Enjin 53

it ' s your creativity number 53 april / may 2011 40 rand

w w w. enjin . co. za

THE ART OF DATA EXPLORING HOW INFORMATION BECOMES FORM

cover printed on arjowiggins skin pink 270gsm supplied by antalis south africa

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 1

soft touch The Skin Curious Collection from Arjowiggins Creative Papers is an amazingly even matt paper that is silky smooth to the touch. Skin was developed with cutting edge technology to offers unparalleled resistance to abrasion and fingerprints.

The range has vibrant, contemporary colours that set off any design. Skin is a sensual material that is invitingly soft to look at and touch.

Johannesburg........011 688-6000 Cape Town..............021 959-9600 Pretoria.....................012 379-0060 Durban.....................031 714-4000 Port Elizabeth.........041 486-2020 Bloemfontein.........051 447-8681 2 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

editorial

Ed speak Too much information. Perhaps you will agree that there is too much information in the world.

Paradoxically, it seems, the more there is of the stuff, the simpler you Francois Smit

become. That, of course, depends on how it looks. And data can look amazing. Turn to page 14 to see what rogue artist Ward

Shelley does E

with the stuff. His award-winning chronology of science fiction is an GREGOR NAUDé - editor

artistic and surprisingly informative picture of the genre's evolution. From fear and wonder to the emergence of new space opera, Shelley covers hundreds of the most loved sci-fi works in print, film and television.

The fine print COVER Image by Ward Shelley www.wardshelley.com Design by Francois Smit www.franco.is

PUBLISHER Softmachine Media, PO Box 521435, Saxonwold, 2132.

Tel: 011 640-3322. Fax: 0866 896-707.

EDITOR Gregor Naudé gregor@enjin.co.za

PRODUCTION Enjin Magazine is produced with Adobe CS5.

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Herman Manson herman@marklives.co.za

PAPER Cover printed on Arjowiggins Skin supplied by Antalis South Africa. Text printed on Triple Green Silk supplied by Sappi.

DESIGN & ART DIRECTION François Smit, QUBA Design & Motion francois@quba.co.za ADVERTISING SALES 084 445-5067 advertising@enjin.co.za EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Debbie Smit, Hein Gates, Gordon Cook, Richard Hart, Richard Stone.

COPYRIGHT All due care will be taken with material submitted, but the magazine and publisher cannot be held responsible for loss or damages. The title ‘Enjin’ and logotype are registered trademarks.

Neither this publication nor any part thereof may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or editor.

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 3

CONTENTS

INSIDE IFC CURIOUS COLLECTION – SKIN 03 EDITORIAL 06 RELEASE NOTES LOMO STORE JOBURG LOERIES 2011 GOCREATE 2011 EPSON DIGIGRAPHIE POWER OF FIVE ART DIRECTORS CLUB 12 AGENCY THE FLYING DUTCHMAN 14 FEATURE/DATA THE ART OF DATA 22 FEATURE/INDABA CONTRADICTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE

26 FEATURE/INDABA m without zooming in. 2. Be sure to hold your head at a perfect horizontal eyes and stare at the two black dots below the images. 4. Now skew your THE changing focus until you see four dots. 5. Keep skewing your eyes untilOPEN INTERFACE

mages directly parallel to your face, but be sure to view it from a distance

overlap. 6. Keeping that gaze fixed, raise your eyes to view the 3-D image.

30 feature/IMAGE THE DEEP IMAGE

4 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

36 PLATFORM CAMERON PLATTER PETE CASE 42 REVIEW RICHARD HART MOMA 48 TOOLS HP TOUCHPAD APPLE IPAD 2 QUARKXPRESS 9 HP WORKSTATIONS NEW ILFORD PAPER ADOBE CS5.5 60 BOOKS EXPRESSIONS BOOK ONE WHAT'S SO FUNNY 64 THINK THE DEAL BEING WITH MACHINES 68 directory CREATIVE SERVICES 69 IBC THE NEW THINKING

SCAN TO THE CLOUD. PRINT FROM THE ROAD. BUILD UPON YOUR IDEA.

INTRODUCING THE WORLD’S MOST COLLABORATIVE PRINTER Share inspiration and develop ideas worldwide with the new HP Designjet T2300 eMFP – the first Web-ready printing system to match the way today’s designers and architects really work.

Not only does it integrate scan, copy, email and large-format print capabilities. It also harnesses groundbreaking cloud technology, enabling your team to share print-ready documents instantly – anywhere.

Be sure to enquire about the latest specials on HP’s Large Format Printing machines and media.

That’s true collaboration, like never before.

To find out more visit www.hp.com/go/collaborate or call one of the Designjet Specialists listed below.

For enquiries contact the nearest authorized HP Designjet Specialist: Graficomp: 011 7921348; Micrographics: 041 3655701; Midcomp: 011 7891222; Nashua: 011 2328000; Regma: 021 5527667/8; A0 Avenue: 012 9981156; Absolute Technologies: 021 5311355; Digital Distributors: 021 4235695; Digital View: 011 4624849 For best results, always use Original HP Designjet printing inks which deliver vivid colours, and reliable, trouble-free printing on Original HP Media.

For more information visit www.hp.com/go/supplies

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 5

release notes

Lomo in Joburg Get to the new Johannesburg Lomography Embassy Store in Juta Street

The newly opened Johannesburg Lomography Store is situated in the burgeoning cultural precinct on Juta Street in Braamfontein. The area is made up of shops, office spaces and galleries where like-minded creative thinkers meet and mingle.

70 Juta Street is made up of fifteen petite

creative spaces in a single-storey building.

Other offerings in the area add to the cultural mix, such as the Co-Op Gallery on 68 Juta Street. Here new and emerging works are on show in the fields of contemporary art and design. Further down the road is 62 Juta Street, which is occupied by the French

Institute and the Brodie-Stevenson Gallery.

The Embassy is situated right in the middle of this new creative community, and is set to become a destination store, attracting visitors from all over the city.

The store offers visitors a unique Lomo experience. Designed using untreated pine wooden shelves and steel bracketing, it is the perfect canvas to display the full range of Lomography products and accessories, including cameras, accessories, books and fashion items. You can also to take part in workshops and neighbourhood walkabouts that provide the perfect opportunity to experience these cool analogue cameras.

Lomography Embassy Store Johannesburg, Shop 7, 70 Juta Street, Braamfontein.

011 403-0302

6 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

release notes

Try again Early birds get the (tequila) worm

The 2011 Loerie Awards campaign has launched with a revamping of categories. According to the organizers, they've done a complete overhaul of the way that the categories are organized, based on a comprehensive review of the brand communications industry.

"Every touch point between a brand and its audience is brand communication," said Loeries ceo Andrew Human, "and the categories now include every aspect of the industry, including television and film; radio; print; outdoor; direct and PR; brand identity; architecture and interior design; package and industrial design; Internet and mobile media; live events and sponsorship."

Several new categories have been added, including the introduction of a Broadcast Design and Graphics award, new to the Communication Design category. Also, an award for Performance Craft has been added for the Television, Radio and Live Events category, recognizing performers and actors for outstanding performances.

Finally, Animation and Special Visual Effects are now two separate crafts.

From this year the Loerie Awards now publishes its official rankings of the winning brands, agencies, production companies and

individuals in the Loeries Annual.

In 2011, new entries to the credits list contained in the Annual include Chief Creative Officer, Strategist, Editor, Editing Company, Animator, Animation Company, VFX Operator, Post Production Facility and Performer.

Need-to-know The entry deadline for the 33rd Annual Loerie Awards is 13 May, 2011, although this is sure to be extended. The eligibility period for work submitted is 1 June, 2010 to 31 May, 2011. Entries must be produced within Africa, the Middle East or island states off the African coast (like Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles).

International crafts may be entered, as long as the person nominated for the award is from the eligible region.

The Loeries Festival Weekend will take place from 16-18 September, 2011 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. For full information on categories, preparation guidelines, entry fees, and other information, visit the website. www.loeries.co.za

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 7

release notes

The cred GoCreate 2011 launches with over R300 000 in prizes

The heat is on for creatives in the fields of video, web, photography and design to square off and and win their share of over R300 000 in prizes in Adobe’s second annual gocreate.co.za competition, launched in April. The 2010 competition, aimed at students and creative professionals, had over 3 100 entries, more than 19 000 votes and saw 448 winners take away their share of more than R270 000 worth of prizes, including software, hardware, vouchers, as well as training and magazine subscriptions.

The 2011 competition will be bigger. Leonard Rabotapi, PR and Marketing Manager for Adobe South Africa, says the company is launching the competition with a bigger total bundle of prizes and higher individual prize values. "Moreover, we're expecting a larger number of participants because the categories will – instead of dividing entrants into categories based on their rank (Creative Pro, Student and Agencies), centre on the packages within the Adobe CS5 suite, and encourage entrants to focus on the design, web, video and photography fields," he says.

Rabotapi says that the 2011 leg of the competition will also strongly leverage social media integration. "In fact," he says, "we’re encouraging entrants to make use of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to garner support (and votes) for their entries, and sites such as YouTube and Flickr to house their entries for easier access by voters.

Craig Wells, one of the designers at Injozi, a Johannesburg-based

8 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

studio that specialises in photography and graphic, digital and audio design, agrees. The Injozi team has already submitted their selfpromotional website into this year’s competition. "We worked really hard to craft our website, and since we made use of all the facets of our company – photography, production, design, audio and Flash development, we wanted the site to offer a good overview of our capabilities," said Wells.

According to Wells, Adobe is the 'industry leader' within the creative field; Injozi makes use of a wide range of products from Adobe's Creative Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects and Flash. "We make an effort to keep up with new developments in order to stay fresh and innovative."

Said Rabotapi, "Entrants will have to get a minimum of 100 votes for their entries to be listed in the ‘Hall of Fame’ and, in doing so, become eligible for both the weekly and annual grand prizes. Prizes include an HP laptop and Toon Boom software bundle worth R20 000 from Touchvision; a Nikon DSLR camera worth R10 000, sponsored by Nikon SA, a Microsoft Xbox 360 console plus Kinect sensor and game from Comztek, and an Apple iPad 16GB WiFi and iPod Shuffle 2GB bundle from Digicape.

www.gocreate.co.za

release notes

The real deal Epson offers print reproduction service for artists and photographers

Following the success in European and American markets, Epson has introduced its Digigraphie certification in South Africa, which should prove a boon for local artists and photographers wanting to certify limited-edition prints of their work.

Initially, five major photographic labs will offer Digigraphie certification for limited edition prints, including Foto First Cresta Mall, Fuji Image Fourways Mall, Foto First Clearwater Mall, Foto First Midlands Mall and Photo World Musgrave Centre.

However, Epson South Africa anticipates a number of new announcements to be forthcoming as more labs and printing shops are certified.

Artists and photographers will be able to take digital images of their work to these labs and have them printed as limited editions utilizing certain Epson printers, media and inks – and embossed with the official Digigrapghie stamp as a certified print.

According to Vernon Mellors, Corporate Account Manager at Epson South Africa, Epson Digigraphie is a seal of excellence for photographers, artists and museums and is the result of several years of research

by Epson on the technical performance of its printers and on the resilience and quality of its range of UltraChrome and HDR pigments inks.

Visible on prints as an embossment, the Digigraphie seal describes a print that has been created following a specific digital

process, and assures customers that their art is a genuine limited-edition reproduction of an original piece of art or photograph. Already in use by over 500 artists, photographers and strip cartoonists worldwide, the certification is enjoying growing adoption as gallery owners and collectors also turn to the process as a quality 'middle ground' between an original artwork and a mass-produced replica.

New opportunities artists to benefit

Digigraphie also offers a big value proposition to the artists themselves. The Digigraphie label gives artists the ability to increase their distribution to new audiences by giving them total control over the quality and quantity of high-quality, limited-edition prints. "It offers an added level of protection for the artist’s intellectual property – preventing plagiarism with individually-numbered and stamped prints," adds Mellors.

The print criteria include that the print must be produced on an 8- or 10-colour Epson Stylus Pro professional printer that has been certified for the programme, utilising original inks as well as media that have been certified. The work must also be authenticated, numbered and signed by the artist, embossed and accompanied by an original certificate," says Mellors.

Epson Digigraphie offers a number of other applications and opportunities for collectors, museums and artists themselves. For galleries, each Digigraphie print is, in effect, an original because each print is numbered and signed by the artist. Galleries can therefore offer a limited-edition print series of a unique artwork in addition to the original. Similarly, a museum can utilise Digigraphie to give visitors the opportunity to purchase high-quality, limited-edition reproductions of an artwork or photograph with the knowledge that the piece being sold is true to the original and durable well into the future.

www.digigraphie.com; vernon.mellors@epson.eu

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 9

release notes

Collective soul Five senses, five papers

The number 5 has always carried significance. In numerology, it is the number of harmony and balance. In religion it’s the number of divine grace. In the Mayan civilization it was considered the symbol of perfection. We have 5 senses, 5 chakras, 5 elemental states and so on.

