Enjin 54

EMPOWERING YOUR CREATIVITY NUMBER 54 JUNE / JULY 2011 40 RAND

on a cloud

Data clouDs are GatHerinG

cover printed on arjowiggins cocoon offset supplied by antalis south africa ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 1

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eD's note

noted For those interested in the nature of technology, our cover feature on how the cloud will change the face of computing should make for interesting reading.

In a related feature on flexible work Francois Smit

environments, contributing editor Herman Manson, feet firmly on the ground, asks whether South African ad agencies are prepared to let creatives work from wherever they want – the short answer is

E

no. Sean O'Toole then profiles illustrator GREGOR NAUDé - editor

Brandt Botes who recently started his own studio – showing that, although it's never easy, working for yourself may be very rewarding. Perhaps it's time to get your head out of the clouds.

the fine print

COVER Image by François Smit www.franco.is EDITOR Gregor Naudé gregor@enjin.co.za CREATIVE DIRECTOR François Smit, QUBA Design & Motion francois@quba.co.za CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Herman Manson herman@marklives.co.za ADVERTISING SALES 084 445-5067 ads@enjin.co.za EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Pluto Panoussis, Gordon Cook, Sean O'Toole, Liam Wielopolski, Graham Lang, Pieter de Wet, Herman Manson.

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

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

PRODUCTION Enjin Magazine is produced with Adobe CS5.

PAPER Cover printed on FSC-certified Arjowiggins Cocoon Offset supplied by Antalis South Africa. Text printed on Sappi Triple Green Silk supplied by Antalis South Africa.

DISCLAIMER 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 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 3

contents

inside 03 ED'S NOTE 06 release notes LAUNCHING ART OF DESIGN 2012 ILLUSTRATING THE MUSIC SAPPI WHAT'S NEXT? MAGAZINE PORTRAITS OF HOPE THE FRINGE GOES MAINSTREAM THE IMAGINARIUM DIORAMA DRAMA FREEWORLD DESIGN CENTRE 17 Green GUIDE TO GREEN SYMBOLS 18 plakBook OLD CLOUD 20 Feature/clouD DATA CLOUDS ARE GATHERING 24 Feature/Film FinDinG DIGNITY IN DISGRACE

31 platForm BRANDT BOTES INJOZI GARRICK HAMM 46 revieW THE ZEFSTERS CANNES 2011 REPORT FREE TO CREATE 52 tools COREL PAINTER 12 ASUS TRANSFORMER OH LENSBABY PRINT MORE 58 Book SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP BARBERSHOPS AND SALONS 60 enD note WHOSE ART IS IN ANYWAY? 62 Directory CREATIVE RESOURCES 63 iBc SHARED IDENTITIES

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ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 5

release notes

Type BEAT a new font finds inspiration in afrobeat

Giuseppe Salerno, aka Resistenza, is an Italian graphic and type designer based in Spain. "Ten years ago I saw an exhibition about African Art, and what impressed me was how every sculpture had so many geometric details – triangles, lines, circles, squares," says Salerno. Inspired by what he saw, and listening to a lot of Afrobeat – a musical style originating from the 60s and performed by African artists such as Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, Antibalas and many more, which fuses jazz, funk and psychedelic rock, it was a theme the Italian would return to 8 years later when he entered an illustration contest. "The music made me think about all that amazing African art", he says.

From there, he set about designing his Afrobeat font.

"I started by creating the face of a mask, on a black background using white brushes," he says. My intention was to reinterpret African art using vectors."

Salerno is pleased that the font has already been bought and applied by designers in Africa, but he admits to another ambition. "My ultimate wish is to be able to design an album cover, and if it's for an Afrobeat band I would be the happiest designer on the planet." Afrobeat is especially striking for printed projects and is available in Opentype and Truetype for Mac and Windows. http://www.resistenza.es/

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release notes

paper loves design art of design

2012 takes an old love affair to

new heights

002797 AOD Poster 3 a.pdf

1

2011/05/26

11:58 AM

Actually we love anything that takes paper and uses it in exciting and inspired ways. So, guess we also love origami. We are one of the largest paper distributors of traditional and digital printing papers. Sounds pretty dull if you put it that way, so let’s try another way – we are the distributors of the materials that inspire and enable your greatest designs. We believe that paper offers so much more than just a surface on which designers can express themselves and their brands. Paper can be the inspiration for ideas that excite, intrigue and create an impact. Whatever your head can imagine, we can provide the relevant paper whether it’s office or speciality papers or environmentally friendly packaging boards, or even solutions for Viscom and Graphics.

We believe it is our calling to motivate designers to consider their paper choice even before they begin designing and think about how it can enhance their creative process. That’s why we launched the Art of Design Awards over 24 years ago and we are still committed to it. Time does fly.

Art of Design not only rewards Graphic Designers for originality and design excellence with a particular focus on the creative use of paper, but aims to inspire thinking, big ideas, paper usage and beautiful presentation.

Designed by Grid Worldwide Branding and Design | Design by Jean du Plessis and Kelda van Heerden | Copywriting by Samantha Koenderman | Account Management by Shalamar Zandamela | Finished Art by Natalie Feuilherade | Printed by Ultra Litho | 2011

Paper and design have always shared a special love. And like all good romances, the relationship should come with intimacy, a shared understanding and passionate possibilities. Designed by Grid Worldwide Branding and Design, the theme for the 2012 Antalis Art of Design competition is Paper Loves Design – and is centered on the special connection between paper and design.

Art of Design recognises design excellence and aims to inspire original thinking, big ideas, striking paper usage and beautiful presentation. Launching the competition, Caroline Coughlan, Antalis marketing manager explained, "Paper can be inspirational for ideas which excite, inspire, intrigue and create impact. The call to entry has been designed to showcase the many ways that paper and design love one another. Design is a complex activity, and like any great discipline, is guided by overarching principles and practices which take years of loving dedication to craft to perfect," said Coughlan.

To show the various ways in which paper compliments design, Grid chose to go back to the basics and highlight some of the principles of design – form, balance, contrast, scale, rhythm, emphasis, colour, texture, typography as well as the applied areas of illustration and photography – in a series of posters designed specifically for the contest.

Any designer will recall being introduced to these principles at university or college, but all too often, the fundamentals get more vague the longer a designer is immersed in the daily nine to five of their job. These days, it’s easier to consult an online blog for a quick-fix stylistic treatment than actively investigating the basic ground rules of design.

With the Art of Design 2012 competition, Antalis invites designers to become reacquainted with these basic principles and to consider their application in their entries. And with each of the specially designed posters for the competition (there are 7 in all) they try to ignite the passion that lies latent between paper and design.

With the 2012 competition, Antalis hopes to build on its past success; in 2010, the competition received a record number of 750 entries in the 7 commercial categories and 80 entries in the student category.

The Grand Prix prize is a trip to New York worth R50 000. Pieces designed and printed from 1 July, 2010 until 30 June, 2012 are eligible. All entries must be printed on Antalis papers and the competition closes on 30 June, 2012. For entry details or to receive your personal entry kit, contact Antalis South Africa.

CONTENTS:

Big vs. small, black vs. white. These are some ways to create contrast and visual interest.

Learn a variety of ways to use contrast. Contrast is one of the principles of design.

Contrast occurs when two elements are different. The greater the difference the greater the contrast. The key to working with contrast is to make sure the differences are obvious.

Four common methods of creating contrast are by using differences in size, value, colour, and type.

By the way, Marilyn Monroe was a size

Contrast adds visual interest to the page and provides a means of emphasising what is important or directing the reader’s eye. On a page without contrast, the reader doesn’t know where to look first or what is important. Contrast makes a page more interesting so the reader is more apt to pay attention to what is on the page. Contrast aids in readability by making headlines and subheadings stand out. Contrast shows what is important by making smaller or lighter elements recede on the page to allow other elements to take centre stage.

ISSEY MIYAKE

The Posters of Design #1 - Paper Loves Trees #2 - Paper Loves Type #3 - Paper Loves Contrast #4 - Paper Loves Balance #5 - Paper Loves Scale #6 - Paper Loves Form #7 - Paper Loves Illustration #8 - Paper Loves Rhythm #9 - Paper Loves Emphasis #10 - Paper Loves Pixels #11 - Paper Loves Texture #12 - Paper Loves Colour

14

Alonzo Mosley www.youtube.com/watch?v=FExqG6LdWHU

visit our blog at paperlovesdesign.blogspot.com, email aod@antalis.co.za or go to antalis.co.za for more information on the Art of Design competition.

Contrast in design is an accentuation of the differences between elements in a design. Most people think of contrast only as it applies to colours, but contrast can work with any design element. For example, if you have a group of lines that are all the same size, there is no contrast.

But if one is a lot longer than the others, it contrasts with them.

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CM

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Antalis Product Information

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There are many reasons why the classic® linen range from Neenah Paper is suited for designs that love contrast. Its particular qualities help accentuate the differences in texture, colour and emphasis on the page. The classic® linen writing offers a genuine watermark and boasts 25% cotton fibre. classic® linen text offers a subtle finish that provides exceptional ink holdout and is adaptable to a myriad of end use applications, which include brochures, inserts, mailers, posters and booklets. It provides a uniform two-sided linen surface, which yields an excellent litho printing surface for reproduction of solids and colour process printing. In addition to its printability it also folds, embosses, foil stamps, die-cuts and accommodates thermography with outstanding results.

The range includes a writing, text and cover weight, which offers a stiffness and rigidity unmatched by other linen finish papers. classic® linen paper is designed specifically for corporate identity applications. Few linen papers can equal classic® linen writing’s consistent formation, uniform texture or crisp hand. It is also laser and inkjet guaranteed.

Available in 3 shades, the range is ISO 9001, ISO 14001 certified, FSCTM mixed source certified from well managed forest, is elementary chlorine free and acid free.

Matching DL and C6 envelopes available in the lighter shades.

#3

PRINT & PAPER SPECIFICATION: Printed on Classic Linen Avalanche White 118 gsm

aod@antalis.co.za, www.antalis.co.za

Production technique: Front: Litho CMYK Back: Litho CMYK + Glitter varnish

MAKE IT CLASH

In life, we love contrast. Sweet and sour. Hot followed by cold. Pain and ecstasy. (Well, for some.) It’s the same in design, where contrast plays an important part in creating an emotional connection with the viewer. Contrast adds interest to a page and helps to direct the viewer’s eye to the parts that are important. Without contrast, our eyes would amble aimlessly across a page. Paper adds contrast through texture, colour, weight and its versatility in design.

It’s a match made in heaven.

Work produced on Antalis exclusive papers during July 2011 to June 2012 is eligible for entry in the Antalis Art of Design 2012 competition.

O N LY W H E N T H E D E S I G N F A I L S D O E S I T D R A W AT T E N T I O N T O I T S E L F ; W H E N I T S U C C E E D S , I T ’ S I N V I S I B L E .

JOHN D. BERRY

www.creativepro.com/story/feature/17292

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release notes

illustrating the music saatchi

& saatchi cape town illustrates the art

behind the music for wordsworth books

Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town has used illustration and music to tell the story of three iconic musicians for the launch of their biographies in a series of in-store posters for Wordsworth Books. The poster campaign features musical greats Keith Richard, Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson.

Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town, Sammy-Jane Thom says, "The objective of the campaign was to leave the customer with a strong desire to buy the biography." She adds, "We found the most interesting way for us to do this was to use the art of music to tell their stories." "We did this by transforming the musical notes on sheet music into the story of each of their lives through visually arresting illustration."

