The Design Indaba

During their talk at the 25th edition of @designindaba Conference, Shanghai-based architects and designers @neriandhu delivered a thoughtful presentation on how contemporary design can engage deeply with history, context, and cultural identity. Founders Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu argued that architecture should do more than solve functional problems, it should tell stories about place, memory and the complexities of modern life. A central theme of the talk is the tension between rapid urban development and cultural continuity, particularly in Asian cities where historic neighbourhoods are often erased in the pursuit of modernity. @neriandhu advocate for a critical approach that preserves cultural narratives while accommodating contemporary needs. Their work frequently reinterprets traditional forms, materials and spatial concepts in unexpected ways. This process, they explained, is less about nostalgia and more about continuity, allowing buildings to carry traces of what came before. Their work demonstrates that meaningful architecture transforms legacy and history it into a living framework for contemporary life and design. Visit designindaba.com to watch their full talk #ContemporaryDesign, #UrbanDevelopment, #DesignIndaba, #AsianArchitecture #NeriAndHu, #ModernArchitecture, #CulturalIdentity,

Today we launch the rolling out of the 25th edition of the Design Indaba Conference talks, with Ghananian chef Selasie Atadika. Atadika delivered a powerful talk expressing culinary arts and food as a form of design, cultural preservation and political agency. Inspired by her past experience in international affairs which led to her work at UNICEF, she propositioned that what societies eat shapes health systems, economies and environmental outcomes making cuisine a critical but often overlooked infrastructure. Atadika draws attention to Africa’s heavy reliance on imported staples, a dependency that undermines local agriculture and food sovereignty. The chef advocates for a renewed investment in indigenous crops and traditional knowledge, noting that many African food practices which include plant-based ingredients zero-waste cooking, fermentation and the use of climate-resilient grains predate contemporary global wellness trends. Central to Chef Atadika’s message is concern over the rapid loss of culinary heritage due to urbanisation, industrial agriculture and generational disconnect. The erosion, she argued, threatens biodiversity, nutrition and Africa’s cultural identities. However, rather than advocating nostalgia, Atadika proposes a new paradigm “New African Cuisine”, a concept that evolves while remaining rooted in indigenous knowledge. In a multisensory element of her talk, she embodied this concept by taking audience members through a tasting journey of African ingredients. Atadika’s talk expresses how food can be used as a connection between people to their land, history and one community, as well as a pathway toward a sustainable African future rooted in dignity, resilience, and self-determination across the continent. Watch @satadika's full talk at the @designindaba Conference here designindaba.com/articles/confe… #AfricanCuisine #DesignIndaba #SustainableFood #IndigenousCrops #FoodSovereignty #NewAfricanCuisine #ZeroWasteCooking #CulturalPreservation

Sakhile Cebekhulu is a Johannesburg-based visual artist and clothing designer whose brand Sash South Africa provides a vision of his vivid and explorative imagination. “My ethos is to tell authentic and real South African stories using clothing and product. An expression of oneself, a reflection of contemporary South Africa is what Sash represents," he says. The designer’s work is a cross between visual art and fashion design. He often uses the prints he develops for his fashion lines as inspiration for his mixed media artworks and vice-versa. Having started out as a visual artist, Cebekhulu says his background has allowed him to develop his unique prints. We caught up with Cebekhulu in downtown Johannesburg, where his studio has a subdued calmness in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the outside streets. Cebekhulu’s current collection Bantu Space Odyssey was inspired by South African musician, Muzi, who released a song by the same name. “I thought it would be interesting to create a range inspired by an actual song and the title of a song,” says Cebekhulu. Bantu Space Odyssey is a fictional story set in the year 2067. The story follows Bekindlela Mkhonza, an African space traveller who was sent by African people to save the universe. The actual designs are described as the official gear for the nation's hero, Bantu, and is protective gear in muted tones with a completely modern and stylish take. Design Indaba first came across Cebekhulu’s work in 2018 when he was chosen to exhibit his designs at the @designindaba Conference as part of the Emerging Creatives programme. According to Cebekhulu, the programme was a stepping stone in his career. “Design Indaba has always been a prestigious thing for me that I’ve always known about. It has been very beneficial for me to be part of this programme, and I would advise any person in the creative industry to enter,” says Cebekhulu. Since being on the programme, the designer has worked with fashion giants such as Levi and GQ. #SouthAfricanFashion #VisualArt #FashionDesign #AfricanDesign #EmergingCreatives