In early March 2011, Antalis South Africa, in conjunction with Arjowiggins, launched a new paper promotion named 'The Power of Five5', designed by Paul Hinch of Grid Worldwide Branding and Design and printed by Hansa Print.

Each brochure makes use of one of the five papers being showcased: Skin Curious Collection, Rives Dot and Tradition, Conquer-

10 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

or Bamboo and Curious Translucents.

According to Caroline Coughlan, Marketing Manager for Antalis South Africa, "Each of the 5 booklets have a specific aim to educate designers on the importance of considering their paper selection right from the inception of the creative process – the reference to the 5 stages of grief was used throughout the series, reflecting the bitter disappointment if paper selection isn’t included in the process from the start."

The 5 booklets are housed in a beautifully crafted box made from Skin Curious Collection Black. Each showcases various papers, including the new Curious Trans-

lucent Colours as the inner cover stock.

The stunning Opale range, used in book one, demonstrates the effects of fluorescents inks and gloss UV varnish on uncoated paper. Said Caroline, "Paul managed to match the various papers in each book to add dimension to the senses."

As a whole, the series explores 5 stories – 5 senses, 5 elements, 5 tetrominoes, 5 stages of grief, and 5 platonic solids. Individually they explore one side of each of the stories; it is only when they are viewed together that you get the full picture.

www.antalis.co.za

release notes

By invitation only Art Directors Club Travelling Exhibition comes to Joburg

The work of top designers, illustrators and photographers – all winners of the 89th annual awards of the New York-based Art Directors Club – will soon be on view at the Greenside Design Center in Greenside, Johannesburg.

Founded in New York in 1920, the competition was the first creative collective of its kind. It is the oldest and largest competition of its kind in the world – celebrating the best work in advertising, interactive media, graphic design, illustration and photography.

This year, over 200 winners are to be exhibited, selected from over 12 500 entries in the categories of advertising, interactive media, graphic design, illustration, photography and 'hybrid' (defined as communications work that employs no less than three media channels).

Entries are drawn from around the world, from the smallest graphic design boutiques to the largest multinational agency networks. A breakdown of winners by country

reveals that the largest block of ADC cube awards went to work entered from the USA, with the UK coming in second, closely followed by Japan.

The exhibition at the Greenside Design Center will be the first ADC exhibition in Africa. Following the Johannesburg exhibition, the ADC Travelling Exhibition will be going to Gaborone, Botswana.

The Johannesburg leg of the ADC Travelling Exhibition is a joint venture between Signal Hill, a creative consultancy based in Newtown, Johannesburg and Greenside Design Centre. The organiser is Galefele Molema, art director at Signal Hill and an ADC International Representative.

For more information and exhibition dates, e-mail gale32@gmail.com.

www.adcglobal.org

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 11

agency

FLYING DUTCHMAN Amsterdam has established itself on the international ad circuit with numerous creative upstarts and small-but-hot adshops, writes

Herman Manson

Amsterdam is also positioning itself at the forefront of industry change with a collaborative work model penned by Roger Beekman, founder of 60 layers of cake, the collaborative agency he launched in Amsterdam in 2005, and which last year spawned an office in Cape Town as well as several competitors.

Wide spectrum of people The model pulls in a wide spectrum of people from agency and client side, as well as outsiders, with relevant skills to work on campaigns. Beekman – who started as an assistant art director at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1990 and also spent time at McCann Erickson, Y&R,

12 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

TBWA, DDB, BBDO and BSUR – serves as creative partner at the Cape Town office, and visits the city on a regular basis to, well, collaborate on pitches and campaigns with his local partners Ben Wren and Michael van den Heerik.

True to the founding principles of his agency, money doesn't change hands for his time and expertise; instead it's a straight swop of time with the Cape Town office, which spends time developing campaigns for Amsterdam-based clients in return.

Having spent his career at numerous large agencies, Beekman realised he enjoyed working with a wide range of people, but did not feel free to do so within the agency environment. He decided to start a new company that embraces an open way of working together and 60 layers of cake was born.

agency

60 layers of cake's [Roger] Beekman sees the collaborative model as the next step in the evolution of work, happening globally across many industries.

Evolution of work

Launch of 60 foundation

The first year and a half was tough, Beekman admits, but he and his team were lucky in that they did good work that was noticed, and through Tokyo agency network ADK (the third biggest agency in Japan), which approached him to share his vision on collaboration with that agency, 60 layers obtained access to work on some choice brands, including Nike, Puma and Nikon.

It makes the sell for the new office much easier, says Beekman, as big brands are already using collaborative communication and he has a portfolio to prove it. Smaller agencies with an entrepreneurial outlook are needed by innovators to take their ideas to the next level and take on established brands. They need partners, not ad agencies, says Beekman, as the smaller brands of today aim to become the big brands of tomorrow.

The Cape Town office, one year in, is doing well, and is working on projects for The Body Shop while also holding the accounts for Glamour, Getaway magazine, Zandvliet, Morgenster and Sinnfull, among others.

In Amsterdam, Beekman has launched the 60 foundation which aims to break down the walls between artists and creatives in the advertising world. Its projects include Faรงade in Amsterdam, which turned netting hiding renovation spaces into public art, and re:frame, a design competition which challenged artists and designers to recycle old scaffolding sheets into innovative new products, including bags, lamps and chairs.

"We are living in a world in which a shift in emphasis is taking place from me to we, from transaction to relation, from product to meaning," states the foundation's website.

With 60 layers, Beekman takes this philosophy into the agency workplace, acknowledging that teams and projects have a lifespan, but that collaboration keeps the door open to invite people back into the fold, and taps a new generation of free agents willing to work but not willing to be tied down. _This article first appeared on BizCommunity.com. Manson is an independent media and marketing journalist. He blogs @marklives. com and Tweets @marklives

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 13

THE ART OF DATA DEBBIE SMIT EXPLORES INFORMATION AS ART

14 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

feature/DATA

P

aul Butler is an intern on Facebook’s data infrastructure engineering team. It was his map of 500 million Facebook friends that inspired research analyst Olivier H. Beauchesne's visualisation of international scientific collaboration. Beauchesne works for Science-Metrix, a bibliometric consulting firm that engineers ways to measure the impact and growth of scientific discovery. His map is an award-winning entry in Places & Spaces: Mapping Science, a decade-long exhibition launched in 2005 to inspire researchers to present data in a way that makes it usable and readable, even by people who are not experts in a field.

Visualising friends Butler unbundles the technical details of creating his map on a Facebook page called Visualizing Friendships, which provides insights into this unique way of seeing: "Visualizing data is like photography.

Instead of starting with a blank canvas, you manipulate the lens used to present the data from a certain angle," he says.

In the subtitle of his book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt, the 'rogue economist', reveals what he calls 'the hidden side of everything' by looking at data in a different way. In the book, co-authored with New York Times journalist, Stephen J. Dubner, he contentiously posits that the drop in crime in the US during the early 90s was due not so much to better policing or a crackdown on drug smuggling, but to the legalisation of abortion in the mid 70s – a conclusion arrived at when

he compared the statistics in the US with those of Romania, where, at roughly the same time, dictator Nicolai Ceaucescu was forcing women to have children. He is a firm believer in the potency of information: "If you learn to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible. Because there is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction."

Presenting data in an organic, digestible form also has the effect of cementing bonds. Butler says that when he shared his image with others within Facebook, it resonated with many people: "It's not just a pretty picture, it's a reaffirmation of the impact we have in connecting people, even across oceans and borders." Ankit Goyal comments: "Picturisation of human connections...the one world without any kind of boundaries...really awesome!"

It's been eighteen years since CERN released the source code for the web. While humankind has been collaborating with machines far longer than that, our growing connection with one another via machines has made the data they spew out more intriguing than ever.

Too much of a good thing?

While on the one hand the ubiquity and accessibility of information threatens to crowd out good sense, the computer age has allowed us access to an endless stream of scientific data. The problem is that much of it is shored up until it can be sensibly used, that is, turned

It's been eighteen years since CERN released the source code for the web. While humankind has been collaborating with machines far longer than that, our growing connection with one another via machines has made the data they spew out more intriguing than ever.  Visualising friendships: The shape of the landmasses on Paul Butler's map of the relationships between 500 million Facebook friends was formed by the links rather than the actual map of the world.

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 15

feature/DATA

Galaxy in a grain of sand People are raving about Ward Shelley's History of Science Fiction.

Fans of the genre have lauded Shelley for mapping out so efficiently its respectable provenance and showing that sci-fi deserves to be included in the "canon of high literature" (Ethan Pettit, Gone Viral in the Sci-Fi community, Facebook). Ever since Wired.com included the graphic chronology in a feature on data as art (Data as Art: 10 Striking Science Maps, March 8, 2011) there have been numerous posts

16 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

waxing lyrical about how detailed and intricate the work is. Shelley's website (wardshelley.com) speaks of how, on March 9, 2011, it was "inadvertently leaked onto the web and sort of went viral."

It has to be viewed up close by persons reasonably well-acquainted with the genre to be fully appreciated, although the tortuous form in itself – according to Shelley the figure of a tentacled beast is derived from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds Martians – is deliciously intriguing.

A 2009 video interview with Shelley by art critic James Kalm finds the artist holed up in a box at the Pierogi Gallery in New York on the

feature/DATA

last day of his exhibition "Who Invented the Avant-Garde and other half truths". The box (Shelley lived in it) is part of a "sleeper experiment" during which Shelley listens to a computerized voice repeating donated texts from viewers. There are many more boxes each marker-labelled in a collaborative work with artist Douglas Paulson in what Kalm calls "an externalization of the artists mind". A drawing (Archive Wall, page 20) derived from the installation serves as a map of sorts: lovely cabbages, list of people that will always be arseholes, things eaten by pets, claims of cultural authority, clocks made from

meat, art with no beauty or pleasure ...

Shelley says his Timelines defy classification. Critic Jerry Salz, responding to Shelley's Carolee Schneemann Chart, which depicts all the art leading up to and flowing from Schneeman's 1975 performance, during which she extracted a paper scroll from her vagina while reading from it, calls it "galaxy-in-a-grain-of-sand thinking" and "I-am-the-Universe big-thinking" (The Biggest Picture, Village Voice, February 2007).

ď‚ƒA History of Science Fiction, Oil paint and toner on frosted mylar. Shelley's work was a winning entry this year in the exhibit Places & Spaces: Mapping Science. The theme for 2011 was science maps as visual interfaces to digital libraries.

Images on cover, page 16 and page 20: Copyright Š Ward Shelley, All rights reserved. www.wardshelley.com

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 17

feature/DATA

into information that can be put to good use as knowledge. It is here that researchers must broach the fine line between art and science and make data intriguing enough to become a digestible, almost human identity which organic beings can relate to.

It is not easy turning spreadsheets into something titillating. Most of us, although we do respect the ardour of the statistician, economist or researcher who is willing to pore over numbers in the wee hours to extract meaning from them, keep them at arm’s length because of their association with grey men with monotone lives.

Connecting the dots An ability to see the links between different data is key when attempting to turn it into a tangible entity. The connections sketch the outlines which in turn are fleshed out by fresh renderings that incorporate further layers of information, evolving it into an increasingly three-dimensional form, which we finally recognise as knowledge. It is then our choice whether or not to apply it as wisdom.

Another entry in the Places & Spaces exhibition compares Wikipedia’s category structure with the Universal Decimal Classification (page opposite). The result is a snapshot of what people are really interested in. Distinct from the strictly ordered hierarchical taxonomy represented by the decimal system, Wikipedia is a so-called 'folksonomy', a user-generated body of work that taps into the wisdom of the masses instead of relying on expert knowledge.

The Wikipedia globe on the left is dominated by pink, which represents arts and entertainment, although the overlapping of data from the rainbow of various disciplines gives it a speckled appearance, distinct from the polarised globe on the right. In contrast, the decimal picture is overwhelmingly green, which according to the key is the domain of the applied sciences.

According to the Virtual Knowledge Studio, who authored the work, the aim was to explore the differences between knowledge maps created socially and those created formally. Visualising data in this way is not so much about seeing as about having vision; the same kind that Einstein or Tesla had when they had their famous hunches.

City of knowledge Another winning entry in the Places & Spaces exhibition is Mondothèque by Charles van den Heuvel and W. Boyd Rayward, a tribute to the work of Belgian author, entrepreneur, visionary, lawyer and peace activist Paul Otlet. Otlet, when he determined that he was not completely satisfied that books were an adequate way to store information, because the facts contained within them were an arbitrary decision on the part of the author and thus difficult to locate, suggested that cards containing individual 'chunks' of information would be more efficient, since they would allow "all the manipulations of classification and continuous interfiling". Together with this card system, according to Otlet, they would need "a very detailed synoptic outline of knowledge" to allow classification of all of these data packets. The

18 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Steampunk Internet: Van den Heuwel and Rayward's awardwinning entry 'Mondotheque' after Paul Otlet's vision of a one-person productivity station.

