MTC Hugs

This advert for MTC, Namibia’s local cellphone provider, looks at the viral power of a hug – the connection it makes between two people. Directed by Bryan Little from South Africa’s Fly On The Wall, this TVC not only tells a beautiful story with a great soundtrack, it also features his signature attention to detail and empathy.

What also sets this ad apart though, is the art direction. Pay close attention to the choice of colours and wardrobe and how they all work together. Wonderfully put together.

 

SPCA – Teach a Dog New Words

The poster above was created by Bester Burke in Cape Town for the SPCA. With beautiful, simple art direction and illustrations by Jaco Haasbroek; this is a great example of a simple ad done well. At the same time – it doesn’t rely on guilt and misery to make you feel something or inspire action – it focuses on the cute things we all love about dogs.

We know from studies that positive messages inspire more action than negative ones, so the more ads we see like this the better!

For a better look at the ad, click on the link below.

Berd for Nickelodeon

Berd is a motion graphics design studio from Barcelona, who were commissioned by Nickelodeon to design characters and a channel-ident for their Popcorn channel. It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s beautiful – what more could you want?

For more of Berd’s work – check out their website here.

Shutterstock – Design Trends 2014

The following infographic from Shutterstock highlights their predictions for 2014 design trends. Do you agree? Have a look and see for yourself!

(Header image from the original Shutterstock post here.)

 

Infographic: Shutterstock’s Global Design Trends 2014

Sayuki Mtindiko

Sayuki Mtindiko was a Tanzanian artist who worked from 1981 up until his death in 2011. His compositions, use of colour and strange characters are really quite inspirational and so fresh.

The saddest thing is he wasn’t around to create more.

Hanson Akatti – Character Design

Hanson Akatti is an illustrator and character designer from Accra, Ghana. We love to showcase work from throughout the African continent, not only because we believe that more African artists and designers should be acknowledged, but also because it’s a great way to see different ways of thinking, designing and doing. The more we can share work across the continent and learn from each other the better – we know that Africa is the future!

We love Akatti’s character design and attention to detail – for more of his work, check out his Behance profile here.

#AdobeRemix – Designing a New Logo

What do you do when you’re Adobe and you need a new logo, or an update to your logo? You get some of the world’s best designers into a gameshow, with ridiculous rules and see what happens of course. It’s called #AdobeRemix.

Isn’t Stefan Sagmeister just the best?

Army Portraits – Before, During and After

This set of portraits by photographer Lalage Snow look at what war does to people, with three simple portraits – one before going to war in Afghanistan, one during and one after.

We can see the pain and fear in the faces of these men so powerfully. And with this we see the true power of photography – three simple images can convey so much. And even though these aren’t documentary or journalistic photographs, they tell such a personal story about what war does to a person.

A beautiful, heart-wrenching idea.

Capturing Childhood Dreams

This beautiful series of portraits from the Iraqi photographer Jamal Penjweny offers us a view into people’s dreams, which allows us to connect with people from other cultures. How can you not empathise with someone when you learn that they wanted to be a professional swimmer, a firefighter or astronaut – just like you did.

While Penjweny’s aim with this set of portraits is to allow people to feel that they can live out their dreams, at least for a fleeting second – for us from a different perspective they take on a subtly different meaning – bringing humanity into a set of portraits and helping us connect across racial, ideological or geographical lines.

For more of Penjweny’s work, have a look at his website here.

Stellenbosch Academy goes to Design Indaba

We were at Design Indaba just over a week ago, with a stand showcasing our student work, as well as attending the conference itself.

We had an amazing time and met some amazing people both in the conference and at the expo and if you couldn’t make it this year – make sure you get there next time!

We’ll be sharing some talks and learnings from our favourite speakers in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!