Happy 2012 everyone

May this new year be filled with energy, inspiration and creativity. Hope you all had a good rest, this is going to be a very busy year.

Here are some photos from our holidays. Enjoy!

Melissa: My friends Vengy and Marvin got married over December in Polokwane. I had the pleasure of taking photos of the intimate moments between her and her sister before the wedding.

Continue reading »

Emily Booth’s BreathEasy project

Design for development visited the CPUT Faculty of Informatics and Design Exhibition: GENERATING DESIGN 2011 last Friday. We had the privilege of hosting Emily Booth, fourth year graphic design student, for her two week internship earlier this year. It was a pleasure working with her, learning about her project and giving advice along the way. So we were very excited to go and see the completed project.

The fourth year students get to choose one project that they work on for the whole year. Emily chose to create material for the BreathEasy programme who support families with children who have tracheostomies. She has been closely involved with the BreathEasy Foundation as it was her mother who helped established it. It has clearly been a labour of love.

Presents from IsaBeauPeep

Thank you IsaBeauPeep for the wonderful presents we received today! Beautifully crocheted clutch bags with soft inner lining in wonderful colours!

For those who don’t know, IsaBeauPeep has emerged this year as an avid yarn bomber, leaving her mark in public paces all over Cape Town, from street poles to beacons on the top of Table Mountain.

IsaBeau’s crafts give hand-made craft and crochet a modern twist. She has taken the art of crochet out of the typical realms of ‘grannie’s rocking in their chairs in front of the fire’ to current day street art and products. Visit her blog, for inspiration on beautifully hand-made objects from all around the world.

We look forward to seeing the new project she is working on at the moment which will take her craft to more people!

World Aids Day 2011

Today is World Aids Day! All over the world people are assessing and strategising responses to the HIV pandemic. In South Africa we can celebrate with many HIV positive people who have access to antiretroviral therapy through our health system. But there is still lots of work to do… Today is also the launch of  South Africa’s new five year National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, STIs and TB. Continue reading »

Key populations, Key solutions.

We recently designed a very important report for the Desmond Tutu HIV foundation called Key Populations, Key solutions – A gap analysis and recommendations for key populations and HIV in South Africa.  Men who have sex with men, sex workers, injecting drug users, prisoners, migrants and transgender people fall under these ‘key populations’. They exist in every region, country and most communities. Continue reading »

A facilitators guide for STEPS

We were asked by STEPS to redesign a facilitators guide for a very interesting film. STEPS is a non-profit film company who uses film as a tool to raise awareness and campaign a wide variety of issues. This film is part of a project called ‘STEPS for the future‘: a challenging, provocative, and unconventional collection of films about life in Southern Africa in the presence of HIV/AID’.

The film called Three and a half lives of Philip Wetu, and is an interactive drama which at various points allows the audience to choose what actions the main character will take. Almost like a ‘choose your own adventure’ book. Philip is a young IT professional who has a loyal long-term partner, and a few lovers on the side. The film is meant to used as a training tool and shows the consequences of Philips decisions, made by the audience: should he tell his partner he is cheating on her; should he have unprotected sex or insist on using a condom; should he go for an HIV test. Continue reading »

Roulé le Roux – a talented creative and diverse illustrator

Roulé describes herself: I am a graphic designer and illustrator and I love drawing with black ink. I enjoy creating repeating patterns for textile printing, as well as lino-cutting. Any form of image making interests me, from using embroidery to ‘draw’ a face to drawing with a stick dipped in ink.

Continue reading »

Marica and Jon’s illustrated wedding invite

My sister, Marica and her fiance, Jon are getting married in March next year, and they asked me to create their wedding invite.

We had long skype calls (she lives in Canterbury) about how the invite should look. After many discussions about waterblommetjies, proteas and Yorkshire roses, we decided to go for something more personal. A story of how they met was a great starting point. But of course it had to be written as a poem. And they had to write it! (I think they learned some conflict handling skills in the process)

Continue reading »

A logo for NAALD

Rick de Satge from Phuhlisani Solutions asked Design for development to develop a logo for a brand new organisation called NAALD. NAALD is a non-profit organisation which aims to improve the working and living conditions of farm workers and seasonal migrants, secure the livelihoods of small holder farmers and commonage users, assist members of agricultural share equity schemes and partnerships and provide development support to communities involved in rural development programmes.

The name NAALD is an acronym for Neighbourhood Alliances Advancing Local Development. ‘Naald’ is also the Afrikaans word for needle and explains the concept very nicely: it wants to connect people with the resources they need to better their lives. They will “work like a needle which threads together people and organisations to plan and support… development initiatives”.  For now NAALD will operate in the Cape Winelands. You can read more about their projects on their blog.

The logo was quite simple, and quite hard at the same time. NAALD won’t only be working with farm workers, but also with government officials and corporates. So it had to speak clearly to a very wide variety of people. We wanted it to look like an active organisation and not a needlework group. And we wanted it to appeal to men and women alike. We asked Isabeau Joubert to collaborate with us to conceptualise the logo. Together Isabeau, Roulé and I gave them a couple of strong options: Continue reading »

A handmade gift for a special friend

December last year, Isabeau Joubert taught Melissa, Amber and I how to crochet. At the start I thought crocheting cannot be that difficult. So many women have mastered it through the ages. And I have seen many crocheting while having a conversation or watching television… Then I discovered that I have two left hands and I just cannot seem to get the tension right. Isabeau had to explain again and again, and it got more difficult with every sip of wine. We spend more than an hour doing the first few stiches!

A slow start, from left to right: Amber, Roulé, Isabeau and Melissa (photo: Isabeupeep.com)

Continue reading »