The styles used in each of the illustrations were chosen specifically to match the genre of music: Keith’s rock n roll genre was matched with a Stedman style, the jazz-blues style of Amy was an iconic yesteryear theme and for the King of Pop a neon and Popart style wad used. "The final output of the creative showed visually striking pieces of artwork which ultimately showed some of the greatest muso's achievements in one ‘sheet of music’," adds Thom. www.wordsworth.co.za

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release notes

the neXt a new sappi mag ponders the future of print

What happens when you get together some of the world's best known designers, publishers and editors and ask them to crystal ball gaze?

The answer is a new magazine from Sappi called 'What's Next?' which takes the reader on a journey into the future of publishing. The magazine, created by Sappi with agency John Brown, looks at the issues facing and shaping the print industry: from the joy of print and why it's here to stay, to the complex challenge of global warming and sustainability.

What's Next magazine is printed on five different Sappi papers and is linked to a website (www.whatsnextmagazine.net) to encourage readers to share their views. Contributors to the first issue included Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harpers Bazaar, who talked about magazines that influenced her, and Mark Anslow, editor of The Ecologist, who offered a personal perspective on the Copenhagen Climate Change conference.

There are also contributions from leading photographers. Commented Marjolein VilĂŠ, Marketing Communications Manager at Sappi, "The experts of print and publishing are at the front line of the industry, shaping the future of the way we consume print. So who better to provoke debate and provide insight into What's Next?" www.whatsnextmagazine.net/

ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 9

release notes

Hope portraits photographers take aim to give hope

The portrait has long been a sought-after commodity – one that has evolved over time from the painstaking work of the great masters to the happy snap captured on a digital camera. The earliest portraits were high-value works of art that tended to be the exclusive domain of the wealthy and noble families of the day, and were designed to reflect the personality, stature or power of the subject.

And while the portrait of today is generally less formal, it still plays an important role in the psychology behind the purpose of capturing someone's likeness. The power of the portrait is evident in the work of notable photographers such as British-born photographer Platon, who has managed to capture the essence of some of the world's leaders in his simple, yet inimitable style (platonphoto.com).

Local photographers who have made their mark due to the weight of their portraits include the likes of Pieter Hugo, who has made a name for himself for portraits of people on the periphery of society.

Jodi Bieber, meanwhile, was honoured a few months ago as the World Press Photographer of the Year for her portrait of Bibi Aisha, the young Afghan woman who suffered horrific disfiguration at the hands of the Taliban.

While these images and artists enjoy a worldwide audience, through which they are able to convey a message, the professional portrait generally still excludes many millions of people in needy communities who have little chance of having their portrait captured. Which is why the Help-Portrait community was established three years ago

by US-based celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart. This initiative has captured the imagination of more than 12 000 volunteer photographers around the world – who have given freely of their time and skills to give something back to those people who are unable to afford the luxury of a portrait.

The concept is simple: Identify a community or people in need who

10 ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011

would benefit from a free portrait, arrange a portrait session, capture the images and hand back the printed result – free of charge.

Given the enormity of needy individuals and communities in South Africa, this has sparked an ambitious group of Johannesburg volunteers, under the banner of CODP Help-Portrait, to set the target of giving 25 000 free portraits this year.

"The needy communities in South Africa are so enormous that we believe we could easily achieve 100 000 portraits, but the reality is that we are constrained by logistics and resources and have therefore set our sights on the more manageable figure of 25 000 portraits this year," says project leader

Stanley-Carl du-Pont. "In saying that, however, this is no small feat and we are working around the clock to put in place the necessary logistics and plans to pull it off. As much as the project is about 'giving back', the personal reward that the volunteers experience from doing just that is enormous," says du-Pont. "It's practically a reversal of the original motive of portraits, enabling the more fortunate and enthusiastic of us to contribute something tangible to those less fortunate," said du-Pont.

The project kicks off formally in September, when the bulk of the portraits will be captured at mass shoots in informal settlements at which up to 5 000 people will be photographed in a day. The CODP Help-Portrait community consists of more than 100 volunteer photographers, with donations currently being sought to realise the project's ambitious goal. – Johann Barnard

www.helpportrait.co.za

release notes

the FrinGe launching cape town's innovation district

The proposed design and informatics hub planned for the area in the Cape Town Central City known as the East City finally has a name: The Fringe: Cape Town’s Innovation District.

Previously known as the East City Design Initiative, the project has been in a concept planning phase since 2007. After a favourable interim business feasibility study by research firm Kaiser and Associates recently showed what possibilities the setting up such a district could have for growth, the decision was taken to rename the project and begin to formulate an institutional vehicle to drive it forward.

The project is heavily supported by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism through its Cape Catalyst Initiative. This unit has recognised the importance of various creative industry sectors for growing the provincial economy through relevant infrastructure.

The project is supported by a number of departments in the City of Cape Town, The Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Faculty of Informatics and Design (CPUT’s FID) and other civil society bodies. It is currently being project-managed by The Cape Town Partnership through its Creative Cape Town programme and forms an important element of Cape Town’s World Design Capital Bid for 2014.

The key boundaries of the area are Roeland and Darling Streets, Buitenkant and Canterbury Streets, and the area also includes a strip of land which connects it to CPUT from Longmarket through to Tenant Street. It borders onto the proposed District Six development, and the area’s oftentimes neglected ‘edge’ or ‘fringe’ relationship to the Central City has given the project its new name.

The Fringe is based on an urban 'science park' model. A science park is defined by the International Association of Science Parks as "an organisation managed by specialised professionals, whose main aim is to increase the wealth of its community by promoting the culture of innovation and the competitiveness of its associated businesses and knowledge-based institutions. Successful models the

area will be benchmarked against include 22@ Barcelona, the Toronto Fashion Incubator and Design London, among others.

The area proposed for The Fringe is already a ‘happening’ environment. It is currently home to two sector bodies – the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) and the Cape Fashion Council (both set up

with government and private sector involvement to further sector development in the province). The organisations have jointly opened a new facility in Harrington Street that houses a Creative Enterprises Training Unit. The area is also home to Open Innovation Studios, a social entrepreneurship environment as well as a range of small- and medium-sized design and ICT firms. Most importantly, the presence nearby of various design-related educational institutions – in particular CPUT’s FID – makes this an environment ready for the science park model.

Proposals for relevant public space improvements have been made to increase the potential for such an environment to work well in the interests of The Fringe mandate. One of the more exciting initiatives proposed for the area as a key project for The Fringe is what is called currently the "Temporary Incubator Hub". Designed by award-winning Cape Town-based architect Luyanda Mphalwa with Ameena Desai from Design Space Africa, this entrepreneurial support hub aimed at the design and media sector will create a unique environment for young designers as well as an interactive networking environment. yehuda@capetownpartnership.co.za

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release notes

outside the BoX y&r south africa takes shopping into a new dimension

Shopper marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing today. It’s designed to target consumers while they’re in a store, and involves every aspect of the shopping experience, including promotions, displays, packaging and store layout. Shopper influence studies reveal behaviour patterns to create a retail navigation system which is tailored for brand optimisation.

According to a study by Deloitte, spending on shopper marketing has doubled since 2004 and is steadily growing at more than 25% a year. Procter & Gamble alone invests at least US $500-million a year in shopper marketing, while Microsoft, IBM, Coca-Cola and Nestle all have their own shopper marketing units. This shift is based on a new science called Neuro Marketing, which takes the study of human behaviour to new level.

Time to think outside the box, perhaps. That is exactly what Y&R South Africa did with The Imaginarium Of Extraordinary Ideas – a marketing tool that allows shopper-marketers to engage with a physical proposal as well as their imaginations.

Commented Brian Ferns, Y&R Johannesburg’s Shopper Marketing Creative Director, "I wanted to create a piece of artwork that would illustrate Y&R’s understanding of the challenges marketers face in an ever-changing shopper environment. With an abundance of choice and exposure to thousands of messages daily, we had to find a way to demonstrate our ability to make a brand stand out and be relevant.

The folder highlights the need for a brand to stand out against several other competing brands by literally bringing its message to life." www.yr.co.za

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release notes

DioDrama have a diorama

A year into the formation of an animation arm at Am I Collective, the outfit decided to visit the annual Pictoplasm Festival of Contemporary Character Design and Art in Berlin. They went as tourists hoping to crack an official invite to next year's festivities. To facilitate this they designed a diorama to hand out to VIP attendees, mainly as a little peek into their studio. Commented Am I Collective's Ruan Vermeulen, "Each diorama (there were 32 in total) were painstakingly hand cut, folded and glued together – it truly was a handcrafted labour of love (and not something we would be doing on a larger scale any time soon.) However, we are justifiably proud of the end result." All the characters depicted are based on one or another real life character from their own universe of illustration and animation. Now they hold their breath waiting for that elusive invite for 2012. www.amicollective.co.za

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release notes

Free design WORLD

The Freeworld Design Centre is a new building on the Cape Town landscape that celebrates décor, design and inspiration. At the core of the building’s functional existence is the Design Centre itself – a space specifically created to support the design and décor industry with advice and technical assistance, and also to provide the public with ever-evolving and exciting access to fresh design.

A Cape Town first, the Freeworld Design Centre houses a top notch reference library and bookshop, featuring the latest international magazines and books, as well as seasonal exhibitions by leading designers and decorators.

Q: What was the full scope of work on the Freeworld Design Centre?

The Freeworld Design Centre project included the installation of a 100-seat auditorium and stage area, a courtyard, foyer, two floors of offices and meeting rooms and a rooftop terrace, as well as the Design Centre area complete with meeting spaces, designer pods and library.

Q: How did the natural environment influence the design?

Due to the use of glass, elements of nature such as the weather, trees and landscape are visible from within the building. This earthiness is echoed in the use of natural materials throughout, particularly wood, sisal, coir leather and linen.

Q: What sustainable initiatives were implemented in the design?

We re-used the existing structure of the old Cape Waters Hotel, while retaining as many of the original features as possible, for example, the terrazzo flooring and stairwell railings.

The use of glass allows the building to be flooded with natural light, thereby reducing the need for electrical lighting during the day.

All the desks and meeting room tables were made from reclaimed timber that used to form part of an oil rig – custom made by the Green Building Co. We also use eco-friendly cleaning products in the building and have recycling bins.

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the freeworld design centre opens in cape town

Q: In retrospect, is there anything you would have liked to have done differently?

We would have liked to come on board earlier in the process; also, that we had the foresight to ask the architect to recess the housings for the flat-screen monitors used in the meeting rooms, so that they are completely flush with the walls.

Q: If I were a homeowner, would I be able to come into the Freeworld Design Centre and sit down with a consultant?

No. For members of the public the Freeworld Design Centre acts more as a resource for ideas and a place from which to draw inspiration. The spaces within the Freeworld Design Centre building that are available for public use are: the interior design reference library of books and magazines; four pod installations which have been designed by some of SA’s top spatial designers; the Courtyard, a quiet space to sit with a newly purchased international design magazine from our bookshop; the Auditorium and Rooftop Terrace that may be hired out for events. We are looking forward to hosting the forthcoming Design Centre Film Festival as well as Bruce Mau’s globally linked Massive Change Network.

Q: What can a member of the interior and décor trade expect?

Members of the architecture, interior design and coating industries, as well as property developers, will be able to use all of the above mentioned spaces that have been listed for use by the public. However, members of the trade will also be able to speak with the Design Centre’s consultants to assist their decisions about walls, floors and décor. In addition, a 3D rendering service is offered to trade customers, as well as the Freeworld Design Centre meeting and consultation spaces which are available for hire for client meetings and presentations.

www.freeworlddesigncentre.com

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www.antalis.co.za Bloemfontein Johannesburg / Exports Pietermaritzburg Cape Town Port Elizabeth Durban Pretoria

The Forest Stewardship Council™ through international standards supports environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests; it evaluates, accredits and monitors certification bodies that comply.

c e l e b r at i n

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Fsc™ certiFicatio ’ s i l a t n g an

10 is nce 20

+27 51 447 8681 +27 11 688 6000 +27 33 386 1078 +27 21 959 9600 +27 41 486 2020 +27 31 714 4000 +27 12 379 0060

Green

a look at green symbols saving the environment is all about choice

As a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Antalis South Africa is committed to conduct its business in more sustainable ways. As such it is determined to make it easier and simpler for its paper customers to make smarter environmental choices, and to make meaningful reductions in its environmental footprint by: ■ Expanding its offering of papers made with recycled content, including post consumer -recycled fiber ■ Continuing to expand its offering of FSC-certified papers which support well-managed forests and the responsible use of forest resources ■ Continuing to reduce its carbon footprint through millbased energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions.

