# South African Vernacular Design (Ijusi)

> A post-apartheid design language launched in Durban in 1995 by Garth Walker's Orange Juice Design and its free, experimental magazine Ijusi (isiZulu for 'juice'), which asked 'What makes me South African, and what does that look like?'. Trained designers turned from the clean corporate European look to the street: drop-shadowed sign lettering, hair-salon boards, packaging, beadwork and prison graffiti, collaged into many-typeface pages and new fonts such as Son of Sam for the Constitutional Court (2004).

- Period: 1995–present
- Where: Sub-Saharan Africa
- Origin: Garth Walker's Orange Juice Design studio in Durban, South Africa, and its free magazine Ijusi; carried into public work such as the Constitutional Court on Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
- Branch: Postmodern
- Also known as: Ijusi, i-jusi, iJusi, Post-apartheid vernacular design, South African street-vernacular design
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/ijusi-vernacular/

## Use it with care

Ijusi's raw material is the work of living people: township sign painters, hair-salon and funeral-parlour sign makers, Zulu beadworkers and wire crafters. The Constitutional Court's typeface also quotes cell graffiti from the Old Fort, whose prisons held activists such as Mandela and Sobukwe and scores of ordinary Black South Africans jailed under the pass laws. Eye's reviewer, who judged Walker's efforts sincere, warned that anyone expecting Black design in i-jusi would find 'very little of it'. Credit and pay the makers whose lettering and craft you quote, commission them where you can, and do not reduce township design to a 'gritty African' texture for a brand with no stake in those streets. The comics issues featured Bitterkomix co-founder Anton Kannemeyer, criticised for 'offensive, racist imagery' in satires such as Pappa in Afrika, which recasts Hergé's Tintin as a white African; do not generate racial caricature outside that authorship and context. Son of Sam was commissioned for the Court's exclusive use.

## How it works

- Take letters, pictures and colours from your own streets (hand-painted shop and hair-salon signs, shopfront hoardings, funeral parlours, packaging, gravestones, graffiti) instead of imported design annuals.
- Photograph vernacular lettering and redraw it as type: keep its drop shadows, uneven strokes and naive spacing, and build fonts and dingbats from it.
- Mix many unrelated letterforms in one composition, a 'fruit salad' like the country, and set public words in every official language with equal weight.
- Treat mass-market icons such as tinned pilchards, maize meal and tobacco packs, and found snapshots, as pop images to collage, double-expose and rescan.
- Print raw and cheap: copy faxed and scanned in, two colours or full colour, small runs on recycled paper, given away free.
- Give every issue a theme and an open brief, and let photographers, illustrators, comic artists and writers answer it side by side.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Broken grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/broken-grid/) (occasional)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (defining)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Stencil](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stencil/) (occasional)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Hard offset shadow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/) (characteristic)
- [Photocopy & distress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photocopy-and-distress/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (defining)
- [Straight photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/straight-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (characteristic)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (occasional)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Desktop publishing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/desktop-publishing/) (characteristic)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (occasional)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (occasional)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)

Avoids: Modular grid, Generous white space, Ornament-free, Rational & objective, Authoritative & institutional, Luxurious & glamorous

Palette: #de3831, #f26c28, #002395, #ffb612, #141414, #ece4d2

Typefaces: Son of Sam (Garth Walker, 2003–04), the Constitutional Court's unicase display face, named after the cell graffiti 'son of sam now son of hope' and built from prison-cell graffiti, a judge's handwriting and site lettering, with numerals after the stencilled cell numbers, Red Mercury (Garth Walker), a tribute to Jonathan Barnbrook alluding to South Africa's covert nuclear defence programme, AfroDisiac African dingbats (1997; Garth Walker, Brode Vosloo, William Rea and Lisa King), Muzzle (Simon Villet), a brutalist face after the crypto-fascist monuments in the South African landscape; Mugabe dingbats (Dale Halvorsen), Brode Vosloo's Sacred Nipple Type Foundry faces such as PleinStr and ShoeRepairs, Drop-shadowed hand-painted sign lettering and stencilled numerals, photographed and quoted

Known for: Ijusi #1, 'Afrocentric Design Adventure' (Orange Juice Design, Durban, 1995): A3, two colours, copy faxed and scanned in, 300 copies on recycled Reviva paper; Ijusi #11, Afrika Typografika 1 (2000; its cover reads 'National Typografika', and Eye calls it 'National Typographika 1'), pages of 'consciously avant-garde typefaces'; Grand Prix at the Loeries; Ijusi #17, Afrika Typografika II (2002), with Wilhelm Krüger's cover, Walker's Red Mercury, Simon Villet's Muzzle and Dale Halvorsen's Mugabe dingbats; Ijusi #13 and #21, i-Komix/Bitterjusi comics issues (2000, 2004), with frequent contributor Anton Kannemeyer (Joe Dog); Ijusi #25, The Ballpoint Pen Issue (2010), with Anton Kannemeyer, Roger Ballen, Wilhelm Krüger and dozens of others; Garth Walker, Son of Sam typeface and signage for the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg (2003–04): 'Constitutional Court' in the 11 official languages in red, green, blue and yellow cut-acrylic letters; Garth Walker's photographic archive of South African street and township design, about 3,000 images from gravestones to hair-salon signs

