Inventing a New Design Ecosystem

TEXT MALIBONGWE TYILO PHOTOGRAPH JUSTIN PATRICK

Thando Ndashe, the founder of design consultancy TanDesignSA, is on a mission to strengthen the local manufacturing sector for industrial designers

arly on in her career as an industrial

Edesigner, it became clear to Thando Ndashe that among the challenges facing local industrial designers, one of the biggest was an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. In search of solutions, she founded TanDesignSA, which she describes as “a design consultancy that is on a mission to drive an increase in layman participation in the local manufacturing sector by using industrial design as catalyst, and placing a strategic focus on small-scale and specialised production”. Although she founded the consultancy in 2015 shortly after graduating, it would be a few years before she could focus on

TanDesignSA full-time.

Drawing on a career journey that has seen her put her expertise to work in product research and development, fast-moving consumer goods, furniture prototyping and production, logistics fulfilment and installation, she realised she had gained a rounded view of the industrial design profession. So, in May 2020, she decided to dedicate herself to design consultancy work, with a particular focus on supporting the development of young black industrial designers.

“In South Africa, industrial design is a misunderstood and underutilised profession. This contributes to the general perception that, as a developing nation, we are incapable of turnkey design innovation and manufacturing our own products in the country. This further enables our dependence on importing finished goods from China and elsewhere. This is a tragic loss to our economy as industrial design has the potential to drive invention, product development and innovation in ways that can contribute to more localised manufacturing, an increase in product intellectual property and overall GDP for our country,” she explains.

Thando strongly believes the private sector can play a key role in supporting the development of designers by using their corporate social responsibility budgets to invest in more meaningful enterprise and supplier development programmes for design SMMEs that go beyond media exposure. “This way, the designers will be able to build sustainable businesses and create jobs long after the initiative.”

After meeting the Clout/SA team at the 2021 Basha Uhuru youth festival, TanDesignSA began a collaboration with Clout/SA to do exactly that, in partnership with the Nando’s Design Programme.

“This programme is the first manifestation of what I would liken to a meaningful accelerator programme for designers and makers that moves beyond just the design competition; it presents an opportunity to launch design entrepreneurs in the process,” she says. Since December 2021, Thando has worked closely with 2020 Nando’s Hot Young Designer finalist and founder of Umugqa Studio, Siviwe Jali, towards the prototyping of his Ntsimbi server design, which recently debuted at the 2022 Decorex Africa Reimagined showcase in Cape Town.

The lessons and strategies developed during this process will go far beyond one designer, and will be the foundation for a business support model that TanDesignSA plans to roll out to other businesses.

“In a collaborative effort between TanDesignSA and production partners, the Clout/SA team and Siviwe Jali as the designer, we are in the process of creating a training workshop that will use the Ntsimbi servers as a proof-of-concept case study for the prototyping

Lights and server by Nando’s HYD 2020 finalist Siviwe Jali of Umugqa Studio. The lights are a collaboration with Ashanti Design, facilitated by Clout/SA. The server is manufactured by TanDesignSA. Pattern by Nando’s HYD 2018 finalist Zinhle Sithebe, painted by Ilukuluku Collective. Stand design and concept by Tracy Lee Lynch, Clout/SA

process. This collaboration has also been a central inspiration to a strategic pivot within TanDesignSA to create a manufacturing enterprise and supplier development programme for youth employment efforts, and function as an implementation partner to the government and private sector,” explains Thando.

The way she sees it, a truly economically sustainable South African industrial design sector will have more “product innovations being proudly designed and manufactured in South Africa… Once there is greater awareness of the profession and its benefits, the utilisation of industrial design will increase and thus create an ecosystem of invention and innovation efforts within the local landscape”. O