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Marisa Fick-Jordaan, The Bat Centre
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I've been involved with strategy planning for DAC so absolutely. I'm aware of the bigger strategy of growing the industry and the Expo certainly helped - until now it's been ideas on paper. It was so exciting to see all the sectors together; everyone generally beavers along in their own sector and this gave us all the opportunity to interface.
Describe your business.
We've tried to create original product by repositioning handmade African product to fit into contemporary design. We're involved in training, designing and marketing products.
What are your aims?
To continuously update homegrown product. To maintain quality, improve production capacity and modernise without losing the essence.
How did the Expo benefit your business?
Oh, on many levels. It was a fantastic opportunity to network with the various sectors and the market linkages were also very good - picking up new clients like Nicole Farhi and a Canadian importer. The response from the public, which is another audience altogether, was fantastic - how proud and excited they were - seeing them link film to fashion to craft and having so much fun while they're at it. It's helped to create awareness and to create a market internally. The public is important and the Expo is helping them to understand value-adding. It showed a new idea of what is African, and it made me excited to be here.
Highlights?
The Exhibitor Indaba was such a treat. I loved the informality and intimacy, the speakers were excellent and I left with a lot.
Hedwig Barry, Barry and Bester
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
Yes, as cultural practitioners it's a priority. What inspired us to participate was your presentation on creating an industry that we're able to export so we no longer rely on international imports.
Describe your business.
We specialise in independent collaborations across media in the cultural and creative sectors.
What are your aims?
To develop and implement projects that challenge boundaries and expectations.
How did the Expo benefit your business?
We sold out! It opened up a position and a new direction because, although we use design, we don't participate overtly in the sector and we were able to at the Expo. It was a place where a company like ours, that is trying to sustain the creative industry broadly, made sense. Our understanding of the creative industry deepened. It was growing the homegrown, which we are.
Highlights?
Meeting so many fantastic, like-minded South African creative forces. I enjoyed the public response, which was so varied. The interaction with internationals and their genuine positive response was very satisfying, and promises to lead to some very interesting collaborations.
Philippa Green, Philippa Green Jewellery
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
Yes. I've always fed off other creative people, it's been the people around me who've inspired me. Having them all in one place, seeing what is here, what we have to offer, was a powerful experience and affirmation.
Describe your business.
I'm a contemporary jewellery designer.
What are your aims?
To carry on creating beautiful things, to be able to support myself and to keep loving what I do. Three people leave my studio every day who are learning a trade and that's very satisfying - being able to teach and to contribute to someone else's prosperity.
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
Financially and creatively. Listening to influential global creatives at the Exhibitor Indaba was incredibly inspiring. The fact that I sold so much to the internationals and locals was really affirming. Expo created a new market beyond fashion for me too - people who recognised the design aspect, the craft and the concept behind the product. On the commercial side, Nicole Farhi has been in touch with me and the possibility of supplying to her stores is an incredible compliment.
Highlights?
My communication with Vince Frost has been awesome as is the fact that he wants to feature my work in Zembla.
Roche Dry, Egg Designs
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
We hadn't been a part of a show that puts all the sectors together as an industry. It was exciting to meet South African creatives behind the work that we admire and to be among like-minded people.
Describe your business.
Egg Designs is an environmental design business. We design a lot of the pieces we use in our projects. We focus on our African energy and get it out into the international arena.
What are your aims?
To carry on at a national level and keep growing into the international arena. We'd like to get people to notice the value of design.
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
It was good marketing and we've had a number of enquiries commercially. We networked with the internationals and it was good to have that recognition and validation from people who are prolific, as being appreciated and understood is invigorating and motivating.
Highlights?
The Exhibitor Indaba. Seeing the DTI looking for a way to deal with the issue of design and to understand it better. Connecting with the international guests.
Jennifer Fair, Africa Fair
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
When I moved out of venture capital and into the creative space, I researched the industry extensively. Expo is a brilliant showcase for it - if I'd had that when I was starting out it would have saved me a lot of time.
Describe your business.
Africa Fair was created to market local designers' work internationally. We've begun by focusing on fashion accessories designers. We play a role in the value chain - design is one part - focusing on branding and marketing, the logistics of export and managing relationships.
What are your aims?
To take a brilliant design concept and deliver it to the market. We also bring feedback from the market to local designers.
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
Expo gave us great exposure to the local market and attracted other suppliers. I've also been approached by people who want to bring Africa Fair into new international markets. We had fantastic sales and great business development benefits. It's definitely opened doors. It was fantastic for my supplier relationships too - they learnt so much about how I work for them.
Highlights?
The whole thing! Lucia van der Post and Jeffrey Miller's presentations and the discussion afterwards. It was great to hear foreigners being excited by what we have and to receive their encouragement and recognition.
