SA Rocks

I love SA. That’s no surprise. But very often new reasons arrive at my doorstep as to why it is that I love being South African.

Justin Slack was that reason last week. I asked for assistance with some design tweaks and received a response from Justin. He was extremely helpful and went above and beyond to help me get through what I had asked him to. The man is a legend for is instant offer to assist me, his unwillingness to stop until the job was satisfactory (to his standards) and his general all-round fantastic approach to assisting me.

So in closing, SA Rocks is trying hard to make a comeback. I am looking for contributions, advertisers, assistance and anything else anyone can offer to make this a fantastic year for SA Rocks.

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Social-spending (not sure if that’s a new phrase, if it is, I claim it) has hit the SA blogosphere. Springleap, the very cool online t-shirt company, has initiated a very cool new concept.

If you head over to Springleap.com and buy something using the code

SARocks

you’ll get a fantastic 10% discount on your purchase.

This is a very innovative way to give back to readers of specific websites and blogs while generating sales, traffic and awareness for their brand. I am very impressed and chuffed with the initiative.

I have blogged about Springleap before but really just couldn’t help myself again!

Be sure to remember to use the code “SARocks” when you make your purchase. For a bit of a tester here are some funky, hip, different designs from Springleap:

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Extra, Extra, Read all about it!

BigBlue is holding the 3rd annual Makhulu Polane design competition and the entries are open.

I don’t usually blog about competitions that people run but I really dig this particular competition.

It’s run by a clothing brand/company called BigBlue. They dig SA designers and want to help them make a name for themselves and get a start in the industry. So they are offering R20 000 and the winning design in stores on T-shirts nation wide!

This years theme is Funny-Galore and the judges are asking you to make them laugh. Let’s be honest, in SA there is a lot of stuff to laugh at if you are looking at the world through a humourous eye!

From the press release:

The 2008 Big Blue Makhulu Polane opens for entries on 18 August, closing date for submissions is the 1 September 2008. This year’s design theme is ‘Funny-Galore’ – the funniest, smartest, coolest design will win R20 000 in cash and will be sold in all Big Blue and Kitsch & Kool stores nationwide for two months.

Since it’s inception in 2006 this original Big Blue idea has become a great success; this award winning online marketing initiative is unique in that it reached both online and offline audiences and translated into real in-store sales. Winning designs from 2006 and 2007 sold out and were reprinted several times and a number of the top 10 2007 Makhulu Polane designs are still being printed and sold. View last year’s ‘AfroKaaner’ designs at http://www.bigblue.co.za/makhulu07_winner.html

The competition is not limited to submissions from registered students or designers but is open to anyone who feels they have a unique t-shirt design. Designs do not need to be digitally created – they do need to be submitted via the Big Blue website www.bigblue.co.za – hand drawn illustrations can be scanned and uploaded.

I think I’m going to try and submit an entry and see how far it gets me! Give it a go.

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I recently decided that I need to do more interviews with great people in SA. The first person I chose is Adii. He is a freelance Wordpress designer but he’ll tell you more about that. Recently Adii has gained huge exposure on some of the biggest blogs around and this caught my eye. His portfolio is large and extends across the world.

So here goes:

Hi Adii – can we call you that? – thanks for getting involved in SA Rocks! Tell the SA Rocks readers a bit about what exactly you do.

Hey Nic – thanks for having me – it’s always a honour being recoqnized by one’s peers. And sure, I’m Adii all the way – nobody calls me Adriaan online anymore!

I basically see myself (and thus promote myself) primarily as a Wordpress designer. which means I do a whole lot of custom Wordpress blogs for clients weekly… I have however also moved into strategic consulting (ito new media / social media) lately and I believe that gives my work an edge over other designers – my sites aren’t all about just looking pretty. Apart from that, I’m also a very active blogger and I can contribute most of my successes to my blog – it’s been the starting point for most of my new jobs and ventures.

