda Mbele, interior designer and founder of Pinda furniture, was named the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa. Engraved into the desk's surface is a pattern of triangles, diamond shapes and a chevron effect as a nod to the popularity of these shapes in Zulu motifs. The shape of the desk also follows through on these geometric lines.

Before that, Mbele participated in Design Indaba's Emerging Creatives in 2014. Over the last few years, he has added items to the range like the Pinda chair, which takes inspiration from the layout of the traditional Zulu homestead. The chair's simple lines and neutral tones, while not quite what one would expect in a Zulu-inspired piece, are indicative of the many ways in which cultural inspiration can be translated beyond the obvious.

Mbele is opening himself up to even more inspiration from South Africa and the continent:

"Going forward, my focus is not to single out one specific culture like how I have done before. Africa is extremely diverse, with a lot of untold stories. I want to fuse different elements without losing identity. Representation is everything, especially in Africa, where people's identities were stripped off and made to seem like they are not enough. Representation gives people a sense of belonging."

Metallurgical engineer turned interior designer Mpho Vackier launched her Ndebele-inspired furniture range, The Urbanative, in 2016. Fast forward to 2019, when, together with Thabiso Mjo, she was named "Designer of the Year" at 100% Design SA.

Her collection is defined by "juxtaposition of abstracted ethnic cultural graphics and motifs with the functionality and looking feel of classical European mid-century and Bauhaus furniture silhouettes".

While the Ndebele inspiration is still evident in some of the pieces, like Mbele she has also opened up the inspiration to include motifs from other African cultures. In her African Crowns collection, you'll find the Oromo chair, which takes its inspiration from the hairstyles of the Oromo people in 19 th century Jimma, Ethiopia. Her Mangbetu pot-stand takes its inspiration from the hairstyles of the Mangbetu people in the DRC. Combining her engineering background and a global sensibility, the minimalist designs and pared-down colours present a thoroughly contemporary mood.

Like Mjo, rising star Sifiso Shange, founder of furniture brand Afri- Modern, considers his practice as storytelling.

"My most relevant work is deeply rooted in the pursuit of seeking more about myself and culture through stories shared through the design. I am highly fascinated in how I can share my experiences and the experiences of those around me through design, with positive intention to share, build, unite and preserve our stories," says Shange, who describes himself as a "New Age Zulu man".

"A New Age Zulu is a Zulu individual who celebrates themselves as a proudly African Zulu, living and experiencing life in a New Age world. The expression embodies self-awareness, being true to self, loving your culture, seeking to learn more about yourself and culture, being futuristic in the experience of being Zulu, and being deeply rooted in the essence of being an African, South African and human being."

The use of traditional Zulu motifs is evident in his Afri-Modern range. But don't expect bright colours and busy patterns. His cabinets come in deep yet muted shades, and the use of pattern is often magnified, isolating individual elements of what might be a bigger, busier pattern, resulting in a toned-down play of familiar traditional geometric motifs, with just a few lines engraved and painted across the front.

Mjo, Vackier, Mbele, Ngxokolo and Shange do not by any means make up an exhaustive list of designers surging ahead towards defining contemporary South African design. There are so many more. It is almost sinful not to mention The Ninevites, a rug design brand founded by Nkuli Mlangeni, or Sindiso Khumalo's textile designs, or Andile Dyalvane's incredible Imiso Ceramics. What is happening right now in South African design could easily fill a substantial coffee table book.

The rise of these designers gives us a peek at the developing product design landscape informing the elusive contemporary South African furniture and lighting design aesthetic. One can't resist the feeling that the South African home is being redefined, not only for South Africans with a taste for the vernacular in contemporary design, but for a global marketplace that is ready to see African craft and design beyond the curio, beyond safari lodges, and in everyday homes.

"We tend to have a preconceived notion of what South African design looks like. We think bright colours, pattern, craft, and yes that is true, to a certain extent. But we also live in a global environment, and we're inspired by all these things we now have access to. African design is no longer only about bright colour, patterns and craft, it's so much more than that, and it's as diverse as we are," says Mjo. ML
Disclosure: Malibongwe Tyilo attended the 100% Design South Africa showcase as a member of the jury for the 100% Design South Africa awards

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Design: Defining the contemporary South African furniture design aesthetic

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"As soon as I start designing, I always go back to my childhood for inspiration, and when people see the result, when I tell them the stories that inspired the pieces, they always get excited, especially people who can identify with that childhood, growing up in the township and playing those games.

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South African fashion designers have been breaking waves in the industry with their detailed items that hint at traditional prints and fabrics. These are some of the influential designers who are bringing South Africa's style to the world.

Amanda Laird Cherry is a much loved South African fashion label that produces beautiful apparel for both women and men. Durban based designer Amanda studied clothing design and gained ample experience in the industry before launching her own label. Her items have been exhibited at London Fashion Week and can be found in The Space stores nationwide as well as online at SPREE.

Stoned Cherrie was established in 2000 and has, since then, become one of the most notable fashion labels in South Africa. The brand is especially known for their quirky use of crochet and pop-art style images of South African icons, like Steve Biko. The label draws inspiration from the Afro-urban lifestyle and founder Nkhensani Nkosi succeeded in creating an African brand which celebrates the country's sense of identity in a creative way.

The Cape Town based label was established in 2011 by Mzukisi Mbane under the name Swagger Diariez. Mbane started off without any formal training and only his mother's sewing machine. Today, Imprint is a clothing brand that fuses South African street wear with vintage designs. The label strives to live up to its name with an ethos of "leaving a mark" through its designs.

Jacques van der Watt flawlessly incorporates traditional South African design patterns into his modern creations and pays a large amount of attention to detail. Van der Watt showed his first collection at South African Fashion Week in 1999 and since then his label has become synonymous with cutting edge, local fashion design. Black Coffee is mainly characterized by its structural designs combined with complex shapes, and the installation shows are often hosted at unusual venues, such as Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

Loin Cloth & Ashes was launched in 2008 by Johannesburg-based fashion designer Anisa Mpungwe, who designs modern clothing with an African twist. Her items are all inspired by African traditions and the people that inhabit the country, which ensures that her designs are completely unique. In 2010, Anisa showed at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York and her store in Maboneng is perfect if you're after a stand-out outfit.

The David Tlale label has received international recognition and is a favourite among South African celebs and socialites. In 2009 David Tlale was awarded Fashion Designer of the Year at the Africa Fashion Awards in Johannesburg. In 2011 he presented a collection titled "Made In The City" which celebrated Nelson Mandela's 92 nd birthday. In this showcase, 92 models used the Nelson Mandela bridge as their runway, donning Tlale's clothing. Tlale was also the first South African fashion designer to showcase solo at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York in September 2012.

Stitch & Steel, founded by Linda Gale, is a Johannesburg-based fashion label that creates quirky items made from authentic fabrics sourced from all over Africa. The label's main focus is women's clothing but they also have a men's range, which includes ties and patterned shirts. Only a few of each garment is created, so you'll be the proud owner of a very exclusive piece.

Marianne Fassler is a well-known name in the South African fashion industry and rightly so, as she's spent more than three decades in the business. Fassler opened her first store in 1976 and today her label, Leopard Frock, is based in Saxonwold, Johannesburg. Her designs offer creative, beautifully made clothing items and she's well known for her unique wedding dresses.

Manthso means "a beautiful complexion" in Sesotho and the label was founded by Palesa Mokubung in 2004. Palesa uses traditional African fabrics and combines them with modern silks and weaves to create edgy clothing items. She worked as a designer at iconic local label Stoned Cherrie before going off on her own and starting Mantsho. Her label has been showcased all over the world including New York, India, Nigeria and Greece. Mantsho has a stand-alone store in Melville, Johannesburg (27 Boxes) and is also sold online through Spree.

Thesis Lifestyle is not only a street wear label, but also a brand that hosts events and activities, such as Social Run and Ride - a free fun run in Soweto. Thesis Lifestyle is also well known for their Thesis Social Jam Sessions, held on Sundays, which brings creatives from all over the city (and country) together. The label is passionate about collaborations and encourages its followers to go out into the streets and open their eyes to the many possibilities that surround them.

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10 Designers Who're Bringing South Africa's Style to the World

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South African fashion designers have been breaking waves in the industry with their detailed items that hint at traditional prints and fabrics. These are some of the influential designers who are bringing South Africa's style to the world. Amanda Laird Cherry is a much loved South African fashion label that produces beautiful apparel for both women and men.

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I climb into an Uber on Manhattan's Upper West Side and Afro B's song "Drogba (Joanna)" thumps out of the speakers. Indeed, turn on mainstream radio and you would be hard pressed not to hear the instantly-recognizable voices of Wizkid or Davido - two Nigerian musicians who are such global megastars this explanation is superfluous. At the helm of British Vogue sits a man of Ghanaian lineage named Edward Enninful. Recently commissioned by Apple to shoot an iPhone campaign is Ghanaian photographer Prince Gyasi. Tune in to Top Chef lately? One of the finalists is Ghanaian-American chef Eric Adjepong and he titillates audiences and tongues alike with his fusions and deconstructions of African cuisine. Virgil Abloh (a Ghanaian-American) literally flies the flag of Ghana on the garments in Louis Vuitton's Men's FW 2019 show, a moment which just may be the climax of the pop cultural hype Africa and its nations seem to be enjoying.

Suffice it to say, in cultural arenas where Africans have often been cited (if even that) as inspiration but denied participation, it appears we are finally being globally welcomed for what we have always known we possessed: a wealth of cultural agency and influence.

With this thought in mind, and also with 2019 marking the 400-year anniversary of the Middle Passage (when the first enslaved Africans arrived in the United States in 1619), I've wondered where African fashion falls in the mix of this recent attention, and what imprint our past has on our current fashion culture. What makes contemporary African fashion uniquely African? What is its defining characteristic after epochs of mélange with western stimuli (both forced and chosen, welcome and unwelcome)? European fashion is celebrated for glamour; American "sportswear" (in the strictly fashion-industry sense of the word) is the stuff of legend: but what is the calling card of the contemporary African sartorial landscape? These are the questions I sought to explore (because I was sure that I could hardly actually answer them) through my own meagre means during a recent visit to my home country, Ghana. What does African fashion have to say about itself?

Perhaps any attempt to unravel the double helix and decode the DNA of "African" fashion is an experiment in futility when operating from such a narrow lens as a visit to only one of the continent's 54 countries. Africa is not a monolith and neither is its fashion. Anything that is borne of Africa's bounty is as much a function of disparate national identities as it is one continental cohesion. That being said, for all the pride of nations that course through the veins of our borders, I am reminded that our national demarcations were largely not of our choosing and that some ineffable and inextricable oneness of being abides despite the imaginary lines and the very real differences in our cultures, values and identities. So then, it is not strange to surmise that there may be some thread that links the continent's fashion, right?

Speaking for Ghana specifically, and quite likely the rest of the continent, Ready-to-Wear is a relatively new concept. Growing up, I was accustomed to buying clothes "off the rack" only when I traveled abroad, and having my clothes in Ghana made by a seamstress. Almost everyone in Ghana has a seamstress, and this is true across not all but a breadth of socioeconomic milieus. In current times however, Ready-to-Wear brands, several of which illustrate this story, have cropped up across the continent, leading to the advent of western-inspired fashion weeks, e-commerce platforms, concept stores like Untamed Empire and Viva Boutique and even influencer marketing: In short, the makings of a fashion industry, though plagued with structural issues as to be expected of any entity thusly nascent, that in many ways resembles that of west.

When you ask most people what comes to mind when they consider "African fashion," you are likely to hear a reference to brightly-colored wax prints (known in some circles as Ankara) from which seamstresses would sew our parents and grandparents' traditional garb. (Surely no exegesis of African clothing would be quite complete without paying homage to the unique way in which we embrace and employ color, but that is a whole other story). The sort of Ghanaian traditional clothing I am referring to is the sort Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey (whose canary-colored upcycled plastic tapestries that themselves tell a story of journey and exchange between the west and Africa and of turning toxicity into triumph are featured in Looks 3 and 4) dons in his performance series " My Mother's Wardrobe ".

Never mind that "African print" itself is of Dutch origin, a consciousness ossified in my mind through a long-ago exhibition by Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare in which he dressed black mannequins in wax prints sewn in classic Victorian style. His work, an exploration of colonialism at large and specifically how these prints supposedly divined by the Dutch to mimic Indonesian Batik came to be ubiquitous on the West African subcontinent, marked a seminal moment in my understanding of my own culture. While wax prints are, of course, now produced on the African continent (and also still in Europe as well as in China) and are inexorably linked to (West) African fashion, to me they alone cannot be the answer, but do point to a bigger clue in the puzzle of defining African fashion. That clue is textile.

Africa boasts a depth and breadth of traditional textiles. Kente, which originates from Ashanti and Ewe cultures; the Aso Oke of the Yoruba; Fugu from northern Ghana (Look 7); the Bogolan (mudcloth) of the Bambara ethnic group (inspiration for the knit headwrap in Look 6); the Kikoi cloth from the horn of Africa (particularly Kenya); the kaleidoscopic woven cloth of the Ndebele people of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe; and no textile aficionado has truly lived until they've visited a Moroccan "tissage." In the land of textiles, particularly those of the hand-woven variety, African is king. I have noticed in my study (the word is used lightly here) of current fashion from the continent a propensity for modern African fashion designers to cull from this cornucopia of history-rich textiles while reaching for modernity in the rendering and silhouettes of clothing.

Perhaps it is this very syncretism that may be considered the genome of African fashion, generalization be damned: that a panoply of indigenous references is coiled with foreign allusions to result in a genre of clothing that is sui generis. Whether by African designers or non-Africans who have fallen in love with what the continent has to offer (or by designers who draw from their mixed heritage as the Japanese-Ghanaian designer Alexandra Tomiyama does with her Kanji Kente kimono), there always seems to be an interplay of looking in (at the culture) and looking out (at the foreign) in that which concerns African fashion. Beyond our current "en-vogueness" and seeming designation as the zeitgeist du jour, our fashion, like our very being, is rooted in a past both painful and pulchritudinous, and in a future we are determined to define for ourselves.
Special Thanks to Turkish Airlines for getting us from New York to Accra and back.

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Why Contemporary African Fashion is Impossible to Define

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I climb into an Uber on Manhattan's Upper West Side and Afro B's song "Drogba (Joanna)" thumps out of the speakers. Indeed, turn on mainstream radio and you would be hard pressed not to hear the instantly-recognizable voices of Wizkid or Davido - two Nigerian musicians who are such global megastars this explanation is superfluous.

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4 min read

South African design is going places. Porky Hefer's installations and furniture designs, Andile Dyalvane's ceramics, Rich Mnisi's fashion and furniture designs, and Dokter and Misses' furniture and product designs are just some local pieces increasingly rocking art fairs and exhibition halls around the globe.

Rich Mnisi has come a long way from Kempton Park, baby. Last year he introduced the 'Africa Explosion' collection at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Moscow, and was then promptly featured in Italian Vogue. He is also one of the designers Beyoncé chose to wear - a blouse and halfpleated skirt - while in South Africa for the Global Citizen Festival recently. British supermodel Naomi Campbell is also a fan.

Also in fashion, Swedish multinational clothing retailer H&M recently announced its first African collaboration with local designer Palesa Mokubung. From August, her Mantsho label will be available in stores in the USA, the UK and Israel, as well as some European and South American countries.

'We love how she works with colour, print and silhouettes, enhancing the female shape in a flattering and playful way,' H&M's Pernilla Wohlfahrt said recently.

Hefer's 'Endangered' collection of soft sculptural seats made of recycled, eco-friendly materials was exhibited at Design Miami/Basel last year, where it was virtually sold out, while his giant birds' nests, woven with Kooboo cane, have been described as 'delicious' by critics.

Under their Dokter and Misses label, Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin's limited-edition handpainted pieces form part of a growing catalogue of collectible work exhibited in Basel, Dubai, London, New York and Miami. They exhibit in New York frequently.

Andile Dyalvane, Designer of the Year for 100% Design South Africa 2018, whose first solo exhibition showed in a New York gallery in 2016, has had residencies in Denmark, France, Taiwan, and the USA including Palo Alto Art Center in California. He says he relays 'stories' in clay where once, as a schoolboy in a small village in the Eastern Cape, he was 'lashed' for indulging in art. 'Clay breathes,' he enthuses about his medium. 'It's alive with becoming and moves with my energy, listens and holds only what I've impressed upon it - it remembers and lets go in the fire then becomes stronger.'

But wait. There's more ...

International recognition is not confined to these big names. There are others, including artist and furniture designer Atang Tshikare, who has exhibited in Europe and Dubai; sculptor Nandipha Mntambo, who has shown her work in Tel Aviv, Germany, the USA and Stockholm; visual activist Zanele Muholi; and world-acclaimed industry heavyweight, furniture designer John Vogel.

Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild, a gallery based in Cape Town's trendy Silo design hub, believes the world is more than ready right now for artists who, she says, are willing 'to take risks'.

'The world is hungry for authenticity, rawness, personal perspectives, emotional connection and evidence of the human hand - all of which permeate South African designers' work.'

McGowan says in this 'hyper-connected age', where it's easy to lose touch with what grounds us as humans among what she terms 'visual clutter', South African artists are 'continually pushing the boundaries to create highly personal work. As a gallery, we have seen the response of international audiences escalate over the past 10 years.'

She says designers like Mnisi, Dokter and Misses, and Hefer are unique in that they 'draw from their own culture and narrative in a deeply visceral way to create artworks that are unlike anything you will see elsewhere in the world. Their point of view and approach are confidently African, preserving and reinterpreting vernacular craft forms for a contemporary age,' she says. 'Their attention to detail, craftsmanship and level of execution are impeccable, making an encounter with their work a moving, emotional experience.'

For example, she says, the 'inherent playfulness' of Hefer's work belies the 'depth of his thinking, and the research and evolution that underpins every piece.'

Hot on their heels ...

Following hot on these heels is an even younger generation. Six young South Africans recently returned triumphant from Milan's annual Design Week. Supported by Nando's Design Programme, creative director Tracy Lee Lynch described it as a roaring success with 'an incredible response by overseas media and visitors. Our bold South African aesthetic and powerful inclusion of craft was truly celebrated. This aspect of our design elevated the curated pieces and created the opportunity to share personal stories relating to our diverse culture.'

She says design has the power to connect people and to challenge perceptions. 'To see this happening on the stand was the most powerful experience.'

She, too, has seen our local design growing on the world stage. 'There's tangible evidence of a dynamic, layered culture filtering up in what's being created here at home. These emerging designers are passionate about telling that unique story. And how they tell that story is often through collaboration with crafters and other makers. Often a piece reflects so much more than just one person's ideas or responses. It's perhaps why, when works travel from South Africa, they get the response they get - because they feel as if they're a whole universe in one piece,' Lynch says.

'There's so much inspiration here that isn't cookie cutter, that isn't very safe.'

The world is ready, she says. 'People want to hear our voice. They have a deep need to know more about who we are, and the designers' pieces are a precious gateway to the sharing of the diverse cultures that make up the Rainbow Nation.'

As designer Mpho Vackier, whose 'Afro-contempo' chair was a big hit in Milan, says, 'I design authentic African furniture with a global appeal.'

Designer Thabisa Mjo, who designed the concept for the exhibit - an architectural installation piece that takes the form of a room-sized pod - says she had something close to an epiphany in Milan: 'I learnt we are good enough. That we can compete on the world stage.'

Housing and education

The launch of design spaces like the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in 2017 has also helped to give design a local address, becoming a hub for collectors both local and international.

Trevyn McGowan says she and her husband, Julian McGowan, co-founders of Southern Guild, make a point of educating the global world about SA design: 'Every time we exhibit at an international art fair, we tell the stories that went into making each piece and what inspired the artist. We have these conversations with collectors and curators, in our printed catalogues, and in panel discussions and interviews with the media.

'But the biggest advertising for South African design is the work itself.'

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South African Design is Going... Well... Everywhere - Estate Living

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4 min read South African design is going places. Porky Hefer's installations and furniture designs, Andile Dyalvane's ceramics, Rich Mnisi's fashion and furniture designs, and Dokter and Misses' furniture and product designs are just some local pieces increasingly rocking art fairs and exhibition halls around the globe.

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Nairobi Design Week is a community design studio and annual design festival. We host Africa's top designers on the Afrika Design podcast, and support designers through the EatDesignRepeat community blog & app.

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I found this interesting since this designer was inspired by his African roots to create something new and fresh without sticking to the stereotypical view of his culture.

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Cameroon-based product design studio Noumbissi Design has created the HiGOMA Speaker Drum set, an audio system based on the traditional djembe drum. To update the djembe drum for a modern context, they turned it into a decorative music player using Bluetooth technology.

Inspired by the adage "when the drums speak, even the kings are silent", the Noumbissi designers wanted to express the importance of rhythm and reinvigorate the Cameroonian craft of djembe-making by transforming the drum into a product for the contemporary home. It was their aim to enliven the practice of djembe production to benefit local craftsmen, which had died down as of recent years, with an infusion of relevant technology.

While the HiGOMA Speaker Drum is not meant to be played like the percussion instrument on which it is based, it can be hooked up to any Bluetooth-enabled music device to play high-quality sound. These speakers are produced on the outskirts of Cameroon's capital using locally-sourced Ikoro wood and treated with shea butter. A HiGOMA Speaker Drum can be bought as a single unit or configured to work in concert.

According to the designers, "Our goal is to show African culture through objects that fit perfectly into your daily life. HiGOMA was born with the will to personify a meaningful African quote that will resonate with the heart and spirit of Africa lovers. Moreover, the idea was to change the perception of African handicrafts, to go beyond the clichés of museum pieces or tourist trinkets."

Noumbissi Designs received the Product Design Prize for the HiGOMA Speaker Drum set at the 2016 African Design Awards.

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Reinventing the djembe drum for the modern home | Design Indaba

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Cameroon-based product design studio Noumbissi Design has created the HiGOMA Speaker Drum set, an audio system based on the traditional djembe drum. To update the djembe drum for a modern context, they turned it into a decorative music player using Bluetooth technology.

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"Its high time for African Designers to take their place in the Global stage". (Malibongwe)

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"Its high time for African Designers to take their place in the Global stage". (Malibongwe)

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This articles talks about how contemporary African designers have established themselves in the global stage of designers and how their unique designs were recognized by the world as top class masterpieces.

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We are excited to announce Design Africa, a series of conversations with some of the continent's best designers hosted by the founder of Design Week Lagos, Titi Ogufere.

African art and design-its language of abstraction, bold vernacular, and rich materiality-are central to the story of modernism and at the core of many schools of contemporary design. African art was a key inspiration for Europe's early modern art movement with classical African sculpture influencing some of history's greatest artists including Picasso, Broncusi, Modigliani and Matisse. This influence has only continued and grown over time, expanding into contemporary design, architecture, music, and fashion.

Despite this growing relevance, Africa is often reduced to a point of inspiration for the west, rather than a continent with an incredibly strong, growing, dynamic, and influential contemporary creative practice of its own. It is my life's work to combat that trend and to shed a light on the compelling work being created by African designers today across the continent.

My name is Titi Ogufere, and I am the founder and director of Design Week Lagos (DWL), the premiere international festival celebrating design on the continent. Each October, we come together to celebrate and promote the vanguard of design across Africa, a beacon out from the continent's unofficial design capital of Lagos, Nigeria.

