An eye-catching multimedia display created by the CPUT Faculty of Informatics and Design, under the creative direction of Roxanne Spears, was named Most Creative Stand at the 2009 Design Indaba.
The award was announced at the Design Indaba’s official opening on 26 February 2009.
The announcement marked the first time Most Creative Stand has been won by an educational institution.
The Design Indaba, held annually at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, is an internationally acclaimed gathering of design talent. It features a three day conference in which delegates are exposed to some of the world’s leading creative achievers, as well as a public exhibition of work from a variety of design disciplines.
Although Faculty of Informatics and Design lecturers and students are regular visitors to the annual Indaba, 2009 is the first year that the Faculty held a stand at the exhibition.
All aspects of the stand were designed and built at the University itself. The structure was put together by Industrial Design Lecturer Daryn Molenaar and was illustrated by Simon Berndt, Justin Poulter and Lauren Fowler with dynamic life-sized portraits of ‘hero’ students.
The heads of the portraits featured windows onto screens, donated by Digicape, displaying stop-motion animation films of the hero students’ best work.
Spears defined a hero student as someone who comes out of the Faculty and makes a mark. In other words, a student whose work has already won acclaim in the design industry and whose work shows that he or she is already at the cutting edge of design trends.
She selected the hero students by viewing portfolios from the Faculty’s various departments and by selecting the students who, while not necessarily the top mark scorers, represented a standard of work to which the learners visiting the expo would aspire.
The illustrations were created in a similar style to the promotional visuals for last year’s Headspace student exhibition. Spears explained that the Headspace concept had been very well received and that she wanted to produce a Design Indaba display that would build on that success.
The stop-motion films integrated into the stand not only provided a showcase of the variety of design disciplines offered at CPUT, but also added a YouTube-like element that made the stand popular with its secondary school learner market.
Spears noted that in addition to presenting the Faculty as an exciting place to for a new student to work and study, the display also demonstrated its commitment to postgraduate education and reinforced its industry alignment.
“It establishes us in line with the best of the best in the design industry,” she said.
The Indaba’s panel of judges consisted of Stefania Johnson of New Media Publishing, Gerard Back of Mila, Lauren Shantall of Elle Décor magazine and Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, Deputy Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership. Their aim was to select the stand that demonstrated the most eye-catching originality and clever use of design.
Other finalists for the Most Creative Stand Award included the Cape Craft and Design Institute, fashion house Stoned Cherry, design consultancy Animal Farm and furniture studio Casamento.
As the winners, the CPUT team received a trophy designed by Carrol Boyes.
The award-winning stand is to be placed on display at the Roeland Street Campus.
By Ilana Abratt
Photo: (clockwise) The CPUT team is presented with their award at the Design Indaba opening; Roxanne Spears, Creative Director for the stand; detail from an illustration on one of the stand’s panels; self-portraits by Simon Berndt and Justin Poulter.
Published online: 11/03/2009
Written by CPUT News
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