Infographics on HIV – free download

At Design for development we aim to make complex information simple and clear. We believe that when people are given accurate, factual information about a subject such as health, it helps them make better life choices. Equal Treatment, the magazine published by TAC, has been providing information about HIV for more than a decade.

This is our fifth year designing this useful resource and we have created quite a few infographics from research data supplied by TAC. If you are working in the HIV treatment literacy field, we, together with TAC, would like to share some of these graphic resources with you. Download the HIV Life Cycle here and the Fight against HIV infographic here.

All resources are published under a creative commons license.

Equal Treatment magazine is freely available for download on the TAC website.

Fight against HIV statistic info graphic from Equal Treatment 42 - created by Design for development

Graphic representation of the HIV life cycle - created by Design for development

Equal Education – The future is ours

Equal Education is a great, young organisation lobbying for better education in South Africa. And it looks like they are building up to a big 2012. They recently started the process of taking the Minister of Basic Education to court for minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure. Check their website and follow the case. Continue reading »

Behind the scenes

Most of our blogs show the ‘glamorous’ part of the design process and the final products of what we have been up to! But late last night, driving through the dark, deserted streets of Epping Industria 2 towards Creda Communications, it occurred to me that we seldom acknowledge the hundreds of hours of ‘less glamorous’ work that go into the creation process.

I was at Creda Communications to sign-off the colour proofs of the brochures we are re-printing for Community Media Trust (CMT). They are part of a series of brochures on HIV, TB, ARVs, STIs, and PMTCT, and are translated into Xhosa, Zulu, Sestwana, Sesotho and Afrikaans. They have been printed and distributed to millions of people throughout South Africa. The information is simple, clear and presented in a personal and friendly way. CMT really deserve a prize for their work.

So today I had two thoughts. Firstly, CMT has spent many worthwhile hours getting these brochures right, and the result is that millions of people have been helped by getting essential information to improve their health. Secondly, I commend the machine operators at the printers who print through the night to achieve our deadlines, using their skills to produce amazing, high quality work and as I experienced last night, remain cheerful and personable!

Printers sheet from Creda for colour check. It was important for us to ensure that the colours of this print run was the same as the last one.

An amazing brochure series informing people about HIV, TB, ARVs, STIs and PMTCT by Community Media Trust

A review of the work of SECTION27

Roughly two years ago we developed the logo for SECTION27, a public interest law centre that uses and develops the law to advance human rights in South Africa (previously known as the Aids Law Project). We were delighted when they asked us to design and produce their first Review Document.

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Silent auction at the Book Lounge tonight

Picador (an imprint under Pan Macmillan Publishing Company) are hosting 40 parties around the world to celebrate 40 years of publishing. One of the parties is at a favourite bookstore of ours. The Book Lounge on Roeland Street. To celebrate this milestone, Picador are re-issuing 12 of their classic fiction titles with beautifully redesigned black and white covers. The Book Lounge has asked local illustrators, including us at Design for development, to donate for auction, black and white drawings to celebrate the beauty of the printed book. Continue reading »

Equal Treatment – Fix the patent laws

The latest edition of Equal Treatment is on patents, South African patent laws and how it affect the cost of medicines. There is an easy guide explaining what medicine patents are, and how they work. It also explains how our outdated patent laws in South Africa should change to allow continued access to affordable, essential medicines like antiretrovirals or cancer drugs.

We were very happy to hear that we won the tender to design and print Equal Treatment for the next two years! Working on Equal Treatment has been an amazing and rewarding experience. We feel very lucky to work with such a great editorial team and organisation. Thank you! Continue reading »

Pocketsize maps to help find health services

TAC produced 6 handy, pocketsize maps for each of their districts. These maps will help people find clinics and hospitals in their neighbourhood. The maps are of Khayelithsa, Lusikisiki area, Ermelo, Katlehong, Tzaneen area and Pietermaritzburg.

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Visit Colour Africa at the Design Indaba Expo

The Design Indaba Expo  is in full swing! Hope you have plans to go down to the convention center this weekend. It is brimming with creativity and talent: graphic design, furniture, fashion, jewelery… You will not be disappointed. While you are there, visit our Colour Africa stall! It will be great to see you. Here are some pics we took this morning.

Morag

Morag of Skinscapes is more a friend than a colleague to Design for Development, we all admire her creativity and beautiful work. When we gave her our usual questions we give to people she said she could not answer them but would like to tell her story. It is longer than our usual pieces but its worth a read. Thank you Morag. This is what she said:

I admire the work of Kentridge, Faith 47 and Guy Tillim, Michael Bloch, Jinx and Sika. My inspirations are as nebulous and wide ranging as patterns on the beach sand and 19^th century botanical etchings. I have made things with my hands as long as I can remember, when I’m not working I’m outdoors, soaking up the elements.

When I was young I wanted for a time to be a book illustrator, but life unfurled about me and I stumbled into being a sculptor for many years. In London one frozen winter I shared studio space with a leathersmith. He bought a tattoo machine to embellish the leather and that got me thinking…

Beautiful flower growing over the back masterfully drawn.

Continue reading »

Colour Africa Proverbs is going to the Design Indaba!

We are working hard to get our (Colour Africa Proverbs) stall ready for the Design Indaba Expo (2-4 March 2012)  This is our first stall and we are learning a lot, at every step.  We’re busy designing and implementing the different parts of our stall, trying to make it beautiful without spending a fortune.

We’ve just completed some stuffed characters that we’ll use in our stall. They are a little odd, but we like them!