‘Inclusion inspires innovation.’
-Apple CEO, Tim Cook voices this in his Tweet about the video

Shot during San Francisco’s city-wide pride weekend on June 28, the video features thousands of marching Apple employees and their families flaunting a re-imagined Apple logo with all the ‘Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violets’ of a rainbow. With conviction and commitment, Apple has once again earned their colours – well, at least in some circles.

Comments have been disabled on the YouTube video and Apple does not actually have an official Twitter handle – it’s just CEO Cook under control! So please feel free to start a new conversation by leaving your comment below or Tweeting us at @onesmallseedSA.
 

For more on this, read our post “The Realist Rainbow Nation of them All” – where we take a look at the most LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) of all time.

Garagista

What do you think of people who go out of their way to put down hipsters? Hit us up on Twitter @onesmallseedSA or leave a comment below.

Words: Matthew Alexander

Garagista

Garagista

Garagista

Garagista

For more innovative advertisements on one small seed click here.

Macabre marketing or a meaningful take on modern love? What do you think? Feel free to tweet us on @onesmallseedSA or leave a comment below.

Image: lostateminor.com

Image: lostateminor.com

Image: lostateminor.com

Image: lostateminor.com

Just under a year ago we featured the wonderful ad campaign for The Zimbabwean by TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg, a campaign that highlighted the worth of the Zimbabwean dollar bill by using it to create actual billboards, posters and other outdoor advertising, as a meme representative of Zimbabwe’s plummeting socio-economic circumstances. This year, the same agency has been asked to create another campaign for the newspaper, and once again, they have done themselves, The Zimbabwean and the country’s people proud.

Named The Voiceless Campaign, it pays tribute to the tenet of the Zimbabwean: to give a voice to the voiceless. The posters feature the work of photojournalists working in Zimbabwe over the last two years, many of which were banned by Mugabe and the ZANU-PF regime after police raided an exhibition in Harare as it opened. The photojournalists donated their work to the campaign in an effort to prevent their work from being silenced. The images direct people to the Zimbabwean website, where the context of each image is explained by written accounts by the photojournalists and located on a satellite map.

Here’s a video explaining the campaign.

For those who missed it, here’s the article on last year’s campaign, courtesy of onesmallseed.net:

This is a really smart advertising campaign by TBWA/Hunt Lascaris for a small Zimbabwean newspaper (The Zimbabwean). Quipped ‘The World’s first Trillion Dollar advertising campaign’, it draws on that oft-repeated gibe that it’s cheaper to use Zim dollars as toilet paper these days. I saw the ad recently on a billboard at JHB airport and it really is an ad printed on money that has been carefully woven together like tapestry.

A work of art in itself, it is poignant and so very pertinent. I imagine the ad would be illegal in Zimbabwe and so it really speaks volumes to the power of media in facilitating free speech in the face of suppressive regimes that sadly have much of the continent in a stranglehold.

The ad serves to help create awareness and support of the Zimbabwean newspaper which has been a voice in the wilderness for Zimbabwean exiles for the past 3½ years. As described by the newspaper, ‘One of the most eloquent symbols of Zimbabwe’s collapse is the Z$100 trillion dollar note, a symptom of its world record inflation. This note cannot buy anything, not even a loaf of bread and certainly not any advertising, but it can become the advertising – a powerful reminder about Zimbabwe’s plight and the need to hold someone accountable.’

The campaign was also run in downtown Johannesburg and includes posters, flyers, and billboards all using Zimbabwe currency.

So, Bruce…who are you?

I am a designer and illustrator… and sometimes musician and other things. I have a company called Design is a good idea, and we also have a website www.designisagoodidea.com that is kind of closely linked to our store concept, and functions as a monthly magazine, with photo shoots of interesting people and products. We usually collaborate with other creative people on these projects.

Always been a Jozi boy?

Yes… always.

What are you all about?

I’m about noticing and promoting interesting things that other people forget to notice.

Tell me about Design is a Good Idea?

I was working as a designer at a little company called ‘thnkyvrymh’… and I originally started Design is a good idea as a Facebook Group to just share deign related info and interesting stuff with fellow creatives. The group was a success and led to all sorts of interesting idea’s and proposals, so it became a full time project.

What were some of the main highlights of 2010 ?

Firstly, we’ve launched a new website, which functions more like a Blog, and we don’t really do the ‘Storefront’ photo shoots we used to do. We wanted our site to be more user friendly and functional. Secondly, we launched a new brand called Hilton Qiu, and are currently in production with various limited edition pieces, check out Design Is A Good Idea for more info. We have acquired the Sole Distribution Rights in South Africa for John Brauer’s award winning range of products designed for Essey® in Germany, which we are very excited about.

Design is a good idea now also stocks a broad range of Muji products, previously unavailable in SA (even though they have a huge cult following). We now have a much better selection of locally designed stuff, which is nice because when we first opened the shop we only had imported items and couldn’t secure any decent local work. There are also some great pieces from Disturbance, Magpie, Hart and some very talented students who are making amazing stuff under the name ‘Collective Efforts’.

Where is the design industry going, and who is taking it there?

The design industry is always changing and evolving because of new technologies… but at the end of the day, good design is good design. It doesn’t really make a difference if its print design, or industrial design, or web design, or motion works for TV and film… if it’s good, it’s relevant.

Design – in JHB – what makes it uniquely JHB?

I think these days, everything is more global and everyone is being influenced by the same things worldwide. I don’t really think there’s a specific ‘JHB Design Style’, or anything like that… most of the designers I talk to here daily all know about the same stuff, and aren’t really that hung up on trying to be ‘Joburg Designers’ or ‘African designers’…

What inspires you?

Music mostly…. art…. film…. designers like Michael C. Place (Build), Non-Format… Experimental Jetset…

Who do you aspire to?

Nobody specific, maybe Stanley Kubrick… he always had a very clear vision and put his own unique stamp on everything he ever did.

Can you see a significant connection between SA design & the social environment in which we live? How is this expressed?

I think that when people try too hard to be ‘African’, it usually comes across as patronizing and cheesy. There are a lot of people making more effort to consider the environment, but that is also a global trend.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Probably spending 24 hours standing outside a record store in London trying to meet Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham, and then finding out that they were actually never even there.

Your dream project?

Music packaging for Sonic Youth… collaboration with my heroes.

One thing you would like to tell all those ambitious young artists out there?

Just Redo It™.

What’s next for Bruce?

A very large coffee.