From hip-hop artist Kanye West, via Julia Roitfeld and Nicki Minaj –fashion designer, A Sauvage has been voted one of The Observer Magazine’Hotties in its AUTUMN HOT LIST…….x
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
The Observer Magazine votes A Sauvage as one of its AUTUMN Hotties ….
From hip-hop artist Kanye West, via Julia Roitfeld and Nicki Minaj –fashion designer, A Sauvage has been voted one of The Observer Magazine’Hotties in its AUTUMN HOT LIST…….x
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
An Exclusive interview with Marie-Louise Annan of Über-Shy™
GR: Hi Marie-Louise, thanks for the interview. What are you up to right now?
MLA: Hello there! It’s an absolute pleasure! At the moment I am busy working on some new projects including a show and the launch of my new brand Marrie Luí ™
GR: Can you tell us about your ethnic origin and how it’s shaped the person you are today?
MLA: I’m a British-born Ghanaian, from the Ga tribe. My parents are from Accra and my mum’s family came to Ghana from Brazil after the slave trade so I also have Brazilian heritage. I’d like to think that I am very polite and well mannered and I would say that's down to my Ghanaian upbringing. In Africa, Ghanaians are well known for their calm and humble nature.
GR: Why Fashion?
MLA: I’ve been sewing from a very young age. When I was ten years old, my friends mum gave me some old fabric and I made it into bell bottoms and wore them to school. I always knew I wanted to be a fashion designer. My roots are in fine art so it was inevitable that I would pursue a career in design.
GR: We love your label Über-Shy; it’s young, fresh, eclectic and on-trend. What inspired your latest collection –and what’s the meaning behind the name Über-Shy?
MLA: Thank you! The latest collection Ligeia is inspired by a short story by Edgar Allan Poe as it’s very important to me to promote literature within fashion. The name Über-Shy has a very personal meaning which I tend not to reveal it. I find it really interesting to hear what people think it means.
GR: Can you describe the Über-Shy client/customer?
MLA: I try not to pigeonhole my customers; anyone really who likes things with a hint of nostalgia.
GR: Perfumes, trainers, handbags, accessories –so many labels are diversifying, how do you see the Über-Shy label in five years time?
MLA: You will have to wait and see!!
GR: Most creative people are very good at the creative/designing elements –and tend to be [a bit] rubbish with the business side -how do you keep the balance right and sustain your label?
MLA: I’d like to think that I have a good balance of both. Also, I’m fortunate enough to have business advisors and knowledgeable people around me.
GR: There are sooo many people who want to start their own fashion label/business –what advice do you have for them?
MLA: It’s a lot of hard work! It’s not as glamorous as people think. Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and make sure you are passionate about your work.
GR: LFW, GFW [Ghana Fashion Week has been postponed this year] –any plans to show at these prestigious events?
MLA: I didn’t even know Ghana had a fashion week; I will definitely look them up next year. This year I’m hosting a performance art/fashion show during fashion week.
GR: Who would you love to see wearing your collection –and why?
MLA: In terms of celebrities, anyone who represents what the brand is about.
GR: Describe your own style?
MLA: All of my collections are a reflection of my personal style...whimsical, yet refined and reminiscent of 1950-40s vintage.
GR: Shoes or handbags?
MLA: Handbags
GR: Staying in or going out?
MLA: Staying in
GR: Selfridges or Harvey Nichols?
MLA: Harvey Nichols
GR: Hoxton or Bond Street?
MLA: Hoxton
GR: Ghana, –does it inspire you –and do you have any plans for Ghana in the future?
MLA: Ghana has a great craft scene!! The last time I was there I spent a lot of time in the crafts market. I would love to start a project there in the future so you’ll have to wait and see!
GR: And finally, what are your hopes and dreams for Ghana?
MLA: I hope that the economy grows stronger and the country continues to prosper.
GR: Thanks for the interview, you are fabulous –God bless all your dreams…x
MLA: Thank you very much! x
GR: You're welcome...
