Day one of the Design Indaba Conference has had a strong social theme so far, with all the speakers touching on aspects of community in their talks.
Michael Bierut, a graphic designer, discussed a project for inner city New York schools that created proper libraries where before there had been a pile of books. He designed something ‘tangible and personal” by creating a frieze of student pictures above the bookshelves in one library, and skyscrapers of student poetry in another. This personal design led to a sense of pride and excitement within these schools.
Mokena Makeka, a Cape Town architect, showed how our important good design is to making good public spaces. When tasked with designing the Retreat Railway Police Station, he was told ‘not to bother” with smart bathrooms as they would just be vandalised. It was recommended that he use cheap fittings and face-brick. He did the opposite and painted the station white. To this day it does not have any graffiti or other marks. It is an attractive building where policemen and women can feel happy and proud to work. As Mokena says, ‘Treat our police humanely and they will act humanely.”
Manabu Mizuno calls himself a ‘Design Samurai”, but he is also the founder of the Good Design Company. He spoke of how branding, or ‘Miekata”, can be divided into three elements – concept, context and design. An example he cited was the campaign to launch pre-organic cotton products into the market by designing simple T-shirts with important dates on them. In this way an instantly recognisable ‘fashion brand” was created which also did a far larger job of establishing an environmentally responsible line of clothing. He says, ‘No matter how good a concept is, it needs good design. Design is art but it is also part of economy.”
Troika are a three-person design agency from London who were responsible for a world clock installation in terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. They printed electro-luminescent ink on acetate, which becomes visible when light shines on it. They created a special 62-letter display and modular typeface for this that could display both upper and lower case serif and sans serif — a new take on the classic digital clock.
They also invented a micro-projector for cellphones, that would rear project cellphone SMSes onto public spaces and even people. Then there was the loudspeaker strapped to a lamppost outside the British houses of parliament. People could SMS their activist message to the loudspeaker and it would speak it out loud – ‘SMS to get your voice heard”.
And they designed an incredible kinetic sculpture for British Airways with flicking pieces that sound just like the classic ‘flight schedule” board at airports.