Our next project is exploring colour and tone in design, I just had to share with you my favourite paint set (that I brought in a flea market for the equivelent of R50) Its an old set, never used. I found the company who made the kit to be over 25 years old, I was told that this set was brought for a present and never got used. Its all bashed in and dented, but I love it. Its got the most fantasic range of colours, including a set of beautiful metalics....

Lets hope that I can find as much colour....

Shape, Form & SpaceView more presentations from NaomiSmart.

Lines in design.

Was I "Infected in the city?".... Unfortunately not!

Infecting the City: Was I infected?
Unfortunately Not!

Unfortunatly I must start on a negative note for my experience when visiting the "Infecting the city" Festival. I think this may be that we only managed to be there for a small time and what we saw didn't really excite me!


I applaud the people who organised the festival, and there mission, to be able to bring Art to everyone, people who wouldn't normally visit a gallery, but for me this didn't shown in this years festival. 


I truly believe that the festival could have been better, We saw piles of rubbish, bricks, bottles, Shacks (the shack was meant to have a 360 video of Khayelitsha with upbeat music, but this wasn't running when we visited) but because of the way it had been laid out, it truly felt like just "rubbish". I would have liked it more if the rubbish could have been made into sculptures, or something more visual than what we saw.


The Infecting the city festival is held by the Africa Center, which when founded in 2005 (a non profit organisation) they began a platform to which they could share a cultural voice for Africa, for Africans. Most African art, underappreciated is exhibited abroad, but the infecting the city festival brings African Art home. 


In the words of the Infecting the City Website:
Its objectives are to: celebrate both the visual and performance heritages of Africa; formulate innovative models for presenting, debating and encouraging the production of art; provide broad access to the creative work and ideas of historical and contemporary African artists; and re-examine the role, identity, transience and creation of art.


Click here to visit the Infecting the City Website:


One of the artists who we met on the day, and briefly spoke to was Heath Nash, A South African born artist, who studied at UCT. Heath Nash is very involved with the Infecting the City festival, he is known well for using recycled materials in his work, especially when making lamps. 


He believes that there are no mistakes in Art, that things happen as a way to understand things better. 


Below are some examples of his work. 

Heath Nash, with some examples of his work

Heath Nash, Circles of plastic, cut and arranged into room divider

Heath Nash, one of my favorite examples of his works. Internationally known for his lamps made of recycled plastic, this has to be one of the most beautiful. 

Click here to read a very interesting interview with Heath Nash. (Well worth a read)

The "art"  this year was too plain, like breeze blocks filled with glass bottles, and tree's filled with rubbish, it didn't really inspire me.


If I was invited to exhibit at the festival, I think I would have done a sculpture or even laying out items into relevant shapes to make a piece more obvious to the general audience. Nash has this idea in his head when creating his beautiful lamps, Only when viewed from a small distance did you realise they're made from recycled plastic. Clever, simple, and to the point. People can relate more to familular objects of everyday life. In the festival display, bags of rubbish were placed in tree's, and under netts on the ground (maybe to grab the attention of people as a startling realisation as to how much rubbish the average person can make) but it didn't captivate the audience this year, and unfortunately I wasn't the only one. I think people struggled to grasp the meaning of the works this year, but looking at previous festivals, they hit the nail on the head. 


 If this years festival included more works like this, sending a more powerful message about recycling, and art as a whole, I think I would have liked the experience more, but I look forward to see what they do next year...

After I had finished, I came across (by Chance) an jewellery artist called Yoav Kotik, who specialises in making jewellery from rubbish and recycable material, this collection is made with bottle tops from beers...

Visit this page to read a little more about him - Click Here

Bottle Cap Earrings

Bottle Cap Brooches



Bottle Cap Bracelet



As a Designer, why is it important to be aware of the gestalt principles?

Gestalt principles are important in any and all area's of design because of the factor in which binds us all together, the tendencies that we ALL do subconsciously one way or another. We see more than meets the eye (actually the other way round) though not correct at times, we almost experience a kind of illusion, although these are "errors!" it gives a fascinating insight into how our eyes communicate with our brain. Whether we are young or old, our minds always try to make sense and order out of something to better understand it. Its also a way in which each individual looks upon something and interprets it. Being aware of the gestalt principles allows us to be able to design in a way in which people will understand and almost have a sense of comprehension, even on basic level by looking at shapes, colour, tone. Everyone looks at something different, but the same process occurs.


Something that has no flow will not be interpreted by the mind as easily as something that has a sense of continuity, movement from one aspect of a design to the other. Gestalt also plays a huge part in the practicality of a design, If something is to be used, it must be designed urgonormically (designed to work with or around the human body) Without these basic Gestalt design principles, to narrow our focus in design we would be lost. This is now all the more apparent now that we are learning to become Jewellery Designers.....

I can't WAIT!!!

Click here for a really interesting read on Gestalt Theory and Illusions!