Design Indaba 2020: Inscape Alumni & Students Emerge

2020 is a BIG year for Inscape. Their alumni, Kehumile Mate (Interior Design) and Jessica le Roux (Ideation Design) as well as Ghilian Chevelu (2nd year Graphic Design), were recognised among the Top 50 Emerging Creatives at this year’s Design Indaba conference. Inscape students continue to embody #DesignForLife as an ethos and reality.

Kehumile Mate

Kehumile Mate is a qualified Interior/Furniture designer, Fine Artist & Self-Taught Photographer who was raised in Mabopane, a township in Pretoria, but is now the founder of a Johannesburg-based bespoke interior & furniture design company, Mitsotso.

He initially studied fine art (print-making) in Pretoria then migrated to Cape Town to study interior design & worked as a restaurant interior designer at Harbour House Group, after hours.

His design journey began to blossom when he was chosen to be one of two people in South Africa to receive a scholarship to study interior design at Thomas More in Mechelen, Belgium; where he majored in service & furniture design. He spent the majority of his time working on interior projects for the city of Mechelen but at the same time improving his artisan skills.

The designer returned to South Africa to complete his design degree & commenced working as an office interior designer at DHK Thinkspace where he practiced for 2 years while working on his debut ottoman range which was launched at the end of 2018 through SABC3’s Win a Home design show.

Mate has since been a part of various design projects, majority being for presidential & ministerial houses in Pretoria & Cape Town but is now refocusing his time & energy into creating more contemporary, pan-african furniture pieces and interiors.

His most successful creative project to date is the interior space he designed and built together with Nicholas Smit for SABC3’s Win a Home Show.

Jessica Le Roux

Jessica Le Roux is an Ideation student from the Inscape Education Group. She is currently completing her thesis which deals with the inaccessibility of healthcare within the Western Cape, South Africa and plans on using her skills to make a difference in the world.

Growing up she always found herself drawn to design, gaining some exposure to the creative field in secondary school, Le Roux set out on creating a dress made completely out of masking tape. Le Roux was then granted the opportunity to exhibit the dress ar the V&A Waterfront during the Open Design Conference in 2015.

She chose to embrace this material and made a whole range of objects ranging from necklaces to coffee tables as well as creating sculptures out of the material. According to the artist, the range challenges the conventional, questioning the inherent purpose of the standard material (masking tape) used. The manipulation of the masking tape aims to connect and make complexities apparent, communicating that everything is dependent on perspective.

Ghilian Chevelu

Ghilian Chevelu is a design student at Inscape Design College in Cape Town, South Africa. As a child from a family of art jewellers, Chevelu spent most of his childhood searching the world for tribal jewellery. He spent many of his trips abroad learning about foreign cultures and studying the art of whichever part of the world he found himself in.

These experiences shaped him into who he is today as well as the art that he creates. Throughout his life, he has expressed himself and captured life through many different mediums such as photography, design, product design and art. Chevelu loves working with old objects that no longer serve a purpose and re-imagining them into contemporary pieces of art.

His latest venture includes a clothing brand that he recently developed, called Illucid Apparel. The idea to create this brand was formed out of his love for travelling, music, surfing, skating, art and all forms of self-expression. GIllucid was created to allow people to embrace their self-expression, whatever form that may be.

Chevelu wants to create a sense of community with his brand, bringing together individuals with the intention of self-expression.

His most successful project to date is an old, rusted garden chair which he transformed into a modern contemporary piece of furniture.

Discover more at Design Indaba and Inscape.