From the old faithful leopard print and classic faux fur to the new trend of printing critters and creatures on clothing and decor items, animals will always find a way into our homes (and into our hearts). Here are 10 animal-inspired designs you can find online.

1. Rocky Cushion R449, Country Road

2. Resin French Bulldog Statue R129.99, Mr Price Home

3. Nessie Ladle R190, Big Blue

4. Giraffe Card R79, Animal Crew at Superbalist.com

5. Me Too Julian Puppy, Price on Request, Magis at Crema

6. High-top Animal Print Sneakers R899, Superga at Spree.co.za

7. Mr T Cushion R290, Andmenagerie.co.za

8. Bali Galloping Horses Scarf R139, Zando

9. Decor Hare R130, Woolworths.co.za

10. Penguin Doorstop R249.95, Pylones

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Whether it’s a simple stacking box or a large vintage-inspired trunk, here are 8 options to help you get (and stay) organised this year.

1. Multi-Colour House Storage Box R399, Next at Spree.co.za

2. Metal Anchor Storage Box R179.99, Mr Price Home

3. World Map Trunk R4 995, Block & Chisel

4. Repurposed Army Tent 2 Drawer Trunk R2 595, Weylandts

5. Tiva Round Storage Box R899, Country Road

6. Storage Tower R2 399, Radius at Superbalist.com

7. Multi-purpose Stacking Box, Magis at Créma

8. Handmade Vintage Leather Trunk Side Table R1 899, @home

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Here are the top VISI picks of the week series – week 79, includes a funny SuzelleDIY video, a kettle alternative and uber cool headphones.

1. Cheap Ass Elite Chairs

Art Director Anton Pietersen loves the concept of upcycling. “You can hardly tell this chair is made from plastic household items,” he says.

Image credit: homedesignlover.com

2. Nils Chudy’s Miito

“Think of all the energy we can save by not over-boiling kettles. This nifty little gadget makes enough for one or two and is ecofriendly to boot”, says freelance junior content producer Michaela Stehr.

Image credit: wired.com

3. SuzelleDIY: How To Get What You Want For Christmas

Editor-in-chief Sumien Brink can never get enough of hilarious Suzelle and her poor friend Marianne.

Image credit: youtube.com

4. LOOP Headphones

“My headphones are always getting tangled with everything on my desk, so one of these new headphone stands from LOOP is definitely on my Christmas wish list,” says online editor Lindi Brownell Meiring.

Image credit: spell-online.com

5. Tibu by Anderssen and Voll from Magis

Deputy Editor Annemarie Meintjes loves the sleek design and bright colours of these Tibu chairs.

Image credit: magisdesign.com

Browse more like VISI picks of the week series – week 79 on picks of the week 105.

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Following an epic Design Indaba Conference we just had to share our 11 favourite design and architectural solutions that will change the way you look at things – think of it as three-days distilled into an espresso!

1. Goodbye Citi Golf

“You don’t need a holiday, you need Cape Town,” is one of Chris Gotz, executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa, most award-winning campaigns and we couldn’t have said it better. However what charmed us in his insightful chuckle-a-minute presentation was the goosebump-inducing campaign to say goodbye to the Citi Golf, South Africa’s best-selling car. Who hasn’t owned a Volksie at some point in their life?

2. The Cleveland Museum of Art

It’s no secret that VISI loves art, but interaction designer Jake Burton and his company Local Projects’ designs for the Cleveland Museum of Art blew open a whole new world for us. Using touchscreens, sensors and cameras it invites visitors to engage with the art using their bodies – make a facial expression and it will show you a matching artwork, or try match the pose of sculptures and be ranked in a hall of fame! An interactive wall of 3 000 artworks also lets visitors curate their own exhibition.

3. Caveaux bulles

The pecha kucha presentations by top graduates are one of our conference highlights, year in, year out. From ECAL in Switzerland, Matthieu Rivier must certainly be Harry Potter incarnate with his perception-defying installation designs. Just have a look at this shadow play with a twist – blown bubbles turn into animated hot air balloons. 

4. Phonebloks

There was an audible buzz of excitement when the audience realised that the designer of Phonebloks – the proposed crowd-funded modular cellphone that went viral last year – was in the house. A student at Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands, Dave Hakken got everyone excited when he revealed that his simple idea was picked up by Google and Motorola (and he snubbed them) – big dreams do come true! Oh yes, he also made an edible pen for those who chew them. 

