What’s your Best Kept Secret?
What’s it all about? A little birdy told us it’s got to do with hot nights and pulsing shaking dance moves… Go and tell them your Best Kept Secret here to stay in the loop and stand a chance of winning some VIP treatment… Let’s hope the music will be as good as the funk on the...
Represent’s Loving: Madcon
These Norwegian hiphop heads are rocking the beats all the way from the lands of the northern lights, we reckon this song “Beggin’ ” released less than two weeks ago and already making BIG waves, is going to be HUGE! The one half of Madcon (Mad Conspiracy) is a South African homeboy Tshawe Baqwa born in Germany – he grew up in Oslo… NICE ONE MFO! K for some reason YouTube is not letting us embed this funky video, so please watch it here or on google video here. Sorry! Read about Madcon on Wikipedia here. Joburg’s The Star featured Madcon in 2005 already! Read about it here. You can also watch an interview with them here… or see Madcon‘s MySpace here. For more juice on the Skandinavian hiphop scene check out this blog Northern...
Get ready for the MAMA’s – MTV Africa!
Our dedicated scribe of the moment, Reuben ‘The Matrix’ Malema, attended the MTV press announcement of the ‘MAMA awards’, MTV’s pan-African music awards brought to you by MTV and their sponsor ZAIN (a telecommunications company…). He reckons healthy competition is the way forward to uplift and keep on diversifying and enriching our music scene, we have to admit, we agree! See our photostory at our RepresentFlickr set here. Read all about the event below – the official media release follows. Sharpile RTMM! It’s official, MTV Networks Africa is here! And if all the over-the-top hoo-hah of Tuesday night has any truth to it, then the end for the MTN SAMA Awards is definitely not nigh but rather in a very real way so resoundingly here. The setting of MTV’s “take-over-Africa” spectacle was the Japanese themed Tokyo Sky of Fourways, Johannesburg. Ja, the ambiguity was very clear: the guillotine’s blade has gut-gushingly fallen on the video-jockey controlled entertainment industry in this part of Africa! I have to admit though, with all the fine sushi, on the house liquor en masse (Double Remmie Martin and Lemonade…one more please sir!), the glitz and splendour that was blatantly flaunted, the Network has a lot of credibility and plenty to offer Africa’s musicians in sharp contrast to the MTN SAMA Awards that favours the same few artists all the time and only focuses on SA. Let us not forget the controversy-riddled quagmire of the recent MTN SAMAs which did not help the situation either, in fact if anything – this year’s SAMAs managed to quicken the event’s long awaited coup de grace. Competition is often a healthy thing and in this case it’s long overdue. The Media targeted event (Nou Ek Spog!) had the makings of a typical TRL show on MTV Base. The MC was as chirpy as all the free flowing video mouthpieces on the network’s channels. The program direction was lively with a twist of spring. The audience (le paparazzi!) was very receptive, although at one stage a tad disappointed (we’ll come back to this one…). Mr. Alex Okosi, a Nigerian born, American raised, British groomed and now South African Corporate Executive is the driving force behind MTV Africa’s no-holds-barred takeover bid. His passion and inspiring vibrancy is believable enough to prop-up one’s expectations of the fresh wave of reprieve that has at last beached on our shores. An array of Dj’s and musicians were bopping away, including Cleo, KB, boys from Skwatta Kamp and Brickz. One particular artist caught my attention, the 12 year old In-cha who is an ingenious (lest I be tempted to declare her a maestro) violinist....
Call for Entries: South – a travelling Expo.