DWL is a growing annual celebration and convening, with core programs including a central exhibition showcasing new work from across the continent, an awards program, and a series of talks and lectures. In addition to presenting new product design, DWL's program highlights and explores new pathways in manufacturing methods, illuminating ingenuity and information sharing so that a growing community of contemporary designers can better tap into a rich history of craftsmanship and unique material knowledge across the continent.
Excited to get more coverage and representation of design in Africa? More articles are coming soon so, for now, check out World Industrial Design Day is coming up and we're talking #diversity - Join the event and get involved.

Design Week Lagos takes place 21-31 October 2021

This year, DWL will take place in various venues across the city of Lagos from October 21st to 31st, 2021. The theme for the 2021 design week is Design Revolution. Given the limitations of the global pandemic, this year's program will be tight and targeted, with more robust digital components - including the debut of a Netflix docuseries, Made by Design, highlighting architects, interior and product designers in Africa, including multi-hyphenate design luimineries such as Lani Adeoye, Dapo Akintunde, Theo Lawson, Papa Omotayo, and Tosin Oshinowo.

Africa's Design Legacy

Africa has long been recognized for a tradition of craftsmanship that is meticulous, sustainable, and strikingly beautiful, with techniques across mediums and traditions that are astonishing in their intricacy and ingenuity. This new generation of designers build on millenia of these traditions, embodying a uniquely contemporary Afromodernsim while tracing a trajectory that proves, without doubt, that our present indeed comes from our past and that they are intricately bound.

It is very clear: Africa's design scene is rapidly growing and becoming increasingly sophisticated. It's high time it took its place on the global stage because African designers are not merely catching up with their counterparts in the West; they are defining directions and setting global trends.

African art and design have been setting the global scene for quite some time - © AGA

I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to bring these voices to the DesignWanted community over the next year through a series of interviews on the lives and work of some of the best designers working across the continent today. My hope is, when we arrive at this point next year, you'll all be on your way to Nigeria to celebrate Design Week Lagos 2022 with us in person, and see for yourself what African design has to offer today.
What does the inside of a design house look like in South Africa? Don't miss Afrienza designs furniture for a new South African homeowner.

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African Designers take their place on the global stage - DesignWanted

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African art and design-its language of abstraction, bold vernacular, and rich materiality-are central to the story of modernism and at the core of many schools of contemporary design. African art was a key inspiration for Europe's early modern art movement with classical African sculpture influencing some of history's greatest artists including Picasso, Broncusi, Modigliani and Matisse.

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This article talks about the African clothing that African people wear for different purposes and how each clothing has it's own unique statement when it comes to African tradition and rituals that often happen in different African cultures.

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African clothing commonly refers to the traditional clothing worn by the people of Africa.

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I liked how this designer saw a problem in his country: Nigeria is a wasteland of western clothing, and many can't afford a branded appeal. So he mixed cultures by reusing discarded clothes and blending them with local textiles.

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Driven by the goal of reducing fashion waste, Nigerian designer Dimeji Ilori of fashion brand Swish has created a range of garments from discarded items. Ilori's collection upcycles locally sourced vintage pieces from thrift stores and flea markets, as well as clothing bound for landfill.

"The collection was inspired by the idea of waste reduction," says the African fashion innovator. "Since our countries have become a waste land for the Western world, we have been left with excess clothing and apparel shipped in from developed countries. Only some of these abandoned, donated or thrown-away clothes are on people's backs, but most of them will end up in landfills, therefore polluting our environment."

The ability to create consciously and sustainably drives Ilori's collection. "The idea of creating quality pieces from discarded treasures is fascinating to me. The goal has never been to have 1 000 garments on sale. It is more about taking 1 000 shirts off the mountain of discarded and forgotten treasures, and creating 100 beautiful, well-made garments from them," he says.

The Afrowaste collection plays on a fashion reality for much of the youth in Nigeria. "The typical Nigerian youth cannot afford an original designer T-shirt and jeans because they are expensive and many brands aren't available in the country. So walking the streets of Lagos you'll see many young Nigerians in neat second-hand clothing. Ranging from Levi's jeans, to Tommy Hilfiger sweaters and Nike sneakers or Converse All Stars. It is always a beautiful, chaotic mixture of foreign leftovers with new."

Afrowaste makes a feature of this blending of cultures and items. For example, Ilori will create pieces from leftover linen and polyester fabrics mixed with a typical Nigerian-owanbe-wedding-Swiss-lace as pants and pocket detail.

Even the shoes in the collection are a clever reimagining of discarded pairs. You'll also find traditional embroidery techniques used in some of the pieces as pocket and collar details. "We played around with some vintage handwoven Aso Oke fabric predominantly woven by elderly women in our community of Ilorin, in northern central Nigeria," he adds.

This colourful, playful blending of cultures and eras, illustrates the potential for beauty in the forgotten and discarded.

Credits:
Adedoyin Ejikinle

Yomo David

Ogunrinde Omotayo

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With Afrowaste, Nigerian Designer Dimeji Ilori turns Discarded Clothes into One-Of-A-Kind Treasures | Design Indaba

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Driven by the goal of reducing fashion waste, Nigerian designer Dimeji Ilori of fashion brand Swish has created a range of garments from discarded items. Ilori's collection upcycles locally sourced vintage pieces from thrift stores and flea markets, as well as clothing bound for landfill.

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I thought it was interesting how this designer could take his experiences in his home country and mix it with his English roots to create something accessible to all.

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Design Indaba drives a better world through creativity with its online design publication, annual festival and other “design activism” projects.

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Meet the Nigerian Product Designers Behind a New Brand of Minimalistic. (Malibongwe)

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Meet the Nigerian Product Designers Behind a New Brand of Minimalistic. (Malibongwe)

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The article is unique in the sense that it shows Nigerian designers who have adopted a new style of Minimalistic designs and the articles also shows images of these designs. Their designs are very simple and clean and they also don't mostly use these patterns that African design is known for. Their designs are simple in the sense that they try to limit the amount of material they use and they keep their designs appear light in weight and not too complicated.

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Instead, Ogunseinde wants her history to be "touched and felt," so she designs products with it. She grew up in Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, where agriculture was the mainstay of the economy, so she made the Oko, a chair shaped like a hoe, to remind herself and others of that time. She's also been creating objects inspired by the masked, costumed figures, or masquerades, called Egungun, which used to terrify her as a child. They were welcomed to Ibadan every July, said to represent the collective spirit of ancestors. Some of Ogunseinde's versions are nine-feet tall, some bear hats. She's currently in the process of scaling the design to create lamps.

Not everyone is keen to have their bedside light inspired by ancestral history. A Christian friend once told Ogunseinde she was crossing a line, "eulogizing spirits." "[But] I don't want to be so precious about our history that I don't move it forward," Ogunseinde says, shrugging.

Oreoluwa Oluwatobi, an architect turned designer who founded Alaga Collections, is also borrowing from history, albeit more literally. When he made Akanke, a contemporary rocking chair-a rarity in Nigerian furniture-customers received more than a nostalgic design. They were also getting a story: the name is drawn from the Yoruba language, meaning something that a thing that takes care of you, that rocks you.

"I want us to remember our names, put beauty in it. My products are named after things we might forget," Oluwatobi, also a writer, says. He does extensive research into folklore for his work.

Oluwatobi uses adire, aso-oke fabrics indigenous to Nigeria, to design chair and stool covers, preserving age-old fabric making practices. The fabrics have garnered global attention: they were used by Nigerian designer Maki Oh in her recent Fall 2018 NYFW collection, and also worn by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Oluwatobi is preempting history, too. When the Lagos State government recently announced that it would be phasing out the Danfo, a set of ubiquitous yellow and black busses that are an indelible part of Lagos culture, similar to the New York subway, Oluwatobi designed a chair in the bus's iconic colors.

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Meet the Nigerian Product Designers Behind a New Brand of Minimalism

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Instead, Ogunseinde wants her history to be "touched and felt," so she designs products with it. She grew up in Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, where agriculture was the mainstay of the economy, so she made the Oko, a chair shaped like a hoe, to remind herself and others of that time.

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Some nice designs that are inherently African but stray from prejudiced defining elements

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Some nice designs that are inherently African but stray from prejudiced defining elements

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Africa by Design is a platform that promotes designers from sub-Saharan Africa. Founder Chrissa Amuah spoke to Dezeen about the programme in a live interview earlier this month and here presents a selection of products from the stable.

Amuah, who also runs London-based studio AMWA Designs, established Africa by Design to give the design talent in the region "the respect that it is due".

"What leads me naturally to the design of my heritage is that there's soul in it, there's life and it goes beyond surface level," she said. "I was doing research that I was coming across so many other incredible African designers that just didn't have the platform to showcase their work in a way that I've benefited from."

"That's where the idea of Africa by design was born: this idea of creating a platform that celebrates the best of African design talent and showcases it to the world in a way that hasn't been given the respect that it's due."

Live interview with Ini Archibong and Chrissa Amuah as part of Virtual Design Festival

Africa by Design launched in 2017 with an exhibition at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra, which was co-curated by Wallpaper* editor-at-large Suzanne Trocmé.

"Africa can, with enough exposure, create an industry around design with such talents at the forefront," said Trocmé at the time.

Africa by Design now works with 35 designers from seven countries, organising exhibitions and helping creatives establish commercial networks. Here is a selection of designers and objects from the stable.

Asanka coffee table by Chrissa Amuah, Ghana
Chrissa Amuah was born and raised in London with a heritage that includes Ghana, Togo and Benin. She is founder and creative director of AMWA Designs. The studio creates homewares and products inspired by traditional Ghanaian Adinkra symbols, which are both decorative and symbolic.

The Asanka coffee table is topped with an asanka - a wide, shallow clay bowl traditionally used to grind and blend food in west Africa. The base is made of stacked wooden disks based on the form of the Adinkrahene, which is regarded as the most important of all the Adinkra symbols.

Boraatii stool by Jomo Furniture, Ethiopia
Based in Springfield, Virginia, Ethiopian-American designer Jomo Tariku of Jomo Furniture infuses his work with African art and culture. The height-adjustable Boraatii stool, which can also serve as a table, is inspired by headrests used in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, which are used to protect elaborate hairstyles at night. The word "boraati" means "tomorrow-you" in the Oromiffaa language.

Sisi Eko floor lamp by Studio Lani, Nigeria
Raised in Nigeria, Lani Adeoye of Studio Lani has lived in Lagos, Montreal, Toronto, and New York, where she studied design at Parsons. In 2017, she won Wanted Design's Launch Pad competition for furniture.

Sisi Eko is a steel floor lamp inspired by west African sculptures that celebrate the female form. The name derives from a Yoruba term meaning "Lagos lady".

Àdùnní armchair by Ile Ila, Nigeria
Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo is the founder of Lagos practice cmDesign Atelier. In 2017 she launched design brand lé Ilà, which means "house of lines' in Yoruba. The brand produces furniture and accessories that celebrate Yoruba culture, with all the products being hand-made in Lagos.

The Àdùnní ("daughter of the sweet one") armchair is described as "a celebration of African modernism". It is made of Nigeria teak and is upholstered in Yoruba asò-oké textiles.

LM Stool by NMBello Studio, Nigeria
Industrial design studio NMBello Studio is based in central Lagos. Founded by Nifemi Marcus-Bello, it explores resourceful ways of creating contemporary objects using locally available skills and materials.

The LM Stool is a steel seat developed after examining the spare production capacity of a factory that makes steel cases for power generators. The design reduces the amount of steel needed to the minimum required to ensure stability and rigidity.

Ile fruit bowl by Jade Folawiyo, Nigeria
Jade Folawiyo combines the cultures of Nigeria and London in her work. A graduate of the product design course at Central Saint Martins, she works with artisans to reinterpret traditional forms and techniques. The Ile fruit bowl combines a calabash, typically used as a drinking vessel, with a glazed earthenware base.

Pedestal + Duniake by Ifeanyi Oganwu, Nigeria
Expand Design is a London design studio founded by Nigerian-born Ifeanyi Oganwu. It works on projects including furniture, jewellery and exhibition design.

The Pedestal + Duniake seat was designed to showcase fabrics by Toghal, a UK brand that produces African-inspired homewares. Produced as a limited edition, it features a moulded birch plywood base with an architectural form topped by two cylindrical bolsters, called duniake. These are upholstered in a printed fabric designed by Nairobi-born artist Phoebe Boswell.

Tabouret Sandrine Noir by Jean Servais Somian, Ivory Coast
Jean Servais Somian's studio Somian Design is based in Paris and Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast and the place of his birth. His work often involves repurposing used materials including metal, coconut wood and even used canoes. Tabouret Sandrine Noir is a stool shaped like a vase carved from a coconut-tree log.

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Eight products by African designers selected by Africa by Design

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Africa by Design is a platform that promotes designers from sub-Saharan Africa. Founder Chrissa Amuah spoke to Dezeen about the programme in a live interview earlier this month and here presents a selection of products from the stable.

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"...gleans ideas from the African continent in a quest to define a new language of contemporary furniture." 

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"...gleans ideas from the African continent in a quest to define a new language of contemporary furniture." 

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THE PALAIS DE Lomé, a new cultural venue in Togo, was inaugurated in December with an exhibition paying tribute to Kossi Aguessy, the visionary artist/designer of Togolese descent. In the renovated waterfront palace, which was constructed in 1905 and formerly served as the German, then French, governors' residence, a diversity of Aguessy's pieces are on display. Titled 'Kossi Aguessy: Infinity (1977-2017)', the retrospective pinpoints the breadth of his output, subtly blending African influences and western production methods, from industrial design to sculptures and paintings. It positions him as a reference for Togo's upcoming generation at a time when contemporary African design generally is garnering increased attention globally.

Born in Togo as Kossigan Baaba-Thundé Hervé Aguessy, Aguessy studied industrial and interior design at Central St Martins in London, worked for Philippe Starck and then set up his own Parisian studio in 2008. His 'Jord' chair (2012), made from rhythmically layering pieces of oak, and 'Fogo' lamp (2012), with organic light-emitting diodes at the tips of its branches, are in the Centre Pompidou's collection.

When Sonia Lawson, director of the Palais de Lomé, conceived the idea for a design gallery, she thought of involving Aguessy in some capacity. The news of his untimely death on his fortieth birthday - Aguessy ended his life after battling cancer - prompted her to invite the curator Sandra Agbessi to assemble a show celebrating his multi-faceted work.

The exhibition is named after Aguessy's scarlet 'Infinity' chair (2016), made from looping aluminium into a deformed figure of eight, the lower part serving as the base, the upper part as the seat. What emerges is his sculptural and technical wizardry for mastering materials. This is discernible in the bronze, honeycomb-like fruit bowls (2008-2010); the sumptuous 'Fjord' armchair in Carrara marble (2010); 'The Stool' (2014-2016), a brass stool made with graceful simplicity; and smooth ceramic masks (2010-2016) that reinterpret traditional African masks. Hugely curious about processes, Aguessy covered his stainless steel, prismatic-shaped, totemic chair, 'Useless Tool' (2008), with a low-reflective material used in aviation.

"It was obvious and logical to present an exhibition on Kossi, who achieved in a couple of decades what some designers don't achieve in a lifetime," Agbessi says. "When you encounter his work, you doesn't necessarily think of Africa. Apart from the masks, the reference to Africa is extremely subtle - such as the brass sceptre that he made for the Musée de la Récade in Benin for which he revisited an African form to make an object of design."

Earlier this year in Dakar, meanwhile, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury juxtaposed the work of Jean Servais Somian, who divides his time between Ivory Coast and Paris, and French artist Ana Zulma. The exhibition, 'Babitopie (Entre-Deux)', showed Somian's furniture carved from the trunks of coconut palms alongside photographs of local people in Abidjan taken by Somian, painted over by Zulma. Among Somian's pieces are stools and consoles embellished with wooden beads, and mirror-encrusted totems with holes carved into them where books and magazines can be inserted.

"He plays with the codes of the material and distorts objects in atypical ways to create new, unique forms, engendering an ambivalence between aesthetics and usage," says Fakhoury, who discovered Somian's work a decade ago.

Somian, 48, studied cabinet-making with Georges Ghandour in the Ivorian city of Grand-Bassam and worked in Paris and Switzerland before exhibiting at the 2002 International Design Biennale of St-Etienne. Following this, he established production in Ivory Coast in collaboration with local craftsmen. "When I discovered the coconut palm, whose wood is usually used to warm a hearth, I found it strange and beautiful to work with," he says. "I wanted to impose my signature so it could become an object at the crossroads of sculpture and design. It's the most magnificent plant: we can thatch roofs with its leaves, eat and make cosmetic products with its fruit, and make furniture from its trunk."

Somian buys coconut palms from landowners planning to cut them down. "When the landowners decide to build a house, they call and ask me if I want to buy the trunks and I choose the ones that interest me. Now they know that I want to buy them, they no longer throw them away," says Somian, whose 'Wooden Coconut Mobile Bar' - an oblong bar on wheels loosely inspired by a doctor's briefcase - won the best object award at Beirut Design Fair last September.

In his Grand-Bassam atelier, the bark is removed, the wood is carved and sculpted, and forms take shape. Afterwards, the pieces are transported to his atelier in Abidjan to be turned into works of design: drawers are added to cabinets, legs to consoles, and finishings - such as bits of ox bone - are applied to the wood.

Somian also reconfigures the discarded canoes of Ivorian fishermen into sofas by adding fabric onto the empty inner structure and legs onto the base. "It saddens me when old and tired fishermen leave their canoes at the water's edge and they become rotten," he explains. "As a designer, I want to find a solution and bring something magical to them."

Somian, who feels affinity with Senegal's Bibi Seck and Burkina Faso's Hamed Ouattara, believes that African designers are driven by a shared philosophy: "By using locally sourced or recycled materials, we're transmitting a message: that one needs to look at what's happening close-by and facilitate the livelihood of the local community. In Africa, we don't have big manufacturing machines but that doesn't mean we can't create with what we have."

Although styles vary - partly due to different tribal influences - reinterpreting traditional craftsmanship and recycling materials are commonalities of design made in Africa. For instance, the Senegalese designers Baay Xaaly Sene (BXS) and Ousmane Mbaye have both ingeniously created furniture from old petrol barrels. A parallel trend is how interest in African design has filtered into the mainstream - as exemplified by IKEA launching its Överallt collection last year, made by ten African designers including Issa Diabaté, Selly Raby Kane and Bethan Rayner and Naeem Biviji.

Taking a slightly different tack, Jomo Tariku, an Ethiopian-American industrial designer, gleans ideas from the African continent in a quest to define a new language of contemporary furniture. One such example is his 'Birth Chair II' (2016). Made from blackened wood with white motifs painted on the backrest, it resulted from deconstructing traditional African birthing chairs that are used in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa to provide support to pregnant women during childbirth.

An early pioneer of African contemporary design is Mali's Cheick Diallo, whose furniture was included in the seminal 'Africa Remix' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and the Centre Pompidou, among other venues, in 2004. His work is in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and was exhibited by Bamako Art Gallery at the fair AKAA (Also Known As Africa) in Paris in November.

After studying architecture and design in France, Diallo lived in Rouen, travelling regularly to Bamako to collaborate with local craftspeople. He returned to Bamako six years ago. "I wanted to show that it's possible to make design in Mali," Diallo, 59, told me during an exhibition of his work in his house and garden (designed by his architect father) in 2017. "My philosophy was to develop manual, artisanal savoir-faire, because industry doesn't exist over here, and make contemporary, luxury objects with our own hands without importing things from abroad. People didn't believe me when I said my objects were made here."

Diallo works with weavers to create meticulously woven and braided furniture and lighting, some pieces revealing a western sensibility informed by Frank Gehry, Ron Arad and Constance Guisset. Other pieces are made with recycled metal on a large metalworking site. "Africa needs to show that it can propose design projects to the whole world - that's the ambition and now it's happening on a bigger scale," says Diallo, who was commissioned to make furniture for the French and Belgian embassies in Bamako. Regarded as the "grandfather of African design", he was a co-founder and president of the Association of African Designers and organises workshops for young designers in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia.

"Cheick Diallo introduced the idea of reinventing local savoir-faire in Africa in the 1990s with an intellectual, conceptual and rigorous approach," says Pascale Revert, founder of 50 Golborne in London. Revert discovered Diallo's work 15 years ago through her first gallery, Perimeter Art & Design in Paris, and is one of several collectible African design dealers, along with Southern Guild in Cape Town. At Collect, the International Art Fair for Modern Craft and Design in London, she presented Uganda's Sanaa Gateja who makes mural beadworks, Nigerian ceramicist Ranti Bam and Senegalese furniture designer Balla Niang.

Although the market for contemporary design from Africa is led by European and American clients, both Fakhoury and Revert believe the number of local collectors is growing. "Some live abroad, others have returned to their country of origin and have purchasing power," Fakhoury says.

"The local African bourgeoisie is becoming interested in unique pieces in galleries in Abidjan, Lagos, Johannesburg, Cape Town and internationally," Revert concedes. "But economic structures are needed for significant market development. One hopes that 'starchitects' of African origin, such as David Adjaye and Francis Kéré, who are increasingly involved on the continent, will call on African designers for hotel, residential and social projects, like schools."

Equally, venues like the Palais de Lomé are needed to stimulate a passion for design locally through staging exhibitions like the one on Aguessy.

'Infinity: Kossi Aguessy (1977-2017)' is at the Palais de Lomé until March 2020.

Galerie Cécile Fakhoury - aims to promoted contemporary art in Africa.

Collect - the only gallery-presented art fair dedicated to modern craft and design.

50 Golborne - contemporary African Art and Design Gallery London.

Jomo Tariku - Ethiopian American artist and industrial designer.

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THE PALAIS DE Lomé, a new cultural venue in Togo, was inaugurated in December with an exhibition paying tribute to Kossi Aguessy, the visionary artist/designer of Togolese descent. In the renovated waterfront palace, which was constructed in 1905 and formerly served as the German, then French, governors' residence, a diversity of Aguessy's pieces are on display.

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"new wave of home furnishing designers in South Africa – and an appreciation for the transitional arts and crafts of African culture"

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A passion for the design masterpieces being turned out by the new wave of home furnishing designers in South Africa - and an appreciation for the transitional arts and crafts of African culture - led to the opening of Phases Africa Furniture and Decor PTY (Ltd.) an online store that ships Internationally.

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Popular South African Art and Products Designs 

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Popular South African Art and Products Designs 

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These designs are heavily inspired by the natural landscapes of Africa.

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atelier 55 - The Curator of Contemporary African Design

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South African Art and Design Takes Centre Stage at Xigera Safari Lodge, Botswana - atelier 55 - The Curator of Contemporary African Design

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Xigera Safari Lodge officially opened its doors in January, welcoming guests into a space where South African design takes centre stage. Situated on the western edge of the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Xigera offers Taking cues from the natural land…

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African Art in The Southern Guild Showroom

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African Art in The Southern Guild Showroom

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Southern Guild is a popular design gallery located in Cape Town with an extensive collection of African art from designers with diverse backgrounds across the country.