You haven’t been blogging or designing for very long. How’d you get yourself out there so quickly?

Simply being bold and connecting. I’ve never been afraid to get shot down when I’ve approached the big guys and girls – that’s how I got an interview with Matt Mullenwag (Mr Wordpress himself). And the whole 9 months that I’ve been blogging has been about that – making new friends, touching base with well-known and popular developers, designers, bloggers etc. and then begging for some linklove! The few free WP themes that I released didn’t do any harm either…

You represent SA quite effectively in your reputation. Is this an integral part of what you do? Your South African flavour?

I wouldn’t say that my nationality is integral to what I do, but I’ve never been afraid to hide it either. When I registered the domain name, I didn’t even consider getting an international .com / .net etc. – there’s just no need to hide the fact that we’re South African. And judging by my own successes this year – my nationality hasn’t hampered my business either.

I actually complain to international clients about our crappy broadband speeds on a daily basis… It’s all about embracing who you are and where you’re from – and from what I’ve found clients love the fact that a person is being him-/herself. Funny thing is that my blog has gone mad since I launched the original polaroid design (V1) back in June and I simply attribute that to the fact that the more personality a blogger brings to his / her blog, the more readers can relate to the blogger.

I’m a good old Afrikaans boytjie, who loves my beers, braais and good rugby (Mark F – wishing you had that over in the UK?). That’s me in real life and online – can’t change that.

You’re based in Stellies, tell me about that? Has at made any sort of impact on your career so far? Do you plan on staying down there?

I’m finishing up my four years at Stellies this year and I seriously can’t wait to get out of this place actually. Stellies is great for the first half, but as you get older the people and situations around you get more immature… That said, I’ve loved doing my Honours this year and I’ve had some great lecturers who have truly taught me strategic thinking (which is a great asset). I was doing a bit of a dead-end undergraduate degree (Chartered Accounting), but this year has been a breath of fresh air.

I will always look back at my 4 years at Stellies and smile about it. It has most definitely sculpted me as a person and it has definitely contributed to my career – quantifying that is probably more difficult, but the measure is whether I’d do it all over again if I could (and the answer is for sure).

As for staying here… I’ve accepted a job at a top corporate communications company in Cape Town and I’ll be heading up their New Media division from 2 January 2008. I will also NEVER consider living anywhere else in SA – if it’s not Cape Town, then it’s Europe…

Wordpress is your specialisation and template design is your forte, how and why did you get into template design?

Seriously I don’t know actually… It started out as a hobby really… Last year around June I decided that I want to blog as well (and make money), so I searched around for a open-source blogging platform and came across WP. I taught myself to skin it for my own blog back then (not adii.co.za), then I started doing the odd “help-out” for friends and everything just snowballed from there.

I’m still amazed at the vast open spaces I’ve found in this niche however. When I started I thought that there must be so many quality WP designers out there, but fact is there’s a bucketload of average WP designers out there and only 10% of them are good enough to get the top jobs. That’s why you’ll find that guys like Brian Gardner and Micheal Pollock (Solostream) are fully booked all the time. In hindsight, getting into WP – although by “accident” – has been one of the best choices in my life!

Has it been tough living in SA and making an international name for yourself?

Not at all! Most of my clients don’t even know where I’m from and the one’s that do know noticed it from our time differences (and subsequent delays in responses or concepts).

You’ve had some noteable debate going on with some “high profile” WP designers. Has their opinion or public slamming of some of your stuff made you change your approach at all?

Haha! I’m actually not going to say much about that situation, as there are too many brainwashed people out there that won’t recoqnize the truth of the situation even if it was standing before them.

I have however not changed my approach or strategy and I don’t intend to do so. I’ve reached the heights I have due to me being me and not being afraid what the community might say / think. Instead however of fighting fire with fire in this situation, I’ve gone back to the drawing part, strategizing and formulating a plan that’s going to take everyone by suprise. My aim is to become the Wordpress Rockstar (thanks for that term Dave Duarte), but you’ll see that all happening when the plans start rolling out… (Hint: My new Premium News Theme is part of this plan).