We met up with visual artist and Design Indaba Emerging Creative alumna, Neo Mahlangu aka @NeneMahlangu as she exhibited her work at 100 % Design in Johannesburg. @NeneMahlangu’s work is simple in its execution, yet it there is so much more to it than that which is seen at first glance. We caught up with the artist at 100% Design in Johannesburg where she was exhibiting not only her drawings, but her highly profiled project with South African Mint. Mahlangu was approached by South Africa Mint, the company that mints all rand coins, earlier this year to design brand new coins. It forms part of a collection of newly released R2 and R5 coins which showcase different aspects of South Africa's constitutional democracy, as part of the country's 25th anniversary of democracy. Other artists involved are Lady Skollie and Pretoria-born Maaike Bakke. Mahlangu was asked to think about things that are specially important in this country. This led to the artist designing two new Two-rand coins which featured themes surrounding education and children’s rights. The children's right coin is one that challenged her, reveals Mahlangu, but in the end, she went for expression of feelings as a key focus. “I just chose an age range and chose expressions that captured joy and laughter,” she says. The second coin focused on the right to education. In this, she looked at her own experiences as a scholar, and chose graduation caps to symbolise that. “This thing is full circle. Whether you are in Grade R or doing your PhD you are always in that cap,” she explains. You will see in Mahlangu’s work that the design of the coin was nothing new to her as she always focuses on using facial expressions to tell a story, and to showcase human interaction. “I obsess about human connections and about how people interact with each other,” she explains. We first met Mahlangu is 2018 where she was part of the @designindaba Emerging Creatives programme . @NeneMahlangu revealed that she’s most appreciative for the workshop opportunity that came with being a part of the programme. This was hosted by industry professionals and former Emerging Creatives who have made a name for themselves. “It taught me how to become a creative entrepreneur. What I learnt from this was that I’m more than my work. I can be a great designer, artist and illustrator, but if I only concentrate on that, then it will be a handicap to my business,” she explains. #DesignIndaba #VisualArt #EmergingCreative #CreativeEntrepreneur #CoinDesign

Lukhanyo Mdingi on the defining characteristics of his eponymous label “Luxury, essentially, is time. Using the spirit of time in the best way, in order to create quality items.” When @lukhanyo_mdingi graduated from fashion school he knew that he wanted to find a space where he could dive into his craft and creativity and figure out how to take his fashion label to the next level. Mdingi found himself on the @designindaba exhibition floor as part of the Design Indaba Emerging Creatives Class of 2015. Being part of the programme helped him solidify his dreams of becoming a major fashion brand one day. Four years later, the former Design Indaba Emerging Creative has showcased his work on some of the world’s largest stages. His pieces have graced the runways of New York Fashion Week, the British Fashion Council International Showcase, South African Men’s Fashion Week as well as the Pitti Immagine Uomo: Generation Africa stage. We sat down with Mdingi to find out how his brand embodies timeless luxury and class. His designs are made from premium raw materials, such as Angora Kid Mohair, merino wool and silk. For Mdingi using these fabrics and materials allows for a stronger, more solid design. “These are raw materials that are premium. We tend to focus on the finishing and making sure that our consumers use it in a really respectful way,” says the designer. The rich textures and colours of his designs is what sets his label apart from all the rest. It is obvious in the finer details that the pieces were created with a love and devotion to all things luxurious and glamorous. Throughout his various collections over the years the notion of timelessness and absolute quality was the common thread. “I think having that thread from each collection is something that’s really important to us. The sensuality, the elegance, the refinement and discretion. Those are the key notes that have been part of our core since day one,” says Mdingi. #LukhanyoMdingi #TimelessStyle #FashionDesign #SustainableLuxury #SouthAfricanFashion