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In 2003, Trevyn McGowan, her set designer husband, Julian, and their two children (they now have six) set off from London for a quiet beach holiday in her native South Africa. Formerly an actress, McGowan had for several years been running a small renovation and design business, managing residential building projects. She'd weigh in on interior decoration and help find furniture, often sourcing pieces from South African producers. Feeling a bit burned out by work, she headed with her family to the small, beautiful - and aptly named - town of Wilderness, on the Garden Route along the country's south coast. "Somehow," she says, "we ended up buying a house." Two years later, they moved there permanently, intending to enjoy "a quiet existence" and slow down the pace of their lives.

Today, the McGowans run Cape Town's Southern Guild, a gallery of contemporary South African collectible design with a stellar international reputation. They've cultivated this by consistently showing their artists at international fairs, frequently playing a highly active role in shaping their work, as well. They also oversee the nonprofit Design Foundation, which offers financial awards and mentoring to young designers.

What happened to those plans for a quiet life?

"Somehow I couldn't help myself," McGowan says with a laugh. "I found a great ceramics studio called Wonki Ware, based in Wilderness, and I was crazy about it. I went to show it to the Conran Shop back in London, and Polly Dickinson, the company's creative director, loved it." Dickinson introduced McGowan to buyers from Anthropologie, and she was soon also working with Liberty, Heals and other major U.K. brands. She became a sort of South African design conduit, at one point maintaining a database of more than 550 products.

By 2008, she and the British-born Julian had realized that many South African designers and products weren't easily exportable. "We were seeing wonderful furniture and art pieces that couldn't be made in high numbers or didn't fit the price points for these stores," she recounts. "We realized that what was happening in design here wasn't happening anywhere else." South African artists, she explains, were "dealing with mostly different issues to people working in the West. There is an authenticity, a humanity and a handmade quality that people connect to." The McGowans wanted to create a platform for these creations.

Still living in Wilderness, the couple began working with a growing number of artists whose oeuvre often straddled different media. In 2009, they presented 30 of them at the Joburg Art Fair, under the gallery name Southern Guild. "It felt really exciting, the ignition of something," McGowan says. Among the pieces that drew particular attention were Porky Hefer's first weaver's nest seat, Bronze Age's drinks cabinet in the form of a life-size gorilla and Gregor Jenkin's idiosyncratic Foundrie table, whose cabriole legs belie the industrial-feeling metalwork of its edges.

In 2011, they made their international debut, taking Jenkin's Migrant/Migrate collection to Design Miami. "It was a solo booth of furniture that couldn't be used, an installation really," McGowan says, referring to the strangely shaped tables designed to resemble a herd of wildebeests.

"At that point, we didn't really have a name for what we were doing. We were just trying to showcase the best of South African contemporary design," she continues. "But in Miami, I realized that we had a category, and it was called 'collectible design.' "

Ever since, the McGowans have identified, mentored and supported creatives, matchmaking designers and artisans, furniture makers and ceramists. "It's not just a matter of representing artists," McGowan says, "but also of encouraging community."

Julian has a particularly vital role in discovering talent - not always in the most obvious places. "Design education is limited in South Africa, so I often look at fashion and architecture," he says, citing his current work with couturier Rich Mnisi, who creates curvaceous anthropomorphic furniture pieces. "Rich is not afraid of the sexual nature of his work. Fashion designers are less constrained." Collaborating with artists not trained in a particular area doesn't bother him. "For me, ideas have more currency than actual drawings. I can help bring those ideas to a practical level," he explains, adding that a work is intriguing because the artist has something to say: "More and more, I am looking for people with a story - a personal story, a heritage story, a story of culture and tradition."

Southern Guild has gotten government funding in the past to help take designers abroad, to tell their stories internationally. "These trips showed artists the level and quality of what is on offer," McGowan says, "but also how important it is to have your own voice and narrative. That has been incredibly helpful in building a South African identity."

By 2014, the McGowans had started the Design Foundation, begun a seminar program called Business of Design and been hired by the V&A Waterfront shopping district in Cape Town to curate a more craft-focused space called the Watershed, showing creations by some 160 artisans. "We had been working remotely from Wilderness, but we realized we really had to move to Cape Town," McGowan says. "Plus, we knew by then that we wanted a physical space to show our designers' work."

They set up their gallery in the regenerating neighborhood of Woodstock, which had slowly transformed into a vibrant arts district, and in 2017, they moved into their current large and beautiful space next to the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), in the V&A Waterfront. Part of the new Silo district built around the museum, the glass-fronted gallery has double-height ceilings and contains 3,750 square feet of space, allowing the McGowans to simultaneously mount large-scale, focused exhibitions and display a wide selection of items by most of their artists.

The gallery always has the work of "a core group of around twenty" artists on view, McGowan says; most are South African, although a few are from other African countries. Recently, one end of the space held an exhibition of Cape Town-based blacksmith Conrad Hicks's sculptural hand-forged metal furniture, which bears ripples and marks from its production process and mixes rough, hammered finishes with decorative, almost rococo embellishment.

In the central part of the gallery, a huge circular carpet made by Paco Pakdoust and Conrad Botes and imprinted with a woman's face kept company with two Dokter and Misses painted steel and wood cabinets in bold colors and with protruding spikes. On a wall behind a Jesse Ede Lunar console table in aluminum and slate were six circular prints from Justine Mahoney's "Tainted" series, whose collaged images combine African figures in traditional dress with bold cartoon graphics, old-fashioned storybook pictures of children and sinister intimations of social disintegration. Near the front of the space, a Porky Hefer Boom for Real. A Mask. hanging seat made of cane, leather, fake hair and steel hung next to an Atang Tshikare low bronze chair looking like an overgrown crustacean or insect you can't quite place.

Championing the artists is not always easy. "We are far away from the fashionable centers of design, and transport and logistics are difficult and expensive," says McGowan, adding that working in the South African rand, which is weak against major currencies like the dollar and euro, is "debilitating. But we have risked a lot and keep going because it's a calling."

The most important thing she and Julian do, she says, is to ask artists "Who are you? What are you saying?" The work, she concludes, "has to come from an authentic place. Otherwise, we're just another gallery."

Talking Points

Trevyn McGowan shares her thoughts on a few choice pieces.

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Why the Greatest Makers in South Africa Show at Southern Guild

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In 2003, Trevyn McGowan, her set designer husband, Julian, and their two children (they now have six) set off from London for a quiet beach holiday in her native South Africa. Formerly an actress, McGowan had for several years been running a small renovation and design business, managing residential building projects.

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How African design is implemented into a household

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How African design is implemented into a household

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Surprisingly, deciding to go for an African look is less difficult than what it seems. Adding a vibrant look to your space is a great idea for the upcoming year, especially after reading all about the top African Home Trends we selected after talking with some of the best renowned artists.
There are two golden that will guide you: African pieces will add a touch of originality, even among sleek furniture items; plus, you don't need to abuse it, picking a few African items are enough to let them be evident. Continue reading to discover all about the African color scheme for 2021 and the top trends in design.

2021 AFRICAN COLOR TRENDS Mustard

DelightFULL

will be one of the top choices in 2021 for African homes. A tone that resemble the good climate and brings warmth to the interior décor.
Rich Hues

Scofield Floor Lamp | DelightFULL

just like jewel tones will be the main color schemes for the upcoming year. A vibrant and earthy look that will help put the together.
NATURAL MATERIALS

Wood is one of the most common materials in an Afican home. Embrace the love for natural materials using reclaimed wood ceiling with beams in your living room, neutral furiture and vintage chandeliers. Using antiques found in a special trip will guarantee that the room has a worn, aged feel that works with the
AFRO-CHIC

Sustainibility is the buzzword of 2021 in interiors world, and handmade items made out of rattan, jute and clay will be among the most popular items, against digital technology and fast design trends. People are looking for more grounding elements in their space as a way to reconnect with nature.
VERSATILITY

Scofield Floor Lamp | DelightFULL

The true beauty of is that it is an aesthetic wide open to interpretation, making it easy to adapt to your personal taste. Don't be afraid of mixing diffent styles, colors, patterns, materials and design pieces from different design eras. If your idea of interiors bliss is inspired by the romance and wanderlust of the safari, billowing white curtains, natural finishes and plenty of butterfly chairs and cushions are for you; all in an earthy palette.

ARMCHAIRS WITH HANDMADE FABRICS

Please, be seated. The iconic armchair was actually exported from the and culture. Known as Triplolina chair, it was first used in 19th century in by the British and then the Italians and has been synonymous with ever since.

Coltrane II Wall Lamp | DelightFULL

Nothing says 'safari chic' like . These typical design accessories are very much inspired by its awe-inducing fauna. As a staple of African style, it's a tangible reminder of what is just outside on the savannah.

Aretha Suspension Lamp | DeligthFULL

READ ALSO: Hands Down! These Are The Top Russian Design Trends For 2021 The Modern Spanish Revival You Will See in 2021!
We hope you liked our article about: Discover The Authentic African Home Trends For 2021!

You can visit DelightFULL's Inspirations Page as well as our Pinterest boards in order to get more inspirations. Get more ideas for your projects and find functional, stylish and sizable lighting and furniture choices.

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Discover The Authentic African Home Trends For 2021!

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Surprisingly, deciding to go for an African look is less difficult than what it seems. Adding a vibrant look to your space is a great idea for the upcoming year, especially after reading all about the top African Home Trends we selected after talking with some of the best renowned artists.

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The dangers of generalizing African design style

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The dangers of generalizing African design style

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Stop what you're doing right now and Google "African Design." Browse a few entries and click down a bit to see if you can find anything that is close to coherent. Don't worry-I'll wait...

My own search resulted in a gallery of kitsch fabric styles, moribund web pages from African design institutions like the African Design Centre and, and specious pontifications from non-Africans. A 2013 HuffingtonPost article didn't mention a single country by name when its author wrote, "African design is founded in [sic] on Primitivism and is concerned with raw form, childlike lines, and references to wildlife, earthly hues and the color orange." The entire continent just sighed with exhaustion.

Kente cloth on display in eastern Ghana.

Orange? Since when is Africa's clock permanently stuck on sunset? For the record, "Primitivism" is a Western invention-not an African one. And common sense should tell you that very few Africans live on savannahs and nearly none do so with wildlife grazing in a backdrop of earthly hues. Yet, judging by the internet, this fiction is what most Westerners think Africa is. Americans should take this as a cautionary tale.

"Encapsulating the styles of 54 countries in one term is a stretch," explains Shila Abdula, an architect and interior designer from Mozambique. "African countries had different journeys throughout time and the impact of colonialism in the design evolution of each is often overlooked."

A wood statue in Madagascar.

Instead, Abdula argues, what Americans define as "African Design" is often something conjured from Western imagination. "The term 'African Design' makes me think of objects and artifacts that are idealized and built using local resources (material and labor), and reflect the culture, traditions, and habits of a specific region," she says. "I feel Westerners may associate 'African Design' with tribal artwork, which is what is usually highlighted in most media."

Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo said it best with the title of her 2013 debut novel, "We Need New Names." The same is true for the term "African Design," which reduces the multitude of aesthetics found across the 46 countries in subsaharan Africa to just a few export-driven motifs from tourist art found in a few well-known countries, namely South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. If we extend our gaze to include the Sahel, for example, we can consider eight more countries that further expand the diversity of designs and patterns to include Persian, Arab, and Bedouin influences. Yet, from across the Atlantic Ocean, grossly inaccurate statements about Africa, Africans, and cultural productions originating from the continent are all too common. This is precisely why African creatives and designers have decided to tell their own stories, through online spaces, like a Portuguese-language website for designers and architects in Mozambique, and the satirically named, Africa is a Country, the South-Africa based research-hub that uses creators on the continent to document the diverse contemporary cultural production of each country.

Togolese artist Sadikou Oukpedjo paints in his workshop in Bingerville, outside Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

AFP Contributor / Contributor

Kevin Wainaina of Nairobi-based architectural firm IntrigAfrica adds, "Most westerners tend to think of Africans as one large collective community with the same culture, yet there are many tribes in Africa and each tribe has its own identity. For example, Kenya alone has 43 tribes and each tribe has its own culture, which influences its design perspective. African design cannot be summed up to a term or style. It is vibrant and dynamic depending on the location and community. There is no defined African design language, hence designers should pick from different cultures and blend them to create their own authentic style."

For consumers, Abdula advises a "search for specific countries and reaching out to local architects, design ateliers, and furniture stores." But she cautions that the internet has its limitations. Of course, the results are only as good as the keywords used. Luckily, you've already ruled out "African Design." While you're at it, ditch "tribal" and "ethnic" too. These overused words can be pejorative and simplistic, especially when they're used as euphemisms for Africa. Every country in the world has local cultures and art elements that define its geographies. The key is to identify the appropriate words to describe the specific style you seek.

Traditional house decoration in the old town, Tripolitania, Ghadames, Libya.

Over 2,000 languages are spoken on the African continent, making an English-language search a blunt filter. Image heavy Instagram might be a better place to browse design elements that appeal. Buyers can dig deeper into the country of origin and engross themselves in modern experiences from contemporary creatives without saying a word. The photos and the products will speak for themselves, making it that much easier to finally stop using "African Design" to describe the plethora of bespoke installations made by people living on the mother continent.
Nafeesah Allen is an independent researcher with an interest in literature, gender, and diaspora studies in the global South. In 2019, she completed her Ph.D. in Forced Migration from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa. She leads BlackHistoryBookshelf.com, a book review website that highlights global Black histories organized by language, theme, and country. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram @theblaxpat.
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Let's Stop Referring to "African Decor' as One Style"

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Stop what you're doing right now and Google "African Design." Browse a few entries and click down a bit to see if you can find anything that is close to coherent. Don't worry-I'll wait... My own search resulted in a gallery of kitsch fabric styles, moribund web pages from African design institutions like the African Design Centre and, and specious pontifications from non-Africans.

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African Design plays a big role in fashion, this talks about the fashion designers originating from Africa and using their backgrounds as inspiration for their design. even though the designers all come from Africa you can see the diversity in the designs because of the part of Africa they originate from.

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In 2020, African designers broke new ground to reach astonishing new heights of ingenuity and creativity. Some of the world's top publications like Vogue and Forbes did in-depth features on African designers. The diversity charge led to a global push for recognition of a wider range of cultural contributions and African fashion made an unprecedented leap into the spotlight. With Africa becoming such a powerful force in the global fashion industry, here are 10 of the best African designers to look out for.
1. Christie Brown
Images: Christie Brown

Watching her grandmother, Christie Brown, who the label is named after, craft exquisite African outfits whilst working as a seamstress, inspired founder Aisha Obuobi to create her own fashion line. From a young age, Aisha experimented with African textiles, creating outfits for her dolls in Ghana. In 2008, Christie Brown was born.

Known for her impeccable attention to detail and structured African print outfits, Christie Brown's collections incorporate every aspect of the contemporary African woman. Her garments range from ready-to-wear pieces to bespoke gowns, often with a focus on waist clinching fits. Though her aesthetic is predominately luxury and high fashion, her collections are versatile and wearable, making them suitable for all. View her latest collection here.
2. Imane Ayissi
Images: Imane Ayissi

Growing up within a family of artists, Imane Ayissi had dreams of becoming a professional dancer, joining the National Ballet of Cameroon. His mother had an interest in fashion and so he decided to become a stylist. He spent years dressing some of the greatest dancers and choreographers in the world as well as creating his line of dresses. Following this, Imane moved into the world of modelling, working with big brands like YSL and Dior. It was this shift that inspired him to focus on creating his African outfits for Women. His ability to construct clothes out of such varied textures and dimensions are what makes Imane's pieces so unique.

Much like his dual culture, African and French, many of his pieces appear paradoxical, combining unlikely colours and fabrics with avant-garde silhouettes. Imane draws much of his influence from dance, notably the shapes and movements of his fabrics when worn. Each collection is comprised of traditional materials and textiles from abandoned heritages that are natural, organic and have the least environmental impact. View his latest African fashion collection here.
3. Ahluwalia
Images: Ahluwalia

Combining her Nigerian-Indian heritage and London's garage music scene, founder Priya Ahluwalia created Ahluwalia. Despite being relatively new, the brand is already making big waves within the fashion world. Priya attended The University of Westminster to study an MA in menswear and won the prestigious H&M Design Award. In 2020, she was included in the Forbes 30 under 30 on the European Arts and Culture List and won the LVMH Prize, alongside seven other emerging brands. Ahluwalia is also recognised as one of Matches Fashion's Innovators and has received support from Gucci.

Drawing influence from African and Indian textiles, Ahluwalia fuses modern shapes with traditional prints. Her innovative, sustainable approach to designing ensures that all garments are created out of deadstock fabrics, giving a new life to used textiles and eliminating unnecessary waste. Each collection nods to nostalgia, whether it be through swirling 70s patterns or vintage athleisure silhouettes. Above all, Ahluwalia is quirky, cool and an exploration of what it means to be mixed race. View the latest SS21 collection here.
4. Orange Culture
Images: Orange Culture

Since its birth back in 2011, Orange Culture has gone from strength to strength. Founder Adebayo Oke-Lawal began creating garments at the age of 10, but it was his time working with designers that really spurred him to start his own line. Adebayo insists that his collections are a 'movement' rather than just items to be worn and he explores the marriage between Nigerian colours, textiles, prints and modern silhouettes.

Orange Culture gives an urban twist to modern African outfits, whilst keeping a strong sense of tradition throughout every piece. Adebayo appears to draw influence from markedly different sources throughout each collection. At times, it is challenging to know his intrinsic style as he experiments so frequently, often in a nonconventional manner. Sustainability is integral to the brand and all the materials used are ethically-sourced and manufactured in Lagos. Today, Orange Culture is the first Nigerian brand to be stocked in Selfridges and has accumulated various accolades, including the prestigious LVMH prize. View his latest African fashion collection here.
5. Maxhosa
Images: Maxhosa

Though the South African brand was founded back in 2012, Maxhousa has started making its way around the industry more recently. With an impressive line up of awards under his belt, including the Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa Award, founder Laduma Ngxokolo is one of the South Africa's most highly regarded knitwear designers. His heavy use of traditional Xhosa beadwork and premium South African materials, mohair and wool, produces one of a kind eye-catching pieces for both men and women.

Maxhousa's vibrant use of colours and shapes are synonymous with his traditional Xhosa influences and despite their sometimes whimsical appearance, the contemporary edge to his pieces gives them wearability. In his women's SS2020 collection he experimented with combining hem lengths on single garments giving many of his dresses and skirts free-flowing silhouettes. You will often see fine beading work with incredible attention to detail housed in geometric knitted shapes. View the SS21 collection here.

Images: Vogue

The South African designer with the Midas touch, Thebe Magugu led by example through 2019. He was awarded the LVMH Prize and earned the mantle of GQ SA's Rising Star of 2019. His mission to spread the beauty of Africa's fashion industry is already proving an emphatic success. Known for fierce feminine designs, Magugu should definitely be on your radar for 2021. Supermodel Adut Kech showcased his pieces for the September 2019 issue of British Vogue. He also released a capsule collection on 24 Sèvres. All in all, 2019 was the year Thebe Magugu became a star, and he's just getting started. View his latest collection here.

7. Kenneth Ize

Images: Vogue

Kenneth Ize has carved himself a solid position at the forefront of the aso-oke world. He was a finalist for the coveted LVMH Prize for 2019, and was mentioned personally by the chief editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour. Hailing from Nigeria, this is an African designer making huge strides into the global fashion industry. Notably, he made his way onto the BoF500 list in 2019, and you can rest assured that Ize has only just begun his journey. African 2 piece outfits with vivid prints and colours are his signature style and we expect to see big things from him in 2021 as he tightens his grip on fashion stardom. View his latest African fashion collection here.

Sika'afounder John Tchoudi is a fashion designer showing enormous promise. Just two years into an African fashion journey, the Sika'a mission to produce elegant and inventive handmade garments is flourishing. Hailing from West Cameroon, the focus is on producing wonderful high-end garments from sustainable fabrics. Sika'a is ahead of the curve for an industry that needs to shift towards more responsible practices. The passion and diversity at the core of the Sika'a ethos is a superb recipe for success. And a look over the outstanding portfolio is simply inspiring. Be ready to see more of the name Sika'a in 2021. View the latest Sika'a collection.

Images: Vogue

Duro Oluwo is as known in the art world as the fashion one. He evokes the same stylistic muse as his discerning clientele. He is a master of mixed-media dressing. He uses a range of fabrics and patterns to conjure unique ensembles that thrill and surprise liberally. You will find that evening silhouettes are his go-to in the main, but his designs often stray into more unique assemblages. Primarily targeting female garments, Oluwo has drawn inspiration from people and places from his eclectic lifestyle. His collections for 2021 are looking to be as groundbreaking as we've come to expect. View the latest African fashion collection here.

Aaks is the African fashion brand from designer Akosua Afriyie-Kumi of Ghana. Having studied in London, Afriyie-Kumi founded Aaks with a commitment to creating handcrafted, ethical handbags. She uses traditional African techniques and employs local raffia weavers. Her support for the African community and fashion industry is unparalleled. Every handbag from Aaks is beautiful and eclectic, wonderfully encapsulating the spirit of Africa. We have immense respect for the work of this brand, and we can't wait to see what's in store for the year ahead. Explore the latest African Fashion collection here.

The African take on fashion is gaining momentum in this highly competitive industry. It is a tremendous pleasure to be part of this growing trend, and we would love to see which African brands are your go-to for contemporary style.
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10 African fashion designers to look out for in 2021

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In 2020, African designers broke new ground to reach astonishing new heights of ingenuity and creativity. Some of the world's top publications like Vogue and Forbes did in-depth features on African designers. The diversity charge led to a global push for recognition of a wider range of cultural contributions and African fashion made an unprecedented leap into the spotlight.

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Good South African designs from chairs to clothes and house décor. They use a great deal of shapes and colours with a certain vibe coming from each product.