5. Learning Hub

Of course we’re thrilled that Thomas Heatherwick will soon be working right here in Cape Town – we’ve written about it here and Debbie sings its praises here. Why are we so thrilled? Because of the genius he explained in this Singapore university design, in which corridors and corners were deisgned-out in order to make the building more sociable. What really got us however was how Thomas cast the concrete to have seductive textures so as to avoid the sense of dread that the economical material often creates. Simple genius.

6. Liverpool Department Store

A drummer in his previous life, and brimming with energy and wry humour (although he was diagnosed with ADD, he decided to make it stand for adaptive, diagnostic design) Mexican Michel Rojkind fed our architecture fetish in buckets. The Liverpool Department Store with its multi-layered hexagon-perforated façade was particularly exquisite, and functional, with windows serving as cafe booths. He’s also turning his attention to product design and showed us his suitcase that not only has wheels but serves as a seat or moped too. 

7. Superdesk

Who knew that a South African architect designed the Googleplex!? Yup, Clive Wilkinson is his name and his game is reimagining office spaces to be more conducive to collaboration and ideas sharing – he, like Thomas also hates corridors. We couldn’t help thinking how much it echoed our The Office edition, but what made our eyes pop out of our head was the massive undulating collaborative table that seats all 125 employees of the Barbarian Group in London. 

8. Pavillion Bel Horizon 

We wear our love for Africa on our cover, so you can just imagine how charmed we were with Ivory Coast architect Issa Diabaté’s work. By simplifying African aesthetics into its minimalist modernist elements and seemingly breathing in a touch of Japanese, it really is fresh – and sustainable too.

9. Zonnebloem Renamed

A new feature on the programme this year was Serpentine Gallery curator Hans Ulrich Oberist in conversation with six South African artists who were born in or after 1989. It forms part of Hans and Simon Castets’ 89 Plus project that investigates the new generation of creative innovators who were born after the Berlin Wall came down, the Cold War ended and the internet began. In the session, performance poet Kyla Philander coined what Li Edelkoort tweeted as being “the most significant notion” of this year’s Design Indaba: “The major design tool in my life is empathy.” But what sparked cheers from the crowd was artist Haroon Gunn-Salie’s video showing him changing all the street signs that read Zonnebloem back to District Six! Keep an eye on Haroon – he counts P Diddy among his patrons.

10. Mico for Magis

There wasn’t much in the way of product or furniture design at this year’s conference and what there was really seemed to be asking difficult questions like whether we actually need more stuff. Particularly playful and experimental were El Ultimo Grito, a Spanish design collaboration based in London, whose Mico product for Magis is anything you want it to be. Inspired by a hide-and-seek game they played with their daughter, it could be a chair, a table, a shelf or the central pole of a blanket tent – your imagination’s the limit.

11. Naoto Fukasawa

Product and furniture design sensei Naoto Fukasawa has gone beyond his impeccably intuitive Japanese minimalism to also start asking what “stuff” is really for. He spoke about how increasingly furniture is disappearing into architecture and products integrating with the human body, meaning that his role as industrial designer is transforming into that of an interaction designer. Designing with our bodies, not our minds, is more honest, he said talking about intuition: “My products are already in your mind but you have not seen it yet.”

Of course, we also absolutely adored the presentations of Stefan Sagmeister, Dean Poole, David Goldblatt, Lauren Beukes and… but you can read about that in Debbie’s moving ode to her first Design Indaba.

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Origami-inspired decor is everywhere these days. The ancient art of paper folding can be translated into everything from furniture to fine decorations. Get in on the fun yourself by folding napkins, table decorations, party invitations and fine decor for your home. Visit origami-instructions.com to find out how to make your own origami folding chair.

Originally published in Rapport Mytyd. Subscribe here.

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Celebrate the whacky and eccentric, and add a little madness to your home. Says Marian Ward:

• Look for upholstery fabrics and storage containers with nostalgic gypsy tent stripes, diamond motifs, crazy swirls or playing cards.
• Paint black or red circus stripes on a ceiling or wall.
• Bring in a little fantasy with cheeky ceramics, cool model motor cars and hot air balloons.

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Colour blocking is trending across fashion and decor. Pair a few primary colours or play around with pink, turquoise and lemon. “No need to wait for the shops for inspiration. Create your own colour blocks when you set a table: yellow placemat, blue plate and lime green side plate for a full-colour day,” says stylist Marian van Wyk.

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Neon colours are possibly the decor craze of the decade, and the brighter the better. Says stylist Lizl Jackson: “Neon is ideal to use for an accent colour in your house or wardrobe.” Orange is a must, or play around with pink, turquoise and lime.

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