A designer walks into a desert… It’s a lame joke format, but this is how @Markus_Kayser's talk kicked off at the @designindaba Conference Working at the intersection of design, technology and biology, Kayser shared what seemed like the endless possibilities that can be achieved with more experimentation within those spaces. The desert was the site of his first such experiment, Sun cutter. The machine he created consisted of one small solar cell and would laser cut using the sun’s direct energy. The result was plywood sunglasses shaped by the machine. “Then it was not really about changing manufacturing for the better, but rather a naive search for the vitamin I was lacking in cloudy London,” said @Markus_Kayser of his sun-drenched experiment. But while the desert may seem like the last place to test for prototypes, given its vast barrenness, he views it in the contrary. “All this emptiness was abundance - it was rich in energy but also material,” referring to the sun and sand. Empowered with this new knowledge and proof of the potential of the desert, Kayser embarked on another project there. Solar Sinter built on the initial ideas of Sun cutter, by exploring a pure production process using only the resources available in the desert. With the translator as the heart of the project, it doesn’t need anything but its immediate environment to produce glass objects. Sand and sunlight are the inputs, while 3D printed glass objects are the outputs. In a show of the new territory Kayser had unlocked with this project, Kayser says, “Solar Sinter was a vehicle to transcend my idea beyond my own imagination,” sharing that this possibility opened up questions like, ‘can you build houses? Can you build on the moon?’ His work soon caught the attention of Neri Oxman and the team at MIT’s Mediated Matter Group, who themselves are at the forefront of research in the potential of biology and digital fabrication processes. @Markus_Kayser’s inaugural research here investigated the biological processes of silk worms particularly the way they spin cocoons, and how this could be translated into technology. Called Silk Pavilion, the project is a collaboration between biology and technology, with an emphasis on involving the biological process into the fabrication, rather than mimicking it. “Nature is the input, output and compiler, merely being guided by subtle technology for a desired output,” he explains. Fiberbots was the culmination of Kayser’s PhD research. It’s a multi-aging robotic fabrication that builds and climbs its own structure. Put simpler, picture architectural-scale worms building themselves into existence all the way up. He says the project is a small stepping stone within a larger dream that sees the world adopting a new kind of architecture. “I believe that when we tackle new approaches to architecture such as swarm construction, we should not try to recreate the existing ways of building, such as stacking bricks. But I also aim for a new kind of architecture that reflects the methods that gave birth to it, and hopefully be surprised by the outcomes that we couldn’t really think of before.” With the bots controlled by WiFi and reaching a height of 4.5 metres using 16 robots in a mere 48 hours, indeed the possibilities do seem endless. Kayser’s experimentation demonstrates a clear theme of working together with the environment to imagine novel, sustainable solutions. It’s a very necessary - urgent, even - requirement to future-proof existing practices and means of production. “Ultimately, i imagine a future where the design of a building is largely influenced by the environment that it is placed on,” he says. He concludes with an appeal to designers to effect change: “The promise of design is to inspire industry to follow suit in the quest for better methods to produce using solar energy and abundant resources.” Watch @Markus_Kayser's full @designindaba talk here: designindaba.com/articles/confe… #SustainableDesign #SolarEnergy #BioDesign #3DPrinting #ArchitectureTech #FutureOfDesign #EcoInnovation

We caught up with graphic designer Thulisizwe Mamba to discuss what he has been up to since being part of the 2015 Design Indaba Emerging Creatives programme. Johannesburg-based graphic designer Thulisizwe Mamba says that being self-employed has given him confidence as a designer. Since starting his business, The Board Associates, the designer says he's had to learn about balancing his creative work with other aspects that come with running your own business. “Most of the time I’m reaching out to new clients, updating my work, doing invoices and reaching out to new suppliers,” he explains. Mamba has come a long way since he started doing passion projects in high school for a local band he was a part of. The graphic designer first came onto our radar in 2015 when he was chosen as a Design Indaba Emerging Creative. That year he went onto to exhibit his work at the conference alongside fashion designers like @therichmnisi and @lukhanyo_mdingi. “It was an amazing experience. I got to meet people I look up to, potential clients and just the skill of how much is out there that you don’t know. If it wasn't for @designindaba I would not be running my stuff or doing what I’m doing now,” he says. The Emerging Creatives programme was created in association with the Department of Arts and Culture as a stepping stone for up-and-coming creatives in fashion, architecture, photography and many other sectors. #GraphicDesign #EmergingCreatives #DesignIndaba #JohannesburgDesign #SouthAfricanDesign #CreativeEntrepreneur