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Catalogue of the NEXT19 Trade Exhibition Cape Town in 2019, featuring 40 South African craft and design exporters. These suppliers are ready to export their home decoration, home textiles, furniture, fashion accessoires and gifts to international markets. Development by Design is an initiative by Dutch CDI and South African CDI. Coordinating consultants are Irene Vermeulen Craftscurator.com and Solly Levy of Solly Levy Projects

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1. 1. Development by Design is a joint project of: COMPANYPROFILES 2019

2. 2. Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 1. Africa!Ignite 2. African Jaquard 3. Amelia Jackson 4. Ashley Heather 5. Aucamp 6. Barrydale Hand Weavers 7. Beloved Beadwork 8. Bili BraWear 9. Chic Fusion 10. Ckho Ceramique 11. Clip Clop 12. Design Africa 13. De Steyl 14. Eco Furniture Design 15. Evolution 16. Fechters 17. Feeling African 18. Gold Bottom Pots 19. Head On Design 20. Heartfelt LIST OF COMPANIES Development By Design 21. Indigi 22. Lilly Loompa 23. Lula Rugs 24. Macassar Pottery 25. Master Wire and Bead Craft 26. Meyer von Wielligh 27. Minima 28. Modern Gesture 29. Mors 30. Mungo 31. Potters Workshop 32. Rarity 33. Saks Corner 34. Skinny laMinx 35. Studio Stirling 36. Touw Meubels 37. Urshworks 38. Vogel 39. Wren 40. Zizamele

3. 3. 1Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Africa!Ignite produces and sells ranges of contemporary décor, accessory and gift items, all hand made in KwaZulu-Natal. Each item is imbued with the exquisite workmanship, vibrant colours and iconic designs that characterise Zulu craft heritage and tradition. Contact Margaret Gribble +27 31 303 5482 margaret@africaignite.co.za www.ignitedesign.co.za Africa!Ignite

4. 4. 2Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 African Jacquard provides a unique, handmade range of tastefully designed home linen. It is woven in South Africa using the traditional French Jacquard technique. All of our products are 100% cotton or cotton/linen blend, offering a high quality with a wide variety of designs thanks to the jacquard weaving technique, which is damask and therefore visible on both sides. We design our own products, namely the African and Contemporary collections, but are also able to customize designs for our clients. Our brand is registered as Proudly South African and we support local companies for both the weaving and make up of our products. Contact Christine Daron +27 21 448 4886 c.daron@africajaquard.com www.africanjacquard.com African Jacquard

5. 5. 3Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 We are hand weavers making home textiles and rugs from cotton yarns, 90% of which are recycled or upcycled yarns. Amelia Jackson Industries is based in Cape Town, South Africa. We supply our ranges to stores all over the country, neighbouring states and the rest of Africa. We also have exported into Australia and the United Kingdom. We also supply to the hospitality sector. We are able to match colours to the buyer's requirements and we have a fairly short turn around. We have very small minimum requirements making it easier for buyers to test the market with their ranges. Contact Alan Glasser +27 21 761 6699 glasser@mweb.co.za www.ameliajackson.co.za Amelia Jackson

6. 6. 4Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Utilising silver and gold recycled from circuit boards by a small refinery right here in South Africa, all 'ashley heather' jewellery is meticulously handcrafted in our Cape Town studio. Passionate about, and committed to ethical production, we combine traditional gold-smithing techniques with modern technologies and contemporary designs to create unique jewellery with a conscience. Contact Ashley Heather +27 82 563 5086 info@ashleyheather.co.za www.ashleyheather.co.za Ashley Heather

7. 7. 5Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Aucamp AUCAMP.studio is a small eco printing and natural dyeing studio specialising in unique, single production products and art. We find our main inspiration in the gifts nature has to offer, not just through the extraction of dyes from plant material, but also through the alchemy of combining elements such as metals, clay, water and steam. It's a collaboration with nature. Our new range focuses on designer scatter cushions, wall panels and art on high quality fabrics such as hemp and silk. Find us in Hermanus, South Africa Contact Leoni Aucamp +27 82 925 5663 leoni.aucamp@gmail.com www.aucamp.studio

8. 8. 6Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 The distinctive style of Barrydale Hand Weavers is achieved by weaving natural unbleached cotton on traditional handlooms. This ´honesty´ of the production process and use of quality raw materials, results in a distinctive 'handmade' look and feel, whilst producing high quality, durable items. The finished products in an organic white are very textured and tactile, with splashes of colour introduced by weaving in coloured stripes in a variety of designs. The tableware range includes tablecloths, napkins, table runners and place mats. The kitchen and casual living range includes tea towels and aprons as well as cushions, beach towels, cot covers and throws. Contact Carol Morris +27 28 572 1488 carol@barrydaleweavers.co.za www.barrydaleweavers.co.za Barrydale Hand Weavers

9. 9. 7Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Beloved Beadwork finds its home in the Mother City, Cape Town. Here we hand weave intricate, conceptual, expressive neckpieces, earrings, bracelets and rings using glass beads, precious metal finishing, a needle and thread, and some lovely algorithms. Wearers of Beloved live all over the world, and delight in finding each other. Our jewellery is also sold in galleries and boutiques globally, and we enjoy making connections with friends and colleagues who find new owners for our Beloved pieces. Contact Anna Richerby +27 71 936 6547 anna@belovedbeadwork.co.za www.belovedbeadwork.co.za Beloved Beadwork

10. 10. 8Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Bili BraWear Bili BraWear handcrafts removable beaded bra straps. These innovative straps replace regular bra straps with a colourful and comfortable "worn to be seen" alternative. Attaching to strapless bras, each pair empowers a previously disadvantaged South African women. Craft is one of the purest expressions of culture and handcrafted items build bridges from human to human and from culture to culture. In a world too often divided by our differences, the unifying power of handcraft should not be overlooked. 'Umntu Ngumntu Ngabantu' in Xhosa means 'I am who I am because you are and you are because I am'. Bili crafts a special product to mark this truth and to share it with the world. Contact Lindsay Fisher +27 82 375 3993 lindsay@bilibrawear.com www.bilibrawear.com BRA WEAR

11. 11. 9Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Chic Fusion designs and manufactures home décor and accessories felted by hand using 100% wool. The designs are inspired by South African landscapes and cultures. A wet felting technique is used during which each item is gently ' massaged' and then skilfully coaxed into shape. Chic Fusion Contact Razaan Jakoet +27 83 253 0601 razaan@chicfusion.co.za www.chicfusion.co.za

12. 12. 10Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Sikho Mququ,the founder of Ckho Ceramique, is a young, up and coming ceramicist, working in Cape Town, South Africa. Sikho is a strong believer in the beauty that results where form meets function, and as such, a large part of his collection is comprised of functional pieces,such as coffee mugs, jugs, bowls, and other tablware, where his signature original forms are complimented by his delicate decoration and embellishment. All Sikho's work is hand thrown and hand decorated, often using designs that are inspired by the patterns that make up the traditional blankets that are worn by Xhosa women, known as "Ityali". Contact Sikho Mququ +27 78 527 4261 Ckholita@gmail.com Ckho Ceramique

13. 13. 11Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Clip Clop makes a range of South African calendars, stationery and maps. We love nature and life and want to showcase it to the world. From the natural rhythms of the moon and tides charts to the fauna and flora illustrations on our notepads and the hill-shaded landscape maps, we strive to bring a little bit of the outside world, inside. Clip Clop makes everything in Cape Town, working with local printers, artists and designers. Clip Clop, loving the living world around us. Contact Fiona Berrisford +27 83 264 9142 fiona@clipclop.co.za www.clipclop.co.za Clip Clop

14. 14. 12Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Design Afrika has been at the forefront of efforts to revitalize the ancient craft of African weaving and basketry for many years. Woven functional and sculptural baskets are developed for both local and global markets. Over the years, we have developed close relationships and networks with rural weavers in more than 10 African countries. Successful marketing and promotion of these pieces have ensured that these traditional skills are not lost. We ensure that the botanical material we use is not endangered in any way and we encourage our weavers to practice sustainable harvesting methods. Contact Binky Newman +27 21 448 9761 binky@mweb.co.za www.designafrika.co.za Design Africa MADE BY HAND SINCE 1995 GRASS ROOTS SUPPORT

15. 15. 13Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 De Steyl furniture is created in the Garden Route of South Africa and has a crisp, playful aesthetic that appeals to a design savvy, environmentally conscious consumer. Following on from the success of their modular Play Play and 2DO Stackable ranges, owner Deánne Viljoen has designed the new Route Edition mobile storage drawers which features colour blocking in off-cut African wood veneers. Made from sustainable Birch plywood, it is ideal for the home, office or studio. The products are machined using the latest CNC technology, but the veneers are hand cut and pressed in-house and then assembled by skilled craftsmen. Contact Deánne Viljoen +27 44 878 0480 deanne@desteyl.co.za www.desteyl.co.za De Style

16. 16. 14Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 We are furniture manufacturers based in Cape Town, South Africa. From humble beginnings in a garage, the vision was to be an environmentally and socially aware company that manufactures and supplies stylish and functional furniture. This ethos remains today as the Eco Furniture Signature Range takes root in Southern Africa. Only sustainable and local solid wood timbers are used in production, as well as eco-friendly finishes to arrive at a finished product that is truly environmentally justifiable. We also produce custom made furniture. Our designs and our furniture signature style has developed into a unique and stylish brand. Contact Tameron Haralambous +27 84 514 6964 tameron@ecofurnituredesign.com www.ecofurnituredesign.com Eco Furniture Design

17. 17. 15Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Evolution's philosophy is to create a shift in product development - one in which nostalgic narratives are transformed into products. We would like to celebrate the past and cultivate our products for the home as conversation pieces narrating our own and our client's unique relationship with time and geographical space. Evolution aims to collaborate, create and sell to high end retail stores and decorators. We contribute financially to the sources of our inspiration and we aim to embrace sustainable practices while creating a stimulating environment for our staff. We create because it is part of our DNA. Contact Amanda du Plessis +27 83 301 6600 Amanda@evolutionproduct.co.za www.evolutionproduct.co.za Evolution Product

18. 18. 16Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Fechters is a Knysna based manufacturer of high quality furniture since 1936. Our ranges consist of indoor and patio furniture in both classic and contemporary styles. Our new collection of furniture combines the contemporary style of Scandinavian design with durable African timbers and time honoured construction techniques, ensuring that our heritage of fine craftsmanship lives on. Contact Morne Smith +27 44 382 7294 sales@fechters.co.za www.fechters.co.za Fechters

19. 19. 17Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Feeling African is a craft/art business that hand-makes contemporary wire furniture and accessories. We supply to architects, interior designers and retailers locally and internationally. We strive to provide a stable work place for our skilled artisans. Our products are available in a galvanised or powder coated finish in various colours, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Most of our products are designed and manufactured in component form, making them stackable and cost-effective to transport. Contact Willard Musarurwa +27 83 210 3933 feelingafrican@gmail.com www.feelingafrican.co.za Feeling African

20. 20. 18Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 With our small team of skilled Cape Town artisans, Gold Bottom creates unique handcrafted designer plant wear. Filling the void that often sees beauty stop at the plant, we offer original designs inspired by the African continent that create statement pieces for any space. Making our people and our plants proud - qualities we think of as the golden lining that sits at the bottom of everything we do. Contact Nikki Schomer +27 81 519 8146 nikki@goldbottompots.co.za www.goldbottompots.co.za Gold Bottom Pots

21. 21. 19Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 From her studio at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, Joanna Orr of Head On Design creates beautiful unique African décor and homeware, including modern animal wall sculptures, a graceful take on traditional hunting trophies. A big lover of nature, her products are made with our fragile earth in mind. She uses only sustainable or recycled materials as well as donating to wildlife conservation yearly. Head On Design sculptures are conveniently sold flat packed with clear instructions on how to assemble, perfectly designed for travellers concerned about space and weight. All products are made in Cape Town. Contact Joanna Orr +27 76 762 6084 jo@headondesign.co.za www.headondesign.co.za Head On Design

22. 22. 20Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Heartfelt Heartfelt's products are made of the best felt wools and hand-stitched with love. They are produced with purpose - we are a little social enterprise - with a big heart. From the products we make to the customers we build our products around - we make everything with love and fill it with hope. Contact Julie Hadley +27 82 340 6622 julie@theheartfeltproject.com www.theheartfeltproject.com

23. 23. 21Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Indigi is a dynamic South African lifestyle brand which merges contemporary design with local craftsmanship. The collection consists of locally printed textiles, furniture, lighting, décor and accessories that tell a cohesive story, infused with African influences, global appeal and longevity. An emphasis is placed on local hand crafting, innovative design, sustainable materials and fair trade principles. All products are made in Cape Town, South Africa. The company was founded by Natalie du Toit in 2011. Having grown up between South Africa and Australia, Indigi is a culmination of Natalie's fascination with indigenous cultures, love of bold pattern, colour and form, merged with her experience in design, retail and manufacturing. Contact Natalie du Toit +27 21 447 0165 info@Indigidesigns.com www.Indigidesigns.com Indigi

24. 24. 22Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Lilly Loompa has a unique way of upcycling discarded waste and transforming it into desirable homeware products that complement your home. We manufacture a variety of products, from storage holders, lamps, to table top accessories, among others. The range is intentionally designed to transport easy, which means shipping costs are kept to a minimum. These products are mostly made using tuna cans, jam cans, wine bottles and reclaimed wood. Eco-friendly, handcrafted and 100% South African, each Lilly Loompa piece, once trash, is now a meaningful piece of treasure. Contact Lizl Naude +27 82 320 5589 lizl@lillyloompa.com www.lillyloompa.com Lilly Loompa

25. 25. 23Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Lula Rugs Contact Melissa Kerkhoff +27 21 797 7472 melissa@lulafabrics.com www.lulafabrics.com Lula Rugs are woven from recycled textile waste from the apparel industry. A curated and fresh collection of Lula Fabrics designs are then hand screen printed onto the rugs. In addition, there is a small range of pouffes and scatter cushions produced with the same weave - resulting in completely handmade and recycled products which support our textile industry, a local weaving company and textile printer - all helping to sustain and create employment of local skilled artisans in South Africa.

26. 26. 24Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Macassar Pottery's new ceramic collection is called Afro Fusion - an innovative combination of traditional South African shapes fused with contemporary colour combinations. Black tones and mixed textures are complemented with metallics as highlights. Besides being a community-based centre for ceramic design and manufacturing, Macassar Pottery is the focal point of a grassroots business incubation process that turns unskilled community members, into skilled crafters and business owners. Contact Johan de Meyer 082 747 7104 www.macassarpottery.com Macassar Pottery

27. 27. 25Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Contact Bishop Tarambawamwe +27 82 758 7466 info@masterwiresbeadcraft.co.za www.masterwiresbeadcraft.co.za Master Wire and Bead Craft Master Wire and Bead Craft specialise in the design and production of unique handcrafted beadwork products. From one-off 'art' commissions, to our iconic beaded mirrors, that we have exported all over the world, all of our products are of the highest quality standards. We pride ourselves in our colour combinations and bead 'positioning' to create our signature design effects, which we then combine with a contemporary colour palette in the creation of our pieces. Our new ranges now focus on home décor, including beaded mirrors, animal trophies, lampshades, and tables.

28. 28. 26Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Meyer von Wielligh's approach to furniture design reflects the gentle lines and intricate details found in nature. Furniture plays both a practical and decorative role in our daily lives and is the essential background against which we live, work and play. At Meyer von Wielligh we understand this connection and we strive to make top quality furniture that not only meets the practical needs of the space but also reflects the unique style and personality of the owner. Combining workmanship excellence, creative ideas and the very best materials, Meyer von Wielligh work across a broad range of design styles - from the clean lines of contemporary design, to the intricate details of more classically styled pieces. Contact A-J Bell +27 21 462 6470 a-j@meyervonwielligh.co.za www.meyervonwielligh.co.za Meyer Von Wielligh

29. 29. 27Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Minima is a South African-made range of digitally-crafted wooden lighting and furniture. Hand-finished in Cape Town, each piece is made using sustainable birch-ply wood or hardwood veneer. Designed by Jacques Cronje, minima's Classic Range includes Scandi-inspired ceiling lights that are elegantly understated, making beautiful contemporary statements in both commercial or residential spaces. All pieces are available pre-assembled or flat-pack. Contact Jacques Cronje +27 21 788 2515 info@minima.co.za www.minima.co.za Minima

30. 30. 28Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Contact Candice Lawrence +27 72 603 1109 clawrence@moderngesture.co.za www.moderngesture.co.za Modern Gesture Modern Gesture's new Woven Necklace 'Lampshades' are inspired by African beaded necklaces. Handcrafted African jewellery is well known for its beauty and quality, as well as diversity of graphic patterns and bold colours. The lampshade is reminiscent of an African necklace through the use of the wooden rings, which are also symbolic of wholeness and timelessness. Each ring of the lampshade is adjustable to any angle, allowing for the creation of a myriad of forms, and, when all the layers are aligned, it can be easily flat packed for storage and packaging/freight purposes.

31. 31. 29Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Mors Mors is an up-cycle initiative that aims at creating a sustainable business by collecting non-toxic waste and creating beautiful, usable and practical products. All Mors products are made from recycled tyre tube, manufactured locally by previously disadvantaged women and refugees, affording them the opportunity of decent employment. The Mors range consists of a variety of beautiful bags, hand woven laptop sleeves, chandeliers and small furniture. All products are handmade of intricately woven, stitched, braided and patched pieces of recycled rubber. Contact Raihana Govender +27 83 786 5645 raihanagov@gmail.com www.mors.co.za

32. 32. 30Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Since 1998, Mungo has been weaving quality, natural fibre homeware fabrics. Bridging the generations, Mungo is a family-run business with the rare ability to create quality textiles all the way from the inception of design to the final product. Sustainability and transparency underpin all of their process. All of their products, flat weave towels, throws, kitchen and table linen, are woven on antique and repurposed looms at the Mungo Mill in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Contact Mungo Enquiries +27 44 533 1395 woven@mungo.co.za www.mungo.co.za Mungo

33. 33. 31Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 The Potters Workshop The Potters Workshop was established in 1986 by Chris Silverston. It has grown into a company of 30 people producing hand-made, hand-painted functional ceramics that are food, microwave, and dishwasher safe.Our work is bright, colourful and uplifting. Our design inspiration is drawn from traditional African beadwork, which we interpret in a contemporary vernacular giving it the Potters Workshop twist. Contact Narieman Johnstone +27 21 709 0212 potworkshop@mweb.co.za www.pottersworkshop.co.za

34. 34. 32Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Rarity is celebrating the diversity and ingenuity of South African design through our unique products and collections. Our collections are the result of harmonious collaborations of different colours and textures, representing the dynamic people and cultures of our country, mixed with our interpretation of global trends. Our natural African materials and leathers, of the highest quality, create statement products for our stylishly adventurous, individualistic and globally conscious patrons. Our relationship based company, prides itself on our ability to deliver quality products on time, and in line with our Fair Tradeprinciples and practices. Our skilfully handcrafted products are completed in a happy, productive working environment that is continually growing, inspiring and celebrating. Contact Jaqueline Burge +27 21 448 1934 jaqueline@rarity.co.za www.rarity.co.za Rarity

35. 35. 33Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 The Umuntu range by Saks Corner, blends flat pack Scandinavian inspired design in solid oak with African texture, colour and patterning. Saks, based in Cape Town, is a designer manufacturer of mid-century inspired wooden and upholstered furniture. Saks pride themselves on their quality of workmanship and design vernacular. Contact Mr Saks +27 74 101 7552 info@sakscorner.co.za www.sakscorner.co.za Saks Corner

36. 36. 34Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Skinny laMinx is all about colour, pattern & textiles which are designed and made in South Africa. Our designs are inspired by midcentury Scandi style with a good dose of African chic. We produce a broad range of products such as kitchenware, tableware, pillow covers and other soft furnishings which are all printed onto a natural fibre base cloth using waterbased inks. While Skinny laMinx homeware goods & textiles are now to be found in stores & homes all around the globe, the business remains small & resolutely local, with design & manufacturing happening in Cape Town, South Africa. Contact Lericia Ford +27 21 424 6290 wholesale@skinnylaminx.com www.skinnylaminx.com Skinny laMinx

37. 37. 35Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Studio Stirling designs beautifully handmade hanging swing chairs, loungers, daybeds and swings. Because each chair is made by hand it allows for every piece to have individualism and uniqueness in the pattern detailing and leather work. The products are made from steel, thus very strong and durable, E coated for rust protection and then powder coated in the colour of your choice. In a world of homogenized mass production, slower designed, handmade products require less energy than mass-produced items and often last longer, reducing the cycle of waste in our "throw-away" culture. These chairs are South African inspired and globally relevant. Studio Stirling Contact Joanina Pastoll +27 83 677 1020 joanina@studiostirling.co.za www.studiostirling.co.za

38. 38. 36Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Touw Meubels is a 26 year old family business, based in George in the Western Cape, that manufactures superb solid wood furniture and products. Our new Sandveld range sees a departure from our traditional Cape style to a more contemporary design vernacular, whilst still rooted in the traditional values of superior craftsmanship that we have built our reputation on. Contact Lenn Clark +27 82 827 1157 info@touwmeubels.co.za www.touwmeubels.co.za Touw Meubels

39. 39. 37Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Ursh Works Ceramics latest collection, 'Organix', which has been inspired by the beauty resonant in the simplicity of Khoi pointillism, comprises a range of bowls, which are both decorative and functional. Organix is all handmade and hand decorated by a group of Xhosa potters in Cape Town. Contact Ursula Dale +27 82 833 3183 ursula@urshworksceramics.co.za www.urshworksceramics.co.za Ursh Works Ceramics

40. 40. 38Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Vogel is a South African design and manufacturing company, specialising in high quality timber furniture and accessories. Our new collection consists of sculptured wooden wall hooks, floating shelves and side tables. The range is designed for wholesale and export. We have designed the products in a 'flat pack' format, to minimise transport costs. In keeping with our sustainability principles, the range is alsopredominantly made from our factory offcuts and 'waste' timber. Contact John E Vogel +27 21 447 6128 info@vogeldesign.co.za www.vogeldesign.co.za Vogel

41. 41. 39Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 WREN focuses on the innovative use of recycled and natural materials. Wren is most well-known for their PPC Cement Laptop Bags made out of paper treated to be water resistant, making the product both durable and functional. This year Wren's new collection of natural bags with leather detail, and new fashion prints takes the product offering to a new level. Contact Wendren Setzer +27 83 947 2995 info@thewrendesign.com www.thewrendesign.com WREN

42. 42. 40Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Zizamele Ceramics comprises a group of women potters who create, hand build and hand paint a range of African-inspired ceramics. Zizamele's signature product is the wheel thrown Ubuntu bowl, which has a circle of women figures around the rim holding hands in a spirit of Unity (Ubuntu). In a recent move towards a more contemporary vernacular, Zizamele Ceramics has created a latest range using black clay with metallic glazes. They are also presenting their new 'Women of Africa' range. Contact Toni Burton +27 84 556 6423 info@zizamele.co.za www.zizamele.co.za Zizamele Ceramics

43. 43. 41Development by Design / Company Profiles 2019 Showcasing leading South African product designers and their new export collections Development By Design The Development by Design project enables small and medium businesses in South Africa to develop and grow. Over 60 entrepreneurs have been participating in this project, taking their design studio, workshop ormanufacturing company to the next level, and onwards to the export market. The project is an initiative of The Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), and their local partner, the Craft and Design Institute (CDI). Together, these business support organisations promote SouthAfrican entrepreneurs at both local and international trade fairs. CBI The Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and is commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. CBI's mission is to contribute to sustainable economic development in developing countries through the expansion of exports from these countries. CBI focuses on the link between producing exporters and European buyers. The centre contributes to the sustainable strengthening of the competitive position of exporters, assisting them in trading in the European market, thereby positively contributing to poverty reduction and alleviation. CBI's Export Coaching Programme in South Africa focuses on exporters in the home decoration, home textiles, and small furniture sectors. The market entry phase of the project, titled Development by Design', started in 2013. CDI The Craft and Design Institute (CDI) is CBI's key programme partner in South Africa. The CDI is a non-profit company with 17 years of success in developing creative people, SMEs and the craft and design sector at large in South Africa. The CDI is a catalytic agent of change in the sector, and passionate about developing appropriately skilled, resourced and digitally proficient practitioners who can successfully leverage opportunities for growth and development. The more than 5000 SMEs supported by the CDI range from start-ups to exporting enterprises, and are based all over South Africa - from rural towns to urban centres. CDI's services help these businesses develop the right product/ service for the right market using appropriate business and production systems; and links them into ever-expanding national and international networks of market opportunities to help them grow. NEXT19 After a successful inaugural trade exhibition in 2018, NEXT returns to Cape Town. NEXT19 showcases new product ranges of 40 South African designers and manufacturers. These small and medium enterprises have participated in various Export Coaching Programmes in the last five years. They receive training and coachingto prepare them for entering the European market. During an intensive programme run by the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) and the South African Craft and Design Institute (CDI), the companies participated in leading European trade fairs such as Maison & Objet in Paris, and Ambiente in Frankfurt. The programme also provided the opportunity to participate in South African trade fairs, such as 100% Design and SARCDA, both in Johannesburg. As a result of the success of the 'Development by Design' programme, the ambition of the CDI and CBI was to provide opportunities for larger numbers of aspiring exporters, and a 'short track' programme was initiated, offering South African companies participation in a one-year coaching programme, culminating in a trade exhibition in Cape Town. NEXT19 showcases the new export product ranges of a selection of the combined participants of all programmes and features 40 companies. NEXT will take place annually, affording a new group of young and upcoming entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their business for both national and export markets. www.cbi.eu www.thecdi.org.za/page/NEXT19Tradeshow Coordinating consultants: Solly Levy (SA) solly@developmentbydesign.co.za Irene Vermeulen (NL) irene@developmentbydesign.co.za Fran Stewart (SA) fran.stewart@thecdi.org.za

44. 44. Development by Design is a joint project of:

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Craftscurator Development by Design South Africa Catalogue 2019 Craft Design Exporters NEXT19

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What to Upload to SlideShare Download Now Download to read offline and view in fullscreen. Catalogue of the NEXT19 Trade Exhibition Cape Town in 2019, featuring 40 South African craft and design exporters. These suppliers are ready to export their home decoration, home textiles, furniture, fashion accessoires and gifts to international markets.

