This past Sun I checked out the Design indaba Expo 2012 at the CTICC.  This is the 9th year that this expo is taking place and it’s become a “must see” event on the Capetonian calendar.   Tickets were only R60, which I thought was pretty decent because according to my visitor’s guide, this expo is the largest gathering of SA designers in the country with over 300 exhibitors which were all pre-approved by the expo’s curators.

The expo certainly has something for everybody with everything from jewellery & fashion to ceramics, decor, furniture and arts & crafts.  You also get to check out things from established SA designers alongside what they refer to as “emerging creatives” which makes for a really interesting mix of ideas.  They even made things easy for all the moms and dads as you could drop of the kiddies at the D.I.Y (Design Indaba Youth) zone where creative folks helped them unleash their inner artist.

I really love the fact that the expo is both geared to “going green” as well as job creation.  All the stalls use energy efficient LED lighting, all food packaging is 100% biodegradable and even the expo floor carpeting is cut up and re-used afterwards.  Then according to a study done by the UCT Graduate School of Business, the expo sustained & created 1008 jobs in 2011 and over the past 3 years it has contributed over R600 million to the national GDP.

I also wanted to do my bit for the national GDP by purchasing one of these porcelain bunnies they features on the posters:

I was gonna call him Bob and I was gonna love him forever and ever.   But sadly Bob came at quite a hefty price – R595 to be exact, and that’s without the damn leather jacket!  Sad face.  I just couldn’t justify spending that much on one little bunny…  so Bob and I had to part ways and my heart broke into a million pieces…

Meanwhile over in the fashion area, ladies were literally floating in the air with excitement…

On the ramp fashion shows were taking place about once every hour showcasing designers such as Amanda Laird Cherry, Lunar, Tart and Magents menswear (featured below) who showed off some of their statement T-shirts.

I got a tip off from Jen at Cow Africa about “The Soft Machine” that would be at the expo – serving up some yummy ice cream made form all natural ingredients with pretty inventive flavours that was aimed to bringing back a touch of nostalgia.  I wasn’t really in the mood for ice cream to be honest, but my friend Darryn gave it a bash.

Loved the old school ice cream truck idea

He went for the Leipoldt’s Milktart garnished with Spice Snaps:

Mmmmmmm

I didn’t really spend much time in the jewellery area, but what I did pick up from my quick squizz through there was that fine, pretty silver jewellery was a definite trend.  So take note.

I was way more interested in the furniture & decor section.  First off, I was lusting over this red leather one seater:

And then quite a few stands were using this new Xanita board stuff which I found quite interesting.  Xanita board is a light hight-strenght composite fibreboard which is fully recycled & recyclable.  This is what it looks like:

Designers were using it to make foldable wine racks, trestle table bases and such and even the tables in the food court were made from Xanita Board that had been painted.  My favourite use of it was by Head On Design – they do wall-mounted sculptures of kudu, buffalo and sable heads.  They are basically a fun twist on old school hunting trophies.  This is the one I really wanted:

You can get them plain or painted, in the Xanita board or even in leather.  I’m definitely going to be keeping this baby in mind for my lounge revamp.

Other ideas with regards to recycling included using items you wouldn’t normally consider for furnishings in new ways, like this plastic crate used as a drawer in a wooden pedestal:

Bjorn hated this, but I thought it was kinda cool.

There’s also a massive trend towards using natural elements, like the various items in the pic below:

So happy that natural wood finishes are huge again - was hating the plastic / high gloss / modern trend we saw over the past few years.

After all that creative stimulation I was STARVING, so we popped over to the Neighbourgoods food area for some Flammkuchen aka “the other type of pizza” served by the lovely ladies from Piroschka’s Kitchen in Bree St:

This was amazing! Could've had another one all by myself.

Then on our way out I saw the best design of all… The all new, very sexy MINI Coupé!  I looooove Minis, my own baby is already over 5 years old, so been thinking it might be time for an upgrade.  Look how beautiful this new one is:

What's that? You wanna come home with me? OK!

For more details, check out www.mini.co.za.

So yeah, it was a very inspiring visit to the CTICC.  I got a few great ideas for my current renovating & redecorating mission.  It’s also great to see what fresh ideas people are coming up with to keep our world an interesting and vibrant place.

xxx