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Design activism and creativity take center stage at Design Indaba

Design Indaba announced advertising personage David Droga, Dutch designer Joris Laarman, legendary architects Dong-Ping Wong and Annabelle Selldorf and Afro-futurist Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahui as just some of their dynamic speakers for their internationally acclaimed creative conference.
Design Indaba

From Wednesday 27 February to Friday 1 March 2019 Design Indaba will once again set the standard for creative excellence, innovative entrepreneurship and lateral, solutions-based thinking on global design and social challenges. In keeping with the Design Indaba ethos – a better world through creativity – this week’s conference promises to inspire design activism through compelling presentations that combine career-changing insights and cutting-edge work. From architecture and industrial design to pop culture, emerging technologies and environmental problem-solving, the 2019 edition offers inspiration and insights across industries.

Approaching a new African narrative

Producer, and author Wanuri Kahiu is spearheading her passion for storytelling and visual chemistry. The Nairobi-born director was the first Kenyan filmmaker to show a film at Cannes, with her second feature film, Rafiki. “Africa is seen as such a serious continent. We need images of joy and frivolity as well. Because we are joyful, and sometimes we are frivolous,” says Wanuri Kahiu of the more complete viewpoint she’d like to offer to the world on Africa.

A different kind of storytelling

David Droga is the founder and chairman of Droga5, a multiple award-winning agency based in New York that ranks among the top ten advertising and marketing companies in the world. “Our job is to move people and do extraordinary things,” he says. As the advertising industry’s most awarded creative, David Droga believes that creativity can play a role in facilitating social change.

Exploring human-centred solutions

Annabelle Selldorf, founder of Selldorf Architects shares the same ethos. The firm is committed to contributing towards society, Selldorf Architects is best known for the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility on the Brooklyn waterfront in New York, and was recently awarded the Panerai Design Miami/ Visionary Award for its work on the Mwabwindo School in Zambia.

Creating creative environmental interventions

Dong-Ping Wong’s has influenced a generation of architects with his ambitious conceptual designs. One recent high-profile project was the +POOL, created for the city of New York, which entailed a water-purifying swimming pool designed to float in the East River and filter the river through its walls, cleaning more than 600 000 gallons of water every single day without the use of chemicals or additives.

Pushing the boundaries of technological production and process

Dutch designer Joris Laarman’s work features in permanent museum installations around the world, including MoMA New York, the V&A in London, Centre Pompidou and recently the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam where his Bone chair is the closing work of the 20th-century collection. His experimental lab was set up to explore the possibilities of future technology and its consequential aesthetics together with craftsmen, scientists and engineers.

Find out more on the Design Indaba’s website.

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