Cape Town will get its annual hit of design passion next week when Design Indaba comes to town: here's why you should care.
This time next week, some of the world's top design minds will be descending on sunny Cape Town to share their wisdom and inspiration at South Africa's annual design extravaganza, Design Indaba.
As ever, the wonderfully eclectic line-up embraces creativity in all its forms – from graphic design and branding right through to fashion, product design, architecture and much more.
We'll be bringing you loads of great content direct from the event, plus you'll find exclusive interviews and in-depth analysis of the trends you need to know in issue 239 of Computer Arts magazine, on sale 31 March. And, speaking of Computer Arts...
Don't miss our incredible subs offer for non-UK readers: get 10 issues of Computer Arts magazine FREE with a two-year subscription! Click here to take advantage of this exclusive limited-time-only offer, which runs from now until the end of Design Indaba.
Now, to whet your appetite, here are three great reasons why you should be excited about Design Indaba 2015...
We're massively excited that the man who put the Wieden in Wieden+Kennedy, Dan Wieden, will be joining us in Cape Town and we'll be sure to pass on the wisdom of his three decades of adland experience to you.
Wieden and his creative partner David Kennedy founded W+K in 1982 with one client: an upstart sneaker company run by Phil Knight, who "didn't believe in advertising" – and their fledgling agency grew in tandem with that client, which with their help became the biggest sports brand in the world: Nike.
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Still proudly independent despite a network of offices in Portland, NYC, London, Amsterdam, Delhi, Shanghai, Tokyo and São Paulo, W+K has added a stable of similarly mighty global brands to its client list, with genre-defining work for Coca-Cola and Honda in particular.
Design Indaba has a long history of fruitful partnership with the world's most famous design agency, with Pentagram partner Michael Bierut a regular compere at the event.
This year, New York-based partner Emily Oberman will be joining the line-up too. A proudly multi-disciplinary designer with a penchant for adding a twist of humour to her work, Oberman works across branding, editorial, packaging, advertising, web and motion, with the opening credits for Saturday Night Live on her showreel.
She started her distinguished career with the legendary Timor Kalman at M&Co, and was the original designer on Benetton's acclaimed Colors magazine. She co-founded her own studio, Number Seventeen, in 1993 and ran it for 17 years before joining Pentagram in 2012.
Having served at creative-in-chief at three very different, but no less market-leading brands in his time – Nike, Lego, and Starbucks – Stanley Hainsworth will provide a fascinating insight into what makes them tick at Design Indaba.
As creative director at Lego in Denmark, Hainsworth oversaw a visual overhaul of the brand; at Starbucks, he was VP of global creative at a pivotal point in the brand's development into a global icon; at Nike, his influence stretched across everything from Olympics sponsorship to the birth of Nike Entertainment.
Hainsworth has brought his years of top-level experience to his own cross-disciplinary studio, Tether, founded in 2008.
Computer Arts magazine has teamed up with Design Indaba to offer all our overseas readers an incredible 10 free issues of Computer Arts magazine with a two-year subscription.
Simply sign up here before the end of the conference to take advantage of this exclusive offer.
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Nick is a content strategist and copywriter. He has worked with world-class agencies including Superunion, Wolff Olins and Vault49 on brand storytelling, tone of voice and verbal strategy for global brands such as Virgin, Pepsi and TikTok. Nick launched the Brand Impact Awards in 2013 while editor of Computer Arts, and remains chair of judges. He's written for Creative Bloq on design and branding matters since the site's launch.