The FIFA World Cup™ created a surge of energy throughout the country, but it was nothing like the energy that was required at Flow to put together a fully-fledged bilingual magazine in less than a week!
The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) is a political foundation based in Germany that runs civic education programs with the aim of promoting freedom, liberty, peace and justice. Its World Cup initiative involved bringing together professional and trainee journalists from Germany and Africa to work on the production of a magazine containing articles relevant to the event.
This ambitious project took place over a two-week period that began in mid-June, the aim being to conceptualise, craft and produce the magazine in time to give a copy to those leaving South Africa after the World Cup. The journalists were paired off in Euro-Afro combinations and tasked with finding a theme that pertained to South Africa and the impact that the tournament would have on society. It proved to be quite a daunting task to complete in the required time frame, and, with so many football matches on the go and the fan parks beckoning, quite a difficult one to focus on!
Flow’s part in the process was to produce the magazine. This involved giving a talk to the group at the beginning of the process on what was involved in the design and physical production of the magazine. The journalists could then at least get an idea of the format in which their work was going to appear.
One of the biggest challenges of producing the magazine was finding a way to accommodate both English and German articles. To solve this, the magazine was divided into 9 topical sections that reflected the 9 pairs of journalists. Each defined section contained an English and a German interpretation of the theme.
The Flow design team (Janet Berger, Lorraine Gumede and George Xafis) prepared as much as they could beforehand, but then had to sit on their hands waiting for the flood of material. A few very long nights (and a non-weekend) were par for the course on this project. Dealing with 18 different journalists proved to be challenging to the Flowstars; never mind the fact that at least half of the magazine’s content was in a language none of them could understand!
As the Germans and Africans returned to their respective homelands (hopefully enriched not only by what they learned at the workshop but also by simply being in South Africa during this amazing time), the Flow team was left to proofread and fine-tune the magazine, making sure that the final product was something that everyone involved could be justifiably proud of.
Jochen Markett, Inge Lichtenberg and Frank Windeck from KAS had lofty praise for the Flow team and how the process was managed. Markett, the workshop facilitator, sent an email from Germany saying, “It was a pleasure to work with such a nice and professional team.” The magazine is being distributed at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, and copies are being sent to Germany, and to KAS’ offices in 10 African countries.
The process seemed endless at times and the deadlines were terrifying, but it was ultimately a satisfying experience. Meeting and working with such a diverse range of people, experiencing the World Cup in South Africa through their eyes and watching the unabated joy of the Germans as their team progressed through the early rounds, were all great and unexpected perks of the job for the designers at Flow!