Face Masks To Make You Smile!
Masks to make you smile! African Smiles and local creatives support the Smile Foundation by designing inspiring face masks with a message
11/08/2020
African Smiles has launched a new collection
of 16 fabric face masks that are intended to
inspire and uplift in more ways than one.
Created by local designers, each mask holds a
unique message of hope and happiness, while
expressing the beauty and friendliness of the
hidden smile behind the mask. In addition to
promoting South African creativity, African
Smiles is yet another source of heartfelt
support - a percentage of the proceeds will go
to the Smile Foundation. For the past 20 years,
this NPO has provided reconstructive surgery to
children living with abnormalities such as cleft
lip and palate, burns, craniofacial conditions
and facial paralysis.
In order to bring this
inspiring collection of face masks to life,
under the curation of design specialists
Platform Creative Agency, African Smiles
collaborated with four South African artists and
graphic designers - Bonolo Helen Chepape of
textile company Lulasclan; Skinny laMinx founder
and creative director Heather Moore; furniture
and pattern designer Glorinah Khutso Mabaso of
Renaissance Design; and fine artist Michael
Chandler of Chandler House.
Both Chepape
and Mabaso are among the stars of the Nando’s
Design Programme. Mabaso was chosen from a
shortlist of 26 designers to become one of the
four winners of the first Clout Designers’
Industry Days Fired Up By Nando’s, held in
August 2019. Chepape, on the other hand, was one
of the Top 10 Finalists in the 2018 Nando’s Hot
Young Designer talent search. This competition
is currently in its 2020 call-to-entry phase (to
enter, visit https://clout-sadesign.co.za/).
Each of the African Smiles collaborators has
designed a set of four masks. Chepape has loaded
her African Pop Art designs with vibrant colours
and bold patterns, and huge, graphic smiles that
portray four fun, quirky personas. Mabaso has
taken inspiration from across Africa, paying
tribute to Kenya’s Kikuyu people, Ethiopia’s
Karo tribe, South Africa’s Venda culture and
Ghana’s Fra-Fra group. Her designs translate
these historical cultures into contemporary
pattern compositions.
Chandler’s
hand-drawn ocean and street scenes reference
riding the storm together, and protecting our
streets by wearing masks. His floral and lattice
images, drawn with the finest blue ink and
gouache, are a reassurance of ever-present
beauty in our midst. Heather Moore’s masks are
playful, with a special message printed on the
inside of each one, reminding people to smile,
wink and spread their joy.
Says Nicholas Markowitz, Director of Creative Brands and Brand Name Marketing, the companies behind African Smiles: “It seems inevitable that we’ll be wearing masks for the foreseeable future, so we wanted to create ones that are filled with positivity. By working with local creatives, through Platform Creative Agency, we’ve designed a collection that will spread more smiles around the country, while helping children in need of reconstructive surgery, and bringing smiles to their faces, too.”
For more information on the Nando’s Design Programme, visit: https://clout-sadesign.co.za/. To find out more about Clout, follow @clout_sadesign #clout_sadesign on social media. For more information on the Smile Foundation, visit: https://smilefoundationsa.org/.
About the Nando’s Design Programme:
The story begins in 2015, when Creative Director Tracy Lee Lynch, the founder of Studio Leelynch, redesigned the multifunctional Central Kitchen – aka Nando’s HQ in Johannesburg. Accustomed to curating brand spaces, Lynch transformed the space with the work of more than 50 local designers, reinvigorating it and persuading Nando’s that a home-grown aesthetic was what was needed. Nando’s proceeded to throw its weight behind South African designers – not just having their designs redecorate the restaurants, but actively seeking new design talent with the aim of developing them further and exporting a unique design aesthetic to the rest of the world. As the design mind behind Clout, Lynch set about driving this initiative in tandem with the Property and Development Director for Nando’s, Michael Spinks.
About Creative Brands and Brand Name Marketing
For nearly 15 years, Creative Brands has
supplied promotional gifting to large corporate
companies and sold its own product collections
through online retailers such as Takealot. The
company is directed by Nicholas Markowitz, a
keen supporter of African design, who oversees
all creative and conceptual ideas, generates
designs and oversees the look and feel of
products. Creative Brands’ sister company Brand
Name Marketing is one of South Africa’s largest
companies dealing in promotional goods, having
been in business for over 20 years. Warehousing,
stock management and logistics are its core
strengths.
https://www.creativebrands.co.za ~
https://www.brandnamemarketing.co.za