The Pupunha palm tree is famous throughout the world for its supple inner fibres – known as palmito or “heart of palm,” a popular delicacy. For decades, this tree has been intensely harvested in Brazil and came close to extinction before tighter controls were recently enforced. As only the palm’s ...
Designer Marcelo Rosenbaum is a celebrity in Brazil, the type to be stopped in the street and asked for his autograph. Frederico Duarte unpacks the significance of a designer who grows bigger than design circles. Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister once said “A famous designer is like a famous electrician”. Design ...
In countries such as Portugal, one cannot talk about craft without looking back at century-old object-making traditions. Terracotta water jugs, for example, were once objects of necessity – they performed the functions of carrying, storing and cooling water. Often shaped or decorated to reveal origin and cost, their making included a planned ...
When Design Indaba started in 1995, one year after the dawn of the “new South Africa”, there were many skeptics. “It was considered quite esoteric and somewhat frivolous to talk about design in the immediate afterglow of the first democratic elections. ‘What does a country with an emerging economy have ...