Our final Fresh Talent profile for Youth Month is on hard-to-pigeonhole Joburg design duo Jana + Koos.

Punching illustration and graphic design out of its two-dimensional straightjacket is Jana + Koos. The talk-of-the-town Joburg duo recently finished work on a Nike concept store in Braamfontein and were responsible for hat brand Simon & Mary’s launch campaign. Earlier this month, on 5 June, they also took their exhibition, City of Gold Diggers: JHB Hates You, for a well-received one-night-only show in New York. We caught up with them to chat all things “here and now”.

There’s a definite edge to your work, which says “here and now”. What is it about your approach to the design practice that sets you apart from the pack?

Our approach is simple. It’s concept driven and about strategic ideas. We will never do something purely because it looks nice or because it’s “cool”. We work as a consulting team who works with the right (best) suppliers to realise ideas, but this is important because it means that we are 100% invested in the brands and projects that we take on. A big part of setting up our business was to allow time for personal projects and collaborations, including art and fashion, and our keen interest in culture is probably what reflects as “here and now”.

Do you think you would be producing vastly different work if you didn’t live in Jozi?

Yes and no. On the one hand, we fight hard against having a “style” that is uniquely ours, because briefs come as problems to solve. You build a personality and brand image based on who and what that brand or project is, and not based on who or what Johannesburg or Jana + Koos are.

On the flipside, Johannesburg is really important to everything we do in a personal capacity (side projects, art, collaborations). It’s a city that allows you to experiment and try new things and push, because it’s in that state of defining itself, and coming into its own. This is evident in the underground music and art scene that has a uniquely Joburg look, feel and sound. The kind of side projects we do start to influence the commercial side of what we do because it brings in brands and projects that are after that sort of influence, and many of the brands we work on are Joburg based.

Do you two take on different responsibilities in your business?

We do have vastly different skills, interests and personalities, polar opposite at times, and we naturally divide work with regards to who writes better, who illustrates better, who presents better, who designs better and who is the least hungover. But, the majority of the time – and the thing that amuses people the most – is that we actually both work on every job. We brainstorm and develop concepts together, and then actually pass design files back and forth, adding to and changing each other’s work. We know we’re on to something good when we reach the point where we have stopped screaming at each other and poking holes in each other’s ideas, and heated debate becomes genuine excitement.

What are some of your career highlights?

Taking the leap to leave our jobs and do things in a new way, and still be going strong more that three years down the line, will always be our biggest career highlight. It felt like a big scary risk, especially because we were trying to create something that to our knowledge didn’t exist or function the way we do now, back then. The fact that we get recognition for the work we do is icing on the cake for us. 

janaandkoos.com 

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Interior designer Brandon Botha is our next Fresh Talent for Youth Month feature.

“Fresh, quirky and edgy elegance” is how Brandon Botha describes his interior design work for clients who include Vodacom, Lavazza Coffees and Native Digital Agency. Aside from commercial spaces, he also does private homes. We spoke to him about his journey.

What led to you opening your own company?
I spent four years in the film industry working for art directors on commercials. I then moved to London and worked as a stylist and decorator for event design companies. My passion always lay in interiors and architectural design however, and after moving back to Cape Town in 2004, I decided to take the plunge.

How does your approach between residential, commercial and office spaces differ?
Residential design can be far more challenging as I am often trying to realise someone’s personal dream home. In comparison, translating a brand into a three-dimensional space can be conceptualised much quicker, as most of the time there is a brand identity. Each process has its magic though and the best results come from situations where the client has considerable input.

What is the most common mistake homeowners make?
Thinking that doing things themselves saves them money. If you’re building or adding a room, consult, even at an hourly rate. It will save you a lot more money, every time.

Any personal design secrets when it comes to putting a home together?

• Choose a range of at least six tones or colour sample pots you want and paint them on to large cardboard squares. Choose the colour block that you love the most, in the light of the actual room. Once you’ve decided on the colour block, start shopping for the layers of the room. Never go shopping without your colour block.
• Steer clear of overly bold walls in a home, subtlety is your friend. Add punch with original artwork or objects, not wall colour. Subtle greens, greys and blues will show off a piece of art beautifully.
• Predominantly, colour must come from layering wonderful personal pieces that are original and full of character. Rather have nothing until you can get the real thing. 

What current hot trend do you think we will be tired off by the time 2014 is done?

Tretchikoff paraphernalia, reproduction glass chandeliers and fake artifacts – hopefully!

brandonbothadesign.com

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Painter and architect Lucy de Moyencourt is our next Fresh Talent profile for Youth Month.