For more information about Über-Shy™ please visit: http://www.ubershy.com/
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Adinkra Carpet by Malene B
**I was lost for words when I stumbled across Malene B’s luxuriously on-trend carpets [as I’m also working on something similar]. I love her Adinkra Carpet [I can’t quiet believe she has hers out already –heheehe] and wanted to share it with you. Malene B’s an incredibly talented woman and can be commissioned to create the carpet-of-your-dreams at: http://www.maleneb.com/
Friday, 2 April 2010
Art/Design: Kofi Opoku-Ansah
Infinite Blossom by Kofi Opoku-Ansah
Heartbreak by Kofi Opoku-Ansah
Untitled-1 by Kofi Opoku-Ansah
“Currently studying 3D Animation at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, I am a dedicated graphic designer and web designer, I focus mostly on photo manipulation and vector design. Admin and founder of DigitalFlow. It is a community dedicated to building a community of artists helping each other out, learning and sharing. We also have a selection of professional artists creating work for ‘Exhibitions’.” Kofi Opoku-Ansah
I was googling for photographs of fashion designer Kofi Ansah’s latest collection –and happily stumble across these incredible abstract art works by freelance illustrator, -Kofi Opoku-Ansah. I truly love his designs –and hope to work with him in the near future. For more information about Kofi Opoku-Ansah’s creations please visit: http://www.koansah.com/
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Design: Some of Mark Kwami's Africa collection
I don’t understand the German language but from the photographs on Mark Kwami's website you can clearly see that he is helping the people of Ghana and other African countries to use their talents and skills to create beautiful objects to sell in his shop and via the website. For more information about Mark Kwami’s African Collection please visit: http://www.mia-collection.de/
Design: Mark Kwami
Title: Designer Mark Kwami and his Africa collection by By Katja Winckler
Ecological and Fair
The German-Ghanaian designer Mark Kwami works with African craftspeople and promotes modern African design with his label, made in africa collection
Mark Kwami’s biggest hope for Africa is that it finds its way back to its creative roots. We meet the 44-year-old Berlin-based designer in the office of his design label “made in africa collection”, or mia for short. His sweatshirt bears a portrait of America’s new president, Barack Obama, and a single word: “Progress”, a symbol of Kwami’s aspirations. He holds a simply shaped Kenyan soapstone vase decorated with a miniature mask. The unique thing about it is that differently designed buttons can be inserted into a hole to vary the design as the owner wishes. Functional, modern, yet unequivocally African. The vase is one of about 200 home accessories and pieces of furniture which Kwami and his wife Susanne have been offering for sale at the mia showroom in the Berlin district of Tiergarten since 2003.
You won’t find the usual mass-produced African masks and sculptures here, but modern African design testifying of this continent’s rich craft tradition. It’s all based on the concept of “fair business”: mia collaborates directly with selected producers in Africa and pays fair prices. The producers are also given support in areas such as product development, product organization and corporate consulting. And in the last few years Kwami has been promoting the development of local design capacity in African and Latin American countries. “Because design is an economic factor that can play an important role in the sustainable development of these countries,” he says.
Kwami was born in Berlin; his mother is German, his father a Ghanaian mechanical engineer. When he was four years old, he moved to Ghana with his parents and lived there until he finished school. He then went back to Berlin to study African Design at the University of the Arts. Shortly before the end of his studies, he spent another year in Ghana focusing on the design culture there. He discovered that Ghana had originally had a rich design tradition but that, after colonization, it was gradually displaced by the subsequent “westernization” of African everyday culture. “Craftsmanship lost its role as the supplier of articles of daily use and was degraded to the production of kitschy, ‘airport art’,” says Kwami.
From 1996 he worked as a design consultant for various international development organizations in Africa. He became increasingly disturbed by the fact that many European designers were implementing their ideas of design in Africa. So it seemed all the more important for him to work with people on an equal footing and to encourage them to develop more creative ideas of their own: “That way they can really identify with the newly developed products,” Kwami says. In 2000, therefore, he founded his own studio, m.kwami design services.