Colleen Eitzen, Colleen Eitzen
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I have these people around me all the time, but I haven't seen them together in this way. Expo provided an important and valuable opportunity to go beyond the fashion arena and to access other designers.
Describe your business.
I'm a Durban-based fashion designer supplying to three specialist stores.
What are your aims?
To make good clothing that people can keep, bring beauty into the world, maintain a sense of humour, and be real and passionate. I love crafting so I want to keep fiddling with fabric.
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
I liked the realness and practicality of it and the experience of being in an auditorium with people who are brave and push me. There weren't any crutches. Instead of visualizing my collection, I had to do it and show it in a very real format. It wasn't a couture range, it had to work, so I can now use the pieces in my business. I have a shrine of ranges and Expo made me break the umbilical cord, change my approach to shows and bring a very real show - not the fanfare and sculpting I usually do - to Cape Town. The business wasn't benefiting from that. I had to come back to myself and make real clothes.
Highlights?
The Exhibitor Indaba. Instead of just showing, we learnt.
Karen Roos, South
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I'm always looking for unchartered territory, so yes. For my book South, I had to discover new, fresh images and they're generally found in cross pollination. It was wonderful to see what is emerging taken a step further; the Expo gave it a clearer, more concrete space.
Describe your business.
Communicating unchartered areas through books as a means of celebrating what is happening here in an informative, entertaining and inspiring way.
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
The Expo motivated me to go on with what I'm doing. I work in isolation as an outsider observing, so to be able to have people come to the stand and touch the book, to see their response - it was frightening but great to get that feedback. The Expo was an interaction beyond observing and communicating. The ripple of people getting to know about my product, getting publicity in areas I wouldn't have had - through Nicole Farhi and Jeffrey Miller who have or advise shops and are influential, for example, felt good.
Highlights?
It was exciting to be part of something young and new and dynamic.
Heath Nash, Heath Nash
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
No I hadn't and that's what I loved about the Expo, it created a spirit of togetherness.
Describe your business.
I design and manufacture lamps and a series of other paper giftware and commercial items.
What are your aims?
To open a factory and stop doing the slog work!
How did Design Indaba Expo benefit your business?
It was really good exposure. I'm still following up on contacts and orders. It's been profitable, has initiated a new range of clients and retailers, and opened up my market throughout the country. I was really concerned going in as it was a risk for someone of my size but it was necessary to grow the business and I have.
Highlights?
I loved the Exhibitor Indaba, it was fascinating and such a great forum for us to bare our feelings about what we need to do to make this industry work.
Brendon Bell Roberts, Bell Roberts
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I think about it all the time but it's always seemed disjointed, there's not enough crossover. The Expo brought it together and I was able to picture the industry as a whole.
Describe your business.
We operate within the art and creative sector. We have a gallery, run design and creative and publish. It's about taking a product and formalising it in a published package, making art a product so artists can take their work beyond their fine art and survive.
What are your aims?
To, through publishing and exhibitions, take South African art and design international.
How did the Expo benefit your business?
It put us in a place where people can put a picture to the name. We made great contacts and had huge and constant sales - really beyond all expectations.
Highlights?
The whole thing - it was consistently positive.
Themba Mngomezulu, Darkie
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I did, but I don't generally have the opportunity to see how the other industries function and how we can help each other.
Describe your business.
I collect vintage clothing from around the country and create contemporary clothes out of it; it's like collecting the past to create the future.
What are your aims?
To show that we can achieve anything we set our minds to. I'd like to expand my business into furniture, hire people and open a new store.
How did the Expo benefit your business?
I loved showcasing a new view of being African (without beads necessarily) to the local industry beyond fashion. I loved the fact that the public was at the shows, there's no politics and they're not working but enjoying, and learning. Quite a few people, who aren't fashion people, are asking for my clothes as a result. Shows generally access media and they're not there to buy.
Highlight?
The short films, they were beautiful.
Boyd Ferguson, Cecile and Boyd
Did you consider the creative industry as a whole before this?
I haven't seen everyone together standing strong for growing South African design before. It was powerful. It gave me a perspective beyond my own specialised perception of the design world and made me aware of what others are doing. A showcase of the best was uplifting, the general rule is pockets of brilliance which is depressing overall. There was a strong sense at Expo that things were progressing.
Describe your business.
Architectural concept, interior design and decoration with a large retail component in the homeware sector.
What are your aims?
To do interesting, meaningful work in a South African context and to evolve the local design culture.
How did the Expo benefit your business?
We made interesting connections - the DTI wants us to do Rooms on View for them, which is fantastic, and a top-end New Zealand hotelier has approached us as a result. I really enjoyed the human aspect of being with passionate designers; it enthused and regenerated me.
Highlights?
Interesting discussions with the fellow exhibitors on the floor and I loved the Exhibitor Indaba too.