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hand-painted-signage.md) (1800–present)
- Influenced by: [West African Barbershop & Hair Salon Signs](https://stylogeny.com/styles/barbershop-sign.md) (1950–present)
- Influenced by: [Emigre & Early Digital Type](https://stylogeny.com/styles/emigre.md) (1984–1998)
- Influenced by: [Pop Art Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pop-art.md) (1955–1975)
- Alike in its design choices: [La Movida Madrileña Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/movida-madrilena.md) (1977–1988), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Afrobeat Sleeve Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/afrobeat-sleeve-art.md) (1974–present), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tropicália Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tropicalia-graphics.md) (1964–1975), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chilean Estallido Social Graphics (Revuelta Popular of 2019–20)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chilean-estallido-graphics.md) (2019–2022), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Nollywood Video Jacket & Film Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nollywood-video-sleeve.md) (1992–present), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Angura Theatre Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/angura-poster.md) (1965–1985), 57% alike

## Sources

- Colophon, 'iJusi', https://colophon.co.za/ijusi/: first issue early 1995; Walker's question 'What makes me South African, and what does that look like?'; full list of issues and themes 1995–2018, including #11 'Afrika Typografika 1' (2000), #17 'Afrika Typografika II' (2002) and #26 'Afrika Typografika III' (2011); formats from A3 to A4; runs of about 300, distributed free; contributors including Wilhelm Krüger, Brode Vosloo, Simon Villet and Anton Kannemeyer, with Conrad Botes and Kannemeyer (Joe Dog) in comics issues #13 and #21; cover images: #11's cover reads 'National Typografika', and #5 reproduces Nyala Super Maize Meal packaging, whose orange measures about #f26c28 in the cover image
- Jessica Hunkin, ‘ijusi’: Juicing design’s engines, Mail & Guardian (15 May 2014), https://mg.co.za/friday/2014-05-15-ijusi-juicing-design-s-engines/ (isiZulu for juice; issue #1 'Afrocentric Design Adventure', 1995; #11 Loeries Grand Prix; Orange Juice Design)
- Alex Sudheim, 'Recycled culture assumes cult proportions', Mail & Guardian (17 January 2011), https://mg.co.za/article/2011-01-17-recycled-culture-assumes-cult-proportions (issue #1 in two colours on A3, faxed and scanned copy, Reviva recycled paper, 300 copies; raw street aesthetic against corporate European design; Lucky Star Pilchards, Nyala Maize Meal and Boxer Tobacco; taxi-rank Hallmark cards, roadside hair salons, tomato-box tourist art; The Ballpoint Pen Issue #25)
- Sean O'Toole, 'A new visual language for South Africa', Eye 50 (issue number from Eye's blog post 'Art-shaped box', 14 March 2011, https://eyemagazine.com/blog/post/art-shaped-box; the online copy is dated 28 June 2012 and gives no print date), https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/a-new-visual-language-for-south-africa (review of National Typographika 1, issue 11, 2000, and 2, issue 17, 2002; drop-shadow vernacular signage, Zulu beadwork, wire craft, funeral parlours, West African barbershop signage; Red Mercury, 'a typeface that pays tribute to Jonathan Barnbrook'; Villet's brutalist Muzzle after 'crypto-fascist monuments'; Mugabe dingbats; 'fruit salad' society; 'i-jusi' as 'a crude form of pigeon Zulu'; of black design 'very little of it', 'Not that this discredits the title', Walker's efforts 'among the more sincere')
- Marian Sauthoff, 'An alliance of style, situation and content: the design of a typeface for South Africa's Constitutional Court', Image & Text 12 (2006), pp. 4–17, https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/3084 (Son of Sam, named after the cell graffiti 'son of sam now son of hope'; graffiti, prison signage, numerals and Justice Yacoob's handwriting as sources; documented lettering 'derived from the judges, the prisoners and their gaolers'; Old Fort prisoners included ANC and PAC activists such as Mandela and Sobukwe and 'scores of ordinary black citizens' jailed under the pass laws; unicase; 11 languages in four flag colours; the entrance typography 'Bold, colourful, friendly and almost playful'; brief 'humanistic, not authoritarian'; Brode Vosloo's Sacred Nipple faces)
- ICoD (Icograda), 'Son of Sam. Now son of hope: a presentation by Garth Walker' (2004), https://theicod.org/resources/news-archive/son-of-sam-now-son-of-hope-a-presentation-by-garth-walker (Orange Juice Design started in Durban in 1995, though AGI lists Orange Juice as 1994–2007; Court typeface for exclusive use blending apartheid-era lettering, jail-cell graffiti and street type; about 3,000 images of street and township design)
- YBCA, 'ijusi / Garth Walker', https://ybca.org/artist/ijusi-garth-walker (free, about 300 copies, roughly twice a year; contributors Kannemeyer, Subotzky, Goldblatt, Hugo)
- AGI, Garth Walker member page and 'ijusi magazine – selected covers', https://a-g-i.org/user/garthwalker/ (studios: Graphite 1978–1993, Orange Juice 1994–2007, Mister Walker 2007 to date)
- Luc Devroye, type design information page on Orange Juice Design, https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-39954.html (AfroDisiac dingbats, 1997; Red Mercury)
- Wikipedia, 'Anton Kannemeyer', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Kannemeyer (criticised for 'offensive, racist imagery'; appropriates the style of Hergé's Tintin in the Congo; in Pappa in Afrika 'Tintin becomes a white African'; co-founded Bitterkomix with Conrad Botes in 1992; pseudonym Joe Dog)
- Emigre, 'Exocet', https://www.emigre.com/Fonts/Exocet ('Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook in 1991'; an early Barnbrook face sold by Emigre Fonts)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “South African Vernacular Design (Ijusi)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/ijusi-vernacular/