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Cape Town, South Africa’s Creative Capital
After hosting a successful Loeries event in 2010, Capetonians agree: “this nest just seems so right”.
2010 marks the second consecutive year that Cape Town has played host to The Loerie Awards (2 & 3 October), an annual competition in recognition of the best creative and design work produced in the brand communication industry in the region.
The event was a resounding success and Capetonians joined in the revelry of agencies and award winners alike at parties in Camps Bay and Long Street to celebrate the agencies’ collective body of excellence.
In an affirmative coup for Cape Town as a creative host; one of the biggest wins was that of Cape Town advertising agency, King James. The Cape Town agency was the highest ranked agency at the 2010 Loerie Awards and won a Grand Prix Award for the Alan Gray TV commercial, “Legend”; showcasing possible accomplishments by James Dean should he have lived beyond the age of twenty four.
The TV commercial was conceptualised, coordinated and shot in Cape Town. Several other Cape Town agencies and production houses, as well as Cape Town’s young creatives also racked up numerous wins and a Gold Award, which was handed to students of the AAA School of Advertising Cape Town.
Alistair King, director of King James, said that Cape Town is an unbeatable environment for creative activity and has a creative process that bigger cities cannot match. “Some people say Cape Town is too slow but from a creative perspective, it moves at just the right speed,’ he says. ‘The creative process needs to be slow. Cape Town simply has a great creative vibe, which is very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. Cape Town is the perfect city for creative people.”
It has been confirmed that the Annual Loerie Awards will return to Cape Town in 2011. In addition to this top creative event, Cape Town also hosts the annual Design Indaba Expo and Conference – and is working towards a bid for World Design Capital 2014.
Creative Week Cape Town, an initiative by Cape Town Partnership, was successfully launched in the week prior to the Loeries this year and aimed to strengthen the local creative community by providing a platform to showcase the local creative industries. This initiative builds on Creative Cape Town’s focus of communicating, supporting and facilitating the development of the creative and knowledge economy in the Central City of Cape Town.
CEO of Cape Town Tourism, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, concludes “We are very proud to host the Loeries annually. Cape Town is, arguably, the creative capital of Africa, and one cannot deny that there is a lot of stimulating design and endless talent here. This year Capetonians really began to embrace the presence of the Loeries – this nest just seems so right!”
Photographs by Roy Barford
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