ECO DESIGN INITIATIVE 2010 – CALLING LOCAL DESIGN TALENT

The Eco Design Initiative 2010 was born out of the challenge to create durable products and services that minimize adverse impacts on the environment, while making everyday life simpler and more pleasant. It creates opportunities for learning partnerships, culture exchange and skills transfer and includes three key elements –the Eco Design Competition; the Fresh Talent Workshop and showcase opportunities in South Africa and Sweden.

This campaign encourages growth and transformation of entrepreneurial concepts in South Africa through encouraging designers and industry to “rethink”.

The competition is open to emerging designers in South Africa and all schools of design are welcome to enter. Designers are requested to submit a story-board of their design concept along with their motivation for the materials and processes used in building the concept. 25 entries will make it to the qualifying selection. These are to be produced with materials sourced from industry.

These materials have to comply with basic environmental standards. They need to be either produced naturally, organically, without any harm to the environment or they should be “waste” that can be reworked to create durable designs for every-day use.

The promising designers will be part of the Fresh Talent Workshop in Cape Town in September 2010. The workshop will be facilitated by representatives of Sweden’s Environmental Design Movement. The Eco Design Initiative is supported by the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, SVID, which is convinced that design delivers a good return on investment.

Proudly South African views the Eco Design Initiative as an exciting opportunity to boost job creation and pride in “local” by promoting South African design talent and their ‘home-grown’ clean, smart design ideas. This project has the ability to activate all sectors of South African industry in sustainable consumption and production behaviours, while making a direct investment in empowering the youth with the tools needed for the country’s development.

All of the work produced for the Eco Design Initiative (qualifying entries as well as Fresh Talent project) will be showcased at exhibitions and galleries in South Africa and Scandinavia. The competition showcase is set for the Natural and Organic Show in Johannesburg, which is known to attract close to 30 000 visitors annually. Following that, the design pieces will be “exported” to Sweden to be exhibited at various exhibitions in Stockholm and Malmö.

The collaborative nature of the Eco Design Initiative makes it an exceptional opportunity to bring together the design force for the future. It is a truly global citizen exchange - a leading action towards environmentally smart and socially aware development.

Important dates

  • Entry to the Eco Design Competition is open until 30 April 2010
  • The Show and Awards Ceremony will be held at the Natural and Organic Show 27 – 29 Aug 2010
  • The Fresh Talent workshop will be hosted in Cape Town from 6 – 10 September 2010

For more information, please visit www.nokak.com, or contact:
Janine Johnston
Sweden
0046 732 033 938
Janine@globalgreenagency.com

Hwalani Mabaso
South Africa
0027 721 817 912
hwalanim@lukunda.co.za
 
 
 
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Buy local for 2010 and beyond!