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The Future of Fashion in Africa - WGSN Insider

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This interview outlines Sunny Dolat’s and Nisha Kanabar’s shared vision to showcase the bold creativity and untold nuances of fashion design across Africa.

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Interesting collection of home wear and table wear with African design.

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Product categories Design Afrika’s baskets are sourced exclusively from Africa. Select one of our categories to view our available baskets. THIS PLATFORM IS FOR WHOLESALE CUSTOMERS ONLY. PLEASE REGISTER FOR WHOLESALE ACCESS, OR SHOP OVER AT OUR ONLINE MARKETPLACE. Black and white African traditional…

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Product categories

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African inspired home décor and African textiles.

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Ikea’s Overallt collection: Stunning Africa-inspired pieces to hit stores in May

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Ikea’s Overallt collection: Stunning Africa-inspired pieces to hit stores in May

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This PDF has a perspective on how we can initiate change on how African identity is perceived

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View of African Philosophy and the Challenge from Hegemonic Philosophy

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Return to Article Details African Philosophy and the Challenge from Hegemonic Philosophy

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Tabiso Makaluza : Developing Contemporary African Design

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Tabiso Makaluza : Developing Contemporary African Design

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This book looks at the general perspective of Agfican design, it focuses on the method we could consider to correct the view have about African identity and it describes the contemporary African aesthetics in all fields of design

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Over the past decade, Africa has experienced a tremendous political, economic and technological transformation. Spearheading this shift is a new generation of entrepreneurs and doers who have opened up a fresh view of this vast and diverse continent, using the Internet to make themselves visible. Developed in collaboration with renowned curator Okwui Enwezor, Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design embraces this new perspective, seeking to reveal the continent as a thinktank and investigating the intriguing possibility of a new understanding of design. It focuses on a generation of African designers, architects and artists who transcend the boundaries between design, art, photography, architecture and urbanism. Utilizing traditional techniques as comfortably as new media such as Facebook and mobile banking systems, these designers are establishing a new design identity--and thus a new future--for the continent. Making Africa examines everyday life through such items as furniture, posters, fashion garments and accessories, including J.D. Okhai Ojejkere's Nigerian hairstyles and Cyrus Kabiru's eyewear sculptures as well as the objects of Cheick Diallo, fashion by Buki Akib, the photographs of Mário Macilau and Okhai Ojeikere, the architecture of Francis Kéré, the animation art of Robin Rhode and many other creations of designers from different disciplines. Grounding these new movements in a larger historical context, Making Africa also takes a look at the first generation of postcolonial Africa.

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Over the past decade, Africa has experienced a tremendous political, economic and technological transformation. Spearheading this shift is a new generation of entrepreneurs and doers who have opened up a fresh view of this vast and diverse continent, using the Internet to make themselves visible.

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This source elaborates on how our cultural way of dressing as Africans influences and is adopted by the world globally.

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This product is on of the symbols of African design in the sense of material choice and aesthetic

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Utility & storage Bolga baby moses basket Elephant grass, Assorted (L75cm W50cm) Bolga dog basket Elephant grass, Assorted (various sizes) Bolga drum basket Elephant grass, Brights assorted (H30cm Ø40cm) Bolga laundry basket Elephant grass, Black & natural (various sizes) Buhera firewood basket Natu…

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Utility & storage

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This source provides a practical approach to a design language and the growth of design market.

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This product highlights how African identity is perceived as patterns and animals

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zulu art, zulu beadwork, zulu animal, zulu crafts, zulu beads, zulu artwork, south african art, zulu africa, isizulu culture, african artifacts, african tribal art, african craft, tribal art, contemporary african art, zulu culture, beadwork designs, wire animals, beaded buck

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This source provides a systematic integrated  approach, along with the use of well-defined physicochemical filters.

# data[].attributes.body
This source is about adding more values to South African design curriculum especially product design.

# data[].attributes.headline
African Design (sources that are interesting) 

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African Design (sources that are interesting) 

# data[].attributes.body
This source amazing in portraying where the creation of South African designers products stem from.

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Uncategorised

4 min read

South African design is going places. Porky Hefer's installations and furniture designs, Andile Dyalvane's ceramics, Rich Mnisi's fashion and furniture designs, and Dokter and Misses' furniture and product designs are just some local pieces increasingly rocking art fairs and exhibition halls around the globe.

Rich Mnisi has come a long way from Kempton Park, baby. Last year he introduced the 'Africa Explosion' collection at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Moscow, and was then promptly featured in Italian Vogue. He is also one of the designers Beyoncé chose to wear - a blouse and halfpleated skirt - while in South Africa for the Global Citizen Festival recently. British supermodel Naomi Campbell is also a fan.

Also in fashion, Swedish multinational clothing retailer H&M recently announced its first African collaboration with local designer Palesa Mokubung. From August, her Mantsho label will be available in stores in the USA, the UK and Israel, as well as some European and South American countries.

'We love how she works with colour, print and silhouettes, enhancing the female shape in a flattering and playful way,' H&M's Pernilla Wohlfahrt said recently.

Hefer's 'Endangered' collection of soft sculptural seats made of recycled, eco-friendly materials was exhibited at Design Miami/Basel last year, where it was virtually sold out, while his giant birds' nests, woven with Kooboo cane, have been described as 'delicious' by critics.

Under their Dokter and Misses label, Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin's limited-edition handpainted pieces form part of a growing catalogue of collectible work exhibited in Basel, Dubai, London, New York and Miami. They exhibit in New York frequently.

Andile Dyalvane, Designer of the Year for 100% Design South Africa 2018, whose first solo exhibition showed in a New York gallery in 2016, has had residencies in Denmark, France, Taiwan, and the USA including Palo Alto Art Center in California. He says he relays 'stories' in clay where once, as a schoolboy in a small village in the Eastern Cape, he was 'lashed' for indulging in art. 'Clay breathes,' he enthuses about his medium. 'It's alive with becoming and moves with my energy, listens and holds only what I've impressed upon it - it remembers and lets go in the fire then becomes stronger.'

But wait. There's more ...

International recognition is not confined to these big names. There are others, including artist and furniture designer Atang Tshikare, who has exhibited in Europe and Dubai; sculptor Nandipha Mntambo, who has shown her work in Tel Aviv, Germany, the USA and Stockholm; visual activist Zanele Muholi; and world-acclaimed industry heavyweight, furniture designer John Vogel.

Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild, a gallery based in Cape Town's trendy Silo design hub, believes the world is more than ready right now for artists who, she says, are willing 'to take risks'.

'The world is hungry for authenticity, rawness, personal perspectives, emotional connection and evidence of the human hand - all of which permeate South African designers' work.'

McGowan says in this 'hyper-connected age', where it's easy to lose touch with what grounds us as humans among what she terms 'visual clutter', South African artists are 'continually pushing the boundaries to create highly personal work. As a gallery, we have seen the response of international audiences escalate over the past 10 years.'

She says designers like Mnisi, Dokter and Misses, and Hefer are unique in that they 'draw from their own culture and narrative in a deeply visceral way to create artworks that are unlike anything you will see elsewhere in the world. Their point of view and approach are confidently African, preserving and reinterpreting vernacular craft forms for a contemporary age,' she says. 'Their attention to detail, craftsmanship and level of execution are impeccable, making an encounter with their work a moving, emotional experience.'

For example, she says, the 'inherent playfulness' of Hefer's work belies the 'depth of his thinking, and the research and evolution that underpins every piece.'

Hot on their heels ...

Following hot on these heels is an even younger generation. Six young South Africans recently returned triumphant from Milan's annual Design Week. Supported by Nando's Design Programme, creative director Tracy Lee Lynch described it as a roaring success with 'an incredible response by overseas media and visitors. Our bold South African aesthetic and powerful inclusion of craft was truly celebrated. This aspect of our design elevated the curated pieces and created the opportunity to share personal stories relating to our diverse culture.'

She says design has the power to connect people and to challenge perceptions. 'To see this happening on the stand was the most powerful experience.'

She, too, has seen our local design growing on the world stage. 'There's tangible evidence of a dynamic, layered culture filtering up in what's being created here at home. These emerging designers are passionate about telling that unique story. And how they tell that story is often through collaboration with crafters and other makers. Often a piece reflects so much more than just one person's ideas or responses. It's perhaps why, when works travel from South Africa, they get the response they get - because they feel as if they're a whole universe in one piece,' Lynch says.

'There's so much inspiration here that isn't cookie cutter, that isn't very safe.'

The world is ready, she says. 'People want to hear our voice. They have a deep need to know more about who we are, and the designers' pieces are a precious gateway to the sharing of the diverse cultures that make up the Rainbow Nation.'

As designer Mpho Vackier, whose 'Afro-contempo' chair was a big hit in Milan, says, 'I design authentic African furniture with a global appeal.'

Designer Thabisa Mjo, who designed the concept for the exhibit - an architectural installation piece that takes the form of a room-sized pod - says she had something close to an epiphany in Milan: 'I learnt we are good enough. That we can compete on the world stage.'

Housing and education

The launch of design spaces like the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in 2017 has also helped to give design a local address, becoming a hub for collectors both local and international.

Trevyn McGowan says she and her husband, Julian McGowan, co-founders of Southern Guild, make a point of educating the global world about SA design: 'Every time we exhibit at an international art fair, we tell the stories that went into making each piece and what inspired the artist. We have these conversations with collectors and curators, in our printed catalogues, and in panel discussions and interviews with the media.

'But the biggest advertising for South African design is the work itself.'

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South African Design is Going... Well... Everywhere - Estate Living

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4 min read South African design is going places. Porky Hefer's installations and furniture designs, Andile Dyalvane's ceramics, Rich Mnisi's fashion and furniture designs, and Dokter and Misses' furniture and product designs are just some local pieces increasingly rocking art fairs and exhibition halls around the globe.

# data[].attributes.body
This article portrays African design in a unique way while still holding onto traditional characteristics of what African design is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement.

Osborne Macharia
This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

A recent commission from Marvel saw him produce a series of images for the Black Panther cinema release, bringing together Maasai traditions and science fiction.

Diébédo Francis Kéré
Many people will be familiar with Kéré, as the designer of last year's Serpentine Pavilion. But this architect, who grew up in a small town in Burkina Faso, has also completed a range of other acclaimed projects, including numerous schools in his home country.

His aim is to show that traditional building methods and materials can be combined with high-tech engineering.

Selly Raby Kane
This Senegalese fashion designer is known for her surrealist streetwear, which merges traditional African prints with contemporary cuts.

Many of her sci-fi-influenced collections reference her home town of Dakar, and she counts Naomi Campbell and Beyoncé among her fanbase.

Yinka Ilori
Ilori is a London-based designer who specialises in upcycling unwanted old furniture - a reaction against today's consumer culture. He references the patterned fabrics of his Nigerian heritage in his bold, colourful designs.

He also frequently hosts maker workshops, to encourage people from different backgrounds to engage in design.

Kunlé Adeyemi
An OMA protégé, Nigerian architect Adeyemi founded his own studio NLÉ in 2010. Shortly after, he made a big impression with his design for a floating school, designed to facilitate education in African regions that, due to flooding, have little permanent infrastructure.

He is also now working on plans to build a school in Tanzania that combines regional traditions with contemporary learning.

Peter Mabeo
This designer and carpenter from Botswana launched his own furniture brand in 2006, and has since worked with designers including Luca Nichetto, Patricia Urquiola and Claesson Koivisto Rune. The brand, named Mabeo, aims to show how African design can appeal to a global market.

Cyrus Kabiru
This artist from Nairobi, Kenya, specialises in creating new objects from waste. One of his best-known projects involved transforming junk he found on the streets of his hometown into a series of sculptural spectacles.

Lisa Folawiyo
Nigerian designer Folawiyo built her global reputation on her modern transformations of Ankara, a traditional West African dress cloth.

Combining contemporary prints and complex embellishments, her garments have been worn by the likes of Solange Knowles and Lupita Nyong'o.

Atang Tshikare
This South African artist and designer runs a studio called Zabalazaa Designs, which specialises in surface design and illustration. But he has recently branched out into furniture, with designs including a chair that combines scorched timber and woven grass and tables inspired by African mythology.

Christian Benimana
Benimana runs the Rwanda office of Mass Design Group, a research-focused architecture studio that frequently teams up with local governments and NGOs on socially driven projects.

He is also the director of the African Design Center, an organisation that is championing the next generation of designers from the continent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 African architects and designers championing afrofuturism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement. Osborne Macharia This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

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This article highlights the significance of African design and also how it has evolved.

“Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

The emergence onto the global stage of a contemporary African aesthetic over the last decade is a result not of the modernisation of Africa, but rather the world's growing acknowledgement of the continent, and its enormous diversity, as a design force that's part of the global collective.

For too long, the continent has been treated and viewed as 'other', with its design heritage seen through the lenses of curiosity and craft, rather than as an equal and valued contingent of the design world at large.

Somewhat contradictorily, Africa is now asserting its own identity and status as a major player, precisely by emphasising its global relevance and universality, even within an African context. The work being produced now, particularly by young makers and creators, demonstrates the confidence and multilayered world view of this new generation of designers, rather than the myopic perception of Africa so often displayed outside its borders. In South Africa, this drive towards celebrating and shining a light on the diversity and depth within the design community is in full swing with young designers, in particular, determined to position the continent in a more accurate and layered light.

Products by Thabisa Mjo of Mash T Design Studio (Photo credit: Sarah de Pina)

Thabisa Mjo, award-winning product designer and founder of Mash T Design Studio, who has shown her work at Milan Design Week, agrees. "A design is African because it's made in Africa by Africans. I think the stereotypical perception that people might have had about our design aesthetic is antiquated. There are many young designers who are working hard to craft a contemporary South African design aesthetic that resonates on a global stage." Mjo, like many designers of her ilk, doesn't think of herself merely as an 'African designer', but rather as a designer who happens to be from South Africa. "I live in a global world, and my inspiration is not limited to the continent," she says.

That's not to say this approach requires eschewing heritage and culture. In fact, Mjo's acknowledgement of tradition and culture are central to her designs, with the Mash T philosophy founded on the value of narrative-driven work. Her studio's philosophy is to celebrate heritage through design, and this thinking as well as the designer's lived experience influences her work. "The idea of sharing and celebrating craft, especially traditional craft, is at the heart of what we do," she says. "We meld traditional crafts with technology to form a really contemporary design aesthetic." This meeting of past and future is at the heart of this emerging face of 21 st century African design and designers.

Andile Dyalvane (Photo credit: Adriaan Louw, courtesy of Southern Guild and Friedman Benda)

Celebrated ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane has become known for the deeply moving way he channels his Xhosa ancestry through his work, with each collection an homage to an aspect of his cultural heritage. His latest show, , presented by iThonga Southern Guild in South Africa and Friedman Benda gallery in the US, comprises 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches, exhibited in the custom of Xhosa ceremonial gatherings. These stools are placed in a circular arrangement around a fire hearth and herbal offering. iThongo , meaning 'ancestral dreamscape' in Xhosa, and refers to the medium through which messages ( uYalezo uLwimi lwabaPhantsi ) are transmitted from the ancestors. The intricate form of each piece is based on a single pictogram or glyph from a series of close to 200 symbols that Dyalvane has designed to denote important words in Xhosa life, such as entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum), umalusi (herdsman) - and which also relate to the natural world and more universal human themes and concepts. Dyalvane's symbolic lexicon has been an ongoing project, born of his interest in preserving traditional Xhosa knowledge, cultural practices and language.

Andile Dyalvane latest show, iThonga

Sifiso Shange, founder of Afri Modern, echoes this desire with a bold aesthetic that is unmistakably African, and yet equally, universal and timeless in its simple graphic appeal. "I strongly believe what makes contemporary African design is the sense of Africanism existing in contemporary design in perfect harmony, where the African aesthetic is celebrated in a contemporary vehicle."

Like Mjo, he also channels his identity through his pieces. Proud of his Zulu heritage, his work communicates this in highly relevant fashion via an aesthetic deeply rooted in a blend of minimal and bold African Zulu beadwork motifs and compelling shapes and forms. "African design is distinctive and carries a strong sense of the people or stories it represents," says Shange. "My work is a celebration of modern African Zulu culture by storytelling through design. A commitment to preserving it, and a heartfelt tribute to Africa, the place I call home. My designs aim to share stories that transcend time with me as a bridge between the past, present and future."

Frances Van Hasselt, founder of mohair design studio Frances VH, also takes traditional craft and techniques, and interprets them in a modern way. Her recent collaboration with ceramicist Eva Shuman, with visuals produced by an all-female creative team, takes the landscape of the Karoo, a vast, arid and beautiful region in central South Africa, as inspiration. This honouring of the physical makeup of 'home' is a universal concept, and while the source of the inspiration is typical of this part of the world, the pieces supersede any cultural boundaries.

"I think the world's perception is moving from a narrow perspective of African design to a much wider, more varied and inclusive understanding of design from the continent," says Van Hasselt. "African designers, too, are creating from a place of personal inspiration and creativity without a preconceived, external criteria of what defines African design." South Africa, and more specifically, the Karoo, is also home to most of the world's mohair farming - one of the world's most ancient, exclusive, luxurious and sustainable natural fibres. "Mohair should ultimately be recognised in the same way cashmere is in Scotland or Alpaca in Peru," she says. "To do this, we need to create exceptional, locally made, finished products that celebrate mohair's distinctive characteristics and African heritage." Frances VH mohair rugs not only achieve this, but also help to preserve traditional craftsmanship and provide sustainable employment for skilled artisans in rural South Africa.

By Frances Van Hasselt of mohair design studio, Frances VH

Shange believes the world's increasing curiosity in South Africa, and what it has to offer is catalysing growth in design from the continent, and South Africa. "I feel there's a strong sense of wanting to know more about the diverse aesthetics, techniques and traditions that embody Africa. The perception on African design, to me, feels positive as the world is now being introduced to a new Africa that it has never seen before, being shared in a new way."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Modern African Design: "Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

# data[].attributes.headline
African Design (sources that are interesting 1)

# data[].attributes.subject
African Design (sources that are interesting 1)

# data[].attributes.body
This source amazing in portraying where the creation of South African designers products stem from.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

The emergence onto the global stage of a contemporary African aesthetic over the last decade is a result not of the modernisation of Africa, but rather the world's growing acknowledgement of the continent, and its enormous diversity, as a design force that's part of the global collective.

For too long, the continent has been treated and viewed as 'other', with its design heritage seen through the lenses of curiosity and craft, rather than as an equal and valued contingent of the design world at large.

Somewhat contradictorily, Africa is now asserting its own identity and status as a major player, precisely by emphasising its global relevance and universality, even within an African context. The work being produced now, particularly by young makers and creators, demonstrates the confidence and multilayered world view of this new generation of designers, rather than the myopic perception of Africa so often displayed outside its borders. In South Africa, this drive towards celebrating and shining a light on the diversity and depth within the design community is in full swing with young designers, in particular, determined to position the continent in a more accurate and layered light.

Products by Thabisa Mjo of Mash T Design Studio (Photo credit: Sarah de Pina)

Thabisa Mjo, award-winning product designer and founder of Mash T Design Studio, who has shown her work at Milan Design Week, agrees. "A design is African because it's made in Africa by Africans. I think the stereotypical perception that people might have had about our design aesthetic is antiquated. There are many young designers who are working hard to craft a contemporary South African design aesthetic that resonates on a global stage." Mjo, like many designers of her ilk, doesn't think of herself merely as an 'African designer', but rather as a designer who happens to be from South Africa. "I live in a global world, and my inspiration is not limited to the continent," she says.

That's not to say this approach requires eschewing heritage and culture. In fact, Mjo's acknowledgement of tradition and culture are central to her designs, with the Mash T philosophy founded on the value of narrative-driven work. Her studio's philosophy is to celebrate heritage through design, and this thinking as well as the designer's lived experience influences her work. "The idea of sharing and celebrating craft, especially traditional craft, is at the heart of what we do," she says. "We meld traditional crafts with technology to form a really contemporary design aesthetic." This meeting of past and future is at the heart of this emerging face of 21 st century African design and designers.

Andile Dyalvane (Photo credit: Adriaan Louw, courtesy of Southern Guild and Friedman Benda)

Celebrated ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane has become known for the deeply moving way he channels his Xhosa ancestry through his work, with each collection an homage to an aspect of his cultural heritage. His latest show, , presented by iThonga Southern Guild in South Africa and Friedman Benda gallery in the US, comprises 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches, exhibited in the custom of Xhosa ceremonial gatherings. These stools are placed in a circular arrangement around a fire hearth and herbal offering. iThongo , meaning 'ancestral dreamscape' in Xhosa, and refers to the medium through which messages ( uYalezo uLwimi lwabaPhantsi ) are transmitted from the ancestors. The intricate form of each piece is based on a single pictogram or glyph from a series of close to 200 symbols that Dyalvane has designed to denote important words in Xhosa life, such as entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum), umalusi (herdsman) - and which also relate to the natural world and more universal human themes and concepts. Dyalvane's symbolic lexicon has been an ongoing project, born of his interest in preserving traditional Xhosa knowledge, cultural practices and language.

Andile Dyalvane latest show, iThonga

Sifiso Shange, founder of Afri Modern, echoes this desire with a bold aesthetic that is unmistakably African, and yet equally, universal and timeless in its simple graphic appeal. "I strongly believe what makes contemporary African design is the sense of Africanism existing in contemporary design in perfect harmony, where the African aesthetic is celebrated in a contemporary vehicle."

