Nando’s joins the Loeries to celebrate design Design from Africa and the Middle East finally gets the recognition it deserves with the expanded Nando’s Design category at the Loeries in 2019. This year’s category has been extended to recognise design from a much broader range of creative professionals. “We’ve expanded the design category beyond only brand communication to include areas of design such as retail furniture and product design, fabric, wallpaper, lighting, architecture and interior design, and even the design of signage programmes,” says Loeries CEO Andrew Human. He adds that the Loeries has long been recognised as the highest accolade in advertising and brand communication.

“A strong design award has been lacking for our region and this is a great opportunity for all designers to showcase their work and achieve recognition.” Design is woven into the Nando’s DNA, making Nando’s a natural partner for the Design category. “Design and creativity have been an intrinsic part of the Nando’s way of doing business.

Nando’s is the first local brand to collaborate with local designers at the scale it does,” says Deirdre King, Nando’s Brand Experience GM. She adds: “Putting our support behind the design community is important to doing business well. Our PERi-PERi power has charted new paths and careers for many local artists and their art. Putting that same fire behind the extended Design category for the 2019 Loeries gives us a chance to spice things up for the wonderful designers who will imprint their names onto this exciting category. According to Gaby de Abreu, Loeries board member and creative head of Switch Design, the awards are invaluable because they offer a chance for designers to showcase their work to a far greater audience.

“The Nando’s Design category at the Loeries is an opportunity to showcase excellence across disciplines in countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. For independent designers, it’s a unique chance to achieve recognition across the industry, reaching creatives internationally,” says de Abreu. “For a furniture designer working in an independent workshop or a graphic designer outside of the agency network, this year’s Loeries offers a chance to show the world what you’ve achieved,” he adds. The Nando’s Design category at the Loeries is open to designers across all the main disciplines. The entry deadline is 15 May and more information can be found on loeries.com.

About Nando's: While proudly South African, Nando’s is an international flame-grilling, PERi-PERi chicken restaurant group. We offer a twist of Afro-Portuguese with an upmarket and comfortable dining experience. Two friends, Robert Brozin and Fernando Duarte, opened the first Nando’s in 1987 in Johannesburg, South Africa. All Nando's PERi-PERi chicken is marinated for 24 hours, locally sourced and never frozen, ensuring our customers only get the finest flavours.

Our unique PERi-PERi recipe includes herbs, spices, garlic, lemon juice and bird’s eye chilli. Nando's authentic PERi -PERi has captivated its customers all over the world, making it the largest South African restaurant group to expand internationally. DEADLINE FOR 2019 LOERIES ENTRIES EXTENDED TO MAY 31 About Loeries Africa Middle East: The Loeries, a non-profit company, is Africa and the Middle East’s premiere initiative that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the brand communication industry.

As the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region, the Loeries promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of ideas and fresh thinking.

Culminating in the biggest creative gathering in Africa and the Middle East, Loeries Creative Week Durban brings together the best innovative minds from our industry for a festival of networking, inspiring minds and recognising great work. Our region's creative economy is world-class and has great potential to grow and to offer employment both to our talented youth. The growth occurring throughout Africa and the Middle East is very exciting, and a major focus of the Loeries is to increase the standard of brand communication in the region.

Major Partners of the Loeries: DStv Media Sales, Gearhouse Category Partners: AB InBev, Barron, Brand South Africa, Facebook, Gagasi FM, Google, JCDecaux, Nando’s, Tsogo Sun, Woolworths Additional Partners and Official Suppliers: AAA School of Advertising, Antalis South Africa, Aon South Africa, Backsberg, BEE Online, First Source, Fresh RSVP Guest Logistics, Funk Productions, Gallo Images, Grid Worldwide, Hetzner, Mama Creative, Newsclip, Paygate, Rocketseed, Shared Value Initiative, Shift Social Development, Vega School, VQI Communications Nigeria Endorsed by: Association of Communication and Design, Brand Council South Africa, Commercial Producers Association, Creative Circle, EXCA, IAB, South African Institute of Architects, IID Official Media Partners Between 10and5, Bizcommunity.com, Book of Swag, Brand Communicator Nigeria, Business Insider by Pulse, Campaign Middle East, Film & Event Media, Modern Marketing The Redzone. Twitter: @loeries Instagram: Loerieawards Facebook: The Loeries

Distributed on behalf of the Loeries by: Riana Greenblo Communications: 011 3256006

For more information, interview requests or high-res images please contact: Gina McLoughlin: 0113256006 (mornings only)or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Riana Greenblo: +27 82 5675159 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Since its inaugural event in New York in 2004, the AFROPUNK Festival has become a global phenomenon, associated not only with alternative punk music but also with its audience’s eclectic ‘African-born’ styling and eye-catching fashion statements in Atlanta, Paris and London.