“Designing shows that there’s so many possibilities because there is no one truth. There is power in not knowing.” Lucas De Man The actor, playwright and theatre director @LucasDeMan1 graced the Design Indaba stage not only as an MC, but to also deliver a rousing talk on creativity. He took the audience on a humour-filled journey of his various projects and installations around the world. Professionally trained as a theatre-maker, De Man was very clear in his description of himself: “When people ask me what I am, I always say I am a creator… It means I professionally create…that means I create and somebody pays me for it…sometimes…hopefully”. His company New Heroes focuses on art projects and urban actions that aim to foster social cohesion. Speaking about the way he and his team works, he says: “we always have the same work method. We follow our gut. Our gut tells us we have to do something, or we need to do something, or a client comes to us and asks us to do something. If there’s a gut connection, we say yes or otherwise no..” @LucasDeMan1 echoes all the questions people have thrown at him as to why he does what he does. With emotion in his voice, he says quite simply that it is because “I am a creator…it is in me.” He shared that being a creator is not easy. Among the things that stand in the way of the creator are self-doubt, lack of funds and ruthless critics. He says that no artist, or person is better than the other because no one knows the answer to why we are here, the purpose of life, all of it. He echoes the teachings of the late physicist Stephen Hawking that there is no one truth alongside Descartes’ philosophy that: “I think, therefore I am,” which@LucasDeMan1 says is incorrect. He reckons that what should replace it is “I don’t know therefore I am.” In essence no one knows what they’re doing and therefore anything is possible. “Designing shows that there’s so many possibilities because there is no one truth. There is power in not knowing.” Watch his @designindaba talk here designindaba.com/articles/confe… #DesignIndaba #CreativeJourney #TheatreMaker #ArtAndCulture #SocialCohesion #CreativityUnleashed #ArtisticExpression

As an inventor, Manu Prakash loves building devices that empower frugal science – low-cost, widely accessible and useful for field work. When Prakash took to the @designindaba conference stage, he shared a preview of a low-cost invention that can turn the tide in the struggle against malaria! How do we teach children about science? “Just show them,” he said. “Their natural curiosity and joy will do the rest.” His Foldscope, a lightweight optical microscope that costs less than a dollar to produce, is assembled from an origami-based folding design from a single sheet of paper with integrated lenses and electronics. Manu Prakash is no regular scientist. The physical biologist, who holds a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, as well as a PhD in applied physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is probably best known for his extraordinary inventions, which make ‘doing science’ easier for people all over the globe. Applying his expertise in soft-matter physics to illuminate easy-to-observe and hard-to-explain phenomena in biological and physical contexts, the Indian-born polymath is focused on coming up with solutions to problems that bedevil global health, science education and ecological surveillance. He is keen to democratise the experience of science for all and is particularly driven to assist resource-poor communities. He is also passionate about the diverse life forms on our planet and how they function. Prakash’s projects range from explorations of how shorebirds drink, to how a few drops of food colouring can demonstrate highly complex behavior such as chemotaxis, akin to active living matter. His early training and research focused on ideas of physical computation, with a goal of building new computational engines capable of manipulating not just bits of information but also physical matter. Another recent project is a low-cost, sticker-like microfluidic chip that can collect thousands of nanoliter-volume droplets of saliva from mosquito bites that can be screened for pathogens. Prakash's @designindaba talk will be released soon. #FrugalScience #LowCostInnovation #Foldscope #STEMForKids #ScienceEducation