I’m interested to know what motivates you, what inspires you and what keeps you going?

I would say money and greed, but that would just be shallow! Nah, only joking… This might sound corny, but my fiance is the sole reason for all my drive and hard work. Through working hard (blogging, designing, consulting etc.) I’m effectively building my dream life and at the center of that, there’s my fiance. So she has been my motivation, inspiration and the center-piece of the amazing life I’m building with her!

I’m obviously inherently ambitious and there’s nothing like a good challenge to get my over-excited. But that’s just part of my character – I will always have this drive to succeed, irrespective of whether I had a fiance or not. But having something so dear to you supporting your every move, definitely makes the journey so much more fun and rewarding!

And finally, do you love being South African and if so why?

Oh hell yeah! I love the fact that we, as South Africans, are actually so inherently diverse and multi-cultural. People say racism and apartheid, but I see a whole new generation emerging where it’s all about embracing the obvious differences to work together and produce something great. I get warm fuzzies in my stomach when typing that… But that is true!

I’m proud to be called South African due to everything that our country has come through. I’m a proud South African due to the future that we’re creating and the relationships we’re building… If that’s not enough reason to be proud, I can always add a good braai, Western Province Rugby (in their glory days) and a chilled glass of Amarula on ice to the mix…

Thanks Adii!

If you are interested in good design and an example of great marketing of oneself, check out Adii’s blog!

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I love the SA Rocks badge. I truly do. But there is a problem that I was recently made aware of. The flag on the badge is incorrectly vertically placed.

I know, it makes no sense, that’s what I said when Simon contacted me with this link about the the very same topic.

Basically the problem is this: The red section of the flag in the SA Rocks badge is on the right, it should be on the left.

The explanation goes like this:

The Flag is alike a written document. When you read a document you start from top to bottom, from left to right. According to our Flag, Red is at the top and blue at the bottom. So when the flag is displayed vertically, red should be the first one to be reread, hence it is displayed on the left hand side.

I hope this explanation will be satisfactory.

Themba Mabaso
Director: Bureau of Heraldry

The flag:

The wrong vertical flag:

The right vertical flag:

Wow. Blow me down and call me embarrassed. I will be sorting this out as soon as humanly possible!! If you have a badge on your blog please keep a look for the redone badge when it comes up on SA Rocks. I will blog about it!

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I missed out on a week of SA Rocks because I was lucky enough to be helping introduce a brand new course – Nomadic Marketing – at UCT’s Graduate School of Business, in the company of some of our finest web.minded ones. It was a success (whew) and for those who missed out, it runs again in October. Book early this time!

I really do try to move beyond the brilliant people from the south.west shores of South Africa. I keep saying, next week, but then I always HAVE to introduce you to just one more bright Capetonian making SA rock. No exception again today.

Today I have a threefold celebration/cerebration of genius:
1. the school 2.the director 3. the course

South Africa’s oldest university – University of Cape Town’s GSB – has held the leading edge in consistently ranking as one of the Global Top 100 MBA programs by the Financial Times (London). More noteworthy though: in the Top 10 for Executive Education internationally. Did you get that?! Top TEN in the world.

The blues.singing award-winning poet, MA(cum laude) & MBA-toting director of the
Executive Education unit at the GSB is no less than a force of nature. Elaine Rumboll has cleared a path for success for UCT among the impressive old giants of business schools’ fiercely contested short-course sector. Taking risks that seem to keep paying off, primarily choosing collaboration over competition is a fairly handy strategy. One of those risks was Nomadic Marketing.