Like Mjo, he also channels his identity through his pieces. Proud of his Zulu heritage, his work communicates this in highly relevant fashion via an aesthetic deeply rooted in a blend of minimal and bold African Zulu beadwork motifs and compelling shapes and forms. "African design is distinctive and carries a strong sense of the people or stories it represents," says Shange. "My work is a celebration of modern African Zulu culture by storytelling through design. A commitment to preserving it, and a heartfelt tribute to Africa, the place I call home. My designs aim to share stories that transcend time with me as a bridge between the past, present and future."

Frances Van Hasselt, founder of mohair design studio Frances VH, also takes traditional craft and techniques, and interprets them in a modern way. Her recent collaboration with ceramicist Eva Shuman, with visuals produced by an all-female creative team, takes the landscape of the Karoo, a vast, arid and beautiful region in central South Africa, as inspiration. This honouring of the physical makeup of 'home' is a universal concept, and while the source of the inspiration is typical of this part of the world, the pieces supersede any cultural boundaries.

"I think the world's perception is moving from a narrow perspective of African design to a much wider, more varied and inclusive understanding of design from the continent," says Van Hasselt. "African designers, too, are creating from a place of personal inspiration and creativity without a preconceived, external criteria of what defines African design." South Africa, and more specifically, the Karoo, is also home to most of the world's mohair farming - one of the world's most ancient, exclusive, luxurious and sustainable natural fibres. "Mohair should ultimately be recognised in the same way cashmere is in Scotland or Alpaca in Peru," she says. "To do this, we need to create exceptional, locally made, finished products that celebrate mohair's distinctive characteristics and African heritage." Frances VH mohair rugs not only achieve this, but also help to preserve traditional craftsmanship and provide sustainable employment for skilled artisans in rural South Africa.

By Frances Van Hasselt of mohair design studio, Frances VH

Shange believes the world's increasing curiosity in South Africa, and what it has to offer is catalysing growth in design from the continent, and South Africa. "I feel there's a strong sense of wanting to know more about the diverse aesthetics, techniques and traditions that embody Africa. The perception on African design, to me, feels positive as the world is now being introduced to a new Africa that it has never seen before, being shared in a new way."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Modern African Design: "Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

# data[].attributes.body
This article portrays African design in a unique way while still holding onto traditional characteristics of what African design is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement.

Osborne Macharia
This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

A recent commission from Marvel saw him produce a series of images for the Black Panther cinema release, bringing together Maasai traditions and science fiction.

Diébédo Francis Kéré
Many people will be familiar with Kéré, as the designer of last year's Serpentine Pavilion. But this architect, who grew up in a small town in Burkina Faso, has also completed a range of other acclaimed projects, including numerous schools in his home country.

His aim is to show that traditional building methods and materials can be combined with high-tech engineering.

Selly Raby Kane
This Senegalese fashion designer is known for her surrealist streetwear, which merges traditional African prints with contemporary cuts.

Many of her sci-fi-influenced collections reference her home town of Dakar, and she counts Naomi Campbell and Beyoncé among her fanbase.

Yinka Ilori
Ilori is a London-based designer who specialises in upcycling unwanted old furniture - a reaction against today's consumer culture. He references the patterned fabrics of his Nigerian heritage in his bold, colourful designs.

He also frequently hosts maker workshops, to encourage people from different backgrounds to engage in design.

Kunlé Adeyemi
An OMA protégé, Nigerian architect Adeyemi founded his own studio NLÉ in 2010. Shortly after, he made a big impression with his design for a floating school, designed to facilitate education in African regions that, due to flooding, have little permanent infrastructure.

He is also now working on plans to build a school in Tanzania that combines regional traditions with contemporary learning.

Peter Mabeo
This designer and carpenter from Botswana launched his own furniture brand in 2006, and has since worked with designers including Luca Nichetto, Patricia Urquiola and Claesson Koivisto Rune. The brand, named Mabeo, aims to show how African design can appeal to a global market.

Cyrus Kabiru
This artist from Nairobi, Kenya, specialises in creating new objects from waste. One of his best-known projects involved transforming junk he found on the streets of his hometown into a series of sculptural spectacles.

Lisa Folawiyo
Nigerian designer Folawiyo built her global reputation on her modern transformations of Ankara, a traditional West African dress cloth.

Combining contemporary prints and complex embellishments, her garments have been worn by the likes of Solange Knowles and Lupita Nyong'o.

Atang Tshikare
This South African artist and designer runs a studio called Zabalazaa Designs, which specialises in surface design and illustration. But he has recently branched out into furniture, with designs including a chair that combines scorched timber and woven grass and tables inspired by African mythology.

Christian Benimana
Benimana runs the Rwanda office of Mass Design Group, a research-focused architecture studio that frequently teams up with local governments and NGOs on socially driven projects.

He is also the director of the African Design Center, an organisation that is championing the next generation of designers from the continent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 African architects and designers championing afrofuturism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement. Osborne Macharia This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre.

# data[].attributes.body
This article highlights the significance of African design and also how it has evolved.

“Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

The emergence onto the global stage of a contemporary African aesthetic over the last decade is a result not of the modernisation of Africa, but rather the world's growing acknowledgement of the continent, and its enormous diversity, as a design force that's part of the global collective.

For too long, the continent has been treated and viewed as 'other', with its design heritage seen through the lenses of curiosity and craft, rather than as an equal and valued contingent of the design world at large.

Somewhat contradictorily, Africa is now asserting its own identity and status as a major player, precisely by emphasising its global relevance and universality, even within an African context. The work being produced now, particularly by young makers and creators, demonstrates the confidence and multilayered world view of this new generation of designers, rather than the myopic perception of Africa so often displayed outside its borders. In South Africa, this drive towards celebrating and shining a light on the diversity and depth within the design community is in full swing with young designers, in particular, determined to position the continent in a more accurate and layered light.

Products by Thabisa Mjo of Mash T Design Studio (Photo credit: Sarah de Pina)

Thabisa Mjo, award-winning product designer and founder of Mash T Design Studio, who has shown her work at Milan Design Week, agrees. "A design is African because it's made in Africa by Africans. I think the stereotypical perception that people might have had about our design aesthetic is antiquated. There are many young designers who are working hard to craft a contemporary South African design aesthetic that resonates on a global stage." Mjo, like many designers of her ilk, doesn't think of herself merely as an 'African designer', but rather as a designer who happens to be from South Africa. "I live in a global world, and my inspiration is not limited to the continent," she says.

That's not to say this approach requires eschewing heritage and culture. In fact, Mjo's acknowledgement of tradition and culture are central to her designs, with the Mash T philosophy founded on the value of narrative-driven work. Her studio's philosophy is to celebrate heritage through design, and this thinking as well as the designer's lived experience influences her work. "The idea of sharing and celebrating craft, especially traditional craft, is at the heart of what we do," she says. "We meld traditional crafts with technology to form a really contemporary design aesthetic." This meeting of past and future is at the heart of this emerging face of 21 st century African design and designers.

Andile Dyalvane (Photo credit: Adriaan Louw, courtesy of Southern Guild and Friedman Benda)

Celebrated ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane has become known for the deeply moving way he channels his Xhosa ancestry through his work, with each collection an homage to an aspect of his cultural heritage. His latest show, , presented by iThonga Southern Guild in South Africa and Friedman Benda gallery in the US, comprises 18 sculptural stools, chairs and benches, exhibited in the custom of Xhosa ceremonial gatherings. These stools are placed in a circular arrangement around a fire hearth and herbal offering. iThongo , meaning 'ancestral dreamscape' in Xhosa, and refers to the medium through which messages ( uYalezo uLwimi lwabaPhantsi ) are transmitted from the ancestors. The intricate form of each piece is based on a single pictogram or glyph from a series of close to 200 symbols that Dyalvane has designed to denote important words in Xhosa life, such as entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum), umalusi (herdsman) - and which also relate to the natural world and more universal human themes and concepts. Dyalvane's symbolic lexicon has been an ongoing project, born of his interest in preserving traditional Xhosa knowledge, cultural practices and language.

Andile Dyalvane latest show, iThonga

Sifiso Shange, founder of Afri Modern, echoes this desire with a bold aesthetic that is unmistakably African, and yet equally, universal and timeless in its simple graphic appeal. "I strongly believe what makes contemporary African design is the sense of Africanism existing in contemporary design in perfect harmony, where the African aesthetic is celebrated in a contemporary vehicle."

Like Mjo, he also channels his identity through his pieces. Proud of his Zulu heritage, his work communicates this in highly relevant fashion via an aesthetic deeply rooted in a blend of minimal and bold African Zulu beadwork motifs and compelling shapes and forms. "African design is distinctive and carries a strong sense of the people or stories it represents," says Shange. "My work is a celebration of modern African Zulu culture by storytelling through design. A commitment to preserving it, and a heartfelt tribute to Africa, the place I call home. My designs aim to share stories that transcend time with me as a bridge between the past, present and future."

Frances Van Hasselt, founder of mohair design studio Frances VH, also takes traditional craft and techniques, and interprets them in a modern way. Her recent collaboration with ceramicist Eva Shuman, with visuals produced by an all-female creative team, takes the landscape of the Karoo, a vast, arid and beautiful region in central South Africa, as inspiration. This honouring of the physical makeup of 'home' is a universal concept, and while the source of the inspiration is typical of this part of the world, the pieces supersede any cultural boundaries.

"I think the world's perception is moving from a narrow perspective of African design to a much wider, more varied and inclusive understanding of design from the continent," says Van Hasselt. "African designers, too, are creating from a place of personal inspiration and creativity without a preconceived, external criteria of what defines African design." South Africa, and more specifically, the Karoo, is also home to most of the world's mohair farming - one of the world's most ancient, exclusive, luxurious and sustainable natural fibres. "Mohair should ultimately be recognised in the same way cashmere is in Scotland or Alpaca in Peru," she says. "To do this, we need to create exceptional, locally made, finished products that celebrate mohair's distinctive characteristics and African heritage." Frances VH mohair rugs not only achieve this, but also help to preserve traditional craftsmanship and provide sustainable employment for skilled artisans in rural South Africa.

By Frances Van Hasselt of mohair design studio, Frances VH

Shange believes the world's increasing curiosity in South Africa, and what it has to offer is catalysing growth in design from the continent, and South Africa. "I feel there's a strong sense of wanting to know more about the diverse aesthetics, techniques and traditions that embody Africa. The perception on African design, to me, feels positive as the world is now being introduced to a new Africa that it has never seen before, being shared in a new way."

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Modern African Design: "Our Aesthetic is Not Antiquated!"

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This generation of regional design talent is looking back to look forward, as they shine a spotlight on 21 st century African design identity, bringing modern African design on to the world stage.

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Aaki Consultants designs Kenya’s National Library, inspired by the Iconic African Drum

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World Architecture Community News - Aaki Consultants designs Kenya’s National Library, inspired by the Iconic African Drum

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IKEA teams up with top African designers to launch Överallt furniture collection

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A chair that is “perfect for hacking” and baskets made from faux hair braids are among the products created by African designers for a new IKEA homeware range.

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This source elaborates on the contemporary designs considered African in the field of visual communication

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https://www.designerpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/amazon_polly_5799.mp3

Africa is promptly becoming a massive growth centre for the packaging industry. It has led to a drastic increase in customer product markets, proliferating individual incomes and inflating youth customers in significant parts of Africa.

According to World Packaging Organization (WPO), the growth centres of packaging are shifting in Africa; thus, beating the Indian and China packaging sectors.

One of the primary reasons that made Africa special or unique is their design style and the utilization of ancient or traditional aspects in their packaging. Most of their designs are related to nature or have an earthy feel, which creates an identity worldwide.

Food and other manufactured products imports into Africa framed an essential contribution to the packaging market in the region. The increasing demand for packaged foods and the cost efficiency in food processing leads to more packaging growth.

Uganda's packaging, especially in the food and beverage sector, is one of the emerging sectors in the industry, which is popular also has a high demand over the globe.

Moreover, when we research the packagings of Africa, we can realize the implementation of tribal or traditional designs as a common element in their packaging. It is one of their main attractiveness, which made them unique among other countries on the globe.

Market Research
Now let's discuss the various market researches which need to be carried out before getting to the packaging of your product.
Before commencing the process, it is essential to let your customers know your product type. It is a primary condition as a trader should be enlightened with the kind of product h/she is introducing into the market.

A product type is a kind of marketing copy that describes what a product is and why it's worth purchasing. In fact, the motive of a product type is to communicate with your customers about your product's essential features and benefits so that they have a brief idea about it.

Answering few questions before starting the actual process helps in getting a clear idea about your product.

What is the exact size of the project? Complete details with accurate line dimensions.

What is the type of packaging? For example, is it pouches boxes, containers, etc.?

What are the materials used? If it is plastic, cardboard, or eco-friendly.

Individual's taste buds and preferences differ based on factors such as age, location and behaviour. It's important to appraise your audience when promoting your product and designing the packaging. Recognizing who you're addressing can raise your sales or guide you to target your advertising better.

For example, the people in Ghana might have different tastes when compared to Lebanon. Therefore, it will reflect on their packaging also in a considerable manner.

Gender is another vital demographic and targeted effort can be more or less fortunate based on your product. Several products appeal more to certain genders than others. The other factors which needed to consider while targeting your audience are their lifestyle, colors, etc. Thus, when designing packaging, you need to execute it according to your target audience.

Identifying a target market helps your product generate productive marketing communication strategies. A distinctly defined target market clarifies consumers' values, liking, or values - provides a framework that allows regulating design approaches and proper product communications.

When recent challenges raised the level of country threat in Nigeria, many organizations tend to launch their bubs in Ghana to attain a peaceful neighbourhood.

In fact, studies stated that by 2030, the most important customer markets would incorporate Nigeria, Egypt, and other parts of South Africa. Moreover, there will also be profitable opportunities in Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Libya, Gabon, among other African countries.

Therefore, while deciding the target market, you need to have thorough research on the overall aspects of that region.

Important Design Elements of Africa Packaging Design

When it emerges to packaging, color is one of the essential parts for fascinating consumers. Noticeable from a considerable distance than other components such as copy, graphics, it's often one of the initial things people observe.

When it comes to African packaging, we can see the utilization of earthly tones or vibrant colors in most of their packaging. They usually don't prefer the standard shades such as yellow, blue, etc. Because color has psychological intimations, marketers use specific colors related to historical or tradition to obtain different emotions.

As the Africans are much influenced and emotionally attached to their traditional or tribal activities, organizations use such related shades in their packaging. But when you are planning to introduce a new product category, consider picking a striking color that stands distant from the usual color within the category.

Implementing the packaging an ideal feel with texture is becoming as essential to organizations as the visual impressions. Studies state that the textures of packaging have a significant influence on the purchasing behaviour of consumers.

Texture has a more significant role than engaging or attractive - it impacts our emotions and physiological states. When the customers pick a product that has a tactual sensation, they might get a different feeling than touching a smooth packaging.

When it comes to Africa's packaging, the utilization of tribal textures is an essential element to attract their targeted audience as most Africans have a special attachment towards tribal textures.

Even if the organizations focus on high imports or exports, they also deliberately use African's color and textures to get unique in the global market. People in other countries can also recognize the products with their textures. They really want to showcase that their products are from African countries as African products are famous worldwide.

Creativity, invention and utility are the main ingredients in attracting consumers. For packaging to be unique or memorable, it needs to have certain qualities - a peculiar or ideal shape feasibly.

For products such as sprayers, pumps, bottles, the need for convenient or user-friendly packaging is vital to use them effectively or securely. In such situations, the importance of the shape of the packaging comes into existence. Packaging that is well-shaped will be appropriate to use, providing a pleasing user experience.

Packaging shapes are even used to target particular audiences. For example, round-shaped products focus on women, whereas rectangular or square-shaped products focus on men.

In African packaging, you can see that they don't implement peppy or vigorous shapes; instead, they use the traditional or standard forms of shape in their packaging. For example, the packaging of bottle brands focuses on their traditional aspects to attract their audience.

Illustrations and artworks are the central components when it comes to packaging. In reality, illustration is essential to render every kind of idea or visual concept flexibly and effectively. It reinforces both visual and expansive terms by intensifying the presentation of the products.

Good artwork grants the whole product incidents and gives the organizations an efficient way to make an excellent impression on prospective customers also convince them. Most purchasers are disposed to create a direct connection between the quality of the packaging and the grade of the product.

As the Africans are more of their traditional culture, the implementation of their illustrations and artworks are visible in their packaging. African tribal art comprises wood carvings, furniture, metal works, jewellery, etc.

In the region, specific cultures had their own histories, skills development and exercise. However, modern African artworks are made on the social impact of urbanization and globalization on their culture. Their art can reflect this while still comprehending traditional skills and tribal culture into their work.

As similar to color and imagery, font is one of the basic elements of product packaging. Font helps grab the consumer's attention also carry out the product information and organization's message. Your font needs to generate the proper tone to trade the product.

Amidst other things, a font can define your product, help transform your brand and affect consumer preference. If you decide to put more than one, then always try not to exceed above three.

All variants of fonts have a style that creates a particular feeling. Therefore, while choosing the typography, it is essential to select the appropriate one that conveys the personality or uniformity of your brand.

Africa's packagings have a particular pattern that usually reflects their theme. In fonts also they focus on tribal or traditional patterns such as Tribeca, Gilgongo, OutOfAfrica, etc. Using this typography in their packaging makes their products unique and easy to recognize or attract consumers.

Cost of Africa Packaging Design

With the rising oppression of marketing with the motive of "do more with less", some are often using crowdsourcing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork to cut the prices of their packaging design.

However, you might feel that placing a project out to such platforms can be profitable to get lots of ideas and design concepts. But in reality, crowdsourcing your packaging in such forms can lead a hazardous for your business. Imageries and illustrations used by such freelancers can affect your work from copyrights violation.

Moreover, any copyright violation will cost you from 201 USD, while a deliberate intruder may have to pay a cost of more than a million USD for a single work.

Consumers do not take more than 7 seconds to decide whether to buy a product or not during their purchasing. Therefore, if your packaging looks outdated, it won't attract your customers.

Almost 66% of consumers always come with a concept after noticing a product with attractive packaging; thus, they approach agencies to get fresh ideas for their packaging.

The primary benefit of a good packaging design is that it only requires 2-3 seconds for consumers to confirm the buying decision. These 3 seconds are the most important as your product needs to catch the customer's attention within a short span.

Massive research is always required to grab the customer's attention and bind the emotional connection with the product.

Packaging agencies realize and work on the three vital stages before getting into the process, i.e., Research, Accomplish and Create, which tends to an ultimate competitive benefit. The agencies have highly professional employees who know what is required and how to get the best result out of it.

In this era, packaging decisions are very vital decisions, as in the current age of globalization. The customers always prefer to work with agencies that have an astonishing portfolio and have globally noticeable work, honours, etc. They also check the agencies fame to serve in the international and domestic markets.

Agencies like LINTAS, MUNDRA, O&M India, etc., are handled mainly by the bigger giant brands who want to obtain the critical element, i.e. security with the rank that usually gets from a global performer.

You might think, only more prominent companies might have the capability to do such brandings. But budget even matters for bigger giants. However, they realize the importance of packaging in the competitive market.

Some of the Inspiration Africa Packaging Design Trends

As the year passes, we are looking ahead to the new packaging design trends. There might be designs, which are entirely different at first glance. Still, in most cases, there is a cohesive theme behind every design, and that's pivot aside from packaging design, which promptly reads as "commercial", and to packaging that feels like art.

However, the motive is not to replace the traditional in-store experience but to connect customers where they are now and where they will be in future. It's all about creating a fresh, more entrancing brand experience through unique packaging design trends.

Check out some inspirational African packaging design trends:

I hope now you got a complete guide on the African packaging designs. In simple words, we can express that they gave much importance to their tradition, which is visible on every minute element of their designs.

The designs on the packaging make a product stand out from other similar products in the market. Your packaging must clearly convey the features and benefits of your product.

Thus, we discussed the importance of packaging and some of the best African packaging designs. Now you might get an idea of how best packaging designs look like. Still, if you need any guidance or support, you can reach us today. We, DesignerPeople, are an 18-year-old organization in this industry, making many small and big organizations dream come true around the globe.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist's head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

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Africa Packaging Design: Complete Guide - DesignerPeople

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https://www.designerpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/amazon_polly_5799.mp3 Africa is promptly becoming a massive growth centre for the packaging industry. It has led to a drastic increase in customer product markets, proliferating individual incomes and inflating youth customers in significant parts of Africa. According to World Packaging Organization (WPO), the growth centres of packaging are shifting in Africa; thus, beating the Indian and China packaging sectors.

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One of my favourite furniture designs, Nwa-Mulamula is a physical representation of Rich Mnisi's late great grandmother (Mnisi, R., 2021). This source explains how he uses his history to fuel his designs and by creating these designs he is keeping his great grandmother's teachings alive and passing it on to not only the next generation but also to a new demographic through a different means of storytelling.

[Raaiq Damon]

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The RICH MNISI furniture debut, consisting of a chaise and a stool, follows our latest fashion collection - titled , after Rich's late great-grand mother. The pieces stand as a physical representation of Nwa-Mulamula as the ever-present guardian, whose teachings live on through storytelling generation after generation.

"For me, the chaise, which takes the shape of Nwa-Mulamula's (The Guardian) body in the form of a Navy leather couch, presents her presence and long-lasting teachings, and the stool, in the shape of an eye with gold puddles, represents her tears, which were never in vain. Without her pain and her experiences I wouldn't exist. I couldn't be the person I am today," explains Mnisi.

These specially commissioned pieces form part of a group show of multidisciplinary artists, all in celebration of Southern Guild's decade-long journey of pioneering collectible design in South Africa, and include ceramic artists Zizipho Poswa and Madoda Fani, sculptors Daniella Mooney and Stanislaw Trzebinski, and newcomers such as 3D illustrator Ferdi B. Dick.

"You've never seen anything like these pieces before," says Julian McGowan, co-founder of The Guild Group, "the whole concept was to encourage the designers to work outside their comfort zone, providing mentorship and guidance along the way. They're accomplished designers already - so we wanted them to think differently about themselves and their work."

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The RICH MNISI furniture debut, consisting of a chaise and a stool, follows our latest fashion collection - titled , after Rich's late great-grand mother. The pieces stand as a physical representation of Nwa-Mulamula as the ever-present guardian, whose teachings live on through storytelling generation after generation.

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Jomo Furniture
I think Jomo's designs are beautiful and something that resembles African tradition and heritage. Looking at his stools i see inspiration from the Ashanti kingdom , where the royal family would be sitting on beautiful stools, like the famous golden stool.

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JOMO FURNITURE: YOUR PLACE FOR MODERN AFRICAN FURNITURE DESIGN

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Jomo Design Furniture: Inspired by Africa

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Jomo Design Furniture creates stools, chairs, tables and other furnishings inspired by ancient African designs for use in residences, boutique hotels, office lobby or to be displayed as functional art.

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Luyanda Mpahlwa

An African architect that designs to better communities. Design does not always have to be about beauty but also about utility and better lives. Well, he also happens to be my uncle

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I found this inspiring as these are young graphic designers whose work speaks volumes and their work is unique, showing the versatility they each have. It's always good to see designers who are young that are achieving big things and can change the world one design at a time.

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Each year, the Design Indaba Festival gathers a group of rising designers from around South Africa who exhibit their work as part of the Emerging Creatives programme. Not only does the exhibition provide a platform for the country's youth, but also an indicator of what's to come within the design industry - from powerful women, to impactful fashion and now, quirky graphic design.

