Open Design Cape Town | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

There has been little information about what to expect for next year when Cape Town takes over the honour of being World Design Capital (WDC) 2014, from 1 January onwards. The theme for Cape Town is ‘Live Design, Transform Life‘.

An article in Mercedes-Benz magazine provides a short summary of the ten projects chosen by World Design Capital 2014 operating company Cape Town Design NPC CEO Alyne Reesberg. She is a dynamic personality, having worked as a relationship manager at Microsoft previously. She says her vision for the important design year is to ‘make visible and tangible the many life-altering innovations that are being fostered‘ in Cape Town. She also wants to incorporate our continent of Africa into the design discussion, and wants it to continue beyond 2014.

Reesberg believes that Cape Town’s design focus will attract more businesses to the Mother City, to offer employment to locals, and to utilise our city’s infrastructure. She also hopes that tourists will visit next year, to also experience ‘the incredible ingenuity, know-how and capability’, which seem intangibles which will be hard for them to experience! She would like to see the legacy of Cape Town as World Design Capital 2014 as ‘an absolute must-see for people who are interested in how design can improve citizens’ lives‘.

The ten top design projects for 2014, according to Reesberg, are the following: Continue reading →

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* The Open Design Festival Cape Town is running in the City Hall from 21 – 31 August to the theme of ‘Designing for Sharing’, encouraging the design community of Cape Town to share their designs with each other, and to create awareness and the appreciation of all design by all. The Festival is a collaboration by the Cape Craft and Design Institute, the Cape Town Design Network, the Western Cape Furniture Initiative, and the City of Cape Town. “Open Design Cape Town is a grass roots movement concerned with the ways in which design can engage directly with the man on the street” explains Y Tsai, creative director for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town and founder of Tsai Design Studio. “It is also a call to action for the design community to share their creative skills to help solve some of our most pressing social issues.” It serves as an inaugural event for Cape Town being World Design Capital 2014. Sune Stassen, City Hall and education programme manager for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town and founder of Rock City Foundation says, “To be truly open about design means to include, share, educate and empower all who want to participate. Because we are working towards building a more sustainable future, the ability to successfully collaborate and share knowledge becomes some of the key building blocks towards realising this future.” Design sharing can include open studio cocktail parties, film nights, design initiative forums, free lectures at academic institutions, creative agency talks, and individual designer workshops. One can add one’s events for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town on www.opendesignct.com. (via media release received from Maciek Dubla) Continue reading →