Vukheta Mukhari is part of a research team that has created the world’s first bio-bricks made of human urine. “Nature’s been building structures for far longer than humans,” he told the audience, during his @designindaba talk, adding that we should harness even waste products, as nature truly knows no waste. A born innovator, Vukheta Mukhari was always going to be at the forefront of human knowledge. The Masters candidate in civil engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT) is passionate about greening the economy, and the ground-breaking project he is currently involved with seeks to develop more eco-friendly building materials, such as bricks. What makes these ‘bio-bricks’ unique is that they are created from human urine. This is a world first – the US also manufactures bio-bricks from urine, but they use synthetic forms of urine to do so. The innovative ‘bio-bricks’ - developed by a team comprising Mukhari and fellow student Suzanne Lambert, working under researcher Dr Dyllon Randall - are produced through a natural process known as microbial carbonate precipitation. Each brick takes just six to eight days to form. With a grant from the Water Research Council, the team is testing various bio-brick shapes and tensile strengths to see how they might be used for construction. Vukheta Mukhari was part of the @designindaba Global Graduates class of 2020. Design Indaba curates the selection of global graduates together with the heads of more than 40 design institutes and colleges (and beyond) around the world. Global Gradautes are selected on the basis of their working being a change-maker, demonstrating social or environmental impact, engagement with global challenges, project feasibility, and/or an exceptionally high level of innovation. #BioBricks #SustainableBuilding #EcoInnovation #GreenEngineering #CircularEconomy #DesignIndaba #UCT

Catalina Lotero is tackling the global energy crisis with a simple, off-the-grid, plant-based solution. Lotero leads design as the creative director at BCG BrightHouse, where her innovative work showcases design's power to address complex societal issues. During her talk at the @designindaba Conference in Cape Town, the Colombian-born American designer, explained the triboelectric effect – contact electrification – which occurs when the leaves of trees rub together. Through her speculative project, Raiki, she is exploring how this form of static electricity can be harnessed to create energy that everyone can use to power their homes, particularly in poorer parts of the world. “Most energy solutions don’t meet poorer communities’ needs – fossil fuels, solar panels, wind turbines,” she says. “People need something easy to understand, use and fix.” Lotero studied industrial design in Bogotá, Colombia, and is currently doing her Masters in design at Keio University in Tokyo, came up with the sustainable solution to solve a pressing problem. One in eight people worldwide does not have access to electricity, with 84% of them living in rural areas. Lotero’s ‘Raiki’ – essentially an autonomous generator – is sure to be a game-changing project. How it works is simple (and complex). When leaves make contact with one another and with the trunk of a tree, they give off friction-generated energy. This can be captured and harvested at the plant’s stem, and potentially be converted into electricity. Synthetic biology (where biology and computer engineering meet) transforms trees into efficient energy sources. One tree could generate around 103kH per hour (via a battery) and this should supply enough power for up to seven houses. Lotero, who was chosen as one of Colombia’s 40 under 40 entrepreneurs in 2018 – thanks to the design firm she co-founded eight years ago, Whatever Works – has previously completed design work for clients as varied as Netflix, the Discovery Channel, Nike, Suzuki, Oxfam and Jack Daniel’s. #SustainableDesign #EnergyInnovation #PlantBasedEnergy #DesignForChange #SocialImpactDesign #CleanEnergySolutions #TriboelectricEffect #DesignIndaba

Global graduate, Sacha Buliard spoke at the 2020 @designindaba Conference about her responsive mat, Unlearn. Buliard first trained as an event designer, scenographer, and product designer at École Boulle in Paris. She then continued her studies in Canada, focusing on event design and scenography at the University of Quebec in Montréal. Unlearn, provides a uniquely somatic experience for users. Roughly the size of a tatami and made of ecological foam, the mat is embossed with a layer of instructions and patterns, and comes with three small objects for use. Upon waking up in the morning, users are encouraged to engage with the mat in order to reorient themselves within their bodies. The mat forms part of a project called ‘Unlearn, partition ouverte vers une conscience corporelle’, which was inspired by Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith’s ‘Contact-Improvisation’ dance technique, created in 1972, where dancers use the physical laws of friction, momentum, gravity and inertia to explore the relationship between bodies and the space around them. These processes are carried over to the experience with the mat – there are four stages users can engage with: ‘to wake’, ‘to balance’, ‘to explore’ and ‘to touch’. The pattern on the mat is a music score from composer John Cage, called ‘Cartridge Music’. Cage distributed these abstract patterns to his musicians, asking them to create music together – in this way, he asked them to get involved in their own music, rather than just follow a classical music score. “The abstract instructions and patterns on the mat are made to create the same type of involvement, but in body consciousness,” @sachabuliard. For Buliard, connecting with the body is an essential skill – one she honed by studying the performing arts, dance and contemporary circus routines. #SomaticExperience, #UnlearnMat, #BodyConsciousness, #EcologicalDesign, #ContemporaryDance, #WellbeingDesign, #QuebecDesign