The AFROPUNK movement emerged as a rebellious alternative to mainstream white punk/rock culture, and is promoted as ‘a blank space to freak out in, to construct a new reality, to live your life as you see fit, while making sense of the world around you,’ while celebrating alternative black culture and spirit.  Its South African debut, at Johannesburg’s historically significant Constitution Hill on 30th and 31st December was welcomed by many as a ‘homecoming’ to the continent.  Technical solutions provider, Gearhouse Group provided the Staging, Lighting, Audio Visual, LED Screens, Power and Rigging to the festival and Show Sync’s Clinton Seery took on Production Direction for the South African iteration. The event featured South African musicians as well as a spread of local poets, artists and activists performing alongside international stars such as British artist Laura Mvula and the American singer Anderson .Paak.

Gearhouse’ Audio Engineer Jako de Wit estimates that around 40 acts were featured, with artists performing in relays over both days of the Festival. “The stage was divided into three performance areas - each with its own audio setup and each manned independently by its allocated technical team.” It made the changeovers very slick allowing the carefully curated collection of house, kwaito, punk, hip-hop, soul, reggae, roots and pop performances to flow smoothly and dynamically. The arrangement dictated an LCR setup with Meyer Milo for the main hangs and Mica for front-fills and delays to provide a continuous music experience for the audience, as well as excellent sound coverage across the space.The central Gold stage featured more than a dozen DJ’s each day using a Yamaha LS9-32, while the Red and Green Stages each deployed an AVID Profile and a Yamaha PM5DRH at monitors. All inputs were controlled by Lake LM44’s and a couple of Meyer Galileo units handled the signal out on the stage side for PA distribution.

The lighting configurations were also distinct from one another, with every stage working with a dozen each of Robe 700 colour washes, 700 colour spots and Mac 101’s plus six Martin Atomic strobes and four lamp bars for key light and additional punch during the evening sessions. The rigs were individually controlled through Grand MA2 desks. LEDVision provided a cohesive LED screen set up which drew the two outer stages together visually to read as one. The two outer and single rear delay screens ran mostly camera content with a centre screen in between the two stages running content, as well as camera-work and artists information. A design comprised of ROE LED strips enhanced the stage wings and provided colour indication as to which stage would go live next. Onstage LED screens (Lighthouse R16 and DuoLED 18) were used to augment the lighting and enhance the daytime performances. A complex control setup was installed to run graphics playback using Resolume servers as well switching a 4 camera mix. “For us, clear and continuous communication between Stage and Front of House show call was absolutely key to the event’s success and it was testimony to our tight teamwork that it ran so smoothly” explains Gearhouse Project Manager, Nickolas Chapman.  Whilst Production Director Seery and technical suppliers Gearhouse are long accustomed to working together; delivering for the AFROPUNK organisers was a first for both.

“Technically speaking, it is always more interesting to work between three stages, bringing them alive individually but while we enjoyed the fresh approach, it was obviously much more demanding on the technical team,” comments Seery. “Lighting, LED Screens, Audio and Cameras took on the challenge with open arms however and we managed to paint what we believe to be an ‘inaugural-perfect’ picture! Of course, in situations like this, when you haven’t a second to waste, you need to be able to trust your supplier’s understanding of the client’s vision and the Gearhouse team was there with me every step of the way, even through those inevitable last-minute problem-solving moments. These guys go above and beyond to keep their client happy.”  While the event was smooth sailing on a technical level, the weather was not. One of the notorious Highveld thunderstorms complete with bucketing rain, heavy wind and extreme hail hit the event on Saturday; but even that failed to dampen the spirits of everyone involved.

“The weather came, shook us, shook the sound, shook the screens, shook the lights, shook the camera’s, even shook the crew but NOTHING stopped the show technically!” adds Seery.  

{pp}Gearhouse South Africa supplied technical equipment - rigging, sound, lighting, video, media, power, backline - for The 31st Annual Loerie Awards. This is the major element of the Loeries Festival, anecdotally considered the coolest, best and most anticipated party weekend for media professionals in the southern hemisphere!

After a hotly contested pitch between Margate, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Sun City, the Loeries Committee this year decided to move the awards to the Mother City and to give the event a high glamour, red carpet feel. Themed 'Feed your Ego', the 2009 Loeries poked fun at the sometimes egocentric aspects of the ad industry.