Environmentally aware customers should note the following symbols and their meanings: FSC® Certified – The Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) mission is to promote and enhance well-managed forests through credible certification that is environmentally responsible, socially acceptable and economically viable. In order to use any FSC trademarks, including the FSC logo, initials 'FSC' or phrase 'Forest Stewardship Council' on a printed piece, the printer (representing the last step in the chain of custody) must have chain-ofcustody certification. On-product logos are obtained from the FSC

certified printer. Without this certification, no claims can be printed regarding the FSC-certified content of the paper.

Carbon Neutral – Aimed at reducing emissions to help decrease the effects of global warming.

Green Seal Certified – Green Seal is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase and use of environmentally responsible products and services. Green Seal is a symbol of recognition to customers that papers are made with a minimum of 30% post consumer fiber and that mill processes, including packaging, are environmentally friendly.

Recycled – The recycled symbol, also known as the chasing-arrows logo or the mobius loop, is visible on many consumer products, including paper. Used alone, the recycling symbol communicates that a paper product or package is both recyclable and made entirely from recycled material.

As few products or packages can make both claims, use of the symbol alone is limited. In most cases, the recycling symbol must be accompanied by qualifying statements to clarify the intended claim.

PFC – Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) is not to be confused with

Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF), which means no chlorine was used in the manfacturing process.

Elemental Chlorine Free remains preferable to any process that still uses pure chlorine. Enhanced Elemental Chlorine Free further reduces energy and chemical use.

However, chlorine derivatives are permissible. Most environmental groups consider Processed Chlorine Free to be acceptable.

Green-e Certified – Signifies the process of using Green-e Certified renewable energy.

Alternative Fiber Choices – Alternative fiber papers offer various environmental benefits. choose the right paper

New from Neenah Paper, supplied by Antalis, is the Environmental Calculator, which allows users to instantly calculate the environmental savings achieved by using paper made with postconsumer fiber, as well as the savings from using paper made with 100% renewable energy.

FSC-certified papers available from Antalis South Africa include Curious Collection, Conqueror, Rives Dot, Opale and Cocoon from Arjowiggins Fine Papers; Munken from Arctic Paper as well as Environment and Classic Linen from Neenah Paper. www.antalis.co.za

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plakbook

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old cloud

plakbook

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Feature/clouD

on a clouD the data clouds are gathering, writes jack purcher

Wired Magazine's classic 1996 interview with Steve Jobs has always stood out as one the most interesting tech titan interviews of all time. Being that NeXT Computer had failed to reach the masses, Steve Jobs wasn't interested in talking about the desktop computer anymore. No, he had an all-new vision that revolved around WebObjects: The Next Great Thing.

During that interview, Jobs stated that, "The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That's over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it's going to be in the dark ages for the next ten years, or certainly for the rest of this decade." But more importantly he hinted of something new on the horizon related to WebObjects.

Gary Wolf of Wired asked Steve Jobs this question: "Is the desktop metaphor going to continue to dominate how we relate to computers, or is there some other metaphor you like better?" Steve Jobs replied by stating that, "to have a new metaphor, you really need new 20 ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011

Feature/clouD

issues. The desktop metaphor was invented because, one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That's a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long. I don't store anything anymore, really. I use a lot of e-mail and the Web, and with both of those I don't have to ever manage storage.

As a matter of fact, my favorite way of reminding myself to do something is to send myself e-mail. That's my storage. The minute that I don't have to manage my own storage, and the minute I live primarily in a connected versus a stand-alone world, there are new options for metaphors."

That vision was the foundation of what was to come. Shortly thereafter Apple acquired NeXT Computer and Steve Jobs came along with the deal. deux ex machina

iCloud, introduced by Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June, represents a direct challenge to Google's cloud-based offerings, which already use ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 21

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services like Gmail, Calendar, Picasa and Google Docs to let users see and edit the same document or photo across multiple devices.

In addition, Google recently announced Google Music and, in March, Amazon.com unveiled Amazon Cloud Drive.

In his customary quiet delivery style, Jobs said, "We're going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device. Just like an iPhone, iPad or an iPod touch. And we're going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud. Because all these new devices have communications built into them, they could all talk to the cloud whenever they want." "And so now if I get something on my iPhone it's sent up to the cloud immediately; let's say I take some picture with it‌ those picture are in the cloud and they are now pushed down to my devices completely automatically. And now everything is in sync without me having to think about it. I don't even need to take the devices out of my pocket. I don't have to be near my Mac or PC.

"Now, iCloud stores your content, in the cloud, and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices. So it automatically uploads it, stores it and automatically pushes it to all of your other devices. But also, it's completely integrated with your apps. And so everything happens automatically and there's nothing new to learn. It just all works."

One of the key points that Jobs hammered home in his keynote is that "iCloud is integrated with your apps so everything happens automatically." That's exactly what he said back in 2001; he seems to have understood the next wave of computing before WebObjects came to market and years before Google was born.

"Now some people think that the cloud is a just a hard disk in the sky – Right? And you take a bunch of stuff and you put it in your Dropbox or your iDisk or whatever and it transfers it up to the cloud and stores it. And you drag out what you want back out on your other devices. We think it's way more than that and we call it iCloud."

Clouds may also have a dark side, and here's a case in point. One of the many points that Intel's Kirk Skaugen made during his IDF keynote in Beijing earlier this year was that, if you happen to work in a data center keeping your company's servers humming, you might be out of job sooner than you think.

According to Skaugen, Intel is out to save

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dark clouds

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"you may not have to manage your own storage. you may not store much before too long. i don't store anything anymore, really. i use a lot of e-mail and the web, and with both of those i don't have to ever manage storage. as a matter of fact, my favorite way of reminding myself to do something is to send myself e-mail. that's my

storage."

– steve jobs, wired interview, 1996

businesses 25 billion dollars over the next 4 years by killing off jobs related to IT departments around the globe. While I understand that progress most often comes at a cost – at a time of worldwide unemployment, I don't think Intel should have been so cheery about the possible consequences of their actions. winds of change

We know that the concept behind iCloud has been in Steve Jobs' head for more than fifteen years. And not to be too gushing, Jobs has recently admitted that MobileMe wasn't their finest hour. But then, nothing in life ever goes in a straight line. Intel has also been hard at work with dozens of the top tech industry leaders to establish cloud standards that are interoperable, secure and automated – as opposed to Jobs, who thinks the PC is dying, Intel thinks the next shift in the PC will be another evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) stage.

What seems certain is that iCloud will usher in a new kind of computing – one that's more in tune with a generation that's always on the go. It will offer tremendous convenience. The fact that any change you make to a document on one device will be instantly downloaded to all of your other devices will simply be too hard to resist.

But there's one more thing. How could Apple pump up cloud computing without incorporating some form of change to their future hardware lineup? Will the company's hardware starts to reflect and support their iCloud vision? It may not happen overnight – but be assured that it will. It may simply start out as an iCloud-centric iPod, iPad or even iPhone. If Apple is serious about demoting the Mac or PC to just being another device, they're going to have to deliver on that statement. When and what that will entail is anyone's guess. _This article first appeared on www.patentlyapple.com. It has been edited for length

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feature/film

FINDING dignity IN disgrace exploring the non-aesthetics of b-movie culture. by pluto panoussis

A good fifteen years ago when freelancing as a designer I was apfilm business. These movies were usually made with existing sets, low proached by a client in Cape Town who had just recently bought the paid actors and re-used stock footage and followed a typical formula rights to an American exploitation film called I Spit on Your Grave.

– usually falling somewhere in the suspense, horror, sci-fi, western, The brief: "Make it sell!" I watched the film and was both fascinated exploitation or gangster genres. and repulsed. On the one hand it was a horrid exploitative revengeBy the end of the 1930s, there was an attitude in place at the studios rape tale about a woman that gets abused and then single-mindedly that was to prove very important for the development of B-movies. sets out to right the wrongs that have been committed to her. On the While studio attention was focused on A-movies, B-movie directors other hand was a shockingly defiant feminist film, described by one were left largely to their own devices, provided they worked within critic as "perhaps the most stridently anti-masculine film ever made the minimal budgets, and supported the main feature of the doubleby a male filmmaker". bill with which they were coupled. Less attention meant less involveThere are no questions about the filmment by the studio, and subsequently greater creamaker’s motives to exploit his female star’s tive freedom. assets. We get to see plenty of flesh, plenty One can put a strong case forward for this envithis was my first overt of sex and plenty of violence, but there is ronment being the ground for the first film schools. excursion into the b-movie also something wonderfully subversive, Young hopefuls were put through their paces in the culture zone– and to the something so blatantly and unnecessarily B factories, which also provided useful proving exhilarating notion of capitalist about this exploitative expression grounds for aspiring young directors. Some great dignity in disgrace. that it gains an anti-establishment quality. names like William Wyler, Edward Dmytryk and In designing the poster, I decided to apply Fred Zinnemann emerged from these ranks, while this principle: I used a teasing clip from the other great names like James Whale and Jacques film showing our heroine from behind, her clothes all tattered and Tourneur, responsible for the hauntingly beautiful I Walked with a torn, brandishing a bloodied knife. She is the predator, not the victim Zombie, remained largely within these confines. anymore. I doctored the cuts and bruises on her back so they stood In fact, the whole film noir genre developed out of the B-movie stable. out, defiantly, seductively – and placed the title shamelessly in that In 1948 a judgment delivered by the US Supreme Court Justice ruled very delicate area between the knees and the ass. Try as you might, that, by owning their own theaters, the major studios were in violaon this poster, you always return to the derrière. tion of anti-trust laws. This put an end to the golden era of Hollywood This was my first overt excursion into the zone of B-movie culture – and all but doomed B-movies. and to the exhilarating notion of the possibility of dignity in disgrace.

But not all B-movies are exploitation films. They cover a wide range end and beginning of genres, and express an equally wide range of attitudes to the audiovisual medium.

In the following feature I investigate B-movie culture to highlight its The privatisation of movie theatres, however, ushered in a new era potential value and pertinence to the South African filmmaking exin the movie business, opening up possibilities to small distributors. perience and in our development as an emerging filmmaking nation.

When, in the mid 1950s the impact of television began to be felt and movie attendance was again on the decline, the B-movie was there, ready to rear its exploitative and subversive low-budget head again. a-z of b-movies This time round the arena was open to all that had the stamina to participate. The door was open to both the lunatic and maverick filmmaker. With the advent of the drive-in movie, which became one of The B-movie started in the mid 1930s in America, and was a direct the defining symbols of American popular culture in the 1950s, and response by Hollywood to the falling cinema audiences of the Detelevision stations beginning to show B-genre films in late-night slots, pression years. Where previously audiences had paid to see a single the realm of the B-movie was now becoming increasingly fertile terrifeature supplemented with shorts and cartoons, they were now tory for experimentation – both serious and outlandish. treated to two features, one of which was a low-budget supporting film, the B-movie. Soon all the major studios had their own B-movie units, headed by people who knew every aspect of the low-budget

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright owners

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Nor was the B-movie confined to American shores anymore. The Italians contributed gallantly to the cause. In fact, they were responsible for two entirely new genres: peplum, or sword and sandal films, that centered around Hercules or one of the other Greek or Roman heroes, and the spaghetti westerns with their cheesy reworking of classic western themes.