“Complexity is good – it gives us so much, but it’s hard to understand,” @JakobTrollback Branding powerhouse and Swedish graphic designer Jakob Trollbäck is the creator of the communication language for the Global Goals, or UN Sustainable Development Goals. His chief challenge? Finding a simple, relatable way to convey the global agenda of the UN without boring or depressing end users. The result is a bright, idealistic take on solving the world’s most pressing problems – a meta-crisis, as Trollbäck puts it – using visuals everyone can understand and become invested in. Trollbäck began his artistic career as a DJ in Stockholm in the 1980s and first discovered his interest in design when creating posters and flyers for his music club, Nocturne. In 1991 he moved to New York to work at the creative studio RGA, where he soon became Creative Director. In 1999, he decided to start his own business and set up Trollbäck + Company (@trollback), which specialises in motion and graphics for TV, film and advertising in combination with branding and strategy. The company’s client list is impressive – @Apple , @Google , @Nike , @Spotify , @volvocars , @BBCWorld , @espn , @NBCNews , ands @CBS – and the team has received a slew of creative industry awards over the years, including Primetime Emmy Awards, AICP, Art Directors Club, PromaxBDA, British D&AD, Communication Arts Design Annual, The One Show and Type Directors Club. In 2014, Trollbäck came up with the bright, inspiring, user-friendly communication system for the 17 UN Global Goals, a historic global pact to try to end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change. In 2017, Trollbäck founded The New Division, a sustainability agency that focuses solely on work that promotes new thinking and sustainable values. Based in Stockholm, the agency works with companies, organisations, governments and academia to make complex and important questions easy to understand and act on. #JakobTrollbäck #SustainableDesign #GlobalGoals #DesignForChange #BrandingExpert

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy'. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that you lived at all." ( This quote appears in Leo Rosten's 1978 book of essays titled Passions and Prejudices, specifically in the first chapter, "Credo". )

Sunny Dolat is a fashion curator, cultural producer and creative director who works independently as well as in the Nest Collective @thisisthenest, which he co founded in 2012. @thisisthenest is a multidisciplinary Kenyan squad who use film, fashion, literature, visual arts, events and music to work in in the intersections between aesthetics and communities; blackness/Africanness, feminism and queer theory; as well as design and technology, specifically located in the Kenyan experience. When Sunny Dolat came to @designindaba Conference he impressed in a performative presentation about how film and fashion helped him to come to terms with being a “queer black Indian in Kenya”. He asserted that clothing can be a way of saying “This is who I am today,” which cannot be wrong. “I was taught that beauty is not a frivolous thing, but something healing, spiritual and dignified. Sunny Dolat Sunny has designed interventions such as Stingo & Chico Leco to provoke dialogue on the improvement of the infrastructure and operations of the East African fashion industry, as well as to shift the narrative and expectation of Kenyan fashion beyond ankara, kikoy and kanga. He centres his practice in making unapologetic statements about the beauty and dignity of black skin through works such as When We Are/When We Are Not. Another project he helmed, a fashion book titled "Not African Enough", is a voyage into contemporary Kenyan fashion and exploration of wider issues regarding Africa's place in global cultural debate and dialogues. In it, Sunny challenged narrow definitions of African design and showcased original, unencumbered thinking and practice in this challenging sphere. In recent years, Sunny has been transitioning into more curatorial capacities, most notably, in July 2019, he curated and performed "In Their Finest Robes, The Children Shall Return", an expansive fashion installation and ritual staged on the shores of Sao Tome and Principe for the N'gola Biennale, featuring 56 looks, one form every country on the continent and one from the diaspora. #KenyanFashion #CreativeDirector #FeminismInFashion #FashionCurator