These 14 Emerging Creatives are changing the game within the sector by combining their graphic design chops with unlikely materials, unexpected topics, vocations like fine art and more. Here's a taste of what the Emerging Creatives 2018 graphic design alumni had to offer.

Punoo Masilwane is a visual artist and designer based in Johannesburg. Originally from Limpopo, the artist is affectionately known as Lucky, and his work celebrates the world around him. Decorex South Africa and the AboutFriends Gallery in Johannesburg have both exhibited his collections.

In a series titled About Friends, Masilwane created a unique story for each piece. The narrative centred on a message of togetherness and the art pieces showcase his signature style.

A graphic design student at the Cape Peninsula University, Max Bauer Nelson-Tansley uses both his background in fine art and his graphic design training to deliver simple but evocative pieces. The work he produces is made up of mixture of photoshop and Illustrator, but some pieces are done freehand with different markers and pens.

Since the Design Indaba festival, he has been selling his original work to people from South Africa as well as to international buyers.

Jessica Middleton, a student at the University of Stellenbosch, creates illustration in both 2D and 3D by using picture books as her inspiration. Since the Design Indaba festival, Middleton has been completely engrossed in her final year her postgraduate degree. But the illustrator continues to produce work that tells a story using photography, drawing and co-design.

Neliswa Mpungose found inspiration while working as a barista. Combining design and coffee, two of her favourite things, Mpungose began building her platform. Her project, Purist, is a coffee-based series of illustrations about people and their connection to the much-loved beverage.

A graphic design student at Stellenbosch, Thaakierah Abdul creates eye-catching pieces of work by experimenting with different graphics, materials and inspiration. She is also known as a social activist in the community because she explores the Cape Malay culture and heritage in her work.

In 2017, Abdul was able to exhibit her work at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts and the University of Stellenbosch. Her Design Indaba Festival exhibition attracted the attention of festival-goers and collaborators alike. Through her work at the festival, Thaakierah was able to secure a bursury to complete her masters.

Ssanyu Sematimba is a visual artist who was born in Uganda, but is based in Johannesburg. Her experience in both graphic design and photography have propelled her career and her latest body of work, African Collection, highlights the barriers between African cultures.

Described as a creative chameleon, Sematimba is inspired by her travels both internationally and locally.

Xolisa Sibeko is a 26-year-old graphic designer who graduated from the University of Johannesburg. He became the first person in his family to obtain a post-graduate degree and has gone on to create socially conscious work. In 2015, he made a poster addressing the effects of culture on sexually transmitted diseases, which was recognised by the International Geldom Project.

Sibeko is currently a student, but his company Studio X is already gaining attention thanks to the Design Indaba Festival. The grapic designer was approached by two companies who are interested in utilising his skills.

Sonwabo Valashiya, a graduate of the Tshwane University of Technology, illustrates to explore the varying aspects of African culture as it's reflected in the modern world. Inspired by pop culture, Vashiya uses his craft to unpack the old and the new. Since the Design Indaba festival Valashiya hosted a solo exhibition, where he told the story of his culture through the eyes of a black Xhosa man.

Pretoria-based illustrator Maggie De Vos' body of work Bittersweet Bitterkak puts humour at the centre. As part of the series, she created Exchanging (Un)pleasantries, a booklet of 20 illustrated phrases. De Vos is currently working on a exhibtion that will be taking place at the No End Contemporary Art Space in Johannesburg.
Masonwabe Ntloko
Masonwabe Ntloko is a 20-year-old multimedia visual communicator whose visual artworks represent modern ideas through authentic African culture, making it accessible to South African millenials.

Despite having been diagnosed with optic nerve failure in 2012, Masonwabe went on to create multiple works and in May 2017, he hosted his first solo exhibition.

Johannesburg-based Neo Mahlangu looks at the disconnect between social media and real life. A relevant topic in today's society, Mahlangu's work questions the ways in which we find meaning and value, asking the audience to ask the same question of themselves. Her designs come to life through the use of Illustrator and photoshop.

Mahlangu is currently working independently and uses social media as a platform to showcase her work. After the Design Indaba festival, she was approached by the Absolut One Source event. She will be exhibiting her work at the inagural event.

Ben Myres brings together the disciplines of game design and visual art to create the fictional worlds he has always wanted to see. Myres has over the last several years worked for multiple companies and he is currently working on the release of his highly anticipated puzzle game, Semblanc.

He hopes to release the game later this year.

Imile Wepener creates striking work for publications such as German magazine, Donna. In 2015, he won Between 10and5's Behance Portfolio Review award for best designer. He hosted his first solo exhibition in the same year.

Thabang Rampai's goal is to promote South African stories through film and animation. His platform, ThibossTouch allows him to reach a number of audiences through comic books, animation and illustration.

Applications for the Design Indaba Emerging Creatives Class of 2019 are now open. APPLY NOW
More on our Emerging Creatives: Meet the young designer making bold swimwear inspired by the shweshwe cloth 6 young visual artists on our radar 13 crafty creatives of product, interiors and industrial design 27 young South African creatives to watch Meet the future of South African fashion

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14 graphic designers to watch | Design Indaba

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Each year, the Design Indaba Festival gathers a group of rising designers from around South Africa who exhibit their work as part of the Emerging Creatives programme. Not only does the exhibition provide a platform for the country's youth, but also an indicator of what's to come within the design industry - from powerful women, to impactful fashion and now, quirky graphic design.

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Binky Newman: the Basket Queen of Africa - Design Afrika - Lifestyling

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Design Afrika has become ground zero for authentic and beautifully crafted basketware sourced from the continent. In its early years though, Design Afrika was a resource for all manner of African treasures, only later streamlining into showcasing and developing baskets and their makers, bringing their wares into the interiors of craft-hungry South Africans.

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and an article about his design collection entitled safari:
https://lifestyling.co.za/decorate/2021/09/full-circle/

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US Head Office: 351 Peachtree Hills Avenue NE , ADAC Suite 230, Atlanta, Georgia, 30305 | T 1 (770) 596-5728 UK Head Office and Showroom: Unit 11, 533 King's Road, London, SW10 0TZ | T +44 (0) 20 7078 7996

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Laurie Wiid is a Cape Town based designer that explores the notion of luxury, in its past and future terms, here in South Africa where the first and third worlds collide.

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"I am constantly evolving and drawing on the dynamic rich African heritage to create products which celebrate beauty and design on the continent, showcasing the African luxury movement" says Dejak, A., (2018).

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Adele Dejak, a Kenya based entrepreneur building a global luxury accessory brand that celebrates the true African experience — Lionesses of Africa

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In the highly competitive world of international jewellery design, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. But this is certainly not the case for Kenyan jewellery and accessory design entrepreneur, Adele Dejak, founder of the striking global luxury brand that carries her name.

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Vogel is an African inspired furniture design company which incorporates weaving and other African elements in their designs. what I find interesting is that although Vogel as a brand seems to not want to brand itself as an Afrikan design inspired business, the influence of Afrika screams loud in their design in the most subtle and sophisticated way.

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Andile is an internationally celebrated Afrikan designers of our time. His work is unique and intriguing with his own interpretation of his Xosa culture and spiritualism. He has found his voice in leading the conversation "What is Afrikan Design".

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Watch artist videos →

Andile Dyalvane is one of South Africa's foremost ceramic artists. Guided by a deep spiritual connection to his Xhosa ancestors, Dyalvane's complex, large-scale ceramic artworks are a metaphorical vessel through which he seeks to honour his cultural traditions and share his journey of healing.

Born in 1978 in the small village of Ngobozana, near Qobo-Qobo in the rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Dyalvane grew up farming and looking after his father's cattle herd - sewing a deep connection to the land and his Xhosa culture that resonates powerfully through his work today. His medium of clay or "umhlaba" (mother earth) is, at its most fundamental, a life-affirming connection to the soil. But by providing a medium for storytelling, it is also an essential energetic link to his past, present and future.

Dyalvane completed a National Diploma in Art and Design at Sivuyile Technical College in Gugulethu, Cape Town, followed by a National Diploma in Ceramic Design from Port Elizabeth Technikon in 2003. In 2005, together with fellow NMMU graduate Zizipho Poswa, he co-founded Imiso Ceramics, whose handmade tableware and vessels have earned the studio an international following.

His most ambitious body of work to date, (grain silo), was exhibited at Southern Guild in 2017. The collection pivots around the central role that maize cultivation plays in rural African life: no homestead is considered complete without a structure to store grain. The cyclical, life-sustaining practices of land cultivation are an embodiment of collective effort and restorative spirituality.

Dyalvane has presented his ceramics in exhibitions at galleries, fairs and museums all over the world. His work was included in Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, which premiered at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rheim, Germany, in 2014 before travelling to other major international museums, and in Graphic Africa at Habitat's Platform Gallery during the 2013 London Design Festival. He is represented in New York by Friedman Benda, whose 2016 solo exhibition of his work, Camagu, was met with critical acclaim. Southern Guild has exhibited his work at The Salon Art + Design and NY Now, Design Miami, Design Miami/ Basel, Design Days Dubai, Art Santa Fe International Art Fair, and AKAA Art Fair.

A member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Dyalvane has earned residencies around the world, most recently at Clay Gulgong in Australia in 2018, and shares his knowledge through master classes and workshops in South Africa and internationally. He has been included in museum shows at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) and the Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG) in Cape Town, and has work in the collections of the Yingge Ceramic Museum in Taipei, Iziko SANG, NMMU Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, and the Corobrik Ceramics Collection.

He collaborated with Chilean design, architecture, and art studio GT2P (Great Things 2 People) on a ceramic installation that was showcased at the 2017 Design Indaba Conference, and co-founded the Imbadu Collective, which facilitates creative collaborations among South African artists such as Atang Tshikare, Laduma Ngxokolo and Trevor Stuurman.

Dyalvane is the recipient of the 2015 Design Foundation Icon Award and was the Feature Designer of the Year at 100% Design South Africa in 2018, where he presented his Iindonga Bowl collection. He was included in Artsy's selection of 20 artists shaping the future of ceramics, and was named one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian newspaper in 2011 and the VISI magazine Artist of the Year in 2009.

Dyalvane's most recent solo, (dreamscape), refers to the medium through which the ancestors' messages - imiyalezo - are transmitted. The collection premiered in Dyalvane's rural village in the Eastern Cape, and was exhibited at Southern Guild in Cape Town (Dec 2020) and then Friedman Benda in New York (May 2021). He created a series (24 in total) of large-scale ceramic chairs, exhibited in a circular arrangement in the manner of traditional Xhosa ceremonies.

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Andile Dyalvane is one of South Africa's foremost ceramic artists. Guided by a deep spiritual connection to his Xhosa ancestors, Andile's complex, large-scale ceramic artworks are a metaphorical vessel through which he seeks to honour his cultural traditions and share his journey of healing.

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Jomo Tariku an Ethiopian-American artist and industrial designer. his design is contemporary yet african , what i like is he is not using the obvious elements but stil find a way to create pieces of furniture that resonate with his African roots. This makes one wonder if as designers how deep is the influence of exposure.

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Jomo Furniture Showcases Modern African-Themed Designs

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African-themed Jomo Furniture, from Jomo Tariku, features a variety of artistic prowess and previous experiences of the continent.

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Contemporary African Architecture, Breaking Stereotypes  

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Contemporary African Architecture, Breaking Stereotypes  

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Africa is a continent with diverse histories and cultures that are not bound to the stereotypes imposed by outsiders.

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Africa is a diverse continent with different contexts that go beyond the stereotypes imagined and propagated by those who do not know it. These stereotypes also cover the architectural field. African architecture is always remembered for its beautiful vernacular projects or works by Keré, but other languages developed by architects on the continent are almost forgotten.

For this reason, in order to increase the panorama of contemporary architecture built in Africa, we have gathered here a selection of buildings that have been realized in fourteen different countries. Be inspired by the eighteen selected projects below.

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Africa is a diverse continent with different contexts that go beyond the stereotypes imagined and propagated by those who do not know it. These stereotypes also cover the architectural field. African architecture is always remembered for its beautiful vernacular projects or works by Keré, but other languages developed by architects on the continent are almost forgotten.

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This is an interesting article, because it introduced me to some up, and coming designers within this continent, that are making beautiful designs, inspired by our Africa.

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Atang Tshikare cannot be classified by a single genre or medium. An artist, designer and founder of Zabalazaa, he is equally at home spray-painting a mural in the street as he his customising bespoke furniture. Specialising in surface design and illustration, Zabalazaa not only has its own range of products, but also features co-creators who lend their innovative skills to a variety of products. Tshikare's collaborations include work with Adidas, Puma, L'Oreal and Plascon, among others. He has also exhibited work internationally at Design Days Dubai, and is a featured artist at WorldArt Gallery in Cape Town. Tshikare works seamlessly across commercial and artistic spheres, developing a signature style that reflects contemporary South Africa. Featured in Design Indaba's Emerging Creatives 2012 and winner of Southern Guild's Future Found Award for 2014, Tshikare is not going unnoticed by the top South African design institutions; it's only a matter of time before his designs become recognisable around the world.
66 Albert Road, Woodstock, 7925, Cape Town, South Africa, +27 71 436 3028

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South Africa's 8 Young Designers To Watch

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Atang Tshikare cannot be classified by a single genre or medium. An artist, designer and founder of Zabalazaa, he is equally at home spray-painting a mural in the street as he his customising bespoke furniture. Specialising in surface design and illustration, Zabalazaa not only has its own range of products, but also features co-creators who lend their innovative skills to a variety of products.

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I am really in awe of Rich Mnisi's journey with regards to his fashion designs, and how he decided to expand by exhibiting collectable furniture, and this was done through the collaboration with South African artisans, which is amazing.

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Beauty distilled from darkness: Former #DI Emerging Creative, Rich Mnisi presents Nyoka | Design Indaba

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Mnisi’s first solo exhibition of collectable furniture runs until 4 February 2022

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Russel Abrahams is one of my favorite Graphic Designers at the moment, and I love his Illustrations. They are full of color, and it is a different completely approach to illustration, hence I admire his work.

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We say yay! Former #DI Emerging Creative, Russell Abrahams aka Yay Abe on his Adidas collabs | Design Indaba

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Illustration sensation Yay Abe chats about his growth since the programme and landing his dream collaboration

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This is a source that is practicing appropriation of african design identity. They are claiming it as American, not as African. These baskets where made by Somalians in Somalia who were colonized and moved to the West.

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These baskets are but a small part of a vast collection of artifacts from the SHUMAA collection, founded by Seton Hall Professor Herbert Kraft (1927-2000), a leading archaeologist and authority on the Leni Lenape tribe which inhabited New Jersey, Delaware, southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania at the time Europeans arrived in the Americas. For almost forty years, Kraft cultivated the collection with artifacts excavated from archaeological digs he conducted throughout the region. Kraft was also instrumental in securing donations of artifacts from noted collectors and archaeologists. The SHUMAA collection includes over 26,000 Native American, Asian and African art and artifacts.

This exhibit was brought to you by The Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University.

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Native American Basketry - Google Arts & Culture

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These baskets are but a small part of a vast collection of artifacts from the SHUMAA collection, founded by Seton Hall Professor Herbert Kraft (1927-2000), a leading archaeologist and authority on the Leni Lenape tribe which inhabited New Jersey, Delaware, southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania at the time Europeans arrived in the Americas.

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The Mvelo desk is said to have derived from the demanding work schedule and time people spend sitting at their desks (Mvelo, 2016). The desk is unique in both physical design and interpretation. The diamonds and triangles represent both feminism and masculinity and together they are meant to form a union. Ultimately the union represents both the married couple as well as the “marriage” people have with their work (Mvelo,2016).

I am fond of this creation because it appears Western from far, but once the detail is noticed it is evident that African design engulfs the entirety of the design. The symbolism behind the design creates a personal impact and creates a deeper connection with the consumer. Because it is just symbols it can be open to interpretation and could be given a meaning of its own by anyone consuming the product.

Nicholas arendse

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The Pinda chair was created by Siyanda Mbele, designer and funder of Pinda Fuurniture.  The Pinda chair consists of four thin legs and a flat hard based seat all meant to represent the layout of a traditional Zulu homestead. The chair itself is a beautiful piece of art. It brings together both functionality and beauty. The homestead  representation with regards to layout adds more depth and value to the chair. It creates a link between tradition and mainstream culture – combining the two to show that cultural aspects can be translated in more ways than traditional objects and structures. (Anon., 2021).

Nicholas Arendse

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Dimeji Afrowaste is a Nigerian designer who transforms discarded clothes into unique designs. The designs blend different materials together to produce garments that range from different materials, but are one. His designs see patterns and bright mixed colors, which resemble the patterns and similarly the colors used in many African designs. “This colourful, playful blending of cultures and eras, illustrates the potential for beauty in the forgotten and discarded.” (Omotayo, et al., 2021).He has further embraced the old-and-new by designing a shirt that fits todays era alongside a pants that can be seen as somewhat more traditional. This blend shows that African design can be immersed and found in many parts of the world and we might not necessarily know it yet.

Nicholas Arendse

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Katy Valentine, a South African jewellery designer creating collections inspired by two continents — Lionesses of Africa

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Jewellery is such a personal thing, and often those buying pieces to wear or to give as gifts are inspired by the stories behind each unique piece, or by the cultures they reflect. The Katy Valentine Collection , a business and brand named after its creator, uniquely takes its inspiration from Afri

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Some people are born creative, and others are born entrepreneurial, and if you are lucky, you get to be a combination of the two! South African entrepreneur and talented jewellery designer, Mary-Jean Treloar, displays both of these traits in huge quantities. Her highly personal brand, MΛRY JEΛN JEWELLERY, is inspired by the continent she loves and the stories that are woven into the very fabric of society. Her unique work is winning fans of great jewellery design both at home and abroad.

LoA had the pleasure of talking to this innovative and passionate designer to find out more about her work and her vision for the brand that carries her name.
What does your company do?
At Mary Jean Jewellery, we design and manufacture fine handmade jewellery that is inspired by patterns and symbols found across the African continent. Our current collection (The Adinkra Collection) is based on and inspired by the Adinkra fabric symbols found largely in Ghana and parts of West Africa. Each symbol has a meaning behind it and so all the handcrafted pieces have within them a story and a uniquely delicate yet bold design.

"Our jewellery is truly handcrafted and inspired by the amazing patterns found within Africa. Each piece is carefully made and finished by hand ensuring a high quality product that is both delicate and bold."

What inspired you to start your company?
My love of Africa, geometric patterns, design, geology and silversmithing. As well as the desire to spend every day creating and making something new and truly unique.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Our jewellery is truly handcrafted and inspired by the amazing patterns found within Africa. Each piece is carefully made and finished by hand ensuring a high quality product that is both delicate and bold.
Tell us a little about your team
Last year I was lucky enough to employ, part-time, two amazing ladies (Kamogelo and Hildegard) and this has helped me exponentially. Especially after having been a 'one-woman-show' for 2 years. Kamogelo assisted me mostly with my jewellery for the safari lodges and then picked up silversmithing super fast and started helping me with MΛRY JEΛN. Kamogelo has now unfortunately had to leave us to pursue her studies at University and I wish her the very best of luck! Hildegard is a truly talented silversmith who assists me with manufacturing and we have recently also become business partners on a new company called 'Gin and Tea' which is an online wedding boutique.( watch this space brides-to-be)

"All the handcrafted pieces have within them a story and a uniquely delicate yet bold design."

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
Hold on tight! it's a bit of a long story...
I grew up in a creative family that has an incredible love of geology and semi-precious gemstones. So from a very young age I started going on many remote family holidays across Southern Africa where we would dig for and find our own gemstones. My father then taught me how to cut, shape and polish them. The lapidary workshop where I cut my stones was doing a silversmithing course where you could set some of your stones into silver and I decided I wanted to give it a try. I instantly fell in love with the art of SIlversmithing! Something in me just clicked and sparked!

After school I went on to study a Bsc in Interior Architecture and thereafter I worked for a year at a luxury safari lodge before returning to the Architectural industry. Throughout all this, silversmithing continued to be just my hobby, until 2014, when I just couldn't ignore the fact that it was now my passion! And so I resigned from my job as an Interior Architect and started my first jewellery brand called 'The lucky bean range' that still currently supplies jewellery exclusively to the luxury safari industry. MΛRY JEΛN Jewellery came about last year April out of a desire to develop a personal brand where I could design truly unique, quality handcrafted and African inspired jewellery that could run alongside my other brand, as well as challenge me as a designer and manufacturer.

My first creative entrepreneurial memories are from as early as Grade 3 while at Fields primary school in Rustenburg, where I would (without fail) take part in every entrepreneur's day market. I would sell the strangest handmade goods, from candles that I'd made in old painted tuna tins, to knitted pom poms, to homemade oatmeal biscuits. My friend's dad even supported this streak by ordering biscuits from me for a guest house that he ran, and so by age 8 I was baking in the evenings, planning my packaging, working out my costs and without knowing it, I was grooming my inner entrepreneur!

"... by age eight I was baking in the evenings, planning my packaging, working out my costs and without knowing it, I was grooming my inner entrepreneur!"

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
We have just moved into a new collaborative studio and showroom space called 'Gathere' with 4 other amazing creatives in Kramerville, Johannesburg and my hopes are to grow within this space as we are now more accessible to the public. I would like to approach some local and international stockists and grow the awareness around our brand, the concept of our designs, and the value that our handmade artisanal trade carries. It's my hope that this will lead to the growth I need to allow me to employ and train some more amazing team members.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
The fact that even though the pressures are immense and the hours are long, I have gained more freedom. The freedom to make decisions. The freedom to make mistakes and grow and the freedom to take the paths I want to walk. But most of all it has to be the realisation that having this freedom is a wealth that surpasses any monetary value or possession. I also cherish the great moments one experiences and struggles you overcome while growing as a business, a business woman and a person.

"Our current collection (The Adinkra Collection) is based on and inspired by the Adinkra fabric symbols found largely in Ghana and parts of West Africa."

What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
I have 3 pieces :)
1 - Doubt is your biggest enemy! Keep positive by surrounding yourself with positive and encouraging people that believe in you, you are going to need to lean on them a lot!
2 - Just start! Small steps every day lead up to your bigger end goals. Remember: "The man on top of the mountain didn't just fall there" - Vince Lombardi
3 - Celebrate every little victory. There are going to be a lot of difficult and tough steps to climb along the way but when you do accomplish something, however small, be sure to celebrate it! This carries you through the tough times and brings joy into your entrepreneurial journey.
Contact or follow MΛRY JEΛN JEWELLERY
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | EMAIL mj@maryjean.co.za

Why LoA loves it....