Visualizing data is like photography.

Instead of starting with a blank canvas, you manipulate the lens used to present the data from a certain angle. –

Paul Butler, Data

infrastructure engineer,

Facebook

'outline' that Otlet created was the Universal Decimal Classification, an analytico-synthetic classification which permits the linking of one concept to another.

After winning the support of the Belgian government to fulfil his ambitions after World War I, by the late 1930s he had amassed a catalogue of some 15 million index cards which he piled into 150 rooms in a former government building. He rechristened it 'The Mundaneum', or city of knowledge.

The collection sustained a small research business; for a fee about 1 500 queries a year were answered by mail and telegram. Because of intermittent support from government, the project had to be moved to smaller premises and slowly unravelled. By the time World War II broke out, Otlet's ideas had lost popularity and were seen as passé and grandiose. Much of his work was destroyed during the Nazi occupation. He died in 1944.

Otlet's philosophy on information is one that should be central to the way it gets around today: "All bibliological creation, no matter how original and how powerful, implies redistribution, combination and new amalgamations."

feature

(Image: Almila Akdag Salah/Cheng Gao/Krzystof Suchecki/Andrea Scharnhorst/Den Haag/Knowledge Space Lab)

A 'social network' made of 2 619 people and places mentioned in the Bible. The grey bars represent verses in chapters.

(Image: Chris Harrison/Carnegie Mellon University; Pastor Christoph RĂśmhild/St. Johannis-Harvestehude)

All bibliological creation, no matter how original and how powerful, implies redistribution, combination and new amalgamations. – Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 19

feature/DATA

20 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

feature/DATA

Shape of understanding My paintings/drawings are attempts to use real information to depict our understandings of how things evolve and relate to one another, and how this develops over time. More to the point, they are about how we form these understandings in our minds and if they can have, in our culture, some kind of shape.

Usually I choose topics from art or cultural history, such as the arc of an artist's career and its influences, or the effect of particular ideas in an aesthetic or political movement. They are 'widescreen', with all information available to the interacting eye at every moment.

In a sense, once the topic of a painting is chosen, the content is 'determined'.

It is history, a matter of record. But we know this content is mediated in a thousand ways before it takes shape in our awareness. Moreover, content is also shaped by the receiving mind which, as a pre-existing form itself, exerts a strong shaping influence (contemporary studies of cognitive dissonance are describing this effect).

It is the mutually formative effects of subject/mind and object/world that gives shape to the space that exists between them.

These paintings are a record of this shaping process. They are about the struggle of form to express content in the cognitive space that exists between the Subject (us) and the Object (the world). If that cognitive space is a territory, these paintings are landscapes of that territory. _Ward Shelley

ď‚ Ward Shelley, Archive Wall, Version 1, Oil paint and toner on frosted mylar

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 21

feature/INDABA

22 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Images courtesy of Design Indaba/StudioDror

feature/indaba

CONTRADICTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE As riots and revolution rock the Arab world, the rulers of Abu Dhabi are building yet another offshore island villa complex for the super-rich. What is to be done?

Speaking at the 2011 Design Indaba conference, designer Dror Benshetrit admitted he spent several minutes laughing loudly over the phone during the call in which he was told he'd won the design contract (admittedly approved before the current wave of rage swept the region) that he'd designed in only five weeks.

Nurai Island will consist of luxury villas and a hotel built just off the coast of the Emirate, with the entire island and all its buildings (with the exception of a cube-shaped structure camouflaged by water and a spa underneath the ocean) camouflaged by a green blanket of grass so that rooftops become gardens and homes remain private. They also threw in a private beach.

Anything is possible – in Abu Dhabi, laughs Benshetrit. According to his website, Benshetrit did the design but engineers will decide if it can be built. Oil money will provide the financing. The design takes your breath away, as I'm sure does the budget. But can we pretend there is anything not grotesquely excessive and wasteful about this project, thrown together in a matter of weeks?

Function following form At the same time, Benshetrit revealed an innovative interlocking frame technology called QuaDror, which is punted for its strength, aesthetic value and potential to provide frames for low-cost housing (locals would fill it in with the material available to them, e.g., bamboo or wood). It's beautiful, it certainly holds potential; it's also not been costed, which makes calling it a low-cost housing solution premature.

Benshetrit spent four years on its development. Of course, it won't be used only on low-cost housing – though that will be the key point

picked out by the media – but also for dividing rooms, trestles, dwellings (across price ranges), window placement and art.

The design is based on the form of a chandelier he created for the Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibit. It's nice to punt design solutions for the poor. Getting it financed is another matter altogether.

Building back to communities Burkina Faso architect Francis Kéré was the undoubted crowd favourite, and the only Design Indaba speaker to draw a standing ovation. His work dashes notions of Western design superiority.

Instead, Kéré draws building back to communities, using local skills and materials, for beautiful, practical and cost-effective architectural solutions.

The audience reaction was strongly reminiscent of that received by architect Alejandro Aravena when he wowed the audience with his approach to social housing at last year's indaba. West Africa has only one school for architecture, Kéré points out, while regional governments draw inspiration from the slick glass and concrete buildings they see on trips to the West or, more likely, China.

Buildings need electricity to be habitable in a hot and humid region, where power is not always available, and if it is, not reliably all the time. Kéré challenges the wholesale import of western ideas about buildings and the people that use them. He notes that African compounds are designed to grow, and sometimes shrink, as required.

Tell that to a UNESCO official, he points out, who strives for preservation of the structure that exists rather than the preservation of the heartbeat and rhythm of a compound.

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 23

feature/INDABA

Pupils taking ownership

Designing solutions

The school Kéré built in Gando was built with clay; even the vaulted ceiling is made of clay bricks. It was built using the skills found in the community. Even kids participated. Child labour used to build schools – or pupils taking ownership of the building in which they will learn? I'm betting on the latter.

Kéré is successful because he uses local talent, local material and strives to get the entire community, from the very young to the very old, invested in their architecture. Kéré and the community are already looking ahead and are building a high school to further educate the children of Gando.

Kéré's buildings, and building methods, have a rhythm to them, one you could sense in Kéré onstage, and it served as a reminder of what western design often lacks. Maybe it's time South Africans rediscover that rhythm. Embracing a low-tech community approach to appropriate building projects that addresses the needs on the ground, rather than the fantasies of bureaucrats, might offer an unexpected solution to failing service delivery and housing backlogs.

South Africa's design solutions will probably be found in Africa – Kéré's success just illustrates the point.

Four years ago, while experimenting in his workshop, Dror Benshetrit discovered a serendipitous geometry. Initially inspired by the aesthetic and flexibility of this versatile form, he soon realized the structural integrity of the interlocking members and embarked on four years of diligent investigation. QuaDror is a unique structure that can adapt to a variety of conditions and configurations. These range from product design, trestle structures, dwellings, dividing walls, sound barriers and more. Some applications take advantage of its load-bearing capabilities, while others capitalize on its acoustic properties, ease of manufacturing, collapsibility and energy performance, according to Benshetrit.

Boosted by a team of experts, the studio conducted inter-disciplinary research and rigorous analysis, to soon discover the overwhelming strength of the geometry coming from the most simplistic physical force. The geometry revealed five development directions: dividing, dwelling, trestle, fenestration and artistic installation. These enabled designs reflect an ever-changing world where contextual factors and technological resources are shifting definitions of architecture, design and the traditional boundaries between disciplines.

"Our goal is to inspire change. Working with creative and innovative experts from various fields, we aim to share and implement this geometry in urban design, architecture, philanthropic work and public art. Realizing that the system could potentially bring a groundbreaking solution to the global issue of habitat, we were eager to complete our experimentations and share this discovery with the world," said Benshetrit.

The world’s homeless population increases by approximately 100 000 every day (Source: Kissick et al. 2006). The Insitute forecasts that 40 per cent of the world’s population will need access to housing by 2030. "We are gathering cross-disciplinary experts to introduce the QuaDror Home to these populations in need. We are enthused to estimate that 1750 QuaDror Homes (i.e., 1750 QuaDror kits) can be shipped in one 40-foot container," said Benshetrit.

The QuaDror Home structure is based on four identical L-shaped

_Herman Manson

24 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

feature/indaba

We are interested in the transformative power of design as an interdependent response to social, economical and

ecological matters. Our work is the interactive process of inventing and providing (infra)structure and comprehensive systems to improve our ways of living. In

effect, we believe that designers and users can become co-creators. –

Dror benshetrit

pieces of various embodied elements assembled with the help of the QuaDror universal joints. The envelope and the beams are made of local materials, which allow for integrating a cultural and ecological context in the final design of the building.

The QuaDror Home Kit provides the tools, the QuaDror universal joints and a guide for an easy assembly structure. Due to its compact geometry and collapsibility, lightweight shipping materials and the use of local materials, the QuaDror Home is both cost-effective and easily shippable. according to Benshetrit.

"We are interested in the transformative power of design as an interdependent response to social, economical and ecological matters. Our work is the interactive process of inventing and providing (infra)structure and comprehensive systems to improve our ways of living. In effect, we believe that designers and users can become co-creators." The studio is in the process of manufacturing the QuaDror Home, and hopes to construct the first QuaDror houses in Sierra Leone.

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 25

feature/INDABA

Design by ubuntu Injecting design fabric into the Ubuntu operating system

Billionaires are not as rare as they used to be. When one sits on the stairs next to you at Design Indaba (he came in late and could not find a seat) the rebel in you smirks. A less reputable part wonders what he would be willing to pay you for your seat.

Mark Shuttleworth has no airs, and the slight English accent he is developing doesn’t detract from his Ayobaness. Shuttleworth described how he injected design into the fabric of his open source Ubuntu operating system to take it mainstream.

Ubuntu is a case study in collaboration, and designing its interface was also an open source, collaborative process. According to Shuttleworth, the focus going forward will be on the user experience – judging from the slides he presented, Ubuntu will make messages, toolbars and other bits and pieces that take up your screen real

26 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

estate disappear when you don’t need them, and re-appear when you do. The only thing required now would be to make people brave enough to skip the pre-installed Windows software on their computers.

Oh, and the future – search will be the interface for everything – files and folders are just too chaotic.

The entrepreneur is passionate about the tempo, design and quality in open source. He believes that free software can become the de facto way the world builds and experiences all software. "It feels pretty clear to me that the open process produces better stuff," says Shuttleworth, whose team at Canonical in the UK is leading the Ubuntu project.

feature/indaba

Open sesame Created just over 4 years ago, Ubuntu has emerged as the fastestgrowing and most celebrated version of the Linux operating system, which competes with Windows primarily through its low price: R0.

More than 10 million people are estimated to run Ubuntu today, and they represent a threat to Microsoft’s hegemony in developed countries – and perhaps even more so in those regions catching up to the technology revolution.

Ubuntu is part of a growing international trend that sees community participation at the centre of product development. Open source is defined as "pertaining to or denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed with or without modification".

Of course, Ubuntu’s origins are doubly African, as the word itself refers to the humanist philosophy that "I am what I am because of who we all are." What better way to describe what open source programmers do, as they make information freely available and build on shared experiences to develop the best operating system possible.

"If we’re successful, we would fundamentally change the operating system market," says Shuttleworth. Microsoft would need to adapt, and I don’t think that would be unhealthy."

In the short term, the focus seems to be on the PCs used by workers and people at home. The notion of a strong Linux-based competitor to Windows and, to a lesser extent, Apple’s Mac OS X has been an enduring dream of advocates of open-source software. They champion the idea that software that can be freely altered by the masses can prove cheaper and better than proprietary code produced by big corporations.

user, Shuttleworth said: "More and more, people own their computing experience and yet developers try to push into that space. "Microsoft shows the space stolen by browsers like Chrome. And then refers to menus – do we need them always there"? A free operating system that pays for itself, he says, could change how people view and use the software they touch everyday. "Are we creating world peace or fundamentally changing the world? No," he said. "But we could shift what people expect and the amount of innovation per dollar they expect."

Open font On Ubuntu, the open source font commissioned by Canonical and freely available for use online, Shuttleworth says, "We were introduced to [font studio] Dalton Maag, who expressed a willingness to

Open (creative) economy During his presentation, Shuttleworth noted that "Open source everything is a key characteristic of a creative economy." But, he said, "Designers have a pathology of preciousness. Histrionics never shipped a product." His sentiment, it seems, is that the ego can only stand in the way of ubuntu-inspired practices.

People encountering Ubuntu for the first time will find it very similar to Windows. The operating system has a slick graphical interface, familiar menus and all the common desktop software: a Web browser, an e-mail program, instant-messaging software and a free suite of programs for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. However, updating Linux may present some problems with some very basic issues. These are all things Shuttleworth is keenly aware of – and Canonical has tried to smooth out many of the issues that have prevented Linux from reaching the mainstream.

As a result, it has emerged as a sort of favoured destination for those idealistic software developers who viewed themselves as part of a revolutionary movement.

