Design Indaba, Google partner to promote African creatives

Design Indaba has partnered with Google to showcase African creatives through ‘Colours of Africa’, an online project.

The ‘Colours of Africa’ project, launched on Thursday, showcases 60 specially-curated artworks produced by over 60 unique African creatives chosen by Design Indaba.

The selected creatives are expected to contribute a work that captures the colour and character of their home country.

Their works will showcase the best of African craft, product, industrial design, fashion, film, animation, graphics, food, music, jewellery, and architecture.

Commenting on the initiative, Ravi Naidoo, founder of Design Indaba, said “Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Each country, city, and community is identifiable by its unique palette.

“As Africans, we can tell powerful stories through colour. This project tells a story of a continent through the universally accessible lens.”

Also speaking, Nitin Gajria, managing director at Google, said the partnership is in line with the company’s efforts to promote African culture and its unique stories.

“Google has always been acutely aware and in full support of the immense creative melting pot that exists on the continent. Collaborating with Design Indaba on this project allows us to bring this support to fruition,” Gajria said.

“By empowering and amplifying African voices to tell the unique stories of their cultures through their work and creativity, we hope to provide much-needed exposure, cultivate a newfound curiosity, and window into the vast beauty that exists on the continent.”

The project features creatives drawn across several areas ranging from architecture, illustration, painting and ceramics to writing, engineering, performing arts and visual communications.

As part of the project launch, Design Indaba commissioned Nike Monica Okundaye, the multi-talented Nigerian artist, to “capture the unique spirit of her country in a colour which represents home to her.

Okundaye created an original painting titled ‘The Female Drummer/Àyánbìnrin’.