“I paint because I am addicted to the surprise that the painted canvas gives me when I step back from the easel,” says Lucie de Moyencourt, the young artist who caught our wandering eye with these moody holiday-scapes.  

Although Lucie has no formal art training, romance is clearly ingrained in the Paris-born artiste who moved to South Africa as a child. After school she studied architecture at the University of Cape Town before heading back to Paris and London to explore her talent for painting. 

Now in Cape Town again, working for architect Luyanda Mpahlwa’s DesignSpaceAfrica, Lucie is involved with broad-ranging public projects, such as the PRASA station modern-isation project.

She has found balance in her life: “In the past two years, I have been compelled to draw and paint more than ever because of my full-time serious architecture job. I have exhibited three times this year at Salon 91, as well as among the fabulous collections at Chandler House on Cape Town’s Church Street.”

In the gallery above, she explains her dreamy paintings.

luciedemoyencourt.com

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Natural, wild and a little bit extraordinary is how young florists Emma Frost and Jessica Ellis – the next in our Fresh Talent profiles for Youth Month – describe their approach to floral design. Although urban, edgy and exquisite aren’t too far off either.

The two started Supernatural Floral Design last year and with hard work, determination and copious amounts of passion, have built up a reputation that has them creating beautiful arrangements for anything from weddings to fashion shoots.

Maybe most surprising is that neither has any formal florist training. Emma, an art historian and qualified primary school teacher, says her passion stemmed from restoring her cottage garden; while Jessica, a fine arts graduate and self-confessed aesthete, claims that hers came about quite by chance. Both, however, agree that the only way to really train as a florist is experience – and between them they have had their fair share, Emma having experimented at well-known Flowers in the Foyer in Stellenbosch and Jessica at Ecozest in Knysna.

Constantly keeping a pulse on floral art trends and collaborating with other young creatives to keep their products fresh and contemporary, this is a design pair we’ll be keeping a close eye on.

supernaturalfloraldesign.co.za

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The next in our Fresh Talent profiles celebrating Youth Month are the three ladies behind WitOpWit (WOW), which produces engaging urbanism-inspired decor items. 

While at the tip of Africa Capetonians are buzzing to the tune of World Design Capital 2014, further north, Pretoria is having its own party as Cool Capital, with a slew of interesting interventions and projects seeing the light. One of which is the concept factory WitOpWit (WOW), founded by three young architects Karlien Thomashoff, Inge Wilkinson and Marguerite Pienaar.

One of their first products is a cartography-inspired table runner intended as a “conversation piece” by encouraging diners to have their meal “on the city”. Not just any section of Pretoria features – parts for each map are carefully selected to show the markings, typography and complexity that make the city unique. Specifically derived from a digital Nolli map by architect Morne Pienaar, themes such as “Church Square”, “Freedom Park” and “The Apies River”, are sure to pique the interest of those at the table.

The trio promises to give other South African cities the WOW treatment soon.

witopwit.co.za
coolcapital.co.za

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The whimsical creations of Amy-Leigh Weldrick falls under our Fresh Talent spotlight today as we continue our Youth Month celebrations. 

Folding paper cranes while she’s thinking up new ideas is what gets Port Elizabeth product designer Amy-Leigh Weldrick’s creative juices going. Her small business, A Thousand Paper Cranes, sets out to surprise and delight customers with its special homemade range of quirky interior products. As she says: “I want people to experience a lighter side of beautiful design.”

However, it’s specifically her new collection of little cushion mutts that gets us barking glad! It was Amy-Leigh’s own pup Bella who inspired the screen-printed cotton drill pooches, ranging from a Bulldog named George to the dapper Dachshund, Paul. Amy-Leigh loves her little creatures so much, she’s soon adding two new collections of cats and owls to her brood. And, judging by her cute canines, we’re sure these will also be sweeter than sugar. 

R199 per pup
facebook.com/a.thousand.paper.cranes.sa

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The next in our Fresh Talent profiles for Youth Month is photographer Nico Krijno, who can only see through one eye. Say what? We asked the pattern-mashing, dimension-bending young artist about collaborations and his ever-rising trajectory.

What do you mean you can only see through one eye?
Only one really works, the other is 20% or something – like a TV with Vaseline on it. My father sent me an interesting fact about the condition that he read in a recent newspaper article, which claims that it can happen in the womb when the baby puts pressure on his one eye with his fist – what an image! The condition is called amblyopia.

We love the colour and patterns in your work, where do you draw inspiration from?
Colour and form is central. It’s all part of my structural and geometric aesthetic that marries opposites to create new meaning. I draw energy from my everyday life; from doing dishes to riding my bicycle, sex, going for a swim… from everything!