Design meets the future in Estonian Anna Talvi’s ingenious range of microgravity-wear, which has been designed with a Mars mission in mind. @AnnaTalvi was part of the Global Graduates class of 2020. @designindaba curates the selection of global graduates together with the heads of more than 40 design institutes and colleges around the world. Global Gradautes are selected on the basis of their working being a change-maker, demonstrating social or environmental impact, engagement with global challenges, project feasibility, and/or an exceptionally high level of innovation. The Royal College of Art, @RCA, London MA graduate, who has also studied mathematics and physics, combines biomedical engineering and material science to design bodysuits that can keep astronauts safe and healthy living in space for extended periods of time. Talvi’s interdisciplinary project involves working with scientists, doctors, researchers and private companies to solve design challenges, like how to combat bone loss and muscle atrophy in space, as well as keep space travellers fit. Talvi has designed an antagonist exomuscle bodysuit which helps to condition the muscles and bones to remain healthy in zero-gravity. This solution could also help earth-bound patients on bed-rest and those with musculoskeletal conditions in the future. On a practical level, the microgravity clothing has to be comfortable, tailored to the zero-gravity posture and movements, like walking with your hands. Because there are no washing machines in space station, antibacterial base layer membranes are used to extend the garments lifespan. The optimal set of microgravity-wear includes as much and as little as an astronaut needs to sustain in space. Talvi has also designed workout wear (T-shirts and shorts) and daily wear for different purposes, using textiles developed with space travel in mind. The entire range is informed by the enormous changes that human physiology and psychology undergo in a microgravity environment. Visit the link in our bio to watch the full interview and talk #MicrogravityWear #SpaceDesign #AstronautSuit #FutureOfFashion #SustainableDesign #SpaceTravel #DesignIndaba

"It’s a good time to be a creative in Africa', says Addis based creative director Michael Shiferaw @designindaba team caught up with Shiferaw, in his studio, Tirita Designs, in Addis Ababa for this AFRICA.NOW, video series. This video series showcases the untold stories of various African designers, discovered by our team during their expedition across the continent. Ethiopia’s highly diverse population is home to around 80 different ethnic groups. This melting pot of culture, colour, and tradition provides the perfect backdrop to Tirita Design, a graphic design firm that provides digital solutions without drawing on western influences. Creative director, Michael Shiferaw says graphic design studios tend to mimic the trends around the world. But as the industry shifts, more and more designers are looking toward local content. In one project, AddisUnleashed, Shiferaw and two colleagues took photographs of moments in Addis Ababa that are not usually associated with the bustling city. Shiferaw also runs a podcast that embraces African music and young African talent. “In my own way I try to give a different perspective on what people are thinking,” says Shiferaw. “If we concentrate on the positives we’d find a lot of things that could shine.” Visit the link in our bio to watch all the videos in the series. #CreativeAfrica #AddisAbaba #EthiopianDesign #TiritaDesigns #AfricanCreatives #DesignInAfrica #GraphicDesignAfrica #CulturalDiversity #AfricanDesigners

Rwandan designer Matthew "Tayo" Rugamba aka (@Mr_rugamba), tailors his collections for an African audience. Design Indaba team caught up with @Mr_rugamba, in his studio @HouseOfTayo, in Kigali Rwanda for this AFRICA.NOW, video series. This video series showcases the untold stories of various African designers, discovered by our team during their expedition across the continent. @HouseOfTayo draws from innate African sophistication and local craftsmanship to create a line of clothing and accessories with contemporary appeal. Here, the brand’s founder and creative director Matthew 'Tayo' Rugamba discusses how telling African stories through his designs helps him create collections with cultural significance. @Mr_rugamba compares fashion to music as an accessible medium for expressing local heritage and culture. With no training in fashion design, the young Rwandan entrepreneur with an eye for style started marketing his brand on social media platforms before he even released his products. When he launched his first collection, he already had a loyal following and customer base. His collection started out with a range of eclectic bow ties and expanded to include scarves, ties, shirts and suits. @Mr_rugamba identifies @HouseOfTayo as a distinctly African brand and by that he means his designs are “made for people who live on the continent.” He highlights the fact that his clothing is constructed to suit African climates and body types. Visit the link in our bio to watch all the videos in the AFRICA.NOW series #RwandanFashion #AfricanDesigners #HouseOfTayo #CulturalFashion #AfricanStyle #FashionWithPurpose #ContemporaryAfrican #LocalCraftsmanship #TailoredForAfrica #DesignIndaba