Portrait of Namibian artist Frauke Stegmann
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
Namibian designer Frauke Stegmann was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
- Title: Portrait of Namibian artist Frauke Stegmann
- Medium: Photograph
- Subject: Frauke Stegmann
- Rationale: Ex-swamp Sixty years ago, located in what is now the city centre of Windhoek (Namibia), the water from a natural mountain hot-spring trickled down and gathered in a luxuriant marshland – stories from the 1940s still witness the nocturnal call of a thousand frogs. In the 1960s, the spring that fed the marshland was closed by the Apartheid administration due to urban development, and consequently the swamp dried out along with all the biodiversity – leaving behind a dry, dusty, hot sandpan which today is used as a taxi rank. The plaque remembers the vanished swamp and all the biodiversity lost when the natural water source feeding it was closed – since then, earth has lost at least seventy per cent of all its fauna and flora. During the day, the colour of the ex-swamp site glitters in a dry beige (glitter due to the mica stone in the area) – at sunset, everything is covered in a golden glow – the brass material of the plaque tries to capture that.
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: Namibia
- Lead Quote: During the day, the colour of the ex-swamp site glitters in a dry beige (glitter due to the mica stone in the area) – at sunset, everything is covered in a golden glow
- Hex Code: d4af37
- Colour Choice: Golden Glow
- Biography: Namibian designer Frauke Stegmann is a graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. She runs her studio in Windhoek, Namibia and lectures at the University of Namibia. Stegmann is best known for her detailed illustrations of birds and animals, and for her use of found materials in her work, which she layers and repositions to reframe the context of their origins. She has worked with many prestigious clients in fashion and design, including Design Museum London, Peter Saville, Eley Kishimoto, Miu Miu and Peter Jensen. Creative Review UK nominated Stegmann as one of “10 Women to Watch” and she was shortlisted for the British Arts Foundation Award for Design. She was also included in the Phaidon 100 Graphic Designers list, the I.D. 40 Global Designers list and D&AD New Generation of Designers list.
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