Image from Osborne Macharia's Kabango series
Image from Osborne Macharia's Kabango series
Image: Osborne Macharia

These were the three ideas I enjoyed the most at last week's inspiring Design Indaba. 

1: I was so delighted by the simple cartographic genius of What3Words. Chris Sheldrick worked in the music business for 10 years, managing production for events around the globe where he was constantly frustrated with bands and suppliers not finding site entrances. He tried distributing addresses and GPS co-ordinates for years but both failed him on numerous occasions — he was certain there was a better way and the what3words app was born. what3words is a global address system of 57-trillion, three-by-three-meter squares, each having been given a unique three-word address.

The applications from rural Zulu land to Outer Mongolia to the favelas of Rio are spectacularly useful and life altering for people.

Find your unique three-word address at what3word.com

Here is his Ted Talk

Lernert and Sander 'Chocolate Bunny' for KRO television
Lernert and Sander 'Chocolate Bunny' for KRO television

2: Lernert and SanderThese two Dutch chaps are very amusing,  very clever and super cheeky — they turned their talk into a performance and a session of retributive justice — involving the audience in a monumental payback for all the people who had copied their work over the years.

They named and shamed them and sang them a song about forgiveness with a full choir in tow — whilst taping the whole exercise and then emailed it live on stage to the perpetrators of the copyright theft!

'Ever since they began collaborating in 2007, the artists and filmmakers Lernert & Sander (Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug) have been known for their high-conceptual art films, eye-catching installations and keen fashion aesthetic. Driven by their cheeky sense of humour, Lernert & Sander’s simple yet stunning approach has earned the duo numerous awards, international accolades and industry-wide recognition. They live and work in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.'

Don't copy it.

3. The work of Osborne Macharia — who does not love a person who throws sartorially wonderful grandmothers and warrior dwarves into their photographic projects? Inventive, magical , witty.

Osborne Macharia is a self-taught commercial and advertising photographer born and bred in Nairobi, Kenya and with a bachelors in architecture.

Kenyan photographer Osborne Macharia has an ability to bring stories to life from behind his camera lens. In his work, be it commercial or personal, he has a knack for animating his characters so that they always seem to be jumping out at you with something to say. His narrative style of photography is not only entertaining but it also makes for a powerful platform to convey an important message on topics like gender abuse, ivory poaching and victims of war-torn regions in Africa.' 

Follow him on Instagram @osborne_macharia and www.k63.studio/

© Wanted 2024 - If you would like to reproduce this article please email us.
X