7 minute read
The Road to Recognition
from Clout 2022
by Clout
Through its dedication to mentoring and assisting design talent in South Africa, Clout/SA has created a space for skilled individuals to truly shine and be recognised on a local and global scale
WORDS MODUPE OLORUNTOBA PHOTOGRAPHY SHO NGWANA CREATIVE DIRECTION TRACY LEE LYNCH PRODUCTION LOOKBOOK STUDIO
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This article first appeared in House and Leisure Vol. 4: Build and was created by LOOKBOOK Studio in collaboration with Clout/SA
LOOKBOOK Studio is a creative content studio and independent media company that is committed to showcasing, spotlighting and supporting the decor and design industry through visual storytelling. At LOOKBOOK Studio, design is more than meets the eye. lookbookstudio.com
Masters at showcasing
local design, Clout/SA is the brainchild of the same team that has powered the Nando’s Design Programme since 2015, with successful long-running projects including the Hot Young Designer talent search competition and Portal to Africa, a R60 million marketplace that’s become one of South Africa’s largest exporters of design. Facilitating everything from curated exhibitions to supply chain management, its purposefirst impact business exists to turn South African design into a globally recognised category.
House and Leisure shares this passion for the development of the local design industry, especially when it comes to emerging talent. Coupled with an extreme appreciation for the work of Tracy Lee Lynch, creative director of the Nando’s Design Programme and director of Clout/SA, as well as one of House and Leisure’s editors-at-large, coming together to showcase Clout/SA’s incredible work and talented designers was a no-brainer. ‘It doesn’t matter how many beautiful things you’re able to make, if you don’t have a market for them and you can’t sell them it all comes to naught. So that’s part of the journey that we go on… We help [emerging designers] to prototype their pieces and understand what it’s going to take to create a business around the ambitions that they have with the designs that they’ve created’ — Tracy Lee Lynch on the role of Clout/SA
The traits shared by the four designers in this feature made this a natural collaboration for all involved. They have pride in their roots, incredible tenacity and a passion for telling the world a better story about South Africa than it has readily accepted. Shot by emerging visual creative duo Sho Ngwana — also known as Lebogang Tlhako and Nati Kgobe — in their kasi-grounded, femmelensed style, these designers represent some of the unique archetypes operating in our design landscape and offer an exciting look at its great potential.
@clout_sadesign @tracyleeloves @sho_ngwana
Mpho Vackier of TheUrbanative
MPHO VACKIER FROM THEURBANATIVE
Engineer Mpho Vackier started TheUrbanative in 2017, after leaving a decade in extraction metallurgy behind to follow her passion and study design. Today, she helms a brand that blends modernist influences with cultureled storytelling: The Nasara chair, a collaboration with Something Good Studio, sees a brand print woven (by Greyroom’s Jonette Schoeman) into an organic form inspired by the fan-shaped hair of DRC’s early 1900’s Queen Nasara, a wife of Chief Akenge.
“It is 100% hard work and sweat; it’s lonely, scary, stressful, and it’s super hands-on,” Mpho says.
Along the way, she’s learned to ask for help.
Mpho is also in the uncommon position of owning her production process. “She has a massive workspace with all the machinery that it takes to bring these pieces to life,” says Tracy. “So she has to have a deep understanding of systems and the processes that happen in her universe, as well as being the flamboyant face of her brand and producing consistent quality. She is somebody to celebrate as a role model and as a black woman in South Africa in this role.”
@theurbanative
SIFISO SHANGE FROM AFRI MODERN
Sifiso Shange’s brand, Afri Modern, reinterprets Zulu iconography and beadwork as patterns and motifs on bold, modern furniture.
‘I’ve always loved how products make us feel and the power they have to make our everyday experiences more vividly beautiful. My love for design grew when I started expressing myself and sharing more of my culture through my work. It gave me a deep, meaningful sense of responsibility to preserve stories through my design work’
100% Design 2019 marked the start of Sifiso’s journey with Clout/SA – he was one of a group of designers pitching for the Portal to Africa marketplace.
“He is an incredibly magnetic person,” says Tracy. “His design aesthetic is absolutely unique. He has a very strong sense of his identity and what he wants to say to the world and he brings so much love and energy to the space. Also, his references to heritage are incredibly exciting and the freshness that brings to the pieces that he makes — and the storytelling that is crucial to his brand — are exceptional.”
“My highlight [of working with Clout/SA] has been how my work has managed to travel beyond South Africa. It has shown me that my work is worthy of being seen and celebrated throughout the world,” Sifiso says. Going forward he’ll be crossing more borders with collaboration, experimental mediums and new work that will “blur the line between design and art with strong attributes of function and practicality”.
@afrimodern
THABISA MJO FROM MASH. T DESIGN STUDIO
Pictured here alongside the Bright side table, Mash.T Design Studio’s unmistakable xibelani-inspired Tutu 2.0 lampshade captured everyone’s attention as the winner of
Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa in 2018. “It’s now part of the permanent collection at the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs, Paris,” says designer Thabisa Mjo, who first connected with the Clout/SA team when she won the Nando’s Hot Young Designer competition in 2016. Thabisa feels that this helped to legitimise her brand, which is focused on perfecting its own e-commerce experience.
From Tracy’s perspective, Thabisa will always be one to watch. “She’s one of those designers who never ceases to surprise and delight; she’s agile and exciting to watch. So I feel like no matter how often she’s been praised, she’s such an inspiration… She is incredibly generous in her vision of what she brings to the industry.’ @mashtdesign
‘Up to this point, it’s been my lived experiences.
Going forward, it will be my curiosity’ — Thabiso Mjo on the influences of her design style
Thabisa Mjo sits below her Tutu pendant light, leaning on her Bright side table, both from MashT Design Studio
SIPHO KHWEBULA TWALA FROM KHWEBULA ARTS ‘If you could go back in time and tell 19-year-old me that he’d be making furniture for a living once he’d grown up, I’m certain that he would be very disappointed’
A career in design did not occur to Sipho Khwebula Twala until he took part in a learnership programme involving woodworking machines and power tools in 2013. He only joined the programme because it looked like it could offer him something more than his job driving taxis.
His journey has been a rollercoaster: After starting and folding his own brand in two years, Sipho found work with David Krynauw and spent his evenings learning inventor CAD and Autocad from YouTube tutorials. At the beginning of 2018, Sipho could design and manufacture complex shapes in wood. By the end of the year, he started Khwebula Arts, where he uses various African patterns and organic shapes to create unique, compelling designs.
The Ndebele wall mirror shines with the fresh dialogue Tracy believes he’s creating around his work by trying new things. “He’s constantly pushing the boat out. There’s a lot of experimentation in his work, which is hard because you become known for your aesthetic and to keep challenging yourself and challenging the way you use your materials and your processes. It makes him somebody who I think is very exciting, and he deserves recognition even at this early stage in his career,” she says. @khwebula O
Sipho Twala OPPOSITE A red Sphozo dining chair and Ndebele wall mirror by Kwhebula Arts