Speaking of Ubuntu’s somewhat revolutionary commitment to designing a platform that gives the bulk of screen space back to the

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 27

feature/INDABA

engage around an open font, and Canonical agreed to buy the rights to the work completely, so that it could be licensed freely. [Bruno] Maag then pulled together a very energetic team of typographers – folk who live and breathe type and typography and keen to explore this rather crazy idea of inviting crowds into the inner sanctum of type design."

"We wanted a process which would ensure participation without drowning out the clear leadership needed for a coherent result.

Bruno steered us through a core initial process where we defined the range and scope of what we wanted to take on, and the values we wanted reflected in the result. In the process, I learned that a font is grounded in real values and, fortunately, we have a strong expression of the six attributes that we value in Ubuntu: collaboration, freedom, precision, reliability, adroitness and accessibility."

Local global This approach to font design underscores Ubuntu's local-global aspirations and values. "What’s interesting is that Dalton Maag have said there is worldwide interest in the project. Many professional typographers are starting to think about open fonts. Now is the time to set a very high standard for what is achievable. There are hard questions to be answered about how the business of typography will evolve in the face of open and free type, but, historically, those questions have best been answered by the bold: those who get involved, those who put themselves in the front line," says Shuttleworth. And that' the spirit of Ubuntu.

28 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Speaking of Ubuntu’s somewhat revolutionary commitment to designing a platform that gives the bulk of screen space back to the user,

Shuttleworth said: "More and more, people own their computing experience and yet developers try to push into that space. "Microsoft shows the space stolen by browsers like

Chrome. And then refers

to menus

– do we need them

always there"?

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 29

feature/IMAGE

The deep image If you’re a designer, now is a really good time to start developing an understanding of the new opportunities made possible by recent developments in

3D

By Richard Stone

Of the senses we posses, sight accounts for the bulk of the stimulus we absorb from the three-dimensional world. What a staggering thought it is then, to consider that virtually all our print and electronic media have been, until now, completely and often heartbreakingly two-dimensional.

We should all have 3D TVs. And it’s safe to say that, ten years from now, most of us will. In fact, before long, it might be difficult to even find a TV or indeed a laptop that isn’t 3D. While we’ve enjoyed the benefits of stereo sound reproduction (sound with depth) since 1931, we still have to don a pair of 3D spectacles and go to a 3D film theatre to experience actual recreated three-dimensional views.

The man Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to lament the limitations of painting in simulating the appearance of three-dimensional space. Over the centuries we have developed many 2D visual design mechanisms in order to create the illusion of depth: Linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, foreshortening, scale, depth of field, layering and, if you’re in a hurry, drop shadows. These illusions have long been used by the designer, artist and photographer in his or her attempts at reproducing, in two dimensions, that which exists in three.

But even the best efforts using the most advanced 3D rendering software inevitably results in an image that ends up either printed on a flat piece of paper, or displayed on a flat screen. The image may even have been designed in three dimensions (CAD), but the resulting effect is an image that (like this page) exists in only two.

In my own experience, even when an image is applied to a three-dimensional shape (for example in packaging design), the actual visual

30 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

depth is often determined more by the shape of the object to which it is applied, than by the image itself.

Limitations We have always used 2D visual mechanisms, like linear perspective, to create the illusion of depth. But there are some very real limitations to what can be achieved as far as creating actual visual depth is concerned, even when several of these mechanisms are used in combination. There is only so much information that can be communicated in 2D, because you have to rely on the viewer’s ability to understand spatial definition. The illusion of depth has to be correctly interpreted.

Also, the illusion of depth in a 2D illustration/photograph can be manipulated or inaccurate. The illusion of depth can also be exaggerated or understated as many of the famous graphic works by M.C. Escher clearly illustrate.

Deeper canvas But things are changing fast. The latest screen technology doesn’t even require those unflattering 3D glasses to deliver real 3D visual depth. Before long any CI Manual will have to contain a chapter on how the brand lives in 3D space. Soon, we will have a much deeper canvas to work on. The time has come for designers of all disciplines to develop a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which three-dimensional sight is achieved.

Artwork by Richard Stone

feature/image

1. See in 3-D 1. Place the below images directly parallel to your face, but be sure to view it from a distance of no less than 70cm without zooming in. 2. Be sure to hold your head at a perfect horizontal angle. 3. Relax your eyes and stare at the two black dots below the images. 4. Now skew your eyes slightly without changing focus until you see four dots. 5. Keep skewing your eyes until the two middle dots overlap. 6. Keeping that gaze fixed, raise your eyes to view the 3-D image.

Now this sounds like hard work, and to be sure, it can sometimes be a bit tricky, but the good news is that it is also a whole lot of fun.

Better yet, a basic understanding of the principles can enable you to bring great realism, screaming clarity and blistering immediacy to most designs, while at the same time adding enormous value to your process. But I’m not referring only to the realistic/naturalistic representation of space or volume.

As we have had to learn to manipulate the mechanisms of visual depth in 2D, we must now learn to manipulate the mechanisms of visual depth in all three dimensions. The visual representation of three-dimensional space relies on what is called stereoscopic vision. Like most animals, we humans have two eyes. Human visual perception makes use of the slight difference between the individual vantage points of each eye to estimate distance – interestingly, a

physiological attribute we share with most predators in the animal kingdom (Image 1).

A simple demonstration of the above would be to try to catch a ball with one eye closed. The view from any single vantage point is quite flat, making it very difficult to judge distance. Having two eyes not only gives us a backup eye should one be lost, it also enables us to better understand the space in which we find ourselves. So the purpose of this article is then to demonstrate the visual effect of stereoscopic vision (in case you didn’t get around to seeing Avatar in a 3D movie theatre) and then to show you how to make rudimentary 3D images using a camera or 3D rendering software.

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 31

feature/IMAGe

2. Creating a 3-D image from existing 2-D Start by identifying and isolating all distinguishable picture elements on separate layers.

Make some images

Foreground, middle-ground, and background is a good starting point, but more layers will result in better definition. You will have to complete partially obscured picture elements in order to reposition them seamlessly. Then prepare two versions of the same image as follows:

Pronounced visual depth can even be artificially applied to an existing flat design by carefully isolating and arranging different visual planes on separated layers to create a view for each eye (Image 2). You can even 'distill' static 3D images from certain types of video files and movies by combining screen-captured images from different vantage points – tracking shots and dolly shots work really well (Image 3).

Our design studio has recently started facilitating stereoscopic presentations of threedimensional design concepts to some of our FMCG clients with great success. Instead of building and couriering mock-ups, we often visualise the packaging design concept by rendering or photographing it (twice – one for each eye) in three dimensions, in our Johannesburg studio. We can then email the combined stereoscopic image to our Cape Town branch, where it may be viewed by the client, in perfect 3D, on the very same day it was designed. Very handy when your industrial design happens a thousand kilometers from where the client is, and you have a tight deadline.

Not only is this visualisation technique very time and cost effective, it also enables you to accentuate specific design attributes that you want the client to notice and understand. It is sometimes the only way to gain a truly realistic sense of what an image looks like when it’s applied to a form – typically in packaging design. It’s also a very realistic technique for visualising retail interiors or architectural elevations, compared to the traditional 'fly-through', flat 3D rendering or scale model. There’s just no end to the fun you can have with a stereoscope!

Left Eye Image

FOREGROUND

MIDDLEFOREGROUND

MIDDLE GROUND

MIDDLEBACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

FOREGROUND

MIDDLEFOREGROUND

MIDDLE GROUND

MIDDLEBACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

Move al image layers in front of the middle-ground over to the right. The degree of depth is relevant to how far you move the layer. Now move all image layers behind the middle-ground to the left. Be sure to measure and record movements so that they can be replicated on the righteye image.

Right Eye Image Move al image layers in front of the middle-ground over to the left. Be sure to use the exact same (but inverted) distances as used on the left-eye image. Now move all image layers behind the middle-ground to the right. The more you move it, the deeper it gets. Place both images side by side and view as above.

3. How to make 3D photographs / renderings The easiest way to create an effective stereoscopic image is to take two different photographs, each one from a slightly different angle. The greater the angle, the more pronounced the depth. A camera movement of as little as 6cm is usually sufficient, depending on the length of the lens. Ideally, these stereo images should be viewed through a proper stereoscope to get the full 3-D effect.

_Richard Stone is creative director at Yellowwood Future Architects LEFT-EYE VIEW

RIGHT-EYE VIEW 1

RIGHT-EYE VIEW 2

RIGHT-EYE VIEW 3

LEFT-EYE VIEW

RIGHT-EYE VIEW 1

3.1 Small & medium size objects

3.2 Large objects & landscapes

Smaller objects’ shapes are better defined by rotational

Larger views are better defined by parallel camera setup

camera setup re-positioning. Limited depth-of-field can be

re-positioning. Landscapes are better defined when the

effectively used to accentuate specific aspects of the object

two photographs are taken several meters apart, or even at greater distances.

32 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

RIGHT-EYE VIEW 2

get out there!

Advertise in ENJIN and reach an audience of *6 500+ graphic designers, photographers, art directors, illustrators, web designers, video professionals and more

A few things ENJIN readers do: specify paper and print for annual reports create corporate identities and other literature buy stock images and commission photographers and illustrators make commercials for print and tv design websites and other multimedia and interactive products

use technology every day (especially macs) and the software and hardware that run on them use state-of-the-art photography equipment buy beautifully-designed lifestyle office and home products To advertise in ENJIN, call 011 640-3311; ads@enjin.co.za *Based on a print circulation of 2200 copies with an estimated readership of 6600 (3 readers per copy) ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 33

FLIP ON get your print copy of enjin for the price of a few apps

for only

R22

per magazine delivered to your home of office

by a real postman

www.enjin.co.za/subscribe 34 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

PLATFORM A CULTURAL REVIEW OF SORTS

• • • •

CAMERON PLATTER PETE CASE RICHARD HART MOMA

36 41 42 44

Illustration: Richard Hart ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 35

platform

Lewd, crude, screwed In conversation with Cameron Platter

Cameron Platter is a relatively young (read 32) artist who lives and works in Ballito, the little holiday town just north of Durban that is equal parts Bible belt and surfers' paradise. Platter has worked steadily at his art for over a decade and his dedication and effort are starting to pay big dividends; his work is included in prominent public collections in Europe and America, he is regularly invited to participate in international art fairs and biennales and has had a number of solo shows at home and abroad. His work is highly original, distinctive and troubling in all the right ways. He's easy going, has a wicked sense of humour and can cook a pig underground.

Cameron Platter: Ballito? Argghh…

Ballito is Boksburg by the sea, with worse architecture…I like to think I work in Shaka’s Rock. It just sounds nicer. The Bible belt thing is true. We also have an autobodyshop that doubles as a church, which is next to a braai and rib shop, which is opposite the Cash Crusaders, next to the discount bottle store…

RH: These days you pursue the solitary life of a full-time artist, but it wasn't always this way. In fact I recall hearing that you showed massive promise as a young commercials director. Can you tell us a little about those days and why you chose to give up what most would consider a pretty glamorous, high-rolling career for that of the artist?

CP: The film gig was a brief blip. It did have its perks: people called me 'sir', I had my own office overlooking Greenmarket Square and someone who made me coffee.

36 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

But I was astounded at the braindeadness, self-importance, and brazen stupidity of most of the people that worked in that industry.

RH: That's quite an indictment, and I'm sure well deserved. However I'm sure many would have the same to say for the art world. Maybe it's just a question of where you find yourself and with whom?

CP: It was certainly my experience of the advertising and film industries. I’m sure there’s plenty of great, inspiring stuff out there. I didn’t come across it, though. My problem is that the vast majority of the advertising business is all for dumbing down – people not giving a shit about doing the right thing, fuelling an obsession for eating KFC and buying cellphones and cars and cash loans and penis enlargers on credit. Then again I suppose it feeds my art, so I revel in it too…

RH: From the get-go you seem to have had a very clear idea of your vision, your own personal iconography as an artist. Can you tell me a bit about how you got to where you're at.

CP: Art school taught me that everything fun, anything involving colour, and especially, drawing – was BAD and was never to be done, under any circumstances, ever. So naturally, after graduating (just) and mopping restaurant floors for a couple of years, I decided to have fun, love colour, and make some drawings. And not worry too much about what people thought. Crocodiles, Killer Transvestite Zebras from Outer Space, Minibar/ ATM/ Soundsystems, Penis Enlargement ads,

Top: Intergalactic Mothership Leisure facility, 2011 Middle: Killa Zebraz Spaceship, 2011 Bottom: The Battle of Rorkes Drift at Club Dirty Den, 2009

platform

I hardly ever think about art while having sex.

– Cameron Platter

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 37

platform

Above: Black Up That White Ass II, video, 2009 Opposite: The Old Fashion, video, 2010

Porn, Storytelling, Films, Rudeness, and Lewdness all evolved quite naturally from that decision. I couldn’t tell you what I will be making in a year’s time. Although I have a plan, it always deviates from the blueprint. Any artist who claims to be absolutely sure of where they’re going is lying.