In Japan, the low budget rubber suit monster movies, also known as kaiju flicks, of which Godzilla is the best known, repeatedly wreaked havoc on poor Tokyo. As B-movie culture grew, so did the variety of its expression. defining b-movies

David Kehr, a documenter of the exploitation film, says that a B-movie can be about "childbirth or venereal disease, drug abuse or drag racing, a dance craze or a crime spree. It may be the one genre defined not by content, but by attitude – a certain willingness on the part of the filmmakers, and an unbridled enthusiasm on the part of the exhibitors, to appeal to the public’s less noble impulses."

It was this willingness on the part of B-movie exhibitors’ that opened the route into America for experimental and daring European films – (provided, of course, there was some selling point like nudity, or violence, or shock factor to support this altruistic gesture.)

Ingmar Bergman’s film Summer with Monica was retitled Monica, The Story of a Bad Girl and effortlessly incorporated into the B-movie distribution circuit. Soon this particular branch of the circuit developed its own identity that came to be known as the art-house circuit, of which Ster Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau is South Africa’s continuation of this proud tradition.

Mostly B-movies featured poor acting, bad storylines, confusing dialogue and questionable special effects. We don't always know what they were called, and we don't always remember what they were about, but images from these classics remain with you. Why? Maybe its because excellence is not the only requirement for a work to be able to transport its audience. What is required is the full-hearted, uninhibited immersion of the artist into the reality of the world he or she is creating.

It’s the capacity for the B-movie to provide its audience with such idiosyncratic moments of

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troubling and demented beauty that makes them memorable. And when they're good – well, very little beats them. Let’s look at the example of Ganga and Hess. In 1972, blaxploitation had reached its peak in popularity. A studio approached Bill Gunn to direct a black vampire film quickly and cheaply, to capitalize on the current blaxploitation fad. Though the film was quick and cheap to produce, featuring black actors with vampirism as a predominant theme, Ganga and Hess was not the movie the producers envisioned. Instead of a Blacula knock-off, Gunn had created an intricate and obscure tale of addiction, love and betrayal.

It uses the B-movie elements of vampirism to scratch into the very psyche of the contemporary Black American probing his uneasy coexistence between mystical tribal Africa and organized Western Christianity. It remains to this day one of the finest Black American films made.

In the same way, when George Romero created Night of the Living Dead, he tapped into the psyche of postwar America to give us a low- budget vision of a commodified nation populated by zombies. The film satisfies at a Bmovie level and resonates chillingly at a deeper socio-political level. local b-movies

What value do B-movies have for the contemporary South African filmmaker? They debunk the idea that the only way to make a memorable movie is to throw money at it. They prove that you can make enjoyable and affecting films without lots of money and flashy CGI effects.

It was this fundamental philosophy, in which a micro-budget was accepted as an open invitation to explore film adventurously, and to market its product shrewdly and creatively, that mostly defines the genre. And in any country where budgetary constraint is still a primary limitation, there is a lesson to be learned here.

There is a fundamental difference between creating an industry of fodder, and an industry where the filmmakers’ apply themselves to pushing the envelope of their market, while still addressing its needs.

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b-movies offer a spirit of creative entrepreneurship and crazed vision that may work in politically correct south africa; the development of an exploitative streak to ensure the achievement of your goal and to express your vision, whatever it may be.

Wikipedia describes a B-movie as a "low budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film". Inherent in this definition is the dichotomy one faces when confronted with the term B-movie – skill and vision versus pure commercial exploitation. It is within this conflicted space that the B-movie thrives. The American B-movie culture has a lot to teach an emerging film industry like South Africa, where we need to develop an authentic cinematic language on the one hand, but on the other hand need to provide enough access to our films to make them commercially viable.

The B-movie environment is one in which defeat has no place, where even in the absence of budget you can continue to create great work. And in the absence of an audience, you create one.

Let’s recall the audacious William Castle who, before his 1958 film, Macabre, informed the audience that he had taken out insurance policies to cover anyone who might die of fright during the screening of his film, or John Waters who staged a heart attack complete with ambulance on the premiere of his film, Pink Flamingos.

It is this spirit of creative entrepreneurship and crazed vision that may work in politically correct South Africa; the development of an exploitative streak to ensure the achievement of your goal and to express your vision, whatever it may be. And yes, to have a bit of money left over would be just dandy.

There is no single defining South African film, and no single defining South African filmmaker. We live in a community where many voices need to be heard, and before we scrutinize these voices too closely and begin to censor them, we need to allow them to howl and to scream. We need to let the young disgrace themselves and find out what truth there is for them, and if they need to travel through perilous waters, so be it. Let’s inspire them with an ideal that is worth pursuing. Let’s allow them to discover the dignity of disgrace. _Pluto Panoussis has 25 years of experience in the creative arts industry. He is the founder of iMPAC (Initiative for Motion Pictures within the African Continent) and currently serves as head of the Film Department at the Open Window School of Visual Communication. Some of his favourite B-movies include Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932), The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935), I walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943), Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945), Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950), The Thing (Howard Hawks, 1951), Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960), Breathtless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

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platForm a cultural review of sorts • brandt botes • injozi • richard hamm •

• brandt botes • injozi • garrick hamm

31 38 42

30 36 40

Brandt Botes, Birds Café, Cape Town, 2011. Photo: O’Toole 2011 31 ENJIN Sean 54 JUNE/JULY

platform

The dude abides brandt botes has launched a new studio under his own name. sean o’toole meets with the designer to talk about the end of print and pyjamas

Brandt Botes is already stirring brown sugar into his coffee when I arrive at Birds Café on Cape Town’s Bree Street to meet him. Botes, who recently left his job as head of design at The Jupiter Drawing Room to go it alone, is stocky and wears his brown hair sheered close to the skull. Number two on the Wahl razor, I reckon. He has a firm handshake. We chat for a bit about an exhibition at Michael Stevenson Gallery in nearby Woodstock. We passed each other in a room filled with abstract paintings by Penny Siopis on the weekend before the interview. The gallery represents his older brother, artist Conrad Botes.

A little later into our conversation I will ask him about the complications of having a famous sibling. But first, and this is almost inevitable, we talk comic books. We both love the form. Botes perhaps more so than me. When he enrolled in the University of Stellenbosch’s art school in 1994, he wanted to draw comics. "I was completely enthralled by comics at that stage," he says. "Möbius.

Robert Crumb. Heavy Metal magazine. French comics."

His ambitions however shifted during his time on campus. "When I went to university I fell in love with typography and design," explains Botes. "It was the End of Print era, David Carson." Like the sound of Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit, Carson’s best-selling 1995 book is emblematic of a specific time. The early Nineties. "Type designers got to be stars," Carson explained it to me a decade later, in 2003.

32 ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011

"And have their own conferences. For a while. It was a fun time, but the fonts that came in the quickest and hardest were always the first to fade out."

By the time Botes graduated from university at the end of 1997, Carson’s distressed graphic sensibility, which reached its highpoint with Ray Gun magazine, was already on the way out. The chic boom aesthetic of Wallpaper was taking over. Not that these seasonal shifts in Euro-American graphic design mattered all that greatly to Botes, whose attentions were micro-local.

In 1992, Conrad Botes and Anton Kannemeyer released the first issue of Bitterkomix, an incendiary piece of graphic anarchism. The first issue had a simple black and white cover and featured the mordant tagline, "Vereikende leesstof vir die emosioneel armoedige". By the time Botes entered university three years later Bitterkomix was already on issue four. Both of its creators lectured at Stellenbosch.

"I see what happened in Bitterkomix, and the responses it got, as very much in the same way as the young Afrikaans rock movement that happened around Fokofpolisiekar," says Botes. "It made a big impression on me." I ask if there was ever any sibling rivalry. It is well known that the two Kannemeyer brothers, Anton and Mark, the latter an accomplished painter and sometime contributor to Bitterkomix, have a prickly relationship. "It’s weird," says Botes immediately, "I don’t think so. I often get introduced as Conrad Botes’s

Images courtesy of Brandt Botes/The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town)

platform

Opposite page: Cover for i-jusi #8 Right: Adventures with the letter A

brother, and I’m cool with that. I’m sure in graphic design circles Conrad will be introduced as Brandt Botes’s brother. Obviously he’s much more well known than me, and rightly so. I’m a huge fan. We hang out socially.

We go out a lot."

When he left university Botes applied for a job at Jupiter. He remembers dropping off his portfolio for Ross Chowles to review. "It was like Idols for designers," he laughs about the disembodied audition. The net outcome of his application for a design job: the agency phoned and said they would contact him if they ever needed illustration work. No job. Botes got his start at a small design agency called The Steelroom. There was none of the factory-line production that characterises bigger agencies and he got to do and learn everything related to print design.

In 1999 he jumped ship and joined the garrulous Durban designer Garth Walker’s agency, Orange Juice Design. The company, which was part owned by Ogilvie, had established a Cape Town office. Botes describes Walker as one of his two professional mentors, the other being Joanne Thomas, part owner and creative director of design at Jupiter. "What I always liked about Garth Walker’s enthusiasm for vernacular typography is that there are no rules – the crazier the type the better."

In 2000 Botes contributed to a special type issue of Walker’s irregular magazine, I-Jusi. His input consisted of a type family. Literally. The four typefaces were named "ma", "pa", "boet" and "sus". This early san-serif type family showcased Botes’s passion for type, something that is ongoing. "When I started with the first family for I-Jusi, it was quite literally a family, a play on that idea," he explains.

"What I’ve recently become interested in is folk typography and typography of individual people, sign writers, for example." I ask about his illustration exercise, Adventures with Letter A. The project takes a well-known letterform, the letter "A", disassembles it, and then playfully reconstructs it in various guises. As a cripple, a cigar-smoking mogul, an Aids ribbon. "It is very first base," he insists, "but it is about having fun with typography and looking at the building blocks of words."

"Aren’t typographers seen as the scientist-nerds of the graphic design community?" I ask. "They are, but I am not a typographer by any means," Botes insists. "There are blogs where you see that scientist mania…I like the rawness of typography here."

Nearly an hour into the interview I realise I have been focussing mainly on the leftfield projects that demonstrate Botes’s creative facilities. I have all but ignored his commercial design work. Botes is highly respected in the industry for his client work. When I mentioned that I had interviewed Botes to Clinton Bridgeford, formerly a creative director at Y&R and currently also starting up his own shop, he was full of praise for Botes. It is a sentiment shared by many of his peers.

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platform

Left: Reason and madness – illustration for Them and Us Below: Superstar Portfolio for Design Indaba 13 (Images courtesy of the Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town) Right: Cover for bitterjusi #13

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platform

"aren’t typographers seen as the scientistnerds of the graphic design community?" i ask.

"they are, but i am not a typographer by any means," botes insists.

Under the awards header in Botes’s CV there is mention of a Loerie Grand Prix (2001), 100 Show Gold Pencil (2007 and 2011) and D&AD silver nomination (2010). Asked to point me to a standout example of his commercial work, Botes mentions the three Design Indaba campaigns he worked on. The most recent campaign, Design Indaba 13, started with a football-inspired logo, but eventually rolled out into a national competition, exhibition and print portfolio packaged in a spiffy emerald and red folder. "Design Indaba is a great client," says Botes, without embellishment. I ask if he has ambitions to speak at the annual design get-together. "No," he states unam-

biguously. "Public speaking is not really my thing."

