Design Indaba Expo in Cape Town Central

Design Indaba Expo is South Africa’s premier showcase of local design in all sectors. It is multi-sectoral, featuring advertising, architecture, craft, decor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior, jewellery, new media, publishing, product design and visual media.

It showcases the best of local design - original, contemporary and innovative product that is quintessentially South African - no derivatives, and no imports.

It is curated, not filled. Our advisory panel of the best South African designers, stylists, critics and industry experts, curates the Expo floor and decides who is represented there. The panel is representative of our positioning. Where a designer is not known by the panel, a process of submission is engaged where the designer's work is circulated for the panel's input.

In addition to encouraging exhibitors to trade directly to the South African public, we also bring out several international buyers to stimulate the export market.

In 2004, the Design Indaba Expo was inaugurated in association with the Department of Trade & Industry. The Expo provides a commercial platform for the finest South African designers to leverage local goods and services to the global market. It introduces the most influential international buyers to the finest South African creative product to encourage export. There is also an impact on the local market.

The Expo aims to create discerning consumers through exposure to the principles and products of good design, resulting in the demand and production of innovative, evolving and excellent South African creative product.

Photograph: Lamps with ostrich-feather shades by Haldane Martin.