RH: Okay, I just need to get this one out the way; what's with the penis obsession? While your at it you might as well explain the porn thing too.

CP: Everyone loves cock. If they claim they don’t, they’re lying…The porn thing is multi-dimensional and would require a mini-thesis to answer. In short, if people find porn offensive, shocking, deviant,

38 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

perverse, etc., I wonder why they aren’t appalled at the goings-on of everyday life, which are far more offensive, shocking, deviant, perverse and horrific.

RH: Yes indeed. But those two sculptures on your bedside table must surely bring on feelings of inadequacy, or are you completely unthreatened by two foot high shiny black phalluses?

CP: No inadequacy feelings whatsoever. I hardly ever think about art while having sex…

RH: You clearly think about sex plenty when making art though?

CP: Dude, you’re too good…I can’t come back at that! Although a cold shower before the studio sometimes works…If I want to get serious work done.

platform

"Crocodiles, Killer Transvestite Zebras from Outer Space, Minibar/ ATM/ Soundsystems, Penis Enlargement ads, Porn, Storytelling, Films, Rudeness, and Lewdness all evolved quite naturally.

RH: Your work has a very optimistic feel; bright, flat colours, characters that could easily come from childrens' books, plenty of humour.

Yet you work in a small studio that gets so hot in the summer that you have to strip down to your jocks. You make massive pictures that are hand coloured using pencil crayons. It all seems pretty arduous – where does the joy come from?

CP: Joy? My work is darkly satirical, paranoid, and explores the futility of our existence. Sitting in a sweltering studio, in underpants, with mosquitoes, aids reflection on these doom and gloom thoughts.

RH: A lot of children's programmes (like The Magic Roundabout back in the 70s) work on two levels, one that is light and fun and aimed at the kids, and another that communicates a darker message.

I think your work operates like this. On one level it is just a lot of fun – it is easy to fall for a crocodile in boots and a hat even if he's toting an AK 47 and abusing his women. I think the bright colours and the humour are a good foil for your deeper intentions. Is it a calculated strategy or do you simply sit back and channel what's coming through?

CP: I don’t think there’s too much strategy, it’s definitely more about sitting back and channeling real life into some sort of fiction.

Although it is rather nice to lure people in with bright colours, and a seemingly cheerful disposition, and then sucker-punch them in the balls. And of course it's easier for most people to watch an animated crocodile ass-fuck a prostitute and then shoot her in the head. You couldn’t do that with real people. Still, in spite of the darker side of my work, I absolutely love what I do, and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

election poster; ditto for the layout genius of the life insurance/ need cash/loans ads in the Daily Sun; for sheer chutzpah, the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs; and of course, Prince Barrack Hussein. Oh, and Michelangelo (for David’s penis).

RH: So can we take from this that you're not really very enamored with art that's being made these days?

CP: Generally I don’t look at too many artists’ work. I think that you find far more interesting stuff walking around, keeping your eyes and ears open. Obviously, I’m aware of what’s happening locally and internationally but I don’t pay too much attention to it. I find that it can be unhealthy and distract your own vision. And a lot of the stuff is pretty mediocre – you really have to wade through the sludge to find that chicken nugget.

RH: You’re so right. I made it to the Frieze art fair in London last year and was appalled at how much sludge there was. Here you have the best and the brightest galleries in the world supposedly showcasing the best and the brightest artists in the world and I couldn’t help wondering if anything at that fair would be in the permanent collection of Tate Modern or MoMA in 20 years' time. How does the art world function when so much seems to be a case of the emperor's new clothes?

CP: I think it’s all about who’s fucking who. And then, on the rare occasion, it’s about the art! _Richard Hart is creative director at disturbance design in Durban

RH: That love comes through – maybe more than the paranoia and the futility of our existence. A few months back I was lurking about in a gallery while the owner was showing your stuff to a collector and his wife. They laughed a lot.

CP: Although they may have laughed a lot, I don’t think they bought anything.

RH: Maybe not, but I've never bought a Goya...doesn't stop me gawking in wonder. With such a singular vision of your own I would imagine you'd be very selective in the type of work that you like and the artists that inspire you. Who's getting you hard right now and why?

CP: Although others might not think of them as artists, I’d definitely call them masters – in no particular order: whoever designed the IFP

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 39

40 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

platform

Digital Pete Gloo's Pete Case finds the heart in digital

Pete Case needs little introduction to the larger creative or digital community. His name is intricately linked to that of the multi-award winning digital agency Gloo, AdReview's Digital Design Agency of the Year for the past four years running, where he serves as founding partner and Executive Creative Director.

Case acknowledges that his agency catches a lot of flak for winning creative awards (and lots of them) but, he says, he has never believed that it would benefit the digital industry to be perceived as dry and mechanical, obsessively focussed on measurability, when in fact it has a lot of heart and potential in telling brand stories. "We actually believe that relevant great ideas, strategy and creativity in turn create higher engagement," says Case. "This has been proven when over the past 2 years our work has topped not only the Loeries but also the Assegais (with its focus on measurement). Case believes the digital industry will be better served by achieving a balance between creativity and measurability – creating 'emotional work' and linking it to great technology. Failure to do so might result in digital teams getting side-lined as well as the industry not attracting the right mix of new talent.

If students perceive digital as all techie, companies like Gloo would miss out on a lot of creative talent, says Case, who highlights the failure of students from creative colleges to enter the industry as a challenge that needs to be addressed. To this end he regularly speaks at colleges to convince students that digital is much more than coding websites. Case sees the key challenge for brands as translating the work they do on digital networks into "real life social networks."

The messages created online is spread by people networks, in offices, at parties and between friends, as the hugely successful Lonely Finger campaign for 5FM proved a couple of years ago. The online/ offline discussion is not one the industry has sufficiently engaged with, says Case.

Marketers (and their digital agencies) need to look into worlds that already exist if they want to find value to their messages.

Its focus on balancing creative storytelling with technology has seen 2.4 million unique users engage with SA Tourism, prior to and during the World Cup, while Fifa attracted over 145 000 unique visitors in the first 2 months of a viral campaign created by Gloo.

Originally from London, where he completed an honours in Graphic Design before launching his first agency, Hard Drive, in 1990, Case landed in South Africa by following his heart.

The South African girl that convinced him to move to Cape Town is today his wife. Case initially teamed up with Marc Caplan to start

a digital agency called bandwidth. The partnership worked with various international clients until Caplan's sudden death in a car crash five years later. Bandwith would then merge with 33 degrees, Network#BBDO's small digital arm in Cape Town, to give birth to Gloo Digital Design. The new stand-alone worked across the indus-

try and with various agencies, prompting the decision to exchange partners with someone more independent than BBDO. Case picked empowerment firm Kagiso Media in 2009, though Gloo (Digital Design was dropped after Case decided SA's online audience had reached a level where the agency could show its 'strength in integrated ideas as a strategic and ideas based agency') is still based at the BBDO premises at 30 Chiappini Street in Cape Town.

The agency started 2011 on a high note after winning the hotly contested Brite Blue Project account (a company and vision created by the ex-founder of 2020 bank). Other recent account wins include BMW, Mini, AVIS, SA Tourism and SES Astra. _This article first appeared on BizCommunity.com. Manson is an independent media and marketing journalist. He blogs @marklives. com and Tweets @marklives

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 41

REVIEW

Sign

language New work from Richard Hart explores the relationship between art and language

With his latest solo presentation Lingua Nero, Richard Hart, creative director at disturbance design, explores new territory both materially and conceptually – a continuation of his investigation into the complex relationship of semiotics, signs, symbols and language. Lingua Nero, loosely translated as ‘Strong Language’ and ‘Black Language’, offers the viewer both in terms of hue and humour. His latest exhibition is a refining and focusing of the approach to text and language based art-making pioneered in his 2010 show, Lingua Franca, at the KZNSA Gallery.

"Richard Hart’s career as a graphic designer has been a twenty-year love affair with letterforms, words, text and language. Lingua Nero takes this relationship into a gallery context and allows Hart to unhitch his craft from the imperatives of graphic design. Freed from the need to communicate to a mass audience, Hart’s work engages intimately, using materials and techniques far removed from the traditional media associated with graphic design," says artthrob.

Hart engages in a three-dimensional word play that affects and expands meaning in a playfully critical dialogue.

Using a combination of sculpture, collage, assemblage and installation, familiar objects are recontextualised and married with words or phrases that suggest but don’t prescribe meaning. Through his transformation of the quotidian, Hart’s sculptural and visually seductive text pieces challenge the literal and invite the viewer to engage in multiple interpretations.

42 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

review

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 43

review

In the

house

Best of SA on show in New York

During the oppressive years of apartheid rule in South Africa, not all artists had access to the same opportunities. But far from quashing creativity and political spirit, these limited options gave rise to a host of alternatives – including studios, print workshops, art centers, schools, publications and theaters open to all races; underground poster workshops and collectives; and commercial galleries that supported the work of black artists – that made the art world a progressive environment for social change.

Printmaking, with its flexible formats, portability, relative affordability and collaborative environment, was a catalyst in the exchange of ideas and the articulation of political resistance.

Drawn entirely from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now features nearly 100 posters, books and wall stencils created over the last five decades that demonstrate the exceptional reach, range and impact of printmaking during and after a period of enormous political upheaval.

From the earliest print in the exhibition, made in 1965 (the Museum’s first acquisition of work by a South African artist), to printed posters from the height of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, to projects by a younger generation that reflect new and evolving artistic concerns, these works are striking examples of printed art as a tool for social, political and personal expression.

Featured artists include Bitterkomix, Kudzanai Chiurai, Sandile Goje, William Kentridge, Senzeni Marasela, John Muafangejo, Cameron Platter, Claudette Schreuders and Sue Williamson. www.moma.org

Top: Kudzanai Chiurai, Installation view at MoMA, Untitled, 2008 Bottom: Judy Seidman, Medu Art Ensemble, You Have Struck a Rock, 1981

44 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Images courtesy of MOMA

review

Top: William Kentridge, General, 1993

Left: Sandile Goje, Meeting of Two Cultures, 1993

Right: Kudzanai Chiurai, We Always Have Reason to Fear, 2008

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 45

Sink or swim Guidelines to getting FSC™ certified

Paper merchant Papersmith & Son is actively involved in getting clients FSC certified. The process of certification may seem a little daunting at first; in reality it is not that difficult.

FSC certification ranges from organisations who can offer certification to forest managers meeting FSC standards, to manufacturers such as paper mills, paper merchants, printers and converters who use FSC-certified material in producing wood-based products.

Noddie Knibbs, Programme Administrator for SGS South Africa, a local FSC certification body, says certification should be taken seriously as there are grave concerns about the destruction and misuse of global forest resources and resulting deforestation.

Q: I work at a printing company. How do I get FSC certified?

By contacting a certification body such as SGS South Africa.

Q: I work at an ad agency. Do we or our clients need to be FSC certified in order to use the FSC label on our printed material?

No, neither the advertising agency nor the end client needs to be FSC certified. The requirements are that in order to use the FSC label on printed material, all parties converting or holding the stock need to be FSC certified.

Q: Why does the FSC choose to recognize recycled content when the primary goal of the system is to ensure responsible forest management?

There are a few key reasons for this. The vast majority of 'recycled' products have no verification associated with them, and the FSC provides the highest rigour in verification. Many products that claim 'recycled' content don’t differentiate post- from pre-consumer waste – improved recycling of post-consumer waste helps take pressure off natural forests and reduce the waste in landfills.

With FSC Mixed things get a little complicated. Put simply, mixed sourced products are a blend of FSC pure, recycled and/or controlled sources. Controlled sources refers to any wood or fibre in an FSC product that is not from an FSC forest or made up of recycled material.

All controlled sources are screened to ensure that they aren’t contributing to any of the five most destructive practices in forestry, including illegal logging (natural forest conversion to other land uses); the liquidation of high conservation value forests (civil rights violations) and genetic modification of forest species.

Environmental grades such as recycled, low carbon-emission, hydro, solar powered and carbon-neutral papers are available from Papersmith & Son (FSC NO C100417).

Q: What are the types of FSC certification?

There are two types of FSC certification – Forest Management and Chain of Custody (CoC). Forest Management requires organisations to adhere to FSC standards for the management of their forests.

These standards are measured in line with FSC’s principles and criteria. A certificate is then awarded for good management practices that include strong social, environmental and economical activities.

The Chain of Custody certification applies to manufacturers and others who process and transform forest products. The main objective is to ensure that material from FSC certified forests is tracked through the code which appears on their invoices when an FSC claim is made, so the chain can be tracked right back to the forest. In this way, end users are able to select FSC certified products knowing there is a system in place to verify the sourcing of wood.

Q: Whose CoC code is used on the final printed material?

Since the printer is the final party to be converting or holding the product before final distribution to the end client, the printer’s CoC code will be utilised on the printed piece.

