bright & bold

I've recently been contacted from a new client that has a catering business, named in Swahili. So I've gone under the task of researching that East African region, including textiles, graphics, interiors, etc. I came by the Swahili Fashion Week hosted in Dar Es Salaam in 2010 with bold designs and rich textures, as wells as Suno Designs made from recycled African textiles from Kenya. The latter caught my attention because it's political/cultural statements in their kangas (rectangles of printed cotton that women from the coast of East Africa have worn since the mid 1800s, passed from mother to daughter), because they are most commonly sold in identical pairs and have phrases in Swahili with social, political or sexual connotations.

tasting africa

World-renowned Ethiopian chef, Marcus Samuelsson, opened a restaurant and lounge called Merkato 55 in the Manhattan meatpacking district. Not only is he cooking edgy pan-african cuisine, but also delivering it with fine ambiance: pounding drumbeats, eccentric cocktails, silkscreen African arts, and lots and lots of color! The restaurant is named after a famous Ethiopian market, it's described as one that “pivots into a sexy evening for the Marc Jacobs set. It’s Spice Market on the Serengeti”by the Time's Frank Bruni.

macaroonistic

I can't explain it much more than Anagrama's own project description. Lots of negative space contrasted with bits of color = pure elegance!
"White was our primary tool for design. As a result of this the attention was fully oriented to the colorful macarons. We placed two lines in our design in cyan and magenta, as a relation with a modern French flag to inject a vanguard vision to the identity. We selected Didot (created by Firmin and Pierre Didot), a French typography that would present the brand with sophistication."