Your collaboration with Jody Paulsen was brilliant – so much so that it landed on our previous cover. How do you maintain balance in collaboration?
When I collaborate, I usually know the people well, or we’ve admired each other’s work for a while. I don’t collaborate with or work for people who tell me what to do. I need freedom to react in the moment, to trust my instincts.

You showed in Paris at the beginning of this year. How did that come about?
The curator, Emeric Glayse, asked me to get involved in his new project at Düo gallery. I’ve done a few US and European group shows, which have helped in making connections with collectors and galleries abroad.

nicokrijno.tumbr.com
rookeandvanwyk.com

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Getting art and business to happily mingle doesn’t just require knowledge and know-how, it takes vision. The next in our series of Fresh Talent profiles celebrating Youth Month is Lucy MacGarry. Owner of luxury fashion and design brand L’MAD, Lucy would have all of us wrapped up in her fabulous art-printed silk scarves, if she had her way.

L’MAD is Lucy’s way of making the work of SA’s hottest young artists – such as Michael Taylor, Nico Krijno, Jan-Henri Booyens, Titus Matiyane and Michael MacGarry (her husband) – wearable and available to all; a lovely culmination of this entrepreneur’s art and business savvy. For the past five years, Lucy has been working as art director for the Jeanetta Blignaut Art Consultancy, which curates the collections of Spier, Hollard and Nando’s and advises on how to make investments socially meaningful.

A Jozi girl by birth, Lucy studied film and literature, and obtained an Honours degree in business from the University of Cape Town. She then became gallery director at David Krut Projects in Joburg before completing her Masters in fine arts at Wits, which lead to her curated exhibition of emerging SA artists in New York.

That Lucy’s a relative newcomer to fashion, doesn’t deter her, she says. “I always gravitate towards what I love and believe that no amount of training can replace solid instincts.”

Look out for a collaboration with Lisa Jaffe, and a Ben Johnson range of unisex scarves.

lmadcollection.com

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Continuing our focus on Fresh Talent during June, Youth Month, we feature furniture, lighting and homeware design company Modern Gesture. It is the brainchild of Candice Lawrence, a vivacious and multi-talented young designer or – in her own words – “a creative and spontaneous, wild piece of work”, who also happens to play the classical guitar.

How did Modern Gesture come about and where does the name come from?
I studied surface design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and my Bachelor’s thesis focused on people’s body language when conversing with each other at a table. While observing these bodily gestures – made with our hands, arms and elbows – I started thinking about how these gestures would look if they were to be imprinted on a table. The name “Modern Gesture” captures the present conversation in design circles, about how to inspire traditional surfaces with a contemporary appeal and feel.

Wood is quite a traditional medium. Why did you choose to work with it?
I’ve always had a soft spot for wood. The material offers the unexpected, which is like a metaphor for life. We are constantly carving away and refining our lives, but we can only plan and carve so far. Each piece of wood offers something different, encouraging me to be open-minded.

You describe every piece you create as having a story. Can you elaborate on this?
Each piece is a different conversation happening between my hands, tools and materials. I try to allow the process to guide me and stay open to what is emerging from the creative process. As the layers of self are peeled away, the product emerges and comes into being.

moderngesture.co.za

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The next in our series of Fresh Talent profiles celebrating Youth Day on 16 June is hat designer Dean Pozniak from Simon & Mary.

Fedoras, trilbies, Panamas, porkpies, cloches, Gainsboroughs and Bretons… You’d better brush up on your headgear terminology because hats are back. This autumn is the launch of the Simon & Mary millinery brand in Joburg. Dean Pozniak tells us about the brand that’s named after his grandparents, and of his contribution
to a family business that has been producing and exporting felt hats for 40 years.

What sets your hats apart?
Authenticity with a rich heritage. We take pride in each hat that leaves our factory – moulded and made with the very same machines as those that made and moulded the styles of the 60s.

Aren’t you worried hats might be a passing fad?
Over time, the hat has become a less essential item, but it has always remained significant in expressing individual style. For us, the hat has never been unpopular, and definitely not enough so to cause concern.

How did you manage to capture that special Joburg spirit so well in your visual campaign?
We worked with design team Jana + Koos, who were excited about a genuine heritage brand from Joburg and insisted that a large part of telling our story would be to drive home the idea of “made in Johannesburg”. So we cast real people, the modern hat wearer – Joburg’s creatives, bloggers, artists, stylists, fashion designers, curators and so the list goes on.

simonandmary.co.za
janaandkoos.com

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