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Two members of the Home Weekly team were lucky enough to attend last week’s Design Indaba conference. Here are their most notable notes and quotes from the 2014 edition of this inspiring annual event

N O two people’s experience of the Design Indaba conference is the same. Some adore nothing more than evocative presentations that feature cowboy poetry, black-and-white photographs and a live piano accompaniment, whereas others simply want to be immersed in the world’s best advertising ideas – and yet others look forward to admiring cutting-edge buildings or products. In the space of three days, Design Indaba manages to present something for all of them, and more. It’s probably the most diverse (and therefore exciting) event of its kind in the world.

Of course, themes do emerge: this year, many speakers stressed the importance of understanding and making use of where you come from as a designer, and many also mentioned the fact that, as media and interaction designer Jake Barton put it: “There are no mistakes, only opportunities.” Several speakers agreed that the age of gurus and elite designers in ivory towers were long gone, and many extolled the virtues of collaborative work – as well as arguing that all human beings are capable of being designers.

Last but not least was the idea that “design” is no longer just about creating products (or even services). As Nille Juul-Sørensen, director of the Danish Design Centre, said, design is about “so much more than a chair”. The Danish design contingent’s take on design – that its chief role now is in helping to create sustainable growth and enabling us to move from a linear to a circular economy – was, for those of us who live in developing countries, perhaps the most inspiring message of all.

Jake Barton, media and interaction designer from the USA “There are no mistakes, only opportunities.”

Juliana Rotich, Kenyan computer scientist and co-founder of Ushahidi “What if the solutions to the world’s problems came from Africa?”

Clive Wilkinson, architect from the US Describing the classic design of office space, Wilkinson (who designed the Googleplex in Silicon Valley, California) said the two models were that of the open desk and the private office – then added that neither model was ideal for an ideas economy in which many people could work anywhere . . .

Stefan Scholten of Scholten & Baijings, Dutch product designers “We are not artists, we are designers. Functionality is just as important as the beauty of the product.”

Tom Hulme, design director, IDEO, London, UK Hulme told us about One Laptop Per Child dropping 20 tablet computers in two Ethiopian villages: in four minutes the kids had worked out how to switch them on and within five days they were using an average...

Ije Nwokorie, architect and managing director at branding agency Wolff Olins, London, UK “There are no more gurus: now we have hackers, makers and collaborators instead.”

Michel Rojkind, architect from Mexico City, Mexico “The way I hire people today is not by [looking at their] portfolio; it’s by choosing good thinkers.” And: “We collaborate because we enjoy being contaminated by other ideas.”

Marcello Serpa, creative director, Sao Paolo, Brazil “I love obvious things – but the obvious thing for the first time.”

Chris Gotz, executive creative director, Ogilvy SA Gotz described how Ogilvy’s advertising work has gone from “storytelling” to “storymaking”. As he put it, they are “asking people to step into the story of a product or service rather than just look...

DJ Stout, graphic designer and art director, Pentagram, resident of Austin, Texas “A sense of place is so important to graphic designers – it’s so important to understand who you are and where you’re from.”