Get your creativity seen in the innovative SOUTH travelling exhibition showing off the best of South African Creativity, kicking off at Design Indaba in Feb in Cape Town and then moving on to take over the world. The top three designs will win money, imali, moolah and by the way they’re looking for a range of creativity and design. Hurry up/Sheshani, entries close in November. SOUTH seeks to uncover the finest examples of South African creativity across a broad spectrum of disciplines and forms. And, for the first time on one platform, showcase a dazzling array of our finest creative produce. ART. ARCHITECTURE. ADVERTISING. CRAFT. DESIGN. FASHION. FILM&VIDEO. JEWELLERY. MUSIC. NEW MEDIA. PERFORMANCE ART. PHOTOGRAPHY. The kind of creative excellence that will best infl uence the judges is neither black nor white, nor ethnic, nor neutral, nor euro, nor west, nor east. It’s a harmony out of contradiction. A balance of extremes. That fine line between order and chaos. SOUTH seeks executions that capture the soul of this mystique. Design Indaba has collaborated with the Creative Circle and The Loerie Awards to launch the Creative Alliance. Dedicated to promoting South African creativity on an international front, the alliance will be initiating a travelling exhibition sponsored by the SABC. The exhibition will debut at Design Indaba 2009. Entitled South, the exhibition is a celebration of the gloriously positive, ridiculously naïve and relentlessly spontaneous creative industries inherent in our country. Seeking to encapsulate the bold, lawless, cheeky, crossover, politically incorrect flavour of the South African imagination, the exhibition is a celebration of the home of high-class ashtrays made out of elephant dung and pap served with sushi. The exhibition will comprise of existing local and international designs which best encapsulate “South”, as well as the award, open to participation from creatives across all industries including advertising, design, film and video, music, performing arts, fashion design, new media, publishing, radio and television, industrial design, visual art, architecture and crafts. Three prizes will be awarded. * The overall winner receives R100 000. * Second place receives R50 000. * Third place receives R25 000. Onwards… upwards… southwards… viva! For entry forms and more information visit: www.designindaba.com/south Enquiries: Michael Purdham at Interactive Africa Tel: (021) 465 9966 Fax: (021) 465 9978 south@interactiveafrica.com Onwards… upwards… southwards…...
Creatives take note: Behance Network
Behance is a superb new beta platform/community for showcasing your work as a creative designer, photographer etc online, but even better, it’s a place for you to soak up your peers talent around the world, get inspired by outstanding creativity and observe the global trends in design and visual art in real time. Behance Network calls itself a place for “creative portfolios, projects and collaborations” to be displayed stylishly and in a user-centric way, artists, get your work on there! They put it best: Showcase Your Work Build a dynamic, multimedia portfolio of your latest projects, open to all or shared selectively. Gain Exposure Many thousands of visitors come to Behance every day to view your work. In addition, projects are streamed through other sites across the web. Discover Job Opportunities Behance’s JobList features great work opportunities. Creative industry leaders use the Network to find, track and hire top talent. Connect and Collaborate Form groups (“circles”) gathered around interests, share content, get feedback. Share tips and access resources Behance’s Tip Exchange provides insights for creative professionals, and throughout Behance one can access knowledge, services and products for the creative...
Loerie Awards 2008 Saturday winners announced
We’re just imagining the heavy heads and hearts this morning as a night of partying no doubt continues for some on Margate beachfront and ends for others as they rush to catch their flights back to their beds to recover… Here’s the announcement of this years winners! The 2008 Loerie Awards Festival Weekend kicked off on 26 July with the Saturday night awards ceremony, hosted by Media24. CONGRATS to all the winners… 2008 is the 30th Anniversary of The Loerie Awards, a celebration of creative excellence in brand communication, and the industry partied hard in Margate to celebrate this landmark year. A total of 175 Loeries were handed out at the Saturday night ceremony, two of which were Grands Prix and 15 of which were gold awards. The Saturday awards featured Communication Design; Advertising Print, Outdoor & Ambient; Experiential print media; Experiential Alternative Media & Field Marketing; Experiential Internal Marketing and Strategic CRM Programmes; Student Awards; the Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award; and the Creative Achievement Award, which was introduced this year. The two Grand Prix winners were: – Am I Collective, Craft Illustration, ‘Scrabble’ – Trigger Communication, Communication Design – Architecture, Interior Design & Environmental graphics, Nike, ‘Be true pop-up store’ Both Grands Prix awarded were to small specialist agencies and are a reflection of the variety and depth within the communication industry. On Sunday evening, 27 July, statue winners in the following categories will be announced: Integrated Campaigns; Radio, TV & Online Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Experiential Radio, TV, Digital, Non-broadcast & Live Events; Experiential Campaigns; & The Young Creatives Award. “With the high standards adopted by the Loeries, we can ensure that our winners compete on an international scale, and it’s a great achievement for everyone who has taken a Loerie home,” says Festus Masekwameng, chairman of The Loerie Awards and creative director at McCann Erickson. “The Loeries extends our congratulations to Saturday’s winners and all their brave clients who embrace creativity. Thank you for your participation in making the Loeries 30th Anniversary year a spectacular one for the industry.” Agency rankings This year, The Loerie Awards have implemented the Creative Circle’s Creativity Points ranking to determine the value of the medals handed out. The Creative Circle points allocated to each award are: Grand Prix = 600 Gold = 350 Craft Gold = 350 Silver = 100 Craft Certificate = 100 (The Craft Certificate is new in 2008 and is not officially ranked by the Creative Circle) Bronze = 50 However, unlike the Creative Circle ranking, The Loerie Awards does not combine points from the same agency groups. All agencies are listed as they entered their work....
We will be back!