He also has other more pressing short to medium term career requirements to manage. They coalesce around a two-word statement of intent: Studio Botes. For now, the new studio is based at the graphic artist’s home in Claremont. "What is the signature or DNA of Studio Botes?" I ask. "I remember going for a job interview many years ago and somebody said, "Wow, I see no clear style!" I thought, "Oh shit! Is that a problem?" I guess, for me, I have always been drawn to juxtapositions, of simplicity and craft. Stylistically, I don’t have one certain approach."

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platForm

Left: Packaging for Musica Rockstar

Fair enough, I say, but let’s drill down a bit. Serif or san-serif? "My splash page has both." How about a colour? "Red: it’s bright, it’s warm, it’s bold. Humour is also a huge part of my work." And the business model? "I have some of my own corporate clients, doing interiors and packaging. I really love those elements." His monochromatic illustration and design work for retailer Musica corroborate this. It is striking and bold, just as one would expect from someone grounded in a comic book sensibility.

"Is being based in Cape Town a disadvantage?" I ask. "I am quoting on work that is international," says Botes, telling me how in the past week he quoted on jobs in Australia and the US. A contribution to designer Peet Pienaar’s recent Toffie festival – the pair know each other from varsity days – also landed him a plum job when Tony Childs, the singer, saw his work while trawling the Toffie website.

But he is still circling around answering my question. He is still circling around answering my question. "I love the city," he finally states, "and it has quite a creative hub. There are a lot of young illustrators and designers that are branching out on their own."

Running a business from home can be sweet, but only if you have the discipline. If you can’t get out of your pyjamas, it can be perilous. I ask Botes what his work routine is at home. "In that Toffie video I interviewed someone who said, ‘You will probably never work as hard as when you work for yourself.’ It’s absolutely true. In the three months since starting I’ve had two weekends off. In big agencies you’re really protected. When you own an agency you are the financial director and the tea lady, and then you still have to create work. I need to get out of my pyjamas by nine o’clock or else I’ll turn into Jeff Lebowski."

The Dude abides. Interview completed, we order the bill. As so often happens, the conversation flows more easily once the formality of the interrogation is over. Botes starts talking about Freehand, the vector graphic programme he still uses. It is considered "a little bit passé," he says, the industry standard now Adobe’s suite of software programmes, InDesign and Illustrator. "Peet, Garth, Jonathan Barnbrook and Neville Brody are still in Freehand," he says. "I don’t feel as guilty about my tech skills." "Well, at least you’re not using Corel Draw," I say, thinking of the rudimentary design suite from the early 1990s. He laughs. "But I’ll have to consider changing," he says. "People don’t want business cards anymore. They want a logo and a website, and they want their logo on their website." _Sean O’Toole is a journalist and writer based in Cape Town. He uses MSWord for Mac. He has never used a typewriter

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platform

IN JOZI hip kids on the block injozi has but one stated aim

– design a hipper world,

writes gregor naudé

Injozi, a Milpark, Johannesburg-based band of merry design pranksters, evolved from friendships formed at the former Wits Technikon. Specialising in (but not limiting themselves to) photography, graphic, digital and audio design, the creative outfit comprises Chris Green (head of online development, 3D and web design), Ross Garrett (photographer), Nick Argyros (executive producer and audio composer) and Craig Wells (head of design.) Each member pretty much does his own thing, while adding to the greater whole that is Injozi.

Over the past 5 years they have raised the bar on all things aesthetic – raking in awards along the way – by introducing an attention to detail that has caused a stir in the creative industry. An aspirational agency for clients and interns alike, Injozi is known primarily for its effortless brand elevation. Always maintaining an unflappable work ethic, their clients range from the very corporate to the overtly glamorous. Working with big name-advertising agencies, TV and radio stations, musicians, cutting-edge brands and products, the diversity of Injozi leaves them open and accessible to a wide array of clients. With an edgy approach and flawless execution, this unstoppable team will continue to make the world a merrier place.

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absa kknk

Talk about getting down and dirty. Injozi's photo shoot for the ABSA KKNK (Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees) was, according to Argyros, "one of the most fun jobs we ever did." Who wouldn't want to throw a couple of hundred liters of paint and wine about? Says Nick, "Conceptually, we worked very closely with the agency. The idea was to create a giant canvas and capture it developing as layers of paint, wine and other materials were added to it. As ABSA also wanted to feature some well-known South African theatre, dance and music artists, we had canvas clothing made especially for them – they performed with the giant canvas as backdrop and were good sports with us throwing all kinds of coloured liquid on and around them." The end result was colourful to say the least. "It was breathtaking to stand back and see it all come together," enthuses Nick.

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motherland coffee co.

Argyros cites Motherland Coffee Co. as one of his favourite projects. "One of the factors that contributed to the success of the campaign was that we were practically given an open brief and – while the client had a clear direction of where they wanted to go – they didn't interfere, and let us run with the creative as we saw fit," says Nick.

The challenge: Motherland Coffee Company is a Fair Trade coffee company which sources only coffee beans of African origin from the continent. With an emphasis on equitable trade and social responsibilty in coffee-growing communities, Injozi needed to create a brand experience that captured this raw African spirit and the ideals of fair trade and social justice, while maintaining the polished, dynamic café feel of a premium coffee house.

The insight: Africa is the future. Injozi wanted Motherland to make clients feel that they are revolutionary African coffee pioneers.

When customers enter the Motherland café space and drink Motherland coffee they should feel part of an African coffee revolution.

The execution: The brand identity captures an iconic African revolutionary feel. Illustrated text communicates positive and encouraging messages about the continent and its people. Youaretherevolution.org was set up as the social arm of the company, with its own logo representing a positive African uprising. Taglines of 'Be the change' and 'The future is in your hands' were kept in the same flat vector style as the overall brand. The look-and-feel of the store mixes earthy tones with sleek, polished design elements, charged with positive ideas on Fair Trade coffee and positive social revolution. Injozi also came up with the concept of using hand signals to create a visual language – using terms such as 'pikanin', 'so so' and 'clenched fist' to indicate the size of drink you would like to order. www.motherlandcoffee.com

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happy clients

As for clients, the best way to keep them is to make them happy, says Nick. "We’ve been extremely lucky in the fact that most clients approach us, whether through the grapevine or the website. Craft plays a big part in our service offering; spending time on the finer details definitely seems to be paying dividends. And, while it's beneficial to keep up with trends in the design and illustration fields, I think you must be conscious of not being drawn too far into it. Just stick to the basics and do them well." steady evolution

As far as the company is concerned, the biggest change over time has been the fact that, although it started out as a design studio, it has evolved to a point where it now commands a niche. Says Nick, "We have really found our niche, while at the same time expanding our own ideas and passions within the company. For example, Ross (a trained graphic designer) decided that he wanted to become a full-time photographer – and that's we he did. We've pretty much all changed our job descriptions over time, with the exception of Craig, who has stayed true to his passion for design and illustration, but has added Flash and 3D design to his repertoire." In addition to audio, photography and print design, the company has also immersed themselves in digital design, where the focus is on app and game development primarily for the iPhone and iPad. Says Nick, "A main drawcard for clients is the convenience of having sound, photography and design all under the same roof. Plus there's a foosball table and free fizzers!" www.injozi.biz

creative participation

Injozi also supports industry initiatives, such as Adobe's GoCreate competition, which offers the creative community a credible platform from which to showcase their talents and expose their work to the industry. Injozi submitted their selfpromotional website (below) 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 feel it gives a well-rounded breakdown of our capabilities,” says Argyros. www.gocreate.co.za

ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 41

platform

a happy mind for garrick hamm, big ideas come to a happy mind

Garrick Hamm is determined to make the best of things. As Chairman of the Communication Design category for the 33rd Annual Loerie Awards, Hamm, a Creative Partner at the London baseddesign consultancy Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) has been inventing and reinventing brands across all disciplines for the past twelve years.

Some of his most successful work includes WMH’s relaunch of Fortnum & Mason’s packaging and identity, as well as the launch of Jamie Oliver’s Recipease store, which recently picked up a Gold Lion at Cannes. His work has won numerous major awards, including a D&AD Yellow Pencil, two DBA Design Effectiveness Grand Prix awards and a shelf full of Clios.

Commenting on his role as Communication Design Chairman Hamm says, "it’s an honour to be part of The Loerie Awards – even though it comes with some pressure. I feel a huge responsibility to

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the Loeries to put together a great show. It’s always a massive relief at the end of the week when you see the short list of work coming together. But whether you’re judging in SA, the US or the UK, judges always have a nose for a good idea and having a common sense of humour always helps!"

Hamm feels that South Africa’s creativity is a fusion of innovation and optimism which stem’s from the location of the country. "SA has an amazing buzz and vibe, set against a landscape of breath-taking beauty. It’s like nowhere else on earth. The light is very different here and so is the creativity." The key for local creatives is to work with people they like and to do work that makes them happy, says Hamm.

"Don’t do work for free, as people don’t respect you for it, and do work that makes you happy. Big ideas come to a happy mind."

Simple, great ideas can help to enhance the quality of people’s lives, both locally and globally. "Look at the new bio manufactured brick,"

platform

says Hamm. "No electricity or kiln needed, just a little help from some friendly bacteria.

This idea could help cut Co2 emissions dramatically."

Closer to home, he explains how Williams Murray Hamm has worked with their client, Clipper Teas, to feed profits back to the community to enable the local tea estate villages to build their first hospital." He also credits the innovative ways people make use of social networking sites to make a difference. "I love the idea of using crowd sourcing via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to help form Iceland’s new constitution," he says by way of example. dreaming on a star

Even though he has a deep love for the moving image, Hamm says filmmakers are facing very challenging times. "Independent filmmaking is struggling in the UK – especially now following the cutting of state funds making development money even harder to find. Unless you go to a film school, you have to have deep pockets in the UK to be in film." As an example, it cost him £800 to send one of his short films to be entered into the Oscars.

On a more upbeat note, Hamm said the entry point into film is much more accessible nowadays through the use of camcorders and mobile phones; distribution via the web means people can distribute and market their own material. The script plays the vital role in film making. "If the script isn’t great then no one will want to watch it, regardless of how it was shot or if it's free to view on you laptop," he says.

His first short film 'Lucky Numbers' was nominated at the Chlotrudis Award in the USA. His most recent film 'The Man Who Married Himself' starring Richard E Grant and Emilia Fox won Best Comedy Award at the LA Shorts Festival.

ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 43

platForm

help others help themselves

Hamm is a firm believer in the power of design education and development; he is currently executive president of the D&AD and an active member of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). To facilitate design education, Hamm has run design workshops across the globe, from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong and has been profiled in the Financial Times and The Observer.

Loeries board member and co-founder of Switch Design, Gaby de Abreu believes Hamm brings another dimension to The Loerie Awards with his multidisciplinary design wisdom and wealth of experience. "Garrick is seen as one of the successful 'new breeds' of the global design industry – one who eats and breathes every aspect of creativity. With the communication design world changing rapidly, it was important to find a chairman who is well versed in all the disciplines of design." www.williamsmurrayhamm.com/

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revieW

Just zef the new pendoring awards campaign makes a case for interlocal is zef, writes herman manson

The 2011 Pendoring campaign features a series of three posters aimed at luring entries from the industry, with the overall Pendoring winner showing how he revels like a born rock star in three overseas locations – asking his chum to take a quick snap shot on a roof in New York, a couch in Paris and among the tulips in Amsterdam. dis zef want dis die punt

Last year's Prestige winners and part of the creative team of this year's campaign, Renier Zandberg (creative director) and Nico Botha (copywriter) of Ogilvy Johannesburg left for the Big Apple at the beginning of July to hone their advertising skills as part of their prize in 2010. There they will keep a blog of their (mis)adventures in the big ad city. "Hopefully this first-hand interactive exercise will inspire the entire advertising industry to follow our comings and goings, obviously resulting in a huge pile of Pendoring entries this year," says Zandberg.

