South Africa's Township Barber Shop Art


I’ve been living in South Africa for almost six years now and anyone that knows me will also know that I am an avid collector of anything of visual interest. In fairness most would think what I find visually interesting strange. It can be anything from a texture on a wall, aged billboard signs, street art, old architecture to vintage branding, signage and packaging design. The cell phone camera and large hard drives have saved my family home from a man cave cluttered with all the stuff. In my defence though, I am a commercial designer and being aware of your surroundings and able to see the world differently is so important. One of my pet hates are freshly briefed designers rushing off to Google for their only stream of inspiration. They miss the amazing visual library that surrounds them daily on the way to the office. My reference of collected visual interest has been invaluable to me over my two decades of a designer.

When I first moved to Cape Town in 2009, I went through a creative sensory overload. So many incredible cultures, new brands, fantastic new foods to discover and such a visual feast that I suddenly had laid out in front of me. Of great interest were some of the cultures from the townships. Areas where many had warned of crime I saw a great deal of culture and interest. Early on I started to notice that there was a unique, almost naive art style to the signage of the barbershops, which over the years has developed into one of my many visual collections.

The South African barbershop is far more than just a house of grooming but also a social space where many gather to discuss and gossip. From within townships, salons appear from one day to the next, coming and going on a dream of becoming a local entrepreneur, where the usual rules to beginning a business are very different to that of the city.

I found the signage of great interest, as the style of illustration, usually of a male head and shoulders, is pretty much the same throughout the country. What makes this even more interesting to me is that the visuals seem to of developed from a form of colloquialism from within the informal townships instead of any real intention to create a unique style.

I hope that you enjoy the images below. They are a very small selection from a rather large collection but I think that they really capture this cultural visual phenomenon of South African barbershop art.

   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bass - Trademark No1

Image
In my Classic Brands series, I am going to feature interesting facts and a brief history to some of the world most iconic branding and packaging designs. I couldn't think of a better place to begin the series than with the worlds very first registered Trade Mark. A great conversational piece at any dinner party is the question, ‘what was the world’s first brand identity?’ The answer is the instantly identifiable red-triangle of the Bass Pale Ale logo. This distinctive identity was registered under the United Kingdoms 1875 Trade Mark act. Due to the fact that the act actually came into effect on 1st January 1876, an employee of Bass queued outside the registrar's office for the whole of the New Years Eve night to ensure that they were the very first in line to register the trademark the following day. Thanks to the efforts of that Bass employee, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd received the first two registrations, the Bass Red Triangle for their pale ale and the Bass Red Diamond for
Read more

Symbol by Steven Bateman & Angus Hyland

Image
I am an avid collector of design books. Its a real love of mine. I’ve built up quite a comprehensive library and I am always suggesting or lending my books to my team. Recently, readers of this blog have also been asking for book recommendations, so I thought that I would post a few of my personal favourites. Symbol by Steven Bateman and Pentagram partner Angus Hyland has been a valuable source to me when developing logos and brand identity systems. There are over 1300 logos included with the book divided into groups that relate to their visual characteristics. There is also a number of case studies that give a great back-story to some of the worlds most recognised symbols including that of Apple, Nike and Continental Air by Soul Bass. This is a book that I can really recommend to anyone working in branding and logo development. Its also different to many other tittles I own as I rarely lend it out as it's been such a great source of reference over the years.           An overview
Read more

50 + Designers, Agencies, Books, Websites, Blogs and Conferences!

Image
At the end of 2016, as I draw closer to my final week with CTTC Design, I had been handing over as much information as I could to my then design team, to which I extend you all on this list now. I know that many have often laughed at me being such a design groupie… I promise that it comes from my love of what I do! To this end, before I left, I had decided to note down a few of the things that have helped to bring great joy, learning and passion to my design life over the years, and now wondered if you would also be interested to see what I had written.  Its really a “for what it’s worth” list of designers, books, websites and blogs. I do hope that it is of some interest to you, and also that it maybe even helps to bring some creative passion and inspiration to your lives… I also don’t mind if it’s banished to the 'read later' part of your blog readers - you know the one I mean... AKA the bin ;-). Below is what I had sent to the team at  CTTC Design, a  couple of days before le
Read more