46 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Q: What are the types of FSC labels and what do they mean?

FSC Pure Label (100%) – All content that makes up the finished product must come from an FSC certified forest. The product must contain no recycled or non-FSC fibre of any kind FSC Recycled – an FSC recycled product means that a minimum of 85% of the wood fibre content is from post-consumer waste sources, with a maximum of 15% coming from pre-consumer (postindustrial) waste sources.

For any queries, e-mail marketing@papersmith.co.za. For FSC enquiries, contact SGS South Africa at noddie.knibbs@sgs.com

Naturalis from Tullis Russell Papermakers is a paper and board range producing outstanding print results. Naturalis contains woodpulp from well managed forests certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Naturalis is exclusively distributed

by Papersmith & Son in South Africa.

Johannesburg 011 240-6900 Cape Town 021 510-8672 Durban 031 700-4881 sales@papersmith.co.za ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 47

tools

Synchronised hp touchpad synchronises webos tablets, phones

HP's Touchpad will be the first in a family of tablet devices, according to the company. The Touchpad has a 9.7 inch high-resolution (1024 x 768) display, weighs 725g and is 13mm thick. It has a 1.3 megapixel webcam with video calling. It comes with 16GB or 32GB storage and uses the dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Wi-Fi version will be internationally available in May, with 3G and 4G versions coming later, HP said.

A compact wireless keyboard is available for the Touchpad. The Touchpad interface groups applications logicaly as 'card stacks'; when a user is finished with using an app he can simply flick it off the screen rather than shutting it down.

Touching a compatible WebOS phone to the tablet can automatically fire up a browser on the phone and display the same Web page that's displayed on the tablet. If a user finds directions to a restaurant on their tablet, for example, and wants to take them out in the car, he can tap the devices together and the page of directions appears on the phone.

HP's Synergy is used to synchronize WebOS devices, so WebOS phones and the tablet can share address books, e-mail and the like Also included is TouchPad at Work software which comprises QuickOffice, Google Docs and VPN. Unlike the iPad, Flash is supported.

There was no word on availability and pricing at the time of publication. www.hp.co.za

48 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

tools

Launchpad ipad

2 continues the good work

The iPad 2 features a new design that is 33 per cent thinner and up to 15 per cent lighter than the original iPad, while maintaining the same 9.7-inch LED backlit LCD screen. iPad 2 features Apple’s new dual-core A5 processor and includes two cameras – a front-facing VGA camera for FaceTime and Photo Booth and a rearfacing camera that captures 720p HD video. The iPad 2 delivers up to 10 hours of battery life and is available in black or white.

"With more than 15 million iPads sold, iPad has defined an entirely new category of mobile devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we’re launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again."

The iPad 2 comes with iOS 4.3, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. New features including faster Safari mobile browsing performance; iTunes Home Sharing; enhancements to AirPlay; the choice to use the iPad side switch to either lock the screen rotation or mute audio; and Personal Hotspot to share an iPhone 4 cellular data connection over Wi-Fi. Additional iPad 2 features include a built-in gyro for gaming; HSUPA support for enhanced 3G upload speeds and HDMI Video Mirroring that lets users mirror their iPad screen on an HDTV using an optional adaptor. Pricing for iPad 2 remains unchanged from iPad 1. www.myistore.co.za

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 49

tools

XPress goes deeper Quark unveils dynamic digital publishing tool

QuarkXPress 9 has been developed to help designers create content that can be published to digital devices such as e-readers, smartphones and tablets with one tool and without coding. QuarkXPress 9 includes an option for exporting to e-Pub and Blio – a free, multi-platform, multi-device application that presents eBooks just like the printed versions, in full colour and with all of the features of the ideal eReader.

The Blio eReader for Windows can be downloaded free and is also being preinstalled on millions of computers and devices running Windows and Android from Toshiba, HP, Dell and others. Support is expected soon for Mac OS X, additional devices that run the Android platform as well as iOS devices.

Dynamic content As part of Quark's Digital Publishing 2.0 strategy, XPress 9 aims to give creative professionals more control over the execution of their designs via a single tool without the need for coding or programming.

The new version – which integrates the new App Studio and Blio e-reader design functionality in the package – allows designers to publish directly to digital devices, notably the iPad and eventually other tablets, as well as to e-readers and smart phones. Version 9 also offers new design-automation features to assist in the production of multimedia documents and periodicals for print, Web and interactive Flash media.

50 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

App Studio One far-reaching innovation for XPress 9 is App Studio for QuarkXPress. This feature lets nontechnical designers publish to QuarkXPress 9 makes it easy to publish to multiple devices, including the iPad the iPad directly from QuarkXPress. The advantage of App Studio, says Quark, is that designers can control expects it to be in line with the per-issue the look and feel of the editorial prodpricing that it set for App Studio for Quark uct without having to invest in technical Publishing System, which starts at R2 500 development expertise. App Studio offers for publishing a single issue, and decreases interactive features such as video/audio depending on the number of issues purplayers, slideshows, scrollable regions, chased.

Web overlays, pop-up windows, buttons, hyperlinks and more.

Strategy While App Studio is officially part of XPress 9 at launch, it will not ship with the software immediately, but will be available It’s all very exciting, but there are a number as a free add-on within 90 days after the of issues that need to be kept in mind. product ships. Until then, Quark is offering Firstly, the App Studio isn’t included with its iPad Publishing Service for QuarkXthe initial launch of QuarkXPress 9, but Press, in which Quark will configure a will follow as a free upgrade within 90 starter iPad app with a customer's logos days. Only then will we see what the full and colours, and enable the enrichment of iPad publishing experience is like. Users QuarkXPress content to be published to also need to sign up to become Apple that app. Users of the service will be able developers and will need a Mac or iPad if to migrate to QuarkXPress 9 for their iPad they want to preview their output. There’s publishing projects once App Studio for also some confusion over how regular QuarkXPress is released. issue-based publishing will work based on Apple's App Store is already offering the Apple’s recent announcements regarding App Studio for users of the enterprise-level in-app subscriptions.

Quark Publishing System (QPS). While the pricing scheme for App Studio for the new version is still being finalized, Quark www.qmedia.co.za

tools

Power towers HP introduces affordable new workstations

HP has expanded its Z Workstation line with the Z210 series. The new workstations are aimed at video editors, MCAD/AEC users as well as those in the education, digital content creation and image viewing industries. As entry-level workstations, the emphasis is on offering good value for money. The computers are powered by either Intel’s Xeon E3 processors or second-generation Core i3, i5 or i7 chips depending on configuration. The HP Z210 models offer a range of professional graphics options, including 2D choices from AMD and NVIDIA that incorporate dual graphics card capabilities that support up to four 2D displays. 3D choices include next-generation processor-integrated Intel high-definition graphics that lower the entry cost for professional 3D graphics, and entry and midrange graphics from NVidia and AMD. No pricing was available at the time of going to press. www.hp.co.za

In with the old Harman launches new ILFORD grade HARMAN technology has introduced a new silver gelatine photographic paper, ILFORD MULTIGRADE Art 300, produced in co-operation with Hahnemühle FineArt, Germany. Following extensive consultation with photographers and printers, the company started an R&D project a while ago, in which a survey of users identified the need for a true fine art paper with a MULTIGRADE silver gelatine coating.

The study showed the ideal product would have a cool base colour with a neutral to warm image tone. Many of those surveyed yearned for old-fashioned papers, and these features came out repeatedly in the survey. Steven Brierley, Director of Sales and Marketing at HARMAN, says, "It seemed to me that if we could meet this clearly identified need we would please many – and significantly widen the choice for those who wish to use silver gelatine papers when making black-and-white fine art prints. By offering a true fine art textured matt paper with a MULTIGRADE coating, we believe we have met their needs and expanded the range of paper surfaces available today."

The grade features a 100% cotton rag paper base, is acid-free but

with the wet strength needed to survive the archival washing required when making fine art prints.

The company says exposure times and product handling will be familiar to MULTIGRADE users who will be able to quickly start producing excellent prints. Compared to ILFORD FB (baryta), slightly shorter wash times are achieved, and the paper can easily be handled in large sheets thanks to its 300gsm weight. www.midsouth.co.za

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 51

tools

Adobe ushers in new era Company unveils new development and pricing strategy

In a radical departure from its traditional 18-month upgrade cycle, Adobe has announced Creative Suite 5.5, an update of its major creative applications. Substantial upgrades to InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Premiere Pro and After Effects accompany a new SDK (Software Development Kit) for Photoshop CS5. It signals a new strategy for Adobe, which at once lengthens the cycle of milestone releases from 18 months to 24 months, and introduces mid-cycle releases every 12 months for selected applications and suites. Customers' needs and technical innovations will drive the upgrade cycle in future, the company said.

The new versions of Adobe's creative applications reflect the full-scale integration of tablet authoring into the creative workflow. This is in response to the transition away from paper-based publications to editorial and artistic content that is created and consumed on electronic devices such as Apple's iPad. The proliferation of mobile apps, browser content and digital magazines has inspired the company's accelerated concentration on HTML 5, video, mobile and digital publishing tools.

52 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

tools

Subscription Editions With the new software comes a new pricing plan – a new Subscription Editions programme is designed to make its creative tools more affordable to artists and designers and to give new users – and those who need the software only for specific projects – more opportunities to work with the apps.

Features The big news with Photoshop CS5.5 is that it can now communicate with other devices over a network. This offers some intriguing possibilities, with a series of iPad apps that will take full advantage of this.

Easel is a simple painting app similar to the Brushes app, but from which you can send ‘sketches’ directly to Photoshop. Color Lava is a colour palette creation tool similar to Adobe’s Kuler. It can send schemes over a network to Photoshop. Nav allows you to use the iPad as a control surface for Photoshop, enabling you to quickly jump between tools. All of the apps are as yet prototypes.

InDesign CS5.5 sees the formal introduction of what are now called the Folio Producer tools, which are used for creating interactive publications for the desktop and tablets. With InDesign CS5.5 the Interactive Overlay Creator application has become a panel within InDesign – making creating and adding elements such as controllable video, slideshows, panoramas and web content much easier, according to Adobe.

After Effects sees the greatest number of new creative tools of any of the updated products. The Warp Stabilizer filter offers image stabilisation without having to manually select tracking points. For areas that are missing at the end of frames, the filter can either zoom in to crop these out, or recreate the areas based on other frames. The Warp Stabilizer can also remove motion artefacts. Depth-of-field effects such as bokeh can be created using the new Camera Lens blur filter.

Cameras can be turned into stereoscopic 3D rigs – which creates nested compositions of left and right eyes (so you can output left and right videos separately) with controls over stereo depth and distance. You can also view stereoscopic content using the 3D Glasses effect, which allows you to preview how your comps will look using active or passive stereoscopic glasses, such as Nvidia’s 3D Vision system (though this is Windows-only) – or blue/red anaglyphic glasses.

AE 5.5 also gains better controls for lighting falloff; support for time codes, more video formats including native footage from Red cameras and more LUTs. Adobe has also announced that a future update to After Effects will allow you to save out projects usable in older versions of After Effects, with newer effects replaced by placeholders as with projects featuring missing third-party plug-ins.

With Adobe Eazel you can use your iPad and fingertips to paint

Premiere Pro 5.5 gains support for keyboard shortcuts from other editing tools such as Final Cut Pro and Media Composer, to make moving from those applications easier, and the Merge Clips command for quickly matching video to audio recorded on separate devices.

A Mac version of Audition is now available, and both platforms gain a new playback engine, multichannel support and more. On the web side, the focus is on HTML 5 and designing for multiple devices.

Flash Pro 5.5 includes better content scaling for when a project is output at resolutions for the iPhone and iPad, for example. You can quickly rasterise Symbols for better performance on mobile devices.

Other new features include copy-and-pasting layers, and better handling of code snippets.

Dreamweaver CS5.5 gains the Multiscreen Preview panel, where you can see how your site looks on devices from smartphones to tablets to desktops. Support for HTML 5 includes CSS3 code hinting and support for it in the CSS panel and Live View. Support for the open source PhoneGap platform in Dreamweaver CS5.5 allows native Android and iOS apps to be created in the web design tool, while new JQuery integration makes JavaScript creation easier.

Flash Catalyst includes more control over how interfaces resize on different screen types, a Common Library panel for elements shared with developers using Flash Builder 4, custom-skinnable components and improved interactions.

Lo-down Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 is expected to start shipping in mid May. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available through Adobe Authorised Resellers and the Adobe Online Store.

www.adobe.com/store

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 53

promotion

The darkroom revisited Go back to photography basics with your own darkroom

A

s addictive as the smell of a newly printed magazine, is the addictive quality of film photography. Photographers have been heard to say, "Film photography is like suicide: one shot and you can never go back!" Photography has been called both a science and an art – this makes sense as you have to understand the science of photography in order to freely create the art.

Photography has come a long way from the darkroom to digital, from black-and-white to megapixel definition. You may have thought that black-and-white photography is dead, but it's not. There are still legions of fine art black-and-white photographers practicing their art.

