When Japanese brands like Toyota launched their vehicles in the South African market in the 1960s South Africans were skeptical about the new ‘Jap-Crap’ on the roads. But through a clever brand strategy Toyota ensured that, before long, the brand was associated with reliability. If you grew up in South Africa you would remember the ‘Everything keeps going right’ pay-off line ending off numerous television advertisements over the years. But, how did this happen? Toyota knew that it wanted to be the biggest …
The nature of our design profession is going through exciting changes – and nowhere is this change more pronounced in the way design engages with realities in industrially developing (or majority world) contexts. The role of designers is also evolving as they lean increasingly towards more socially conscious design activities as is evident in diverse contexts as Africa, Asia and South America. Prominent tertiary-level schools of design in …