There are those people you meet in life whose passion and love for what they do is truly infectious, and in business this is a hugely positive trait to possess when chasing success. In this case, Mary-Jean Treloar is geared up for that success with her highly personal jewellery brand as she is able to connect with her customers, not only through the impeccable design ethos she displays, but also through the proudly African stories she tells with every piece of jewellery she makes. This is definitely a brand to watch over the coming months and years! --- Melanie Hawken, founder and editor-in-chief of Lionesses of Africa

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Mary-Jean Treloar, a South African jeweller putting her passion for Africa into precious metals - Lionesses of Africa

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Some people are born creative, and others are born entrepreneurial, and if you are lucky, you get to be a combination of the two! South African entrepreneur and talented jewellery designer, Mary-Jean Treloar, displays both of these traits in huge quantities. Her highly personal brand, MΛRY JEΛN JEW

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atelier 55 - The Curator of Contemporary African Design

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Adèle Dejak [Kenya]
[Image credit: Adèle Dejak]
'Lots and lots of Africa with an injection of European influences' is how jewellery designer Adèle Dejak describes the inspiration for her striking collections of contemporary jewellery. Born in Kano, Nigeria and raised in Cambridge, UK; Adèle moved to Nairobi, Kenya in 2005 where she started her business Magik Grace Art and Design. Although trained as a typographer Adèle's move to Kenya saw her take up painting before eventually turning her artistic attention to jewellery design, launching her new eponymous accessories brand, Adèle Dejak earlier this year.

Ancient African art in the form of West African masks, pottery and other symbolic artefacts is a major source of design inspiration for Adèle. Inspired by the natural beauty and colours of ebony, horn and bone; Adèle experiments with different techniques of carving the materials into dynamic, organic shapes that become earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings accentuating the body and reflecting the women who wear them. Other materials used to produce the bold and subtle statement designs include metals, beads and locally sourced leather. In addition to jewellery, the Adèle Dejak accessories range has grown to include belts, bags and footwear using unique materials like cement bags, sugar and rice sacks; along with traditional African textiles, another major source of inspiration and most likely a reference to Adèle's West African roots. Each item of jewellery is presented to the customer in a drawstring Khanga cloth bag.
[Image credit: Adèle Dejak]
Operating from a workshop in Kiambu, the Adèle Dejak team has grown from 1 to 28 workers to include skilled artisans, jewellery makers, tailors and apprentices producing her designs; to the local managers and the shop assistants helping to run her three retail outlets.

...stunning statements of African shapes and textures
Additional details:
Prices on Indagare Souk range from: USD$25-USD$320
For further information about Adèle Dejak visit: www.adeledejak.com

Select pieces can be purchased from: www.souk.indagare.com

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Jewellery: Adèle Dejak Contemporary African Jewelry - atelier 55 - The Curator of Contemporary African Design

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Adèle Dejak [Kenya] [Image credit: Adèle Dejak] 'Lots and lots of Africa with an injection of European influences' is how jewellery designer Adèle Dejak describes the inspiration for her striking collections of contemporary jewellery. Born in Kano, Nigeria and raised in Cambridge, UK; Adèle moved to Nairobi, Kenya in 2005 where she started her business Magik Grace Art and Design.

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It can be storage of wealth; amassing gold or precious metals or stones in bracelets and amulets; or it can be a symbol of prestige and power reflecting status in society... or it can just simply be a decorative item used to hold hair back.

The oldest African jewelry ever discovered was recently found, in 2004, in the Blombos cave on the southern tip of S. Africa. They are estimated at being over 75 000 years old and are pea-sized, mollusc shell beads that had been pierced. They have worn areas indicating that they were probably once strung into a necklace or bracelet.

There are other African beads dating back 45,000 years.

The oldest African jewelry ever discovered was recently found (2004) in the Blombos cave on the southern tip of S. Africa. They are estimated at being over 75 000 years old and are pea-sized, mollusc shell beads that had been pierced. They have worn areas indicating that they were probably once strung into a necklace or bracelet.

Historically, African jewelry is also used to trade and barter with, mainly in exchange for cloth and food, but also very sadly for slaves.

African jewelry is seldom just ornamental; religion, rituals and ceremonies play a large part. Found objects are often included and can carry personal and symbolic meanings for the wearer.

Jewelry is worn by men, women and children, in some cases from a very early age and may be replaced at a certain age or status event like puberty, reaching manhood or marriage.

African jewelry has customarily been created from organic materials like hide, porcupine quill, bone, animal teeth, animal hair, seeds, nuts, husks, sea and land shells, egg shell, wood, ivory and carved stone.

Ostrich shells have been discovered in disc shaped form in Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites. Ostrich bone is one of the oldest forms of material used. Cowrie shells have an ancient history in Africa and are prized for their durability and their shape symbolizing female fertility.

In Benin during the 15th C, stone beads were expertly carved and in the 16th C coral beads brought from the coast by Portuguese traders were incorporated into necklaces. In Kenya, the Turkana have manufactured large, faceted iron beads for generations.

From the 1400's and at its height in the 1800's, molded glass and ceramic trade beads, brass bells and coins were introduced to add extra choice of embellishment. Copper and iron alloys were used to produce pendants and simple jewelry. Ivory and amber have also had a tremendous influence in trade and handicrafts on the African continent. The former was especially treasured in Benin in the 16th Century.

Traditionally African jewelry has been used to adorn necks, ears, arms, legs, toes, hair and waists and can be pierced, strapped or sewn on. Sometimes it can be left for long periods of time causing physical body damage and restricting movement.

Tribal African jewelry is dependent upon three things:

1. what is available locally

2. what has been traded and bartered for over the centuries

3. what the customs and traditions are in the different cultures.

For example, the lost wax method of bronze casting in Nigeria and Benin started by the Yoruba in the 13th C has produced very intricate modelling of bronze pieces and c opper is another metal historically used.

In Ghana, the coronation of kings and leaders is celebrated with a show of gold wealth that is astounding in its glory. Gold bracelets, necklaces and rings all have symbolic meaning attached to the styling and motifs used in the making.

When tribes are nomadic like the Turkana, Dinka and Samburu in Sudan and Kenya, their creativity is given an outlet in the form of personal adornment.

Jewelry is worn to express tribal association, age, civil and marital status and wealth.

Beaded African jewelry can give out as much information as is written or spoken, it has its own language and much can be derived about history, culture and status. In southern and eastern Africa, most inhabitants can wear beaded refinement but in Yoruba culture it is confined to rulers and in the Cameroon, beads are an expression of privilege.

The Kenyan bride, at left, is in traditional beaded adornment including aluminium 'birds' to attract sunlight and therefore the attention of her groom. Bead culture, hugely and enthusiastically adopted by many tribes, is a relatively new one in Africa.

The earliest known Maasai and Samburu items are dated around 1850; large red beads that were taken back to Holland.

With the introduction of small, colourful glass beads from Italy and other parts of Europe, a whole mythology built up around the beads with colours and band or block patterns playing a significant role.

Neckbands became the primary piece of African jewelry for men and women.

African Jewelry items tend to be big and bold and chunky using ethnic and metal beads, ostrich and ebony discs, beaten silver and mineral stones.

Gemstones, precious and semi precious, new and antique, have decorative and spiritual properties that are highly valued and increasingly in demand. Luckily, Africa is hugely wealthy with resources in this area and the supply of materials comes easily.

Diamonds, interestingly, are culturally seen as devoid of colour and were not traditionally favoured by the indigenous people of Africa.

Above is a selection of jewelry designed using antique and ancient beads in a contemporary fashion.

Stones used by African artisans include turquoise, lapis lazuli, sapphires, emeralds and rubies as well as topaz, amethyst, rose quartz and moonstone.

These silver earrings are a contemporary take on traditional Fulani hoops blending natural mineral elements with tribal design.

Above is a collection of tribal jewelry found in a specialist market in St Louis, Senegal.

Turkana, Masai, Zulu... too many tribal sources to mention are gathered together for sale in an established tourist orientated market. Undeniably beautiful and attractive, traders will transport both beads and strung items for literally thousands of kilometers to open markets where tourists and enthusiasts come to buy.

The market is competitive and genuine articles are appreciated and given the value they deserve.

Specialist collier makers and designers like Benin born Marie-Jose Crispin of Goree Island, Dakar take pride in collecting valuable beads, stones, bones, metals and artifacts and stringing them together to make magnificent unique, one-off items that are in fact research items and often give testament to how far a single item can travel... and of the ways it can travel; like appearing in the sand or in a bequeathed or discovered box or trunk after someone has died.

This extraordinary image is the work of a young photographer John Kenny whose beautiful work captures traditional jewelry worn in modern time. The hair clips are give-aways! An exquisite image documentation to her heritage.

Contemporary African Jewelry

African jewelry is interpreted in many ways in the contemporary fashion world. Black models are very in vogue and tribal adornment embellishes and enhances many necks and bodies of all races.

Today jewelry manufacture has become an art form and a way to express one's personality, a form of individual expression.

Since 'jewelry' is derived from a Latin word 'jocale' which means 'plaything' we can see that historically it has been used as a form of adornment that gives pleasure and status to its wearer.

With access to beautiful stones, precious metals and other unusual material source like fossils and ebonised wood, there has been an explosion of phenomenal design in the jewelry world.

Creativity is at an all time high.

Piece - this is a collection that pays tribute to the creative power of the African people and how the use and trade of beads has been so significant in Africa's history and culture.

Designed in collaboration with Beauty Maswanganyi a master beader, the collection seeks to reflect the contribution of San bushmen with their ostrich shell beads, the African blacksmith who made cast bronze beads, the Mozambican precious natural resources with hand carved timber beads and West African communities who used cowrie shells as currency.

Coral and amber, both rare and beautiful, and symbolizing status, investment and fertility are majestic additions in the creations.

One of the recurring themes we see when looking at art on the African continent is the way artisans are making the most incredible recycled product.

Jewelry is no exception and below are a few examples of the creative energy being applied in this area.

It's an exceptionally good practice for so many reasons:

the commercial gain of the individual or community

the experience and skills acquired not only in creation of the product but also learning to manage the finances and marketing

the commitment to cleaning up the environment

the artistic growth of individuals and the value perceived in creating something beautiful from very little

The products featured above seek to do all those things and are effective in achieving success.

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It can be storage of wealth; amassing gold or precious metals or stones in bracelets and amulets; or it can be a symbol of prestige and power reflecting status in society... or it can just simply be a decorative item used to hold hair back.

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The Thuthuka Jewellery Award exhibition will be open to the public at the FADA Gallery at the University of Johannesburg, Bunting road Campus, Auckland Park, from February 21 to March 12, 2015.

Adjudication for the 2014 Thuthuka Jewellery Awards for young aspirant contemporary jewellers is completed. The competition, in its seventh year, is supported by the partnership between the Department of Arts and Culture and the Thuthuka Jewellery Development Programme. The intention of the Thuthuka Jewellery Awards is to showcase the best of South Africa's young up and coming jewellery designers, who are learning jewellery making skills at community jewellery schools or at tertiary jewellery design departments, and who have had the additional advantage of having been mentored in contemporary design through the Thuthuka Jewellery mentorship programme.

With a high number of entries from jewellery design students across four provinces in South Africa, the Thuthuka Jewellery Awards is established as the industry benchmark for innovation and excellence in the design of contemporary handmade jewellery .

The 2014 competition focused on the fashion industry and in particular on accessories, in this instance shoes, aptly captured in the theme 'Sho! Shoe Jewellery?' Students have been challenged to construct multifunctional contemporary pieces inspired by the South African insect. Entrants were judged on how they interpreted the natural shapes, textures and unique patterning of insects and translated these into multifunctional jewellery pieces that can double up as shoe trimming, beautiful jewellery or hair accessories.

Founder of the Thuthuka Development Programme, Carola Ross, says, "With the fashion industry as the focal point for this year's competition, entrants have had to raise the level excellence in both design innovation and manufacturing to create sturdy, wearable and beautiful multifunctional handmade pieces. The standard of entries we have received this year is testament to the critical insight students have gained into the principles of contemporary design and public preference."

According to Ross, the competition is aimed at providing a platform for student jewellers to have their work professionally showcased. The competition theme in the past has been aligned to practical design-related industry sectors such as homeware, tableware, lighting and now, fashion. The intention is that this additional experience could ultimately broaden their employment opportunities. The exposure through the annual Thuthuka Awards exhibition also benefits entrants in building an industry profile and public interest in their work.

Due to the growing popularity of the competition among the South African design community and the broader public, the work of the finalists will be showcased in an exhibition from at the FADA Gallery at the University of Johannesburg, Bunting road Campus, Auckland Park, from February 16 to March 12 2015.

The Thuthuka Jewellery Development Programme is a Gauteng-based peer mentorship programme that provides a mentorship programme in jewellery design and manufacturing to jewellery students from FET colleges and community jewellery schools across four provinces in South Africa.University jewellery design students also participate in the competition. The curriculum is focused on enhancing innovation and excellence in the production of contemporary handmade jewellery.

The Thuthuka Jewellery Awards is an annual competition that provides a national platform for student jewellers to have their work professionally showcased. Winning designs are awarded bursaries as well as prizes in the form of the tools essential to the jeweller's practice to galvanise their entry into industry.

For more information, please contact Carola Ross on:

Telephone: +27 11 726 2502

Mobile: + 27 83 653 5540

Email: carolaross@mweb.co.za

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South African contemporary jewellery designers come in to their own

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The Thuthuka Jewellery Award exhibition will be open to the public at the FADA Gallery at the University of Johannesburg, Bunting road Campus, Auckland Park, from February 21 to March 12, 2015. Adjudication for the 2014 Thuthuka Jewellery Awards for young aspirant contemporary jewellers is completed.

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Personal decoration has always been a part of African cultures. Thanks to pictorial iconography and tombs excavations, we've had a glimpse to what the civilizations before us adorned their bodies with. Right on our shores, ostrich shell beads - believed to be 40,000 years old - were discovered in the ' Enkapune Ya Muto' (Twilight Cave) in Kenya. Most obviously, ancient jewellery was used as a source of adornment for both women and men. Granted, beauty ideals would not only vary from country to country but also between communities in one country. This also applies to the meanings and attributes each community associated with the jewellery they assimilated into their lifestyles. Bear in mind, the African continent is tremendously diverse and isn't the easiest to summarize into one bejewelled nut-shell. Thus, this blog post will only highlight some of the jewellery characteristics from the continent.
But first, some jewellery significance facts
It's not only about the beauty aspect. Jewellery was used on the continent to convey different messages within the community. First being wealth. A staple in many marriage dowry arrangements, which would reflect the estimated value of the union. Once the woman collected a sizeable jewellery stockpile, such as in the Saharan communities, it could be used as a form of currency. In dire times, it could be used to keep the family economically afloat.

Secondly, jewellery was often used to communicate status. Certain stones or craftsmanship was reserved for the chiefs or royalty of the community to highlight their position in society. It was also used to indicate marital status; which was of great connotation in most communities. Speaking of communication, some communities used the jewellery design to have a good gab. For example, Maasai women used colour juxtaposition in their necklace designs to embed coded messages. Talk about a colour gossip session. Additionally, they were used for physical and spiritual protection. Take for example the Ouled Nail women of Algeria. During their dances, they would were spiked bracelets to fight off excessively enthusiastic admirers. Spiritually, you only need to look to amulets and talismans. If you're wondering what the differences are between the two; the former let's all the positive energy through to the wearer, while the latter blocks the evil juju.
SAHARA
Covered by the Sahara, the world's largest desert, North Africa is home to nomadic communities such as the Tuaregs, Berbers and the Moors. Just because the landscape is barren, doesn't mean that there jewellery is. In areas such as Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, popular jewellery forms include brooches, pendants, headbands, triangular-shaped shawl pin and breast ornaments. Silver is the go-to metal within the Berber and Tuareg culture since gold is considered bad luck. Interestingly, Berber women were layering jewellery before it was mainstream. They would wear many of their pieces at once; think enormous earing, coupled with necklaces, rings, brooches anklets and bracelets.

But if you're hoping to find an original antique piece, that may be difficult to accomplish. See, Berber women opt for pieces made specifically for them. So there was the common practice of melting down pieces and remaking them into new jewellery for a specific woman in mind. The large, heavy pieces with intricate details is also a characteristic you'll see among other communities in the Saharan region. Tuaregs leaned more to symmetrical design that was geometric and bold. A good example is the Tuareg cross that was passed down from father to son when they reached adolescence and it's believed to protect the wearer from evil.
EGYPT
We're talking about this country on its own simply because its history is highly-documented. It's also been the region that has produced some of the most famous ancient jewellery such as the bust of Nefertiti and Tutankhamun's burial mask. Silver wasn't as readily available in Egypt, thus, copper and gold were predominantly used. However, it's said that the rise in Egyptian jewellery can be attributed to the discovery of gold. The gold was often complimented by the use of three colours namely lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise.

Both men and women from all social classes, in life and death, placed emphasis on jewellery of elaborate designs. Even the statues of their gods and kings had to be adorned with lavish jewels. Their clothes, according to archaeological findings, were plain and probably focused more on function. But when your jewellery is that ornate, would you want it upstaged by your clothes? In addition to this jewellery was their protective amulets and talismans, which would either be infused into their jewellery or worn independently. They were as important in protecting the wearer in the land of living as it was in the realm of the deceased. Memorial jewellery was customary in Egypt and there were specific amulets for the afterlife. Symbolism was a big part of their ornamentation, with each having a precise name and meaning. According to Britannica, "The scarab, lotus flower, Isis knot, Horus eye, falcon, serpent, vulture, and sphinx are all motif symbols tied up with such religious cults as the cult of the pharaohs and the gods and the cult of the dead."
EQUITORIAL AFRICA
Equatorial Africa is often used to refer to tropical Africa, or the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the equator. To simplify, it's the areas with much of Africa's forest terrain which also includes bits of the coastline and savannah. One of the main elements of jewellery design was Ivory. It was considered sacred and was reserved for kings. According to Jewels for Me, it was also incorporated into initiation ceremonies, "In Zaire, one finds ivory carved into figurative shapes, some of which represent ancestors and are worn for protection or as badges to mark initiation into society. In the South-western Congo, the Pende make masks of ivory to indicate that the wearer has undergone circumcision and initiation."

Trade brought in materials such as glass beads, brass, gold, copper and coral that was then incorporated in many of the ancient creations that have been since found. Women from Benin were said to have worn hip ornaments made from brass while Nigerian women wore intricately-woven brass wide bracelets in the courting process. It's alleged that the Yoruba in Nigeria are credited with introducing the lost-wax process to the savannah region that made these and many other brass creations possible. Beads were also used in nobility pieces such as with The Oba in Benin and the Yoruba.
SAVANNAH
Known as the region between the Sahara and the equatorial forest, it's rich in minerals. Gold, in particular, seemed to be a metal of choice. Mali's Fulani women used gold earrings to display their family's ranking in wealth; the bigger the earrings were the better off the family was. Senegal used whatever wasn't traded to make gold ornament for their chieftains that had extravagant objects and complex embellished motifs worked into them. While women would wear the jewellery in forms that we associate with today, such as bracelets, anklets and necklaces, the men in this region preferred to wear it as heavy head plaque.

Ivory Coast drew inspiration from the animals around them. Using wrought iron, they made Senufo bracelets and sacred pythons were materialised through lost-wax process. In the Ashanti community, you'd men adorn helmets fashioned from stiffened hides and decorated with wood ornaments and gold leaves. Princes and dignitaries were also known to wear enormous gold rings which were made through lot-wax technique as well.

Although the scale of most of the jewellery has shrunken down, and the techniques may have been tweaked here and there, it's encouraging to see that traditional production styles are still being practised on the continent to date. While this article was in no way a comprehensive coverage of the ancient jewellery that came from the continent. We hope it has peaked your interest enough to go out and do more in-depth research into different regions. There's so much we can learn from the craftsmanship that came before as well as, the beliefs and traditions attached to them that could help fashion the designs of the future. Perpetuating the continents narrative for years to come.

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ANCIENT AFRICAN JEWLLERY: Design History on the Continent

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Personal decoration has always been a part of African cultures. Thanks to pictorial iconography and tombs excavations, we've had a glimpse to what the civilizations before us adorned their bodies with. Right on our shores, ostrich shell beads - believed to be 40,000 years old - were discovered in the ' Enkapune Ya Muto' (Twilight Cave) in Kenya.

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Exploration of Contemporary African Jewels: the story of Tracy and Sarraounia

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Words by Koura-Rosy Kane Ornaments have always been part of African cultures. Around Africa, a multitude of traditions related to jewels are co-existing. The first jewel on this vast continent is estimated to be 40 000 years old. Besides having a technical capacity to create unique pieces, African j…

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How African Design is Changing Shape | PRIOR

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Contemporary African design at its best is reinterpreting traditional forms, from weaving to ceramics. Here are the designers to know.

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Tapiwa Matsinde's book, Contemporary Design Africa, challenges perceptions of African creativity by focusing on design and innovation on the continent. Tapiwa Matsinde is a British-Zimbabwean designer, creative business consultant, blogger and writer. Her book is attempting to push back against the " single story " of African art. The aim of the book is to challenge the standard imagery of "wooden statues, masks, animal prints, tribal markings, safari chic, ebony and ivory, and earth tones," revealing a fluid, dynamic and unpredictable creative economy, in places as diverse as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali. Inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's popular TED talk, Matsinde's volume celebrates novel approaches to design throughout the continent.

Through photographs and text, Contemporary Design Africa considers a selection of intricate, colourful and sustainably produced decorative objects. Matsinde focuses especially on basketry, ceramics, metalwork, woodcarving, weaving and textiles, fashioned from materials such as beads, raffia, shells, embroidered textiles, leather, ivory, metals and bamboo, among others. Aside from extolling the objects, Matsinde emphasizes the originality and imagination of African artisans. To cite one example, she considers textiles by Henoc Maketo of Design Maketo, which draw inspiration from the multi-layered motifs and effervescent colour palettes of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Maketo specializes in screen-printing and uses old and new print techniques to produce his designs. In 2011 he won the prestigious New Design Britain, Fabrics Award at Interiors Birmingham.

Similarly the Cape Town based textile company, Shine Shine, produces funky and playful designs for a youthful audience. Shine Shine was founded in 2007 by Tracy Rushmere. The distinct aesthetic is the result of the partnership between Rushmere and South African graphic designer Heidi Chisholm. The textiles are inspired by anything from barbershop signs found across the continent to religious cloths. The premise of the collaboration was to create designs that celebrated African artisanship. Shine Shine's products range from clothing to interior accessories. The designs appeal to the transnational hipster aesthetic.

Conventionally, African craftspeople have remained anonymous to international audience members; Matsinde's book joins others who have been working to ameliorate this situation. One only has to think of the work of Bongiwe (Bongi) Dhlomo. Her piece entitled "Artist Unknown: At the End of the Day" is a critique on the continual dismissal of African artists in the international art market and gallery space. African artisanship has been relegated to the periphery of mainstream art production, which has led to its seeming non-existence in the international art market (although work by Africans certainly looks large in the international curio trade). One only has to go to an art museum to locate the absence of African artists. Expanding the framework suggests there are more possibilities for African art and artists. Matsinde's volume recognizes that African artists are adept at providing decorative objects that are functional, beautiful and timely. Matsinde does this in part by focusing instead on nations, materials and contexts to help her audience understand the relationship of these forms to their 'traditional' forebears.

Through novel applications of 'traditional' styles Matsinde drives home the implicit point that African art and design has always changed, developed and grown anew.

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Tapiwa Matsinde's book, Contemporary Design Africa, challenges perceptions of African creativity by focusing on design and innovation on the continent. Tapiwa Matsinde is a British-Zimbabwean designer, creative business consultant, blogger and writer. Her book is attempting to push back against the " single story " of African art.