In a series of 3 posters, the overall Pendoring winner shows how he revels like a rock star in New York, Paris and Amsterdam. A fourth execution, aimed at clients and advertisers, shows a proud baker whose dreams were realised, thanks to the more than R2 million free advertising space/airtime for the client of the overall winning advertisement. This year, once again, R2.2 million free advertising space/air time is offered for the client/company of the overall winning advertisement.

"The message we would like to drive home through the 2011 campaign is that anyone – from old to young – who's creative and imaginative, can win these big prizes, hence the use of ordinary people instead of models in the four executions," Zandberg explains. According to him the biggest challenge was to portray the different urban settings as authentically and naturally as possible. "We purposely avoided a glossy advertising look and feel, and with the multi-awarded photographer David Prior on board, the end result was exactly what we were looking for."

46 ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011

revieW

creative team

"To have had the opportunity of working on the 2011 campaign was just great, and to work with people who allow you so much creative freedom was really cool. We certainly didn't experience the campaign as work, only as fun and games. At the shoots we laughed from morning to night. Afrikaans is our taal and we could just let go," stress Botha and Zandberg. The Ogilvy Johannesburg creative team were: Mariana O'Kelly (creative director), Renier Zandberg (art director), Nico Botha (copywriter), Alettie Marx (designer), Katinka Slabbert (client service), Maree Hofmeyr and EsmĂŠ de Mirande (producers), David Prior (photographer) and Lourens van Rensburg (director).

added benefits

According to Pendoring GM Franette Klerck, the 2011 campaign highlights the uniqueness of the competition in offering significant cash prizes, an overseas study trip for the overall winner and a bursary for the overall student winner. "What makes it even more exciting and attractive this year, is the fact that the prize money for the overall winner has been increased from R25 000 to R50 000. The campaign also demonstrates how it enables the Prestige winner to not only study in other countries, but also to enjoy the experience thoroughly."

The competition has various new entry categories to make provision for current advertising developments and practices. Among these are categories for retail advertisements, live events, activations and craft. The closing date for entries is 15 August. Judging takes place in September and the winners will be announced at a gala event in October. _This article first appeared on BizCommunity.com. Manson is an independent media and marketing journalist.

He blogs @marklives.com and Tweets @marklives ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 47

revieW

cannes 2012 back from the world's biggest ad festival, liam wielopolski and graham lang reveal just how technology is changing the way we define advertising

Since Cannes Lions has evolved from an advertising festival to a creativity festival, it opens up the community to creativity across different areas, such as music, which explains why stars such as will.i.am and Pharrell Williams featured as guest speakers discussing branding, content and technology. The increased presence of technology companies this year is testament to the fact that digital is no longer the ‘newcomer’, but rather a fully integrated part of today’s creativity.

In fact, it was difficult to find a campaign that didn’t include online elements. It therefore wasn’t surprising when some suggested that the cyber category be removed, since everything is digital these days anyway. The cyber category is synonymous with technological innovation, but as one judge commented, the best work is not hinged on the technology, but on engaging its’ audience.

Other judges reflected on how they had seen several impressive entries, though the creativity wasn’t relevant to the brand. Amongst the many online campaigns, it was apparently difficult to find fresh ideas that used technology in surprising ways. "It’s no secret," says Wielopolski, "that today traditional brand building isn’t as effective as attracting active participants in your brand". Jim Farley, group vice-president of global marketing, sales and service for the Ford Motor Company supports this statement, as expressed at his seminar. He believes that the social media revolution is a myth and that it’s not about platforms, but how people have changed. He stated,

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"People now own a stake in brands and ought to be considered partners in creativity." Y&R’s global chief creative officer, Tony Granger stressed how digital is transforming everything we do. He was quoted saying, "We now have the ability to connect with an audience like never before. We can allow them to engage with a film and choose story line paths or different endings, and through locationbased technology, we can have scenes from their locations. digital reinventing print

Digital is also reinventing print. Just look at what the iPad has done for magazines and newspapers." James Murdoch, deputy CEO of News Corporation believes that the likes of the iPad have major influence on the future of creativity. He commented, "[tablets] are a revolution in storytelling, and would be the next big challenge on the creative technology front." Granger added: "This year there was a lot of work where you had to download a QR code to view the ad's message, but that hasn't really taken full effect just yet.

When agencies work out exactly how to use it, then it will change the print category forever." He anticipates that technology will further disrupt the press category and how it’s judged.

Some of the digital discussions and work that stood out for Lang and Wielopolski include anything and everything related to Google,

review

plus Samsung’s Jeremy Kaiman’s talk on Smart TV and the call on the creative community to explore digital outdoor. google

Google has become one of the world's most creative advertisers and this year was awarded the most Gol, raking in 22 Lions and a Grand Prix. Their metal collection

included a Gold for a TV commercial promoting its’ Chrome Speed Tests (browser) during the 2010 Super Bowl. Ironically Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman initially thought the campaign was a bad idea, confessing to delegates that he was so skeptical about the plan to run a multimillion-dollar commercial, that he thought ‘hell had frozen over’. Later research indicated that the ad had actually ‘paid for itself’.

One of Google’s latest developments showcased during the week, was the ‘Google Wallet’ launched in May, which allows users to convert their smart phones into virtual credit cards. It’s designed to be swiped for payment, while simultaneously earning users loyalty points and/or discount vouchers.

During a seminar, Schmidt elaborated on the ‘Google Wallet’ when asked what the future looked like. "So I'm in Cannes and I want to buy a T-shirt," he said. "My phone should be saying, ‘turn left here to get 30% off your favorite brand.' Then once in the store, I could pay for it via my handset. Basically, your phone will know what you want and it will allow you to pay for it without a credit card.

With permission, Google can use a mobile phone to trigger search queries about where you are without you having to type it in. In response to the question, ‘how big a market is that?’ Schmidt said, "We're talking trillions of dollars".

samsung smart tv

Wielopolski attended a session where Jeremy Kaiman, director of sales and marketing at Samsung’s visual display department, dispelled the myth that consumers don’t want something better than television, but instead want

better TV. "People love their television sets, but these days, they expect it to offer Internet connectivity, social networking, personalised entertainment and more."

Kaiman then disclosed some significant statistics that over the past 15 months Samsung had offered up to 500 apps for smart TVs and subsequently reported five million downloads.

The most popular was a global Internet radio connection, followed by YouTube. Others in the top ten included ‘How to Tie’ (a necktie), interestingly enough ranking at number five, while ‘Google Maps’ and ‘Mood Lights’ were also well liked. Analysis demonstrated the global usage patterns of these Smart TV apps, illustrating that the USA and UK prefer premium video on demand apps, while France is drawn to gambling/ big screen poker, and Italy tallied the highest number of downloads of the ‘How to Tie’. This presentation affirmed Wielopolski’s confidence in the fact that TV is far from becoming extinct as a result of the increasing progression of digital technology.

He says, "It’s clear that the viewer’s experience can be enhanced to offer more interactivity and therefore new ways for brands to connect."

Liam Wielopolski

digital outdoor

Lang was inspired by what he heard during Clear Channel International’s master class on digital outdoor. Globally, the medium’s potential hasn’t been fully realised and speakers compared it online advertising ten years ago.

They urged the creative community to explore the platform and suggested that creatives need to be more ambitious and have courage to try new things. Lang concludes by quoting something Granger said in a recent interview, ‘Technology allows us to dream big and to actually make it happen. And it’s evolving really quickly.’ "How true." expressed Lang, "With all the insights, showcases and discussions, there’s one profound statement that really emphasises the speed of this digital evolution: "If you look back at what has happened over the past 10 to 20 years in the industry, it’s clear that you can make one prediction – we have no idea what is going to come."

Graham Lang

Liam Wielopolski is ECD at Y&R Johannesburh; Graham Lang is CCO of Y&R SA

ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 49

review

free to work

flexible working environments are fast becoming the global norm, but adland is still missing out, writes herman manson

F

lexible work environments have been on the radar for a long time, and new research suggests it's fast becoming the norm globally. Used both as a tool to save costs and to attract and keep talent, flexible work environments, where employees are in charge of when and where they work, are also playing an important role in improving the work-life experience of many employees. A global study by Regus also suggests that flexible work environments contributes to better business performance, improves staff motiva-

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tion and productivity, and helps companies access a wider talent pool.

While many people still think flexitime is limited to smaller businesses managed by hippies or that it remains the domain of companies working out of the highly competitive Silicon Valley, the Regus research reveals that 81 per cent of companies globally are now offering "their employees a level of choice about when and where they work".

review

motivation and productivity

Globally, more than 60 per cent of firms believe flexible working practices held economic benefits, while 70 per cent views it as positive for the entire family. About 40 per cent believes it improves employee productivity (which means, I suppose, that 60 per cent don't) while a third believes that it also motivates staff.

At the very least, cutting out rush-hour traffic jams should count for something in both motivation and productivity. The research makes a relevant point in relation to emerging economies in that it says that, during periods of sudden growth, flexible work environments allow rapid scalability – something that could also be relevant to ad agencies suddenly boosted by major account wins.

It allows for rapid growth while maintaining tight cost controls. It also cuts down on the need for office space – some estimates suggest by as much as 30 per cent. In industrialised economies in trouble after the global financial crisis, the opposite is also true – flexitime is being used to scale down business costs – as for agencies faced with the sudden loss of a major client.

A gap in trust between managers and staff is highlighted by the study. While 59 per cent of firms will allow a flexi-work environment regardless of employee seniority, age or service record, 40 per cent will only extend it to senior staff.

In South Africa, many companies still prefer a 9-5 schedule for their employees, especially in the ad industry. But Regus suggest that this is no longer the norm – only 15.1 per cent of SA business categorically state that they won't allow employees flexibility at all, while 48.4 per cent said only senior personnel will be allowed flexitime privileges. As many as 67.5 per cent of local businesses surveyed

believed flexible work conditions represented a lower cost than fixed location working. In Cape Town, 32.1 per cent of companies said it would give them access to a wider talent pool, compared with 25.3 per cent in Jozi. Nationally, 40.5 per cent of businesses reported they believe it encourages staff to be more self-sufficient and pro-active in their work. adland missing out

In SA's advertising industry, however, few companies are biting.

"Firstly, the culture of my company is a huge contributor to the kind of work that we do," says Alistair King, group creative director of KingJames Group in Cape Town. "We have a house style so to speak, as do many agencies. That style comes from many people contributing to the thinking – conversations in corridors, arguments over strategic direction, ideas thrown in for the team to explore."

"Making ads requires personal and on-going interaction between a number of players, so I wouldn't consider such an arrangement."

"Freelance arrangements are often like this, and the work is seldom extraordinary. Most of the time freelancers don't really have a grasp

of the kind of way we like to think, and that is why it doesn't really work. That knowledge can only come by being in the same space as the rest of us. It's a collective way of thinking."

King's feelings are echoed by numerous agency bosses. Charl Thom, md of agency FoxP2, is more relaxed in his attitude to flexible working conditions, saying that, while FoxP2 doesn't have a formal work from home/hot desk policy in the agency, "we've always been very open to people coming and going as they please, as long as the work gets done. It's something that has happened informally at FoxP2," says Thom. "We believe in each of the individuals at FoxP2 and as such it's easy to give our team the latitude to work flexible hours.

However, our business does require some structure as things like team brainstorms, creative reviews, brand reviews, etc. require the team to all be in the same place. We also strive to make FoxP2 a creatively stimulating environment to be in, so you actually want to be there rather than feel you have to be."