Back to basics Before the 20th century, black-and-white photography was very popular – not only for its cost effectiveness, but also because colour photography did not seem true to life. The beginning of the 20th century introduced a new interest in colour photography. With such change a demand for new technology emerged from the consumer– from polarised to film to digital within a couple of years, and as technology evolved the darkroom and its capabilities seems to have been forgotten.

At its simplest, the early photographic darkroom was a darkened room where silvered copper plates or paper could be sensitised and processed and, later, where light-sensitive printing processes could be undertaken in darkness or subdued light.

This did not change in later years, although the practice and demand for self-processG5 730x920 6/25/09 10:07 AM Page 1 C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY CMY

K

54 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

promotion

ing has decreased. Now organisations across the globe are seeking to inspire a new generation of black-and-white darkroom photographers.

Darkroom photography is not standing still. It is not a relic of a bygone era. It is very much part of the evolving world of photography. Around the world, and locally, manufacturers and distributors are shaping the future of the new darkroom.

Legacy of quality Established 130 years ago, Ilford Photo, a leader in black-and-white printing, has embarked on a global campaign to address the decrease in the use of darkrooms. The campaign aims to enhance the position, standing and future use of darkrooms in order to safeguard the creative techniques involved.

South Africa’s leading photographic distributor and Ilford Photo supplier, Midsouth Distributors, has joined this global fight to inspire a new generation of darkroom users, raising the profile of darkrooms on the photo-education agenda and redefining the relationship between analogue and digital photography.

As such Midsouth aims to inspire a new generation of photographers to work with both digital and darkroom technology.

Understanding the benefits Producing your own prints allows for complete freedom of expression and creativity.

Users get to choose their main areas of interest and enlarge them to almost any size and shape desired. Photographs are moulded to suite individual needs and desires. There are two main attractions for those considering getting their own dark-

room. The first is cost: paying a lab to develop rolls of film is not cheap, particularly when analogue processing costs. Moreover, the number of unwanted shots developed seems to many to warrant the initial costs of setting up a darkroom.

The second is control: darkroom enthusiasts point out that photographers have all the control of actually taking photographs, but no control over processing. They are starting to see the darkroom as a necessary tool in completing a photograph.

Act of creation As a technologically-driven society, we have demanded speed and efficiency – often forgetting that quality, creativity and passion are at the heart of creation – not the speed of delivery. For too long, darkrooms have been slipping down the agenda of educational institutions and professional photographers worldwide.

During the fast-paced digital revolution, darkroom technology has been forgotten.

It is now the task of passionate photographers and educators to employ the message that darkroom processing and applications can coexist as complimentary creative art forms.

G5 730x920 6/25/09 10:07 AM Page 1 C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY CMY

K

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 55

promotion

The darkroom revisited Go back to photography basics with your own darkroom

Diy darkroom It is surprisingly easy to set up your own darkroom – basically all you need is an existing room (such as a bathroom) which can be transformed into your own darkroom. Ilford Photo (www.ilfordphoto.com) offers these easy-to-understand guidelines to setting up a basic darkroom: n As mentioned, you do not need a purpose-built darkroom, simply a room that can be blacked out. For windows use thick cardboard cut to shape and held in place with black canvas tape. For doors use tape or black clothes or canvas to seal the edges. To ensure that the space is sufficiently dark, it is best to sit in the room in darkness for ten minutes or so. Any significant light leakage will become apparent n The space you choose for your print darkroom should ideally be divided into two areas: A dry area for the enlarger, print composition, negative handling, etc.; and a wet area for mixing solutions and print processing. You do not need running water, because the washing stage of printmaking takes place in daylight and can be done in another room n For black-and-white work you will need a bench or a shallow sink large enough to hold three or four developing trays slightly larger than the largest prints you plan to make. You should try to create a physical divide between the two such as having wet and dry work benches set apart from one another or, if the same bench is used, erecting a splash barrier G5 730x920 6/25/09 10:07 AM Page 1 C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY CMY

K

56 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

n You need an enlarger, but it need not be expensive: even the simplest is capable of making fine prints on most photographic paper. It is important to ensure that the enlarger is supported on a firm base, as any vibrations are likely to cause fuzzy prints.

To control the exposure time it will be necessary to have a dedicated timer wired into the enlarger circuit n You will need a safelight that can be operated separately from the normal room light. Ideally this should be one into which you can fit different filters for use with different materials. However, a general purpose filter would be fine for most applications n You will need a stopwatch or similar timer for timing the dish processing stages, and a thermometer for temperature control. Cleanliness is vital in a darkroom and you should ensure that there is always a clean dry towel available, and that all trays and wet equipment are well rinsed and dried after each session.

Photo and film expo Midsouth Distributors, along with Lomography, Exposure Gallery and the Lomography Embassy Store will be at the Photo and Film Expo 2011 in Johannesburg from 13-16 October, 2011. Here you will be able to interact with several of the industry’s leading photographic minds and stand a chance to win a starter kit including an enlarger from Midsouth Distributors; a black-and-white introductory course from Vega School of Photography and a Diana Deluxe kit with an instant back from Lomography with which to kickstart your new passion.

info@midsouth.co.za; www.midsouth.co.za

R

ART BOARD

R

...IS BACK! Based on the international colour standardising system, the PANTONE UNIVERSE stationery range now boasts an array of 150 different coloured Twin Tip Markers, each with twin nibs of two different sizes.

Let everyday be a PANTONE day!

FINE TIP

+

BRUSH TIP

www.artboardcreative.co.za For trade enquiries contact Art Board Creative - T : +27 11 450 2418 E : admin.artboard@gmail.com

Pantone Advert Print.indd 1

26/10/2010 18:09

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 57

Promotion

Increase your sales and margins in minutes with canvas prints Need to expand your photographic and design offerings? HP shows you how

HP offers print solutions which can change the way you do business.

With HP printers, the creative opportunities are endless, enabling you to print large, long-lasting, vibrant posters and prints – bringing additional revenues and profits to your business.

Consider your options Think about what one of the following HP printer purchases could do for your business: n Grow your profits with the HP Photosmart ML2000D Minilab printer—the fastest dry Minilab system available in retail1. It combines high-quality photo, photo book, greeting card and calendar printing with innovative, content-driven, awardwinningPhoto Center consumer and operator software for a highperformance, high-volume solution n The HP Photo Centre Compact Instant Print solution provides a small, scalable, front-of-counter, in-store photo solution to retailers with limited floor space. Offering customers a new, innovative way to print photos and make photo creations without the per-store cost and larger footprint of a full-size minilab n HP Photo Center 5 Premier and HP Instant Print Solution – enabling the creation of high-quality, high-margin creative photo products in-store in a matter of minutes n HP Photosmart ML1000D. A duplex printer which allows for double-sided photo book pages and calendars to be printed while significantly freeing up labour, saving energy and reducing chemical and water wastage n HP's Designjet Z3200 is perfect for individuals who want to create gallery-quality prints, portraits and limited-edition prints on canvas, as well as fine art reproductions, large-format designs and proofs.

Always consider the following factors before making a largeformat printer decision: Speed, cost per print and image quality – consistently the most important factor when it comes to printing.

Speed output on the printer has a direct impact on the scale of business and costs associated with running a print operation. With the HP Designjet Z3200, normal print quality allows for 7.2 min/ page on D/A1 or up to 4.42 m2/hr on glossy media or 3.8 min/page on D/A1 or up to 8.59 m2/hr on coated media.

1. Based on current published competitor speed specifications as of July 22, 2010.

For more information contact MidSouth Distributors: +27 11 314-0140 or visit www.midsouth.co.za

G5 730x920 6/25/09 10:07 AM Page 1 C

58 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

M

Y

CM

MY

CY CMY

K

promotion

HP recently introduced a simple canvas mounting and stretching tool, explained below. The tool provides users with the means to enhance their offering while growing profits as well as customer portfolios

1

Select the mounting frame sizes which suit your needs

2

Purchase the mounting starter kit – includes tension pins, glue, corner posts (excludes knife tools)

3

10

Start the assembly process: remove double-sided adhesive tape from the wooden bars and clip into the blue corner posts you received with the starter kit

9 Insert the corner braces to reinforce the structure

11 Once all the corners are complete, slowly raise the bars and bring them in alignment; once aligned and pushed securely together, insert tension pins into the corners where marked

4

8

Stand back and admire your creation!

Turn the canvas upside down and place the constructed frame onto the canvas

Flip corners onto the wooden bars

7

Trim excess paper around the edges and cut the corners down the middle to split them

6

Add the adhesive you received in the starter kit to the inner edges of the canvas for reinforcement

5

Push the bars down (glue side facing down)

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 59

books

Good book A new tome explores youth culture through the lens

Expressions Book One South Africa Published by Jared Aufrichtig 720 pages Expressions Book One South Africa is the result of a 6-year photographic exploration of South African alternative, youth and street culture by Jared Aufrichtig – a Californian who describes the book as "a 720-page visual journey with rich images (all shot on celluloid – no machine gun digital photography) that gives the reader insight into South African sub-culture." It includes celluloid photographs of some of South Africa¹s foremost surfers, skaters and musicians including Shaun Tomson, Jordy Smith, Puddy Zwennis, Christi Wiehahn, Fokofpolisiekar, Taxi Violence, The Dirty Skirts, Tidal Waves, Sweat X and internationals like Kelly Slater, Andy Irons and NoFx. The book also features contributions from artists who have augmented Aufrichtig's images with their own rich graphic interpretations. A cross-section of South African designers, illustrators, graffiti, graphic and tattoo artists – including Kronk, Mak1one, Fong, Matt Edwards, Tyler B. Murphy, Bryan Little and TheoryOne – have lent their creative abilities to the project.

A limited First Edition of 1 000 signed and individually numbered copies is available with two different cover art variations, both designed by local artist Tyler B. Distribution is currently limited to launches, exhibitions, boutique bookstores such as A-Store in Kloof Street, Cape Town or directly from the publisher.

A Deluxe Edition is due to be released in South Africa over the next few months, followed by an international book tour. The Deluxe Edition, of which only 130 copies will be made available, will come with a unique lithographic plate in one of the CMYK colours from which the book was printed.

http://jaredaufrichtig.blogspot.com/

60 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

books

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 61

BOOKS

Show me the funny A new book takes a serious look at cartooning in South Africa

What’s so Funny/Andy Mason Published by Double Storey 248 pages This short review will not do justice to this considerable study into cartooning, which Zapiro has described as by far the best and most politically astute account ever of South African cartooning.

Andy Mason takes us through the work of Cruikshank in his 1819 cartoons portraying the prototype cannibal ogre as representations extracted from European folkloric tradition and plonked on African soil, to give voice to the unknown faced by British immigrants; the political work in the Afrikaans press by Fred Mouton and others who developed a visual language of swart gevaar represented by darkness, drowning and suffocation; English-speaking liberal cartoonists who employed scenes of whirlwinds, hurricanes and bushfires to represent the ‘winds of change’; Daniel Boonzaier, who traded on the anti-Semitism of the Anglo-Boer war period to demonise the Randlords called Hoggenheimer; David Marais used the Second World War period to demonise Afrikaner politicians by

62 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

dressing them up in Nazi uniforms; Jock Leyden, the affable Scotsman who gave voice to the English tendency to remain separate and aloof, as if raised slightly above everyone else, with an emergency return ticket lodged like an insurance policy in the back of the mind; to his great friend, Zapiro, who has been challenged by others of being guilty of racism in his post-Polokwane cartoons depicting Zuma with an ogre-like caricature with its double-domed head bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Cruikshank cannibal ogres of almost 200 years ago.

The wheel has turned and we are back where we started. Mason concludes by saying he has no idea how the next chapter in the South African story is to unfold, but that our cartoonists will continue to enrich the life of the nation. This is a serious history of a fascinating aspect of our everyday lives – one which deserves considerable attention.

_Peter Soal

directory

CALL AD SALES ON 011 640-3322

T3

T1

T2

Brand new, Way-cool, rebel T-designs available only from http://www.cybergraphics.bz/Posters.html Short sleeve T-Shirts, medium and large only in 100% pure cotton.

T-Designs 1-3 in a series of 5

We @ Agent Orange have one simple philosophy:

Practice safe design, use a concept!

We specialise in the following areas of design:

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 63

think

The deal The coupon business is hot stuff again, writes Herman Manson

In January 2011, they were two guys working hard to keep their group media buying site, Twangoo, running with a handful of freelance sales staff. Less than 3 months later, they have forty staffers, a new office in Loop Street, and possibly the hottest thing since Facebook as their backers.

That’s because Groupon acquired Twangoo in January 2011 and tasked its co-founders, Wayne Gosling and Dan Guasco, with establishing the Groupon brand in South Africa.

The duo’s first challenge was to put a strong management team in place, having realised it would be impossible for them to manage the whole operation by themselves in the quick turnaround times required. Then followed more staff in sales, marketing, editorial and tech, as well as the new offices. All the while they were transferring their Twangoo customer base to MyCityDeal.co.za while they tried to sort out issues around the Groupon.co.za domain name (which had been registered by rival group buying company Wicount).

Twangoo had gone into business in June 2010 and shortly after Guasco and Gosling, both MBA graduates, attempted to initiate negotiations with Groupon regarding an acquisition. Several months passed before they made contact with Groupon’s Oliver Samwer, who had Guasco fly to Europe to negotiate a deal.

Run before you walk The possibility of a deal was first reported in December 2010 and announced in January 2011. Guasco and Gosling seem to have been running at a breakneck pace ever since. Whether the incredible growth at the new SA subsidiary is sustainable or not is an open question but it is certainly in line with Groupon’s international growth strategy.

Forbes magazine headlined a story on the rise of Groupon "Meet The Fastest Growing Company Ever". Pundits predict the company will breach US$1-billion in revenue this year. Some suggest revenue multiple that.

Groupon offers group buying, which means it basically emails its database of users a discounted deal every day and, if enough people take it up, they get the coupon to redeem at the product provider, be that a retailer or a service provider. The group-buying element suggests that consumers can collectively bargain down (for argument’s sake) a retailer. In reality, Groupon bargains down the retailer and sees how effectively it’s done so, based on the number of consumers taking up the deal. It has a database, the retailer wants feet, consumers want bargains. Ding, ding, ding!

64 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

Confident – Wayne Gosling & Dan Guasco

Ding ding ding!

Groupon’s strategy was to digitise the coupon business and make it hot again. By all accounts, it has succeeded. The Wall Street Journal estimated its world-wide revenue in 2010 at US$-760 million from US$-33 million the previous year.

One of the reasons Groupon is expanding so fast is that it needs to tie up the market. Its business model is easy to replicate and locally it already sports nearly a dozen competitors, including Wicount (which bought key words such as ‘Groupon’ and ‘Twangoo’ on Google and originally registered the groupon.co.za domain name, which Groupon SA only managed to get back recently) and Zappon – a new entrant backed by Avusa Media – owner of the Sunday Times, the Sowetan and The Times, among others. Naspers was purported to have been in negotiations with Guasco and Gosling as well before the Groupon deal was announced. It’s widely expected to enter the market in the near future, backed by its extensive community and regional newspaper network.

According to Guasco, Groupon isn’t intimidated by the entry of larger media players as it is the expert in the field, with international best practise and research to back it up. He believes competition will grow the marketplace as people dip their toes into group buying and then migrate to those who offer the best experience (and deals).

It’s happening all over the world, says Guasco, and yet Groupon remains number one in the markets it operates in.

_This article first appeared on BizCommunity.com. Manson is an independent media and marketing journalist. He blogs @marklives. com and Tweets @marklives

think

Being

with machines How interface language design can improve human-computer dialogue

Recently I spent a few days in the desert, completely removed from technology and deprived of any communication with the outside world; the experience was a lot more unsettling than I would like to admit. I realised just how reliant I have become on technology.

Computerised devices have become an essential part of how I work, play, communicate and do most of my routine tasks. They wake me up, make my coffee and cook my food. It is my primary resource for gathering information and communicating with the world.

To most of you, or at least some of you, this may sound familiar.

These devices extend our human experience and in many ways shape our personal and collective identities. We live in great harmony with technology and seamlessly interact with these machines without giving it much thought.

Our successful relations with technology, however, depend heavily on interface design, where human-computer interaction actually takes place. We are all expert users, and have very clear expectations of a computer system – sending an email for example – and we judge system performance based on our experience and an effective outcome.

Designing a good human interface is, however, a rather challenging task. Humans have diverse needs and preferences, and we are very complex beings. The graphical user interface has a history of more than thirty years of vigorous research, supplemented by extensive trial and error. With numerous books and how-to guides in publication and good educational courses in place, it is puzzling to see the number of less efficacious user interfaces in the marketplace – and users often have difficulties in understanding system behaviour.

Research in the field of human-computer interaction tells us that systems fail mostly because of 'poor' user interface design. Personally, I believe it is a communication matter, since interaction at the interface is really a form of dialogue – essentially, a communication process based on the correct sending and receiving of messages – which can be facilitated with the design of an interactive interface language.

This idea and a number of principles developed through semiotic engineering might be the best guide for designers to rise to the challenge of establishing adequate dialogue between humans and machines. Simply stated, semiotics is the study of signs and symbols as part of a communicative process. Semiotic engineering strongly advocates systems engineered to semiotic principles, and describe

the designer’s task of encoding the interface with messages for the user through an interactive interface language.

The iPhone is a great place to look for user interface design. With more than 350 000 applications to choose from the App Store, I can install an app for almost any conceivable task. Users often rate these apps based on their experience when using it. As users, we do not want to think about the interface or how to use it. We prefer focusing on the job at hand and expect the interface to clearly communicate the steps involved in executing it. Regarding the interface as a dialogue partner, and putting more emphasis on the communicative qualities of interaction could be key to establishing a better user experience with these devices.

Putting the user first could ensure that we design applications "by people, and for people," says Mark Shuttleworth. At the 2011 Design Indaba conference, he urged designers to become more deeply involved in delivering user-centered interface design. While this call for action is aimed at the Open Source initiative, it applies equally to all interface design and all devices made for human-computer interaction.

It is evident that devices are here to stay. If I am right, the challenges for human-computer interaction will increase. Technology exists to extend the human experience, and it is the designer’s responsibility to ensure that human-computer interaction live up to this expectation through seamless dialogue at the interface.

_Hein Gates is head of department, Interactive Media Design, The Open Window www.openwindow.co.za

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 65

directory

CALL AD SALES ON 011 640-3322

Silvertone International

Art Board Creative

Silvertone International was established specifically for the discerning artist and photographer – those demanding the highest standards of image reproduction for books, art catalogues, digital fine art prints (in colour or black & white), B&W film processing and hand prints.  Fine art printing  Hand printing  Scanning

Art Board Creative is one of the largest suppliers of art and graphic materials in southern Africa, distributing to popular retail stores nationwide. Since 1994, Art Board Creative has boasted an extensive range of fine quality products of all varieties, catering for the artist’s every need.

t: 011 482-7413/4 dennis@silvertone.co.za www.fine-art-printing.co.za

Graphica Supplies Graphica Supplies offers innovative cover materials of the highest quality and value, and is the leading supplier for the book, stationery, speciality packaging and jewellery industries.  Publishing  Stationery  Packaging t: 011 493-6833 sales@graphica.co.za www.graphica.co.za

t: 011 450-2418 www.artboardcreative.co.za

Vega School of Brand Communications Vega offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in creative brand communications and in brand management and leadership. The degree programmes aim to produce a new breed of thinkers that provide creative and innovative approaches to building brands. In addition, specialist full-time photography qualifications are available for students wanting to pursue careers in the field of photography. The education and training at Vega is outcomes based and highly interactive, making for a great learning environment and real experience. All programmes are taught within a brand context. t: 011 521-4600/012 342-4770 t: 031 266-2595/021 425-7491 www.facebook.com/vegaschool

Vega Orbit Great! Stock Great! Stock is a leading South African image library offering many of the world’s finest international collections, in addition to its comprehensive local image collections.  Rights-Managed  Royalty-Free  Editorial & Research t: 011 880-7826 enquiries@greatstock.co.za www.greatstock.co.za

Vega Orbit is the Continuing Professional Development division of Vega. Specialists in Strategy, Branding, Marketing, Creative Communications and Innovation, Vega Orbit offers innovative parttime qualifications and short learning programmes. Orbit provides you with new levels of awareness, creativity and skill, preparing you for a future when great ideas will be the only global currency. t: 011 521-4600/012 342-4770 t: 031 266-2595/021 425-7491 www.facebook.com/vegaschool

The Training School The Training School offers creative training solutions to enable you to master the skills

Learn2 Learn2 Digital Media Academy can help you to transform your artistry into a rewarding and profitable career in animation, visualisation or visual effects when you earn your Autodesk certification.  Autodesk Authorised Training Centre  Full-time courses  Part-time courses t: 021 421-5501 info@learn2.co.za www.learn2.co.za

needed to get the most out of your Adobe software. Their mission is to empower you.  Adobe Authorised Training Centre  Adobe Photoshop  Adobe Illustrator  Adobe InDesign t: 011 442-5136 pam@thetrainingschool.co.za www.thetrainingschool.co.za

Concept Interactive Friends of Design Friends of Design offers full time certificate, part time evening and customised digital courses in Print, Web and Motion Graphic design. Recognised as a trendsetter in the industry, students immerse themselves in a unique blend of art and digital, where technology and creativity come together under one roof and ultimately prepare themselves for a fulfilling career in digital graphics through practical, live projects and exposure to international trainers.  Adobe Authorised Training Centre  Apple Authorised Training Centre  MAPPP-SETA accredited  Provisionally recognised by the Department of Education as a centre of Higher Education (until 2013).

Concept Interactive is a leading digital design school situated in Cape Town. We have been providing internationally accredited training since 1992 in areas such as print and web design and, more recently, new media and programming for design. Our students receive expert, personalised attention from industry professional lecturers within a creative and stimulating environment. This means that they're highly skilled when they graduate. And highly employable. Provisionally registered with the Department of Education as a Private Higher Education Institution and as a Private FET College.  SAQA Registered 3-year Diploma  SAQA registered 1-year National Certificate  Adobe Authorised Training Center  MAPPP-SETA Accredited

t: 21 461-0971 info@friendsofdesign.net friendsofdesign.net

66 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011

t: 021 461 3371 info@conceptinteractive.net/www.conceptinteractive.net

ibc

Thinking that is changing the world It's time to lay to rest dead ideas, writes Gordon Cook

There is a revolution taking place in how we think. Dead ideas that still walk among us (a phrase of the economist Quiggin), and cause a zombie-like state when needing to deal with critical issues, are now being challenged. A new breed of thinkers are even questioning our fixation on specialist knowledge creation. They are calling for more wisdom by proposing we take a far more integrated approach to thinking that draws upon content from many different fields in order to better solve problems.

Einstein had this idea almost 100 years ago when he said that imagination is more important than knowledge. The very stance from which we think is under the microscope. A recent set of books with titles such as Economics 3.0, Capitalism 3.0, Marketing 3.0 and Motivation 3.0 make a common argument. The authors urge that human-centricity must become the start and end point of our thinking; that our primary and ultimate identity is that we are, as individuals, part of humanity.

Our first task, therefore, is to improve the human condition. Such a shift impacts upon how we think about everything and should, at last, unleash a realistic optimism about the the future of humankind.

There are many drivers and enablers that have set this revolution in motion. They include the technological capability to access in real times global news via 24 hour news networks, the Internet and the capability of citizens from all round the world to input and spread conversations via social media platforms such as Twitter, blogs and YouTube.

Fresh, more relevant and imaginative thinking has of course also been precipitated by the collapse of many thinking constructs that have dismally failed us, such as the financial, economic and political systems in many parts of the world. Other triggers are the increasingly well researched and better communicated realities of the human condition, that jolt us into realising that our very existence is under threat – realities such as the terrific extent of human poverty, environmental trauma, pandemics, illiteracy and lack of health care for billions of us. This new thinking takes a more holistic, and design based-approach to the prioritising and solving of human problems.

This is already impacting on how we brand, market and run business organisations. For example, the myopic and selfish concept of creating shareholder wealth as the purpose of business is quickly losing currency. The purpose of the corporation is being redefined

in seminal articles by thinkers like Michael Porter as rather the creation of shared value for a far larger community than a minority of financial shareholders. Porter wrote this year that not all profit is equal. He said, "Profits involving a social purpose represent a higher form of capitalism, one that creates a positive cycle of company and community prosperity". He cites many examples such as Wal-Mart reducing its packaging and cutting 100 million miles from the delivery routes of its trucks that significantly lowered carbon emissions and saved $200m in costs.

We are now questioning the authenticity and meaning of many brands. We are thinking more critically about the impact of branding, marketing and communication on society. The market in which business operates is increasingly turning into a low-trust environment.

At Vega we are researching new metrics for assessing the health of brands; measures that consider more relevant and a far broader set of value-add criteria than only projected sales. We think that while most brands can be far more healthy, the reality is also that brands and the global corporate and international businesses that underpin them are probably our greatest assets for meaningful change in the world. This raises another set of fresh thinking that challenges the very concept of competition and calls rather for collaborative participation and partnerships to solve problems and generate solutions that will add meaningful value to humanity.

Other thinkers are redefining sustainability way beyond year-onyear share dividend and profit growth. We are indeed realising the urgency to reboot many of our thinking programmes to benefit the world. May this revolution in thinking continue. Anyone interested in the thinkers who are fueling these debates can connect with gordon@vegaschool.com.

_Gordon Cook is National Brand Navigator at Vega School

ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011 67

68 ENJIN 53 APRIL/MAY 2011