It’s so exciting to be guest blogging for the Freeworld Design Centre. The centre is an amazing concept – one to my knowledge that is unique in the world – and I know first-hand how dedicated, talented, creative and absolutely lovely the team behind it are. I also have a very fond place for Plascon in my heart, one of the brands in the Freeworld stable, having once edited several issues of the Plascon Spaces (then Plascon Colour) magazine. So in a small way, this feels like coming back into the fold… Yay! It’s also a fun creative outlet in between running after two young children, freelance work, walking the dog and trying to acclimatise our pet bunny to her new home.

As this blog is intended to show all things inspiring, what better starting point for my very first contribution than to chat about a project that uses colour and creativity to do good things for – and bring beauty to – economically disadvantaged communities. I came across the work done by Write On Africa (www.writeonafrica.org) at the recent Design Indaba Expo held at the end of February and was utterly inspired by their crèche painting initiative as well as enchanted by a series of educational books they have published to address the needs of South Africa’s children. I chatted to Xanele van Rensburg, one half of the driving force behind this unique design studio.

How did Write On Africa come into being?

‘Ricky Lee Gordon established Write on Africa five years ago to promote graffiti as a legitimate art form. It has now become an active community art project using creativity to uplift and inspire.’

Tell me about yourselves.
(Xanele van Rensburg) ‘I grew up on a small farm outside a small seaside town which proved to be fertile ground for my imagination to flourish. After matriculating I went on to study Visual Communication Design at Stellenbosch University. While studying I discovered my love for illustration and rediscovered my love for children. In our final year we were encouraged to use design to make a difference, and I spent a large percentage of my time in the local township crèches to get a feel for what children are truly like and how I could use my skills to make a difference in their lives. I started collaborating with Write on Africa and am now there full time. My goal is to continue to research and explore ways to apply creativity to address and solve social problems.’
(Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam) ‘Freddy Sam is the name I have given myself to represent me as a street artist. It comes from putting my two grandfathers’ first names together. I have been painting for over 12 years. I have great respect and humility towards street art – painting for the everyday man is an experience that I feel can’t be replicated by any other art form, nor can the satisfaction it brings. It’s my intention to explore my community and surroundings using public art as a tool to communicate and connect with people from all walks of life. I am more interested in the experience than the result.’

I know you have other creative projects on the go, but tell me specifically about your crèche painting project.
‘My entire final year at university was focused on “designing to make a difference”, specifically for me in the lives of children. I came up with the idea of painting crèches to make them brighter, more fun and inspiring places to spend time in and to give each crèche a sense of individuality. I also came up with a concept for educational books to address the needs of young children.

You were recently awarded a grant by Sappi. Tell me about it, and what it means for the future of the project?

‘In my final year of university I entered the Sappi “Ideas That Matter” competition, an international initiative that awards grants to help designers contribute their talents to the charitable causes they care about (www.sappi.com/ideasthatmatterNA). We had already started painting crèches but needed more funding and sponsorship to really get things going.  The proposal I sent them stated that we would like to paint 21 crèches in the township of Khayamandi and distribute 2 000 locally relevant educational books (as mentioned earlier, that I designed as part of my final year body of work). We won, and will start executing the project in April!
It means we can continue with our crèche painting projects on a large scale! With the money we’ll be painting 21 crèches and distributing 2 000 of my educational books. Each of the 21 crèches will be designed by a different local designer/artist. These designers include Kronk, Jordan Metcalf, Bruce Mackay and Karlien de Villiers. We also have a few other exciting projects lined up. People can keep an eye on our website and blog for developments! Builders Warehouse came on board to sponsor all the material for this project and Plascon will sponsor paint. They’ll be giving us 20 liters of paint for each of the 21 crèches we’re going to be working on!’
I love the collaborative nature of your crèche painting project. Run us through how it unfolds.

‘Once we’ve found a crèche that needs our assistance, the teacher will decide on a theme to ensure that it is relevant to the crèche and that the design on the outside will reflect what happens inside. We either work on the theme ourselves, or send it to one of our many collaborating designers or artists to interpret. Then we project and trace the design onto the building and put out a call for volunteers using mailing lists, blogs, websites and our Facebook page. These volunteers – along with children and community members – all work together to paint the crèche. We hand them a printout of the design, so it’s basically a paint-by-numbers scenario. It’s great because everyone partakes in the transformation process.’

I have fallen head-over-heels with the illustrations and use of colour and type in your educational books. Tell me more about these.
‘As I said, I started the book project in my final year of university where we were encouraged to use design to make a difference. My love for children was the driving force behind everything I did. I spent hour upon hour in the township crèches to identify the needs of the children and how these could be addressed. I quickly noticed that most of the crèches don’t have any books. I went on to design and illustrate three very simple word/image picture books with three different themes: Animals, Colour and Numbers. They are in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. I’m excited to say that we’re delivering 2 000 books to the various township crèches of Khayamandi during the course of the year. Our aim is to make the book project sustainable.’

The cover of the book on Colour by Xanele van Rensburg. Isn't it charming.

What is your hope for the Write On Africa crèche painting project as well as the educational books?

‘We’re setting up Write on Africa as a social enterprise with the intent of making it a sustainable and growing venture. We’re collaborating with companies to bring about positive social change by selling crèche and book packages to them – that way everyone benefits. My hope is that we will branch out to paint schools, classrooms, orphanages, places of safety etc. In other words, continuing to add colour to communities and have Write on Africa be a platform where anyone can get involved to make a difference in the lives of others. With regards to the books, there is definitely a gap in the market for books in two local languages that cater for children between ages one and five. We want to continue to make these available to the public, schools and crèches and intend to produce more of them with different themes.’

How would you describe your artistic style? What are some of your inspirations?

‘Intricate, sensitive, naive and friendly. I think not having art as a subject at school and going to a university where the focus was very much on developing each individual’s creativity was an amazing opportunity. My inspirations are definitely influenced by growing up on a farm close to a seaside town, my love for children and my amazement of the world we live in: the diversity, flux, nature and culture.’

What do you love about colour?

‘Without colour this whole initiative wouldn’t make sense. Colour has the power to transform and uplift. It’s amazing to see what can be achieved by adding colour to different spaces. The teachers and children of the crèches we’ve painted are so proud of their new buildings. We didn’t construct anything, but simply by adding colour we made the world of difference. Colour has the ability to draw and keep attention, to make people smile and to stimulate the young and inquisitive minds of childen. Colour makes people happy and, for that reason, I love colour. Kurt Goldstein (a colour theorist) once stated that “colour helps to guarantee normal life”’.

Beautiful and inspiring stuff, right? And don’t you just have to have those books! I can’t wait until they’re available to the public. Speaking of quotes, the work by Write On Africa brings to mind (quite fittingly) one by a favourite author of mine, Dr Seuss: ‘Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple’.

To follow the work of Write On Africa, enquire about their educational books or to volunteer your time, visit www.writeonafrica.org.

See you next week Thursday.

Mandy xxx