Another is this >> Business Acumen for Artists >> a 13 week program that empowers the creatively talented with the practical business skills to forge a successful and profitable career from their craft. Musicians, designers, writers, fine artists, photographers, filmmakers, poets, actors, animators.. whatever the artistic field this program has the potential to change the course of a lifetime. Enough with the starving artist routine.

If you’d love to dive into a more creative career; know an artist who really needs to take the 13 week journey or if you would like to gift an artist with this (go on unleash your inner Medici) call or mail Lisa Maddison for the application (each artist must have a goal & motivation to be realised from the program)

Conceived and developed by Elaine; associated costs taken up by the GSB; some of the business schools finest minds and visiting international lecturers and mentors in each field have offered their time for free : the full course fee goes to strengthening the Observatory Community Centre (incubator to SA legends like Tannie Evita and FreshlyGround). Stuff like this make SA Rock bigtime! It’s an exciting and very valuable endeavour.

I’ve created a blog for news and learning around BA4A and a Facebook event to make it easy for you to join the conversation. Come jump in >>

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One of the things that I’ve seen come up time & time again on the blogs of our local web.entrepreneurs is the sheer frustration at the lack of innovation in the ideas that get funded.

What’s going on here? Is it risk-aversion or just a lack of creativity? Are we South Africans a little short on the firespark of innovation? For a country with such diversity, such a powerful emotion.soaked history, it can’t be because we have a shortage of inspiration.

I believe it’s fear. PLEASE challenge me with strong evidence to the contrary if you believe this wrong. But I see a leadership that shows the backs down in matters of moral courage & calls it diplomacy. An education system that only rewards us when we conform, and give the right answers. Banks that cheerfully charge like a bull & foreclose if you fail in your first round of business. And let’s not go near the productivity.leeching ball & chain Telkom. Innovation just isn’t supported by industry, society or infrastructure, because it’s RISKY & requires change, and potential loss to those who have the current system serving them well. Oh yeah, and in-built is the possibility of looking like an ass. It requires courage to be different.

I would LOVE to see SA starting to shake off the shackles of learned helplessness and shining as one of the brightest hubs of fresh ideas. But it won’t happen if we don’t step a little beyond the tried & tested. One sure-fire way to ignite creative genius is creating a culture that supports the brave. The Free Culture Tour was a small but potent reminder that we need to individually start rocking it hard if we want this country to get the right kind of attention (that we can be proud of please – not the Bullard version – there are times when all PR is good PR is bollocks)

So there a couple of things that you can do today to start rocking with the revolution:

1. Support Creative Commons esp. iCommons because the global HQ is here in SA!! If you have a healthy interest in change & a healthy bank account, consider being a benefactor (or get your company to sponsor – hint: sweet branding opportunity)
2. Use your inborn genius to think of creative ways around the stuff that doesn’t work efficiently here, create a business out of it or create a rock.solid campaign & join or start a lobbying group to influence policy.making.
3. If you have expertise in a particular field and speak another (official) South African language contribute your knowledge to Wikipedia. (Afrikaans up & running already)
4. If you’re a creator & your inspiration overflows – consider offering some of your brillance to the world to play with – video, text, art, design, ideas. Rock a Creative Commons license on it to get attribution :: & set it free

PS. if you want to support iCommons I’ve done a couple of buttons you can grab & use as you choose (a linkto: http://icommons.org would be schweeeet & seriously appreciated).

Get creative & take more daring actions this week & use your powers for good!

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The original 2010 logo

Not the 2010 world cup logo is great. It’s loads of fun, talent and prizes rolled in to one Pro-SA and design site.

From the site:

This website was created simply as a portal for designers who felt that they were unjustly excluded from the opportunity to design an emblem or logo for the 2010 World Cup. Many designers feel that the current logo is not a good reflection of SA design and this website affords them the opportunity to submit their own creations. Your logo will not become the official logo by any means, but you can win some great prizes for your efforts and become recognised as creating the best unofficial logo. Do you think you can design a better logo? PROVE IT!!

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