At recent start-up agency 60 layers of cake Cape Town, co-founders Ben Wren and Michael van den Heerik – already causing a stir with their collaborative communication model adapted from their sister agency in Amsterdam – say they completely buy into flexible working conditions for staff. Their offices, they explain, is a shell where staff get together when they want to. It attracts a different kind of talent to the agency, says van den Heerik, who further says as long as deadlines are met and quality is maintained, he doesn't care where the work happens.

Research by the US-based Corporate Executive Board suggests that "work-life balance now ranks as one of the most important workplace attributes – second only to compensation...And employees who feel they have a better work-life balance tend to work 21 per cent harder than those that don't." This is good news for new agencies wanting to attract top talent. traffic is justified in retainers

On why the broader industry doesn't warm to the practice, Van den Heerik suggests that traffic (the people who tell everybody in adland what to do and when) is justified in retainers – and few firms are willing to give this up.

The concept of flexible work environments and better work-life balance at agencies isn't new to the agency world. Back in 2009 I interviewed Meredith Vaughan, president of Colorado's oldest ad agency, Vladimir Jones, who told me work-life balance is "not just a way to prevent burnout in our often intense industry, but rather a way to truly foster creativity and innovation". The conclusion I came to then still holds true – it's often the interesting things people do outside the office that fuels the interesting things they do inside. _This article first appeared on BizCommunity.com. Manson is an independent media and marketing journalist. He blogs @marklives. com and Tweets @marklives

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tools

painter 12 designed for artists by artists

Corel Painter has long been one of the best art software packages for creative professionals. Unlike the multitasking behemoth Adobe Photoshop CS 5.5, Corel Painter 12 sticks to doing a few things extremely well, namely, mimicking mediums – such as oil paints, water colours, chalk, charcoal and pastels – and different kinds of canvases and paper so that their digital properties are as lifelike as possible.

Nearly every one of these properties – bristle size, viscosity and wetness of paints, drying speed, paper texture – can be changed, usually using a slider, giving you near-infinite selections.

Painter 12's new brushes include Real Watercolor and Real Wet Oil, which are designed to recreate the liquidity and viscosity of flowing and blending paint, water or solvent and textures. The Real Watercolor brush blends and dries more realistically than other watercolour brushes. Plus, you can control wind direction for drying and

watch colours interact with paper grain and change pigmentation in a natural way. You can also customize your paper texture settings to determine how the paint flows and pools on the canvas. The Real Wet Oil brush offers an enhanced method of blending and painting flowing colours to intensify a sense of realism.

Adding solvents to the canvas provides even more control. The new version offers new 'progressive' tools for artwork that go beyond replicating real-world media. For example, the Kaleidoscope tool lets you use your choice of brushes to paint patterns and colours, using 3 to 12 mirrored planes. The Mirror painting tool copies every stroke onto the opposite side of the canvas. You can choose whether strokes are mirrored horizontally, vertically or both.

A new Clone Source palette offers an assist to working with photos by letting you create and manage numerous images for cloning within a single file. You can create a library of objects to be cloned

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and then inserted into a painting.

Painter 12 has been optimized for speed. Corel says this version's brush performance is 3 to 5 times faster than the previous version and that other tasks such as opening, flattening, flipping and blurring images is up to 3 times faster.

Multicore brush support is designed to maximize brush performance when working on a multicore computer. While the Windows version of Painter 12 features 64-bit support at the new version's launch, Mac 64-bit support will come later, according to Corel.

Painter 12 introduces a redesigned and customizable user interface that aims to streamline brush selection, libraries, colour controls and image setup. A new Navigator Panel makes it easier to work with large images. With the Preview window, you can change your focal point on the canvas and move to a different area of the image without switching tools or adjusting the zoom level. You can arrange panels and palettes to suit your workflow.

In addition to new brushes, Painter 12 improves brush organization and operation. Painter's brush categories have been consolidated to provide an easier way to find the perfect brush. Interactive controls let you make quick adjustments from a centralized location. Scalable resizing lets you preserve correct brush proportions while shortcuts let you access brush settings more quickly. Dynamic brush settings let you set the merge mode and opacity for each brush stroke for smoother blending.

At more than R3 000, Corel Painter 12 isn't for lightweights. But serious creative professionals and concept artists won't find a better program for showing off their creative talent. It is available now for Mac OS X and Windows.

www.directservices.co.za

tools

transformer the asus transformer may just move some people away from the ipad

On its own, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet doesn't look as if it's about to set the tablet wars on fire. But after spending time with the Transformer and its matching keyboard dock, we think Asus is on to something.

First, Asus has made some good improvements to the stock Android 3.0. For starters, the core navigation buttons are dramatically better. Asus has replaced the standard Honeycomb navigation buttons (three light-blue outlines that serve as the primary navigation aids at the lower left of the screen) with three white, solid button formations that are crisp and distinct.

Another big change involves the keyboard. The stock Honeycomb keyboard is available as an option, but by default the Transformer uses Asus's own keyboard. The redesigned keyboard has a row of number keys up top; and keys in both the number row and the first letter row are slightly taller than the ones on the rest of the keyboard. The keyboard appears to occupy about the same depth as the regular Honeycomb keyboard, but with the added benefit of the number row (a native first among Android 3.0 tablets). The keyboard incorporates Google's predictive text, too, another native first for an Android 3.0 tablet. On the whole, the keyboard is responsive.

The Transformer, of course, gets its name from its companion piece, the Mobile Docking Station.

The Mobile Docking Station transforms the Transformer into a netbooklike clamshell. The two pieces fit together seamlessly and easily, unlike keyboards that are of separate sizes and designs from the tablet (as is true of Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad 2), and the solution is far more integrated and elegant than even the best-designed iPad cases that include a keyboard.

The Transformer ends up looking smart and acting clever: The

touchscreen is fully operational while plugged in, save for access to the on-screen keyboard. In addition, some key buttons – including Android back/exit and home buttons – are integrated into the keyboard.

The island-style keys are distinct and easy to press, making accurate typing a breeze. And by marrying the two components, you get extra battery life (which Asus estimates will increase by about 72 percent over the battery life for the tablet alone). If you needed to grab the Transformer and its Mobile Docking Station on the run, you could do so with one hand – convenient for mobile professionals.

The Android 3.0 app environment remains a big question mark, but the Transformer plus Mobile Docking Station has the potential to be a winning combination for prospective tablet owners who plan to use the device for both productivity and entertainment.

Asus is also aggressive with the pricing of the Transformer. The 16GB model costs significantly less than the comparable Apple iPad 2 at R4 499 (R6 099 with dock); the 32GB costs R5 299 (R6 899 with dock.)

http://za.asus.com/

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tools

lens freaks lensbaby lenses are enough to drive you round the bend

Lensbaby (originally Lensbabies) was first produced by Craig Strong and Sam Pardue in 2004 and, within six months of launching, lenses had been sold to photographers in forty countries around the world.

The original Lensbaby had a centre which could bend, made up of a bellow-like tube, which led to the creation of a ‘sweet spot’.

A sweet spot meant that one part of the image was sharp and the rest heavily blurred. The difference between a sweet spot and shallow depth-of-field is that a sweet spot is circular. Bending the bellows of the Lensbaby controlled placement of the sweet spot within the frame The design of the Lensbaby has evolved; however, the fundamental outcome has stayed the same. There are three current models of Lensbaby: Composer, Muse and Control Freak. These models all work in different ways but are based on the same idea of bending or tilting the lens to control the part of the image that is in focus. Lensbaby recently also added the Scout and Tilt Transformer to its lens portfolio.

The Scout

composer

The composer is the easiest Lensbaby to start with if you have never used one before. The ball and socket mechanism makes it simple to move the sweet spot around, offering smooth and precise control. The focusing process is similar to the focusing ring on a regular SLR or DSLR lens, and one does not have to hold the lens in place or lock it in position. The difference between the Composer and the Muse and Control Freak is that there is no bendy middle to the lens; this allows the photographer simply to tilt the lens instead of bending it.

Another main characteristic of the Composer is the broad focusing ring, which has a wide range allowing you to set focus from the minimum focusing distance to infinity. With the Composer, Lensbaby has introduced a completely new lens, based on a ball and socket configuration that delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease.

The Composer

muse

The Muse allows for a looser shooting style, enabling the photographer to be spontaneous and react quickly to what is happening around them. To use the Muse one needs to be comfortable with the squeezing and bending process, which requires using your fingers to focus and move the sweet spot around the frame.

The fluid nature of the Muse makes it useful for fast changing The Control Freak

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tools

situations that require you to squeeze, bend and shoot. When you are looking through the viewfinder, the Muse is set to focus on the closest possible distance, approximately 30 cm from the front of the lens. If you are taking close up images you simply move the camera further from, or closer to, the subject until it is in focus. To focus further away you just squeeze the Muse towards you – the more you squeeze the further away it will focus.

The trick of the Muse is that neither the lens nor the camera should move during exposure. This can be quite tricky since your fingers are controlling both the camera and the lens. The Muse perfectly captures the spirit of Lensbaby photography; simply squeeze the Muse to focus and bend your sweet spot around the photo. control freak

Control Freak offers a step-by-step process while giving the photographer precise control over each adjustment. It combines the bending and squeezing of the Muse – at the same time you can lock the lens in place and fine-tune your focus by rotating the fine focusing ring – much like a manual focus lens – and fine-tune your tilt by rotating the metal rods. The Control Freak is the evolution of the Lensbaby 3G, an ideal selective focus lens for tabletop and macro photography. The locking mechanism is made up of three metal rods, and does not require the photographer to hold the lens steady, allowing for photographing in low-light situations – while also making it easier to take multiple photographs of the same composition.

With the Control Freak you can compress and bend the lens to find your desired sweet spot, and then lock it in place with the push of a button. scout

tilt transformer

The Composer with Tilt Transformer is two products in one.

Especially designed for Micro Four Thirds and Sony α NEX cameras, this lens allows photographers all the creative freedom the Composer offers plus true tilt photography.

Tilting a Nikon mount lens on the Tilt Transformer places the slice of focus in different orientations within the image. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal slices are possible, depending on the direction the lens is tilted. Objects in both the foreground and background can be in focus within that slice. For example, a photographer can focus on one person close up in the left portion of the frame, while also focusing on someone standing much further away from the camera on the right side of the frame. The ability to focus on several items at once – while blurring out the rest of the image – when each item is placed at a different distance from the camera, is typically possible only with traditional tilt-shift lenses or view cameras.

The size of the slice of focus is dependent on the aperture used. For example, f/1.4 will produce a very thin slice of focus with abundant blur. F/22 will produce a very wide slice of focus with just a tiny bit of blur. Also, when the tilt is extreme while shooting at a very wide open aperture like f/1.4, the slice of focus will appear even thinner than when shooting at f/1.4 with minimal tilt.

Due to the extraordinary tilt of the Tilt Transformer, photographers can produce a more extreme angled slice of focus than is possible with standard tilt-shift lenses. Tilt Transformer allows photographers to mount any Nikon mount lens to the Tilt Transformer’s swivel ball and fluidly tilt up to twice as far as standard tilt-shift lenses. www.lensbaby.co.za

New from Lensbaby is the Scout with Fisheye – a fun and affordable manual-focus fisheye sLR/dSLR camera lens. The first Lensbaby lens that does not bend, the Scout produces an ultra-wide 12mm focal length – capable of capturing a 160-degree angle of view from infinity all the way down to 12mm from the front of the lens. The Fisheye Optic can also create unique flare effects in an image. The Scout with Fisheye comes with the Fisheye Optic installed, but photographers can use other Lensbaby Optic Swap System optics such as Soft Focus, Pinhole/Zone Plate, Double Glass, Single Glass and Plastic.

