This is Africa's century

We’re so proud of our partnership with The Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance (HEA), a network of highly educated young African social and business entrepreneurs from leading universities in Asia, Europe and North America.

Harambe partners with big business like Pfizer, Western Union and Syngenta and provides them with opportunities to support the entrepreneurial ventures of young Africans in a variety of sectors, including Enzi Footwear in Ethiopia, Lulaway in South Africa and Exposure Robotics in Nigeria. The House of Lords, the Parliaments of Ghana and South Africa, the White House and the Vatican have all recognised Harambe.

Through our partner Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, we're collaborating with a network of young entrepreneurs who are building game changing new businesses all over Africa. We love how uncompromising they are about both the social and commercial impact they are bringing to the continent.

This month we're hosting a reception for the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance to bring together business leaders, creative professionals, inspiring thinkers and entrepreneurs involved in and committed to the future of Africa. This reception is part of a series of events Harambe holds all over the world, gathering 30 or so professionals to hear about their work and learn about the big drivers of growth in Africa. We've written about one here:

What you'll learn from Africa 

The reception will take place on 30th of October from 6.30pm at our offices. Felix Hallwachs, MD at Studio Olafur Eliasson and Little Sun will be sharing the fantastic adventure of Little Sun, a work of art that works in life. We're aiming for an intimate, refreshing and thought-provoking discussion with an opportunity for everyone to share their ambition for the continent with their peers.

Designing Whtespace

  In this post, guest blogger and creative director Malcolm Buick shares his thoughts on Whtespace, our internal startup project that lets you create curated email newsletters.

In a world of content being shifted, moved, tweeted, socialized, and last but not least emailed, the creative process is relegated to being second fiddle, and productivity within the workplace takes a sharp decline. However, there is a need for sharing, and as the old saying goes "sharing is caring." 

Whtespace was born out of necessity. As a creative, my mind drifts, and distractions are many. We created Whtespace to allow for ‘whitespace’ – free to think, free to create. Whtespace lets you feel safe in the knowledge that you can be informed on your own terms – in your inbox, curated and elegantly designed.

So what does this mean for design?

Whtespace was heavily inspired by the design philosophy ofMark Farrow, Peter Saville, Dieter Rams – experts and creators of hyper design minimalism, and creators of bands and brands such as Joy Division, Pet Shop Boys, Braun and many more – some of which only really have the most bare bones of information and function. 

With Whtespace, we tried to strip everything out that was not necessary.  This criteria in turn drove the design part of the problem, and made it clear to us what we needed to do was: keep it simple -- no gloss, no shiny buttons, no “hi kids” language . After all it should be utility, it’s what you imprint upon Whtespace that is the most important.

Whtespace isn’t just for academic information junkies; it has many uses. You can use it to impress your boss when you want him to see all the hyper relevant things you are inspired by; it can also be a catalyst for a great beginning to a new client relationship, whereby you can share some early thinking to a particular problem you are working on. Whtespace can be as private as you want it to be, or you can project your lust for knowledge to the world. 

Keep in mind that the paint’s still wet, so be gentle.

(Guest blogger Malcolm Buick @malcolmbuick) 

Malcolm is a freelance creative director and co-founder of Whtespace. He is also a founder and member of the Friends of Wolff Olins Club. 

Re-blogged from The Whtespace Blog.