Boardmans, one of South Africa’s leading home retailers, has been wowing the local design market with its recent Source for Boardmans range by home-grown designers. Now they’re looking to nurture the next generation of talent – you! ‘People are drawn to products and design that tell a story,’ says Boardmans CEO Hugues Witvoet. ‘It’s exciting to own something by a famous designer, but there’s more wonder in discovering items from local artists and the background behind the piece.’

ELLE DECORATION and Boardmans have teamed up to search the country for new design talent. The SOLVE brief for 2011 was to design a stool. Our judges were on the look-out for a contemporary and sustainable design that was original, beautiful, manufacturable, marketable and structurally sound. Over a hundred entries were received for judging, with four finalists eventually selected – as seen in our Summer Issue.

The four finalists (featured with Editor Laureen Rossouw above) joined the DECO team, SOLVE judges, and industry friends for a night of design, food, beer and celebration at the 10th annual SOLVE New Talent Search Competition award ceremony, held at &Union in Cape Town in November 2011, where we announced the winner…

Ruben Roussouw was announced the winner for his Protea Stool (below). The judges were particularly impressed with the delicate patterned protea frame, a design feature which can be beautifully expanded into a range. ‘Its prettiness has commercial appeal. The protea pattern is quite simply fantastic’, said DECO Editor Laureen Rossouw.

Watch this space for more SOLVE news and updates!