Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Fourteen furniture designers from different provinces showcased their designs at the Durban Decorex, which took place in Durban from March 18-21, 2017.
These designers received financial support from the Department of Trade and Industry’s (the dti).
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, the dti participation at Decorex was a continuous strategy to support different sectors to showcase their capabilities and skills in different platforms across the country.
“As the department we also want to raise and nurture design capabilities in the country and grow the industry’s competitiveness by encouraging new product design and differentiation. That is why it is relevant for us to take part at South Africa’s largest décor, design and lifestyle exhibition,” says Davies.
Kim Dempsey, who designs from her own home in Edenvale says the decorex exhibition is a great platform to market her Pod desk which she entered for the dti Furniture Competition.
“I think it is incredible that I received more interest in my piece of work since we started exhibiting two days ago. All I need to do now is work on the pricing and designing of different pieces for urban work space furniture,” says Dempsey.
Dempsey adds that the exhibition is the start of greater things to come, as she is planning to start her furniture business in a small scale and expand in the near future.
The winners of the annual Furniture Design Competition will be announced today at the Durban Exhibition Centre. The competition is one of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) furniture programs, to respond to design skills shortage in the furniture industry.
The main objective of the design competition is to raise and nurture design capabilities in the furniture sector, raise the image of the furniture manufacturing industry in the country, to reposition and to grow the industry’s competitiveness by encouraging new product design and differentiation.