The Fisheye Optic features a creative lens flare effect that causes the edge areas that would ordinarily be black to glow with colour whenever there are bright light sources in the image. This lens flare effect is particularly apparent when shooting with a fullframe camera, though it is also apparent when shooting with APS-sized sensors. The ability to focus 12mm in front of the lens provides an extraordinary way to explore macro photography. Get close enough to a flower to nearly touch it – while capturing the entire garden surrounding it in the frame. Lensbaby's newest lens gives photographers a versatile and affordable option for fisheye photography.

The Muse

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tools

pushing print boundaries using the latest epson printers, a uk print shop offers clients an array of novel print applications

Ltd Limited could be described as the display industry’s Starship Enterprise: boldly going where no-one has gone before. Pushing the boundaries of large-format graphics production to create innovative effects has brought the company to the attention of some impressive clients such as HSBC, L’Oreal and Unilever.

At Ltd Limited’s Bethnal Green facility in the UK, co-directors Craig Beecher and Seymour Reeves are passionate about what they have achieved in a relatively short space of time. Ltd Limited is only six years young, but Craig and Seymour have 20 years of experience and research into substrates, printing, finishing and installation behind them – and it shows.

The company has quickly made an impact on the industry with its fresh and original approach and the quality of the work it produces.

Working closely with clients at the creative stage means that the company can inspire and influence the end result. It’s this inventiveness which has attracted blue chip clients. The company has a reputation for experimenting with the printers and materials it uses to produce fantastic results for retailers, galleries, exhibitions and interiors.

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interior graphics

Over the few months since Ltd Limited invested in a 64-inch Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 eco-solvent printer, it has used many different media to produce stunning interior graphics for high-impact and dynamic work environments. This is the fastest growth area of the business and the most creative sector it works in. "Until relatively recently, architects were not really that interested in interiors – but they have realised the impact and effect interior graphics can produce, and we work with them to achieve a wide variety of effects on walls, glass, wood and metal," said Craig.

Consistent and high quality results are paramount in the demanding and fast growing world of interior graphics. Seymour has used Epson printers for many years and it’s the reliability of Epson engineering that was an important element behind the decision to buy the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000.

"This machine ticks all the boxes," he says. "We needed a high quality, affordable printer that had high ecological integrity and produced

tools

consistent and high Quality results are paramount in the demanding and fast growing world of interior graphics.

consistent manifestations. The price point is right, the features are right and it keeps the quality across paper, backlit and transparent material. We like to go outside our comfort zone to achieve exciting effects. We are producing crisp and smooth gradation, colourconsistent gel tints on transparent and translucent material for office interiors that are truly impressive and long-lasting," said Craig. uniQue challenges

Craig and Seymour clearly relish a challenge and have travelled the world to source innovative new media to achieve imaginative results. "We believe we have developed the most comprehensive range of substrates available and we never stop in this research," adds Seymour. It’s this extensive knowledge of media and substrates that has allowed the company to create effects that are unique to Ltd Limited.

It’s a highly competitive market and Ltd Limited keeps details of its substrates and techniques very close to its collective chest. "We view this expertise as our intellectual property and we have invested

a great deal of time, money and energy into it. We are not about to give our secrets away, despite our competitors’ many efforts to uncover them," said Craig.

A new initiative, for example, is Wallapeel™.

Developed for those occasions where shortterm graphics are needed, Wallapeel is a process producing rich, vibrant colours on an adhesive substrate which can be mounted directly onto internal walls and removed easily without leaving any residue. Wallapeel was recently demonstrated at the

Idea Generation Gallery in London, where a soaring 800 square foot image of Pete Fowler’s surreal and psychedelic 'Monsterism Island' was put on a wall for the three days of the ‘Monsters Inked: Inside the Minds of the Gods of Monsters’ event in April.

Ltd Limited is tireless in its search for new graphic effects and production techniques. Said Craig, "Not many companies are as brave as us, but we are securing and winning new business as a direct result of what we can achieve." www.epson.co.za

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Book

hair affair a new book explores the township barbershop as cultural and social hub

South African Township Barbershops and Salons

By Simon Weller Published by Mark Batty Publisher 128 pages $27.95 Housed in shacks and shipping containers, with hair clippers wired to car batteries, township barbershops and 'street salons' are incredibly popular. With names like King Tiger’s Hair Clinique, Ghetto Hair Salon, Hollywood Barbershop and Homeboys Haircut, shops attract customers with hand-painted signs whose distinctive vernacular style has as much to do with art as marketing.

In the new book South African Township Barbershops and Salons, Simon Weller documents the thriving, little-known art of barbershop signage and explains this integral part of the culture of South Africa. Weller’s book pairs interviews with shop owners, customers and sign artists with vivid photographs of barbershop exteriors and interiors, creating a portrait of the strong community and continuing political and social struggle inherent in township life.

Lucky, a barber, explains the importance of barbershops: "It is a place where you can discuss the game that was played last night while you are waiting. We talk about a mixture of things that happen in our lives – politics, girls, cars, soccer and movies."

Artists, with a range of backgrounds and influences, are frequently asked to paint contemporary characters from American culture, particularly black stars like Tupac and Snoop Dogg, as well as pictures of custom haircuts.

Sign artist and designer Garth Walker, who is interviewed in the book, describes the style of barbershop design and why it should be celebrated: "We like it because it looks good and it makes you feel good and that's what graphic design is supposed to do. There is no concept, it's just joyous. That is the bedrock of the African approach to just about everything – if you like it, do it."

http://markbattypublisher.com

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Book

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enD note

Whose art is it? when it comes to creativity, Questions arise as to who owns the art, writes pieter de wet

These days, with so many options open to us, as consumers we are spoilt for choice. As creatives we can stumble into whatever trend is current and then change genres in a fickle flick of a switch. So, in this complex world of making and taking and using and transposing all kinds of media, what exactly does it mean to be the author, the composer, the painter, the designer? Who owns the art?

Artists would like their work to speak for itself. Yet be credited as the creator. The phenomenon of the personality cult makes sense in this context: the rapper is the artist is the persona is the brand is the art. The individual becomes the product. The person becomes a micro industry that can turn around millions of dollars. It seems the owner and the art become one. Commercial artists need to think about this.

Art clearly has an inextricable link to commercial value, social trends and matters of business. Business cares about value and market, about product and profit. Artists provide their art as commodities. Art is tradable. All the parameters of eco-

nomic value are present in a piece of art. Supply and demand at the very core is driving the value of some pieces of art to record highs.

Global demand for entertainment has taken on a silly aspect. Sheer oversupply is driving demand for all forms of entertainment – books, movies, series and music. We all know someone with a few terabytes of almost everything that has ever been published. At no cost.

So here lies the interesting divergence: who owns the art? Intellectual property is a legal construct aimed at protecting the creator from losing income. Recently, the creative commons license entered the scene – a legal instrument to extend ownership without necessarily providing income. In other words, nobody makes any money. Consumers would love this if they cared at all. Consumers will look for the best deal on those things where cost is an inconvenient hurdle.

On matters of status, though, consumers might spend more than is needed. In that case the perceived value is driven by the sense of ownership, I think.

The need to possess a particular thing drives the purchase. It is this sense of possession that finds its way back to the artist. Artists want to maintain a sense of possession over their work – however distant this hold is. When the bonds are finally broken, the work of art will

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become an independent commodity that could be traded for all time. At that point the creator will be a ghost floating along with the work, or a reference in a catalogue, or a line on a credit list.

However distant the artist’s hold is, depends on the type of art.

Music amorphously travels in a network of contracts, distribution channels and consumer devices. There is no physical possessor. It is this type of amorphous possession I am concerned with.

Possession only makes sense if it holds intrinsic value for the possessor. Otherwise it is just a case of someone being in the same space at the same time as the object held. At a time when distribution rights were a source of income, possession through contract made some sense. Now distribution (and broadcasting as a variety of distribution) is no longer something only accessible through large capital outlay. Record companies have less of a reason for existence.

Copying as a source of income has fallen into a non-industry, because everyone has the ability to do it cheaply. All that is left is the act of making whatever can be copied. Just that one act still has value.

So what is the solution for creatives? Charge more for commissioned work and assign creative commons license to the work.

Become an artist with profile in order to charge more for your work.

Associate the work with yourself. And then let it go.

What this should do, if everyone plays along, is that money will start to flow in the direction of those that make things, not those that copy things. I will summarize with an answer to the initial question: Who owns the art? The artist does, because the art is not the work of art. I know, it seems like a red herring I've introduced. Hopefully, I’ve made you think about it. _Pieter de Wet is from Spaghetti Media, a Joburg creative production studio

Directory

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ENJIN 54 JUNE/JULY 2011 61

Directory

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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

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

iBc

shared identities finding allegiances in the name of identity

To be something and therefore to not be other things. To include some markets and exclude others, to appeal to some but not all. This identification process is critical to building brands. But identity, this allegiance factor, has pros and cons. Identity contributes significantly to belonging and, therefore, to our survival. It gives meaning and language to families, cultures, societies and nations.

Gender identification has given meaning to man and woman.

Stripped down, brands are simply identity propositions, if only to provide supporting evidence for the owners' actual or desired identity: I am creative and therefore own an Apple. I am fit, healthy and athletic as reflected by my Oakley sunglasses. Identity may imprison or liberate. We have, of course, also committed the most horrific massacres, conflicts, wars, genocides and xenophobic attacks in the name of identity. As Amin Maalouf said: "For it is often the way we look at other people that imprisons them within their own narrow allegiances. And it also the way we look at them that may set them free."

In a series of recent identity discussions with students and adult learners it struck me how readily we cite micro identities that frame and define our world; allegiances and loyalties that put behaviours in motion. The identities more readily revealed include whether we are male or female, single or married, a black or white South African or a Kenyan. We easily identify with the companies and brands we work for, and sometimes with our profession – I am a lawyer, or our position – I am the CEO. Amazingly, in these discussions and debates, our most primal and essential identity is hardly ever raised. It is only after considerable prompting that it is declared: that each of us is, first and foremost, a member of the human race. survival on the line

Perhaps this is more evidence in support of the Darwinian theory that humankind evolves by adapting to survival threats – and only now, when there is a significant consensus that without imaginative interventions the survival of our species is on the line.

There is a distinct pattern emerging, perhaps in response to this threat, whereby there is an increasing number of calls for more human centricity. The global swell of support for Google is, perhaps, because it provides all of us access to the whole of human knowledge, and enables us to cross identity boundaries and allegiances.

Appreciating humanity as our fundamental identity will make a

world of difference. For one it requires that, within the value proposition of all our brands, there must be genuine value creation which is meaningful to people.

To simply add human relevant value via CSI departments increasingly appears to be an afterthought or a mere compliance strategy.

Human-centric value must be explicit within the brand DNA; it should be what the brand stands for.

For example, Discovery is about health – certainly a human centric value and the challenge for this brand is to then enable more and more health, to more people, in more parts the world. As Kotler and his co authors write in their new book, Marketing 3.0: "We must enter a values-driven era." They correctly point out that consumers are looking for solutions for their anxieties about making the global world a better place...they search for companies that address their deepest needs for social, economic and environmental justice in their mission, vision and values. the new killer app

This, then, is a call for more authentic, human-centric thinking in the design and delivery of our brands. Such an approach will surely shed the fixation on the shareholder value-creation model, and should have us seriously question brands that make a poor contribution to society and the environment.

A major reason for the outpouring of emotion at the recent death of MaSisulu is surely because she contributed way beyond the identity of having been a nurse, mother, wife, liberation fighter, ANC leader and comrade. It was her humanity and ability to rise above more than narrow loyalties – and to touch that which is human in all of us – that caused such an affect. Supplying meaning is the future value proposition in marketing; the value-driven business model is the new killer app in Marketing 3.0. _Gordon Cook is National Brand Navigator at Vega School

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