A year later he was given a practical opportunity to show how much potential there is in modern African design: he designed and built an exhibition for the Berlin Import Shop trade show under the motto “Living Ghana”. With the support of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), he worked on a new collection of design-oriented furniture and home accessories together with 20 producers from Ghana. With a specially designed trade-show booth, which was built like an apartment with several living rooms, they showed that it was perfectly possible to furnish a home in Europe in a contemporary and stylish way using African design. The show was so well received that Kwami was asked to organize the exhibition again in the two following years. He has since built up a broad network of contacts with African designers and craftspeople.
When the project was discontinued at the end of 2003, his wife Susanne decided to open a shop to meet the growing demand. In the meantime, a franchise system has evolved with shops in Hamburg and Karlsruhe. More are planned. Even so, several hurdles still need to be overcome before the permanent economic breakthrough is achieved. Quality control remains a major challenge. This is why Kwami travels to Africa several times a year to support companies with product development and organization – while his wife takes care of imports, storage, the wholesale business, and advising the franchise partners.
About a dozen groups of craftspeople are currently producing goods under the guidance of Kwami and African designers: original pieces of furniture, lamps, candlesticks, vases, mirrors and pillows from Ghana, Senegal and Kenya. The heavy ceramic containers are fired in kilns by women from a village in eastern Ghana according to ancient traditions. And the colourful collection of cushions, made of the cotton fabrics that are typical of West Africa, comes from a small sewing works in Accra.
Ecological sustainability is a top priority. For example, instead of wood, which has become a precious raw material, one of the designers, Selassie Tettevie from Ghana, uses sea grass to cover seats and tables. And the heavy-looking, but surprisingly light “wood core” stools from the Fritete company are carved from the cores of tree trunks that are left over from the manufacture of veneers in Ghana. The Berlin-based duo and their partners in Africa soon hope to use only certified raw materials. Starting in August 2009 in Kenya, all wood for export will have to bear the label of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which insists on strict social, ecological and economic standards in wood processing. “An important step in the right direction,” according to Mark and Susanne Kwami.
The Berlin designer is also active in the field of AIDS prevention. As part of a special teaching project at the University of the Arts, he and his Berlin students developed an easy-and-cheap-to-produce inflatable plastic cube for demonstrating to women how female condoms work – without making them blush. Later this year the cube is to be used as part of an AIDS awareness campaign in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. “Progress,” Kwami’s motto, evidently works on many levels – be it in Berlin, Africa or the United States. The End...
[Please see the post above for Mark Kwami's website and his African Collection]..
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Design & Home : Philippe Bestenheider’s Colourful ‘Kente’ Outdoor Collection
Friday, 5 February 2010
Objects of Desires: Kente Design Accessories by Francis Serlom Seshie........
Check out this fabulous collection of shoes, boots and accessories in Kente fabrics by Francis Selorm -they really are ‘to-live-for’.
Contact Details:
Cross Culture International
Mimersgade 9, st.
DK-2200 Copenhagen N
Denmark
Tel: (+45) 35 39 00 53
Fax: (+45) 35 39 04 54
Email: info@kentedesign.dk
www.kentedesign.dk
I’m loving www.designghana.com
“DesignGhana.com is a bi-monthly online magazine exclusively designed, produced and powered by DesignGhana. This magazine from the words "design" and "Ghana" will every two months seek to inform and educate readers/visitors with articles, images, videos/animations about designs in Ghana and Ghanaian designers with the aims of celebrating Ghanaian designers, appreciating the efforts of unsung Ghanaian designers and in the process unearth talents who will redesign Ghana.” www.designghana.comIt’s soooo sleek, innovative and uber informative…..I hope to work with these guys soon… www.designghana.com
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Random: Embassy of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in Accra, Ghana
I love the desgin of the Dutch embassy building in Accra, -it is both [very] African and contemporay -the way forward [me thinks]. Architecture has come a long way in Ghana -fabulous!
Monday, 7 December 2009
Random: The Oldest Hotel in Accra -The Sea View Hotel
Is this historic hotel still standing? If so –we must try to conserve it by renovating it in a sympathetic manor